Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s

When Gillespie returned to New York from Los Angeles in February 1946 he soon set up headquarters on 52nd Street again. On the 22nd of that month he recorded four sides for the New 52nd Street Jazz album, assembled by Leonard Feather, with Don Byas, Milt Jackson, Al Haig, guitarist Bill DeArango, Ray Brown, and J.C. Heard. A Coleman Hawkins-headed group of all-stars did the other four numbers in the album, which, despite RCA Victor's refusal to connect with the word "bop" (hence the title), became additions to the influential recorded music of the time.

At Clark Monroe's Spotlite, Dizzy's sidemen included Jackson, Haig, and Brown, with Stan Levey on drums and Leo Parker's baritone filling the reed role. When the group recorded for Musicraft in May, Sonny Stitt's alto had replaced Parker's baritone, and Kenny Clarke was in for Levey.

Then, at the same club, came the rebirth of the Gillespie orchestra. This time, unlike the "Hepsations" edition, there was an audience for Gillespie and his music, and the big band would thrive until 1950. Before Dizzy's band was established as a vital, continuing force, however, his and Bird's innovations had had an impact on other existing bands.

In California, just prior to and during the Gillespie-ParkerLos Angeles period, Benny Carter led a band in which sidemen of the new persuasion were developing. Even if the Carter scores were not in the bop mode, the soloists echoed the changes taking place at the time. The band was formed in New York, in late '42, and continued in California in November after having traveled across the country.

BENNY CARTER That's when I really started here and I guess I was here-- I didn't leave town again--until maybe in the spring of '43 when I went on a tour with the Nat Cole Trio, Savannah Churchill, and Tim

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