Detroit Bop Quintet Two Birds

Detroit Bop Quintet
Two Birds
TQM Recording Co

This digital single is a tribute to the great Charlie Parker and his quintet made up of Miles Davis, Max Roach, Tommy Potter, and Duke Jordan and the legendary recording they made at United Sound Systems in Detroit on December 21st, 1947. United Sound Systems was one of the world’s first independent recording studios, and has a wonderfully rich history, serving artists from John Lee Hooker to Jackie Wilson, Bob Seger to MC5, The Rolling Stones to Aretha Franklin, Issac Hayes to Parliament-Funkadelic to Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was founded by Jimmy Siracuse in the 1930s and has been at its current location, 5840 Second Avenue since the early 1940s. It still exists and is acoustically identical to the way it was when it was first built. The goal of this session was to "recreate the acoustic stamp that is heard on a historic 1947 Charlie Parker session, which was recorded in the very same space back in 1947."

The Detroit Bop Quintet was assembled specifically for this session and made up of four of Detroit's best Jazz musicians and Saxophonist Pete Mills from Columbus, Ohio. Others on this date include trumpeter Dwight Adams; pianist Rick Roe; bassist Paul Keller and drummer Nathaniel Winn. There is nothing surprising about this cover recording of "Bluebird" and "Another Hair Do." These are solid players who show their respect to the Parker Quintet original recordings, although Mills doesn't quite show the bluesy intonation of Parker's alto. Adams acquits himself well, as do the rhythm section, with Roe being impressive.

This is an interesting tribute to a historic record session. For more information visit https://www.tqmrecordingco.com. The website includes a technical description of the session as well as the music including another Parker composition "Klaunstance." This is available as a digital album that includes "Klaunstance," and all three tunes are in mono and stereo versions.

A publicist provided me with a download to review. This review appeared in the July-August 2018 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 379). Here is the performance of Another Hair Do."