Dizzy Gillespie - Gillespiana/Carnegie Hall Concert
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Free Music Notes for Gillespiana/Carnegie Hall Concert
Free Music Review: I think this is too improvized
Hit: 2 Stars
I am a big, big fan of Bird, Dizzy, Miles,Monk, Mingus, Dolpy, Coltrane, Grapelli,
and of similar jazz legends.
However, on this record, I think a lot was
totally improvized, and perhaps, politically
motivated, perhaps inspired by social or
political worries or pressures felt at the
time it was recorded, for example.
There's quite little jazz, in the jazz standards
sense of the term, and a lot more improvization,
not latino beats or even innovative Charlie Parker
or Dizzy-style creations, but bizarre, Austral
Africa beats and rhythms, that have nothing
to do with North America, Cuba or even Central
American beats. I don't object to a rabid passion
of African rhythms shown here, it's just that I didn't
expect standard jazz to improvize almost entirely, on
one album, on African beats alone. And I do mean
improvize ... and poorly, at that. Perhaps Dizzy at
the time, to strengthen African American civil rights
felt he needed to release an album underlining African
rhythms to bring attention to political motivations
or tensions.
But, essentially, this 2CD is boring, a bit embarassing,
and a waste from the failed improvization by the orchestra.
Free Music Review: Gillespiana! with Lalo Schifrin arrangements
Hit: 5 Stars
This set from '60-61 might be the best album Dizzy recorded for the Verve label. GILLESPIANA is a suite written and arranged for Dizzy's big band, by Lalo Schifrin. The five movements take you on a world tour of exotic rhythms and sounds representing facets of Dizzy's musical personality. Schifrin's arrangements sound very fresh, not quite like how any of Dizzy's bands ever sounded before, and yet still sounding very much like Dizzy. The band is really up for this date, and Diz particularly hits a special zone.About five months after the suite was recorded, most of the band assembled again for a March '61 concert in Carnegie Hall. Most of the tunes are familiar parts of Dizzy's book, but Schifrin's arrangements again give the pieces a little special lustre.
Some other more recent reissues may have overshadowed this CD (reissued in '93), but it is no mere minor curiosity. It's some of the best music I've heard by Diz, and should be part of any representative collection of his work.