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Rating: The presenters start babbling in French while music begins to play. Barney Spieler on double bass, James Moody on tenor saxophone, Kenny Clarke on drums, Tadd Dameron on piano, and Miles Davis on trumpet. These charming youngsters offer us a taste of the "most modern form of jazz, the bebop style" (as the presenter puts it), straight from the fragrant nights of a Parisian May, dated 1949. "The most modern form of jazz"... It certainly makes one smile now! Now that Parker and Gillespie are dinosaurs (Ellington is almost a fossil), shining legends of a distant past that it's almost hard to believe ever existed. Undisputed geniuses who one fine day took notice of a certain Miles Davis. No need for an introduction, just know that in '49 Miles was just starting out, with significant works as a sideman (especially with Bird) and beginning to carve out a path as a leader. He goes to Paris to play at the "Festival DeJazz 1949", falls hopelessly in love with Juliette Greco, and doesn't want to return to America because there he is a victim of racism while under the Eiffel Tower he's treated like a king. And amidst this whirlwind of emotions (we can well imagine it was so), he even finds time to play at that damned festival.
I could bore you endlessly on how brilliant Miles is, on the flair of Kenny Clarke or the impeccable style of Tadd Dameron; I won't. This is a bebop record, certainly not the best, but it's definitely interesting since it documents a very important event in the life of the great trumpeter. Between an "All The Things You Are" and a "Good Bait", between a "Lady Bird" in which Moody's solo references Davis and Parker's "Donna Lee" and another homage to Bird, "Ornithology", these 49 (coincidence?) minutes of good jazz pass by. The problem, and it's a big one, is that the audio quality of this record is indescribable. It ruins the entire album, which would otherwise deserve far more than the three little balls I'm forced to give it.
Tracklist
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