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Charlie Parker session details

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July 29, 1946 (4 items; TT = 11:40)
C.P. MacGregor Studio, Hollywood CA
Commercial for Dial

Charlie Parker (as); Howard McGhee (tpt); Jimmy Bunn (p); Bob Kesterson (b); Roy Porter (d)

1 Max is Making Wax (O. Pettiford) 2:29
2 Lover Man (J. Davis-R. Ramirez-J. Sherman) 3:18
3 The Gypsy (B. Reid) 3:01
4 Bebop (D. Gillespie) 2:52

Listen for McGhee's impatient "Blow!" at 0:43, where Parker misses a change


1 Max is Making Wax
10" LP: Dial LP 201
12" LP: Spotlite SPJ 101
CD: Toshiba/EMI CJ25 5043/6, Toshiba TOCJ 6201/4, Toshiba/Spotlite TOCJ 0001/10, Mosaic MD9-260, Definitive DRCD 11152, ESP-Disk 4050, Frémeaux & Associés FA 1333

2 Lover Man
78 rpm: Dial 1007
10" LP: Dial LP 201
12" LP: Spotlite SPJ 101
CD: Toshiba/EMI CJ25 5043/6, Toshiba TOCJ 6201/4, Toshiba/Spotlite TOCJ 0001/10, Mosaic MD9-260, Definitive DRCD 11152, ESP-Disk 4050, Frémeaux & Associés FA 1333

3 The Gypsy
78 rpm: Dial 1021, 1043
10" LP: Dial LP 201
12" LP: Spotlite SPJ 101
CD: Toshiba/EMI CJ25 5043/6, Toshiba TOCJ 6201/4, Toshiba/Spotlite TOCJ 0001/10, Mosaic MD9-260, Definitive DRCD 11152, ESP-Disk 4050, Frémeaux & Associés FA 1333

4 Bebop
78 rpm: Dial 1007
10" LP: Dial LP 201
12" LP: Spotlite SPJ 101
CD: Toshiba/EMI CJ25 5043/6, Toshiba TOCJ 6201/4, Toshiba/Spotlite TOCJ 0001/10, Mosaic MD9-260, Definitive DRCD 11152, ESP-Disk 4050, Frémeaux & Associés FA 1333


This was Parker's third Dial studio session, the infamous "Lover Man" date. Parker seems lost much of the time, and his playing is unsteady and tentative. "Bebop" features a fiery two-chorus trumpet solo by McGhee and a rapidly disintegrating Charlie Parker.

McGhee and the band finished the session as a quartet; Parker went back to his hotel, set fire to his room, wound up in jail, and then off to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for six months of rehabilitation.

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