I wrote this on my old website a while ago, but thought I would repost here. I’ve been learning this Charlie Parker solo recently (transcription here). It was recorded in 1943, towards the start of Bird’s career and, although his style is plainly not yet fully formed, it is one of my favourite examples of his playing. The early years of bebop are not especially well documented due to the American Federation of Musicians’ recording ban between 1942 and ’43, and so this bootleg feels like a particularly important glimpse at both the…

One of the songs I picked for my recent duo recording with Michael Kanan was Way Down Yonder in New Orleans. Written in 1922 by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer, the African-American songwriting team also responsible for the more well-known After You’ve Gone, Way Down Yonder seems to only really be played by more trad/Dixieland bands now. It’s a fun sequence to improvise over though, with an unusual 28 bar form and a couple of interesting harmonic corners. Here’s a video of Layton himself performing it. On our recording, Michael and I…

I recently got back from a great trip from New York. As well as seeing lots of inspiring music and eating some lovely food, one of my main reasons for making the journey to the city was to make a duo recording with the pianist Michael Kanan. I’m a big fan of Michael’s playing. He’s probably best known as a world-class accompanist of singers (he holds the piano chair in Jane Monheit’s band and worked with Jimmy Scott for a number of years prior to that), but I have also listened to…