Dizzy Gillespie Birks Works: The Verve Big-Band Sessions CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Dizzy Gillespie (vocals, trumpet); Jimmy Powell, Phil Woods, Ernie Henry (vocals, alto saxophone); Billy Mitchell, Benny Golson, Ernie Wilkins (vocals, tenor saxophone); Marty Flax, Billy Root (vocals, baritone saxophone); Joe Gordon, Quincy Jones, E.V. Perry, Carl Warwick, Talib Daawud, Lee Morgan (vocals, trumpet); Melba Liston, Frank Rehak, Al Grey (vocals, trombone); Rod Levitt (vocals, bass trombone); Walter Davis, Jr., Wynton Kelly (vocals, piano); Nelson Boyd, Paul West (vocals, bass); Charli Persip (vocals, drums); Austin Cromer (vocals); Pee Wee Moore, Ray Connor.
Compilation producer: Michael Lang.
Recorded at Coastal Recording and WOR Recording Studio, New York between 1956 and 1957. Originally released as three separate LP's. Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff, Marshall W. Sterns and an interview with Benny Golson, Kenny Washington and Charli Persip.
BIRKS WORKS: THE VERVE BIG BAND SESSIONS contains BIRKS WORKS, DIZZY IN GREECE & WORLD STATESMAN.
Personnel: Dizzy Gillespie (vocals, trumpet); Melba Liston (vocals, trombone); Austin Cromer (vocals); Ernie Henry, Jimmy Powell , Phil Woods (alto saxophone); Ernie Wilkins, Benny Golson (tenor saxophone); Billy Root, Marty Flax, Pee Wee Moore (baritone saxophone); Talib Dawud, Joe Gordon, Lee Morgan, Quincy Jones, E.V. Perry, Carl Warwick (trumpet); Frank Rehak, Rod Levitt, Al Grey (trombone); Wynton Kelly (piano); Charlie Persip (drums).
Recording information: Coastal Recording, New York, NY (06/06/1956-07/08/1957); WOR Recording Studios, New York, NY (06/06/1956-07/08/1957).
Editor: Peter Pullman.
Photographers: Burt Goldblatt; Paul J. Hoeffler; Herman Leonard; Aric Lach Morrison; Chuck Stewart.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Billy Root; Talib Dawud; Ahmad Kharab Salim; Dizzy Gillespie; Ernie Henry; Ernie Wilkins; Frank Rehak; Ray Connor; Marty Flax; Rod Levitt; Howie Kravitz; Jimmy Powell ; Joe Gordon; Al Grey; Melba Liston; Paul West ; Phil Woods; Quincy Jones; Austin Cromer; Tadd Dameron; Walter Davis, Jr.; Wynton Kelly; Benny Golson; Billy Mitchell ; Nelson Boyd; E.V. Perry; Carl Warwick; Pee Wee Moore; Charlie Persip.
Arrangers: Dizzy Gillespie; Ernie Wilkins; Melba Liston; Quincy Jones; Tadd Dameron; Benny Golson.
Dizzy Gillespie's globetrotting big band of 1956-1957 was one of his finest groups, a very exciting orchestra that at various times had such players as trumpeters Gillespie, Joe Gordon, and Lee Morgan, trombonists Melba Liston and Al Grey, altoists Phil Woods and Ernie Henry, the tenors of Billy Mitchell, Ernie Wilkins, and Benny Golson, and pianists Walter Davis, Jr. and Wynton Kelly. With arrangements contributed by Quincy Jones (who was in the trumpet section), Wilkins, Liston, and Golson, this was a classic orchestra. Its three studio albums plus a few numbers previously issued only on samplers and nine previously unreleased performances (mostly alternate takes) are on this wonderful two-CD set. The high points are many, including "Dizzy's Business," "Jessica's Day," "The Champ," "Cool Breeze," "Birks Works," "Whisper Not," "Stablemates," and "I Remember Clifford." Essential music. ~ Scott Yanow
By the mid-1950's, when this Norman Granz production, BIRKS WORKS, was recorded, Dizzy Gillespie's big band had become a jazz force. Talent-wise on a par with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, Dizzy's outfit was a little freer and open to the latest possibilities. With such fiery young players as Lee Morgan and Billy Mitchell in his horn section, and Chalie Persip rolling underneath them on drums, there's a dense musical tension in play here. The performance of a young Quincy Jones on trumpet, contributing to "Jessica's Day," and Melba Liston's soaring trombone on Claude Debussy's "My Reverie," are noteworthy.
Included in this collection are such classics as "Autumn Leaves" and "I Can't Get Started," along with famed Gillespie numbers, among them the seductive "A Night in Tunisia." Gillespie