WBGO Blog

  • Steve Wilson with Strings on JazzSet

    February 7, 2012. Posted by Becca Pulliam.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Jazz Alive, JazzSet, Steve Wilson

    Remember this? A classic LP, tracks often heard to this day on WBGO.

    12 02 02 Charlieparkerwithstrings

    Wednesday, February 8, at 6:30 .. Steve Wilson with Strings plays  the original parts from the 1950 release Bird with Strings. Altoist Steve re-imagines the music at the Kennedy Center, now on JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. Here's a 30-second sample of this jazz-and-classical combination:

    DSC_0059Photo by Sue Lyn Schramm

    One highlight is "Ezz-thetic" by composer and music theorist George Russell for Ezzard Charles, the African-American boxing champion from the late 1940s into the '50s. When Charles beat Jersey Joe Walcott and then Joe Louis, he was the world heavyweight champ. Ezzard Charles was a noted bass player, as well; he jammed at Birdland back in the day. Wilson says the modern-sounding "Ezz-thetic" is "really a peek into what might have been the next musical step in Charlie Parker's development." Parker died in 1955, leaving the future an open question.

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