We Remember Bird: Berlin & London 1964
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Howard McGhee, J.J. Johnson, Kenny Clarke, Sonny Stitt, Tommy PotterBrand: MUSIC VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Impro-Jazz
Product features:
- For the first time ever on DVD! Among the many tributes paid to Bird's memory was a tour by a sextet including musicians closely related to Parker. The leaders were Sonny Stitt, a saxophonist of enormous talent and brilliant technique, and trombonist J.J. Johnson, who played and recorded with Parker many times. All of the musicians on this sextet (Howard McGhee, Walter Bishop Jr., Tommy Potter
Movie Reviews of We Remember Bird: Berlin & London 1964
Movie Review: Two American Masters
Summary: 5 Stars
Two of the all-time giants. Some will require no more than this priceless record of their musicianship. Others may find it of interest to get the personal perspective of a lifetime admirer of both individuals and their remarkable musicianship. After beginning to collect Sonny's Roost sessions, it was especially tempting to view him as the instrumental equivalent of a Crosby or Sinatra. Yet time and again, the name "Sonny Stitt" failed to produce looks of recognition (even from musicians) or provoked misguided criticisms ("he's a grab-bag of Bird licks"; "he plays the tonic note at the end of every phrase," etc.). To my mind, you didn't need a video to understand why either was the unequaled master of his ax (make it 2 horns for Sonny). But seeing them in person helps in understanding their personalities, temperaments, struggles, moods. Both had tremendous wills and demanding work ethics. J. J. was orderly, consistent, immaculate; Sonny could frequently fall off the wagon, but he knew the price and paid it in time to make the next flight and the next job, without fail. He could be warm and friendly but equally irascible, short-tempered, and snarly. And it didn't matter if it was you or Miles that he was expressing his displeasure toward (he spent 6 months with Miles after Trane's departure, but would have none of Miles' modes or pronounced atonality). The '60s were schizophrenic for him. For a while, the B3 and the tenor (esp. when Don Patterson handled the former) played at their most "soulful" seemed like the answer. But then there was the regrettable "Selmer Varitone" period (about 4 years during the late '60s). Then a period when he would spit his mouthpiece out between phrases while rolling his eyes in his head and lifting his left knee, still managing to set up for the next phrase. In the '70s he ignored disco, Miles, fusion, electronics and went back to what he did best--bringing the alto back into his act, saying adieu to the Hammond, playing the lone gunslinger, going from town to town in search of rhythm sections and potential tin horns for a cutting contest. Finally, he went out near the top of his game.
Some musicians and critics don't get Sonny. Maybe, despite those 150 albums credited to him, he deserves to be regularly ignored in all of the Down Beat critics' polls and perennially denied "hall of fame" consideration. I simply disagree, while at the same time conceding that he had his favorite "licks" and was an artist who loved "closure," making his statements as complete, whole, and perfect as humanly possible. He knew the American Songbook like Sinatra, and like his inspiration Art Tatum, he stuck to the melody--like Art, playing three of them all at once: the main one, the countermelodies, the linkages between phrases and choruses. Always (well, most of the time) with crispness, completeness, precision along with the truest, least cluttered and most embodied sound possible, enhanced by expressive articulations and dynamics. Sonny was quoted as saying you should "play simple, like Art Tatum, whose main idea was to entertain the people." I don't think he was being ironic.
This is a video that will educate some, confirm a lifelong passion for others, and hopefully cause some former doubters to reconsider their positions about Stitt (the "most perfect saxophonist" of them all, I like to call him). If you're intrigued by the performance of this complementary pair, you may wish to check out the same players on "Tribute to Charlie Parker," a live Newport recording on BMG. Also, "Sonny Side Up" has become virtually a mandatory session, featuring continually invigorating exchanges between Stitt and Sonny Rollins ("Eternal Triangle" is as satisfying a tenor battle as you're like to hear on record).
There's a memorable moment when J. J. forgets that it's Sonny's turn to solo. Sonny just stares at him with a bemused look, until J. J. realizes his faux pas. Sonny's eyes seem to be saying, "Who are you kidding? I could just stand here silent and make more music than you guys." Of course, it's not mean-spirited, and certainly not without good-humored understanding between the two musicians. Oscar Peterson continually talks about performance as a kind of "blood sport," and credits Barney Kessel's early spankings of him on the bandstand for making him a better musician. Viewing this performance becomes all the more pleasurable as you become aware of the musicians' competitive instincts as well as their harmonious complicity. Music is about tension and release, and in the end the only real winner is the listener, privileged in this instance to witness such sweet thunder.
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