Craft Recordings'
The Birth of Bop: The Savoy 10" LP Collection offers a version of
Savoy's initial involvement with bebop and its artists. These 30 tracks cover selections from 1944 to 1949 on five 10" LPs or a pair of CDs. It opens with "Romance Without Finance." Credited in the booklet to
Charlie Parker, who plays on it, the session was rightfully credited to guitarist/vocalist
Tiny Grimes. The reason for excluding a proper
Parker side was to avoid redundancy. In 2020,
The Savoy Ten-Inch LP Collection assembled the alto saxophonist's leader sides. The trajectory of the music included here follows a large number of artists across their early releases for the label. They include
Dexter Gordon,
Fats Navarro,
Allen Eager,
Bunk Johnson,
J.J. Johnson,
Milt Jackson,
Leo Parker,
Kai Winding, and
Stan Getz, who are all represented by multiple entries.
Highlights include
Gordon's "Dexter's Minor Mad" from his first leader session in 1945 when he was just 22,
Fats Navarro's read of
Eddie Lockjaw Davis's "Hollerin' and Screamin" (1946) just smokes.
Eager's "Church Mouse" (1947) offers a bluesy take on hard swing, while
Don Byas' "Byas a Drink" (1945) reveals he'd made the transition and could balance both sides of the fence effortlessly. From December 1944, tenorist
Budd Johnson's "Little Benny (King Kong)" was an early bop session by a veteran who'd worked with
Louis Armstrong and
Coleman Hawkins; his killer septet for this side includes bassist
Oscar Pettiford, drummer
Denzil Best, trumpeter
Benny Harris, and fellow saxophonist
Herbie Fields.
J.J. Johnson's "Mad Be Bop" from 1946 features pianist
Bud Powell, drummer
Max Roach, and alto saxophonist
Cecil Payne. Legendary vibraphonist
Milt Jackson is represented beautifully by the inclusion of "Hearing Bells," "Junior," and "Bubu" from 1949. His band on these sides includes pianist
Walter Bishop, Jr.,
Roy Haynes,
Julius Watkins, and
Billy Mitchell.
Stan Getz's "Don't Worry About Me" (1946) offers a soulful, swinging dimension amid the harmonic exploration.
The set's final four tracks are welcome outliers.
Davis leads the same band
Navarro did on "Stealin' Trash." Drummer
Roy Porter delivers the classic obscurity "Pete's Beat," from Los Angeles' Central Avenue scene in 1948. Baritone saxophonist
Serge Chaloff's amazing "Pumpernickel" is delivered by a burning sextet including trumpeter
Red Rodney, criminally underrated pianist
George Wallington, and bassist
Curly Russell. Finally, tenor saxophonist
Morris Lane delivers the scorcher "Blowin; For Kicks," an intense 12-bar workout from 1947 that features inventive guitarist
George Baker, who almost steals the show.
Packaged in a handsome slipcase, the
Nick Phillips-produced
Birth of Bop includes a fully illustrated 28-page booklet containing rare photos, a liner essay, and complete track annotation by Grammy-winning writer
Neil Tesser. Interestingly, as one reads through the track info, typos readily appear. This is not an oversight but a conscious decision by the compilers to leave label representations and info exactly as they found them. ~ Thom Jurek
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