Charlie Parker: Lilting Jazz Alto Music!

Charlie Parker is not just a jazz alto sax guy who can play so rapidly. The man's style appears incredible also on slow ballads. A case in point has to be the vivid and so poignant performance on the Gershwin standard, 'Summertime.' That Charlie Parker smoldering fire triggers this jazz tune to the celestial heights.

Dizzy Gillespie: A Real Jazz 'Superman'

I am thinking today about one of my favorite men of jazz...the magnificent Dizzy Gillespie. I remember the first time I heard his wild and so starkly original bop jazz music it truly startled me. His revolutionary bop jazz style was so exciting and intensely engaging. Dizzy Gillespie's work along with another jazz superman, Charlie Parker on alto saxophone was brilliant in its acute jazz improvisatory insight. The performance of Dizzy's that really had a major impact on me was his wild work on the surging jazz lyricism of the huge jazz tune called 'Night in Tunisia.' I listened to that one again this afternoon and once again I was transported into a vivacious and so energetic world of sparkling, so-strong jazz music. I think the idea that really pops into my brain when I hear the gigantic music of Mr. Gillespie is the fact that the man's musical ideas are so tremendously exciting. His trumpet can hit your soul like a slamming firebrand. Another really superb work of the man, Mr. G., is the clever jazz composition that is entitled 'Salt Peanuts.' That number has plenty of sparkling style. This is a fascinating Sunday filled with terrific sounds of the mighty music...JAZZ.

Bill Holman: Exponent of Jazz Modernism

It's so marvelous to hear the mighty big band music of the so creative guy...the one and only Bill Holman. This man can do amazing things with the complex mode that is contemporary jazz music. Bill Holman has new sound experiences that are sensational in their spirited passion. His deft arranging is mind-boggling. Whether he is retooling soulful Lennon and McCartney numbers or Thelonious Monk compositions, this fellow Bill Holman comes up with great dollops of creativity. He is like watching a play by Edward Albee. Yes, he engenders a profound intensity that overwhelms. Some portions of his work possess a pinch of Charlie Parker and that seduces us jazz fans even more. Bill Holman is a jazz super fellow.

Theodore 'Fats' Navarro: Jazz Great One!

Profound, high-impact jazz trumpet can prove so engaging because of its raw, powerhouse intensity. Such is the case with the sensational trumpet style of Fats Navarro, a powerhouse trumpet artist coming out of the 1940s era. The sound of Navarro is a smashing sound of passion coming from the fact he packed a wallop with his South Florida roots shining strong in his visceral trumpet big sound with his cracklin' and sensuous BeBop jazz innovations that encapsulate the Jack Kerouac style of prose-oriented modern music that made the late 1940s and early 1950s virile jazz so persuasive and vibrant. The Fats Navarro wonderfulness was heavily influenced by the exciting trumpet of Roy Eldridge and also by the great brass man, Charlie Shavers, who could cut some good jazz music his mighty self. The intrigue of the Fats Navarro sound is so unique with his interpretation of tasty ballads. One of my favorite tunes in this genre is the innovative work on the song, 'The Things We Did Last Summer.' It is a song filled with a shiny romanticism that sweeps the listener in, beautifully. Working with great ones like the highly imaginative Tadd Dameron, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Wardell Gray helped bring the luminary one, the noted Fats Navarro even more recognition. I feel the jazz trumpet sound of Fats Navarro is truly remarkable just like that of the immortal Dizzy Gillespie.

Cannonball, Charlie and good 'ole Catfish

Hey, everyone! Remember, jazz cooked up by the small groups is some of the very best music going. The vicarious raw excitement of potent group jazz is so powerfully wild. A great example of this kind of concept is the work of the classic modernist on the alto saxophone, Cannonball Adderley. This rather chilly Georgia afternoon I listened to the delightful mainstay Adderley composition called 'Work Song.' It still sparkles like all great tunes of the past several decades. People realize when they hear the Cannonball Adderley organization that this is really what super contemporary jazz music is all about. Cannonball's brother, Nat Adderley, was right in there on the cornet. Wow, the Adderley brothers did such interesting work delving into a unique musical adventure, creating vivid fresh improvisation with just the right temperature of "freshness." Another stimulating aspect of the Cannonball Adderley group sound was the imaginative work of super-pro keyboard fellas. I have always been a fan of one of the so fine keyboard guys with the unit...of course I mean the mighty Joe Zawinul. The alto saxophone sound can be big and exciting when jazz greats get a hold of it. Charlie Parker knew how to make the alto sax soar into space and so did the explosively creative one, Cannonball Adderley. Two saxophone giants like the one and only Charlie Parker and of course the magnificent other guy, Cannonball Adderley, remind us jazz is a heady brew indeed, a kind of music that can truly thrill us with all of its exciting pulsating magical minutes. Good jazz makes me hungry. I figure we might fry some good 'ole catfish, tonight. Get the fries and honest to goodness scrumptious southern food going for the evening meal. Yeah!