Early Bird...

gets the worm.

Charlie Parker would've been 88 today. This is his first session as a featured sideman. Guitarist Tiny Grimes put together this quintet of 52nd Street players for a Savoy date that was to feature him as a singer. Two vocal sides and two instrumentals. Bird had just arrived in New York after jumping ship from Billy Eckstine's Big Band.

Download:



"I'll Always Love You Just The Same" mp3
by Tiny Grimes Quintet, 1944.
Tiny Grimes, Vocals.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Romance Without Finance" mp3
by Tiny Grimes Quintet, 1944.
Tiny Grimes, Vocals.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Red Cross" mp3
by Charlie Parker, 1944.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes



"Tiny's Tempo" mp3
Charlie Parker, 1944.
available on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes

Billie Holiday on Aladdin

In 1951, Billie Holiday recorded one session for Aladdin Records with tenor guitarist Tiny Grimes leading the band. Haywood Henry is on saxophone and Bobby Tucker on piano. These four sides (in particular "Rocky Mountain Blues" - in which she sings "I'll be high on that mountain" which for her had a dual meaning) are the closest she came to recording Rhythm and Blues. They are unmistakably her- yet different than anything else she recorded.



















"Detour Ahead" mp3
by Billie Holiday with Tiny Grimes' Sextet, 1951.
available on Billie Holiday 1949-1951



















"Be Fair To Me" mp3
by Billie Holiday with Tiny Grimes' Sextet, 1951.
available on Billie Holiday 1949-1951



















"Rocky Mountain Blues" mp3
by Billie Holiday with Tiny Grimes' Sextet, 1951.
available on Billie Holiday 1949-1951



















"Blue Turning Gray Over You" mp3
by Billie Holiday with Tiny Grimes' Sextet, 1951.
available on Billie Holiday 1949-1951

Photograph: © William F. Gottlieb