Bird Lives Again!

More than 100 years have passed since Kansas City gave birth to Charlie Parker: it was August 29th, 1920.

Parker was the leading character and forerunner of one of the most important and influential revolutions that rocked the Jazz world: Bebop. Whereas Bird was the star,  Dizzy Gillespie was the great communicator and promoter and Thelonious Monk the genius architect: an unrepeatable triumvirate. Up to nowadays they are still considered the bards and prophets of the bop language, with whom generations of musicians confront. 

In 2020 Parker would have been 100, a century of Bird: but, to follow in the damned artist's tradition, almost every centennial celebration was cancelled due to the pandemic that forced humanity to pause every possible running activity.

New Project Orchestra couldn't miss those celebrations and had set up a vast special program for Charlie Parker and his musical universe, coordinated and lead by arranger and guitarist Roberto Spadoni, with whom they had already crafted various orchestral works in the previous decade: Spadoni had shaped almost every arrangement, and had also come up with two original compositions in Parker's style (Fuga di notizie and Times have changed). The repertoire, the revisited bebop language, the sound of Bird as gravitational still points around which to develop the orchestral loom and the soloist's contributions, a heartfelt and must tribute to this great Musician. Obviously, everything stood still in March 2020...

Eventually now, back on track, the orchestra reunited and the whole Bird lives again! project has been recorded at the Collettivo Mood studio, brand new recording space in Bolzano that has opened its doors right on this work. 

Segment, Mouse the mooche, Ornitology, Scrapple from the apple, Au privave, My little suede shoes, Confirmation, here are a few of the included track, masterpieces that warm every jazz lovers's heart. In the New Project Orchestra lineup - beside long-time soloists Paolo Trettel, Stefano Menato, Fiorenzo Zeni (also author of three of the arrangements), Gigi Grata, Stefano Colpi - three special guests have been welcomed: Francesco Fratini trumpet, Achille Succi alto sax and clarinet, Mauro Beggio on the drums.

The concert is enriched by the narrating voice of Roberto Spadoni, always captivating and enthralling the audience sharing stories and trivia on the personal, historical, artistic and social context during which Charlie Parker's shooting star enlightened the world of Jazz and of Music of the Twentieth Century. BIRD LIVES AGAIN!