Dizzy Gillespie - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings: 1947-1949

These two Diz discs bookend two-years'-worth of late-'40s Gillespie orchestra recordings with some earlier Teddy Hill Orchestra and Lionel Hampton Orchestra sides. Actually, the '40s Gillespie-helmed recordings of "Manteca" and "Anthropology" begin the first disc, but that's kind of a sequencing quirk. Also included here are later Metronome All-Stars baubles. Here's a generous and savory taste of Gillespie ascending. --Steven Stolder Amazon.com

Great innovative jazz an' a piece of history...

This collection may seem a lil' overwhelming if you're a firsttime listener, an' its definitely too broad for a thorough straight through listen, as many'a the takes appear a few times in different incarnations. But if your a fan'a bebop an' of the early years of jazz music, then you'll more than likely eat this up. Dizzy was indisputably one'a the innovators an' had one'a the longest an' most profilic careers of all jazz legends.

With forty-three tracks total, there isn't much sense in tryin'ta list highlights, but I will say that 'A Night in Tunisia' is one'a my favorite jazz recordings ever (though I admit I have an affinity for Parker's version from the Dial Years) and this early interpretation of 'That Old Black Magic' is priceless. All in all, there is nothing not worth a listen on here, an' the different and unfinished takes reinforce the feeling that we're gettin' in on a decade's worth of brilliant, exciting musical evolution. Highly recommended for the already-initiated. July 5, 2007

Can we have a remaster?

Of course this is a fine collection. Of course Dizzy's big band in the forties made some fantastic music. Of course this is an indispensible part of jazz history. But oh, the sound...

Previous issues of this music on both CD and vinyl far surpass this one in terms of sound quality. The dreaded nineties-era noise reduction technology is all over this music, taking great hunks of sonic elements away from these vital performances. Since Bluebird corrected similar problems by issuing the Blanton/Webster sides by Duke Ellington, should they not do the same for these great records? December 13, 2005

Oop-Bob-Sh-BAM!!

From the first time I heard Dizzy's big band, on a now-defunct RCA Vintage LP ("The Bebop Era"), I was hooked...then I found out that my father had heard the band for FREE when he worked at the Metropole in NYC on 52nd Street...and HATED it because Dizzy didn't play like Sammy Kaye (his favorite band)!! How I envied and disliked him for that!!

These innovative Gil Fuller arrangements, in which the entire trumpet section swung like five Dizzies, are simply staggering. The music swirls and eddies, jumps and dives like a hyperactive jazz dancer. And all the soloists are fabulous: inventive, original, highly swinging. The jam sessions at the Metronome All-Star sessions are also very historic, with a trumpet section of Dizzy, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro, all trying to sound like Dizzy in their solos (and succeeding!), as well as scintillating piano solos by the brilliant but anti-social Lennie Tristano. All in all, an exciting and important album that no jazz lover should be without. November 22, 2004

Boppin!

Dizzy Gillespie's style was the nemesis of Miles Davis's. Introspection doesn't seem to have been a word often used in Diz's vocabulary, musical or otherwise. His playing did have a 'dizzying' effect always putting speed, dynamism and drama at the forefront of his performances. On this collection Gillespie's talent as a bandleader and musical arranger also come to the fore. He had of course a great theoretical knowledge of music and wasn't afraid to pass this on to other musicians by way of help and encouragement. With the big bands here he manages to register bebop lines in a larger sound and the over-all enthusiasm shows through.

Throughout this collection Gillespie never loses sight of the desire to swing despite his revolutionary tendacy to subvert traditional chord structure. 'Hot Mallets' swings like hell over great xelophone playing that also features on 'Blue Rhythm Fantasy'. The first version of '52nd Street Theme' is amazingly fluent while the second version goes in for greater improvisation. The bebop standard 'A Night In Tunisia' gets its greatest rendition here in its original form with Diz's no-holds emphatic sound. Gillespie's generosity to other musicians can be heard on 'Ol' Man Rebop' where each soloist takes his turn exercising his own bop interpretations. The most incessantly driving tracks on these CD's are the two versions of 'Anthropology' which rock like crazy. I also loved the rolling end of 'Ow!' and the swinging shout of 'Cool Breeze'. With 'Cubana Be' and 'Cubana Bop', Gillepie moves into even greater experimental territory. Each display a menancing rhythm like the growing stampede of an elephant herd backed up by Gillespie's elephant sounding shrieks on the trumpet.

More brash and emphatic playing on 'Minor Walk' and 'Lover Come Back To Me' proves to be yet another shining example of Dizzy as a great arranger. The backing brass jumps about at its own frenetic pace while Gillespie's trumpet bursts with energy and of course there's also the tight technical arrangement of the 'Overtime' tracks. The footstomping 'I'm Beboppin' Too' could be a manifesto for the whole bebop movement, while tracks like 'Jump Did La Ba' shows an early example of bop scat-singing. In contrast you have tracks that still swing (almost violently in Dizzy's case) like his interpretation of St. Louis Blues.

What always shows through in Dizzy's playing is his total enjoyment and utter euphoria, something that he shares with few other jazz players (the most notable exception being Louis Armstrong). All in all a marvellous collection for Dizzy fans. December 6, 2003

Lots of great early Diz in one spot...unlike the LPs

All of this stuff is contained on the RCA Victor Vintage Series LPs of Diz, and another RCA LP called "The Best Of Dizzy Gillespie" - but how nice it is to see it all in one spot. The two different takes (one abbreviated) of "Night In Tunisia", "Manteca", "Anthropology", the Afro-Cubano stuff with Chano Pozo, on and on...even the Teddy Hill cuts. Any serious student or fan of Diz must have this. Yes, there are a few 'filler' cuts, but hey - that's historic, too! Now what really would be nice would be to see a Prestige CD of what was contained in the 2LP set "In The Beginning" with stuff like "She's Gone Again" and "He Beeped When He Should'a Bopped", and the like. I'll have to dig further... August 29, 2003

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