Smith & Co

The very first date regarded as a “bebop” recording session was for Coleman Hawkins on February 16, 1944, wanting to play the music that he heard, he decided to get in “some of the cat’s that are playing it”. The recognised spokesman for bebop was Dizzy Gillespie, and “Woody For You” was improvised there and then on that recording date. Dizzy’s musical partnership with Charlie Parker was the bedrock of the bebop scene, and is well represented, and when presented with choices of a track recorded at different times with different line ups, this compilation has leaned towards recordings including Diz and Bird. Indeed two significant recording dates are given in full – firstly the concert at Carnegie Hall on September 29th, 1947 (billed as Dizzy And His Orchestra and Ella Fitzgerald), which overnight made bebop a respectable musical form and June 6th, 1950 when bebop was all but dead, Norman Granz reunited Dizzy and Bird for their final recording date together.
Like Parker, indeed pre-Parker, Gillespie recorded with strings. Whilst his solos bring a bebop element to the recordings, we have not included any tracks, as it was judged that there were better examples of true bebop.

DISC ONE

1. Woody ‘N’ You
2. Disorder At The Border
3. I Can’t Get Started
4. Good Bait
5. Bebop
6. Blue ‘N’ Boogie
7. Groovin’ High
8. All The Things You Are
9. Dizzy Atmosphere
10. Salt Peanuts
11. Shaw ‘Nuff
12. Hot House
13. Diggin’ Diz
14. Confirmation
15. Dynamo A
16. ‘Round Midnight
17. 52nd Street Theme
18. A Night In Tunisia
19. Ol’ Man Rebop
20. Anthropology
21. Oop Bop Sh’bam
22. Our Delight
23. Smokey Hollow Jump
24. Boppin’ The Blues
25. Moody Speaks

DISC TWO

1. Emanon
2. Ow!
3. Oop-Pop-A-Da
4. A Night In Tunisia (live)
5. Dizzy Atmosphere (live)
6. Groovin’ High (live)
7. Confirmation (live)
8. Ko Ko (live)
9. Leap Here
10. Algo Bueno (Woody ‘N’ You)
11. Cubana Bop
12. Lover, Come Back To Me
13. I’m Be Boppin’ Too
14. Katy (Dizzier And Dizzier)
15. Hey Pete Let’s Eat More Meat
16. Bloomdido
17. An Oscar For Treadwell
18. Mohawk
19. My Melancholy Baby
20. Leap Frog
21. Relaxin’ With Lee