Bud Powell - Paris 1961 (1975 Japanese ESP-Disk Stereo LP)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: NM
Obi: None

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Bud Powell - Paris 1961 | Vinyl LP - 1975 Japanese ESP-Disk Stereo Reissue (BT-5051, Jazz Gold Medal Collection, Nippon Phonogram Co. Ltd.)

Powell moved to Paris in 1959, partly to escape the conditions in New York that had contributed to his deterioration. By the time he arrived, the head injury sustained in a police beating, the subsequent electroshock treatments, the alcohol and the years of fragmented professional life had taken a serious toll. But the Blue Note Café residency with Michelot and Clarke produced consistent work. They had played together long enough to function as a working band rather than a hired trio, and what Powell produced in those months was considerably more settled than his reputation for erratic performance would suggest.

Alan Douglas recorded these sessions. The tapes went to ESP-Disk, who released them in 1968 as ESP 1066, two years after Powell died in August 1966 at age forty-one. The eight tracks on this LP are the trio performances, without the Zoot Sims quartet tracks that appear on later extended CD editions.

The programme is heavily weighted toward Monk. "Thelonious" opens Side A directly after "There'll Never Be Another You." "'Round Midnight" closes the side. Side B includes "Monk's Mood" and what is listed simply as "Theme", most likely the 52nd Street Theme. Between them sit "Night in Tunisia" (Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli), "Shaw Nuff" (Gillespie and Charlie Parker, 1945) and "Lover Man" (Davis, Ramirez and Sherman, 1941). Powell had played all of these pieces since the early bebop years and the familiarity shows, less as repetition than as ownership.

This is the 1975 Japanese ESP-Disk reissue (BT-5051), part of the Jazz Gold Medal Collection, manufactured by Nippon Phonogram Co. Ltd.