TT 388: Billy Hart at the Vanguard starts tonight

Also, Bird's "Confirmation" and a photo journal from the recent journey...

We are at the Village Vanguard all week, April 9-14: Billy Hart quartet with Walter Smith III, Ethan Iverson, and Ben Street.

We haven’t played Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” in a while; at Billy’s suggestion we are bringing it back for Walter’s debut with the band.

“We need to be sure to play Charlie Parker’s notes,” was Billy’s instruction.

Walter and I know “Confirmation,” of course, but it’s always good to re-up on Bird, for the original details of his compositions are frequently more subtle and mysterious than whatever makes up the familiar versions heard at countless jam sessions. We checked out the amazing 1947 Carnegie Hall recording where Dizzy Gillespie and Bird sound like one horn. I think it’s something pretty close to this:

Tom Harrell told me he thought the chord progression of “Confirmation” was related to church or gospel music. (F major, A7, D minor, etc.) If that’s true, perhaps the title “Confirmation” is actually religious.

At first that seems like a bit of a leap for a rather angular bebop melody — but then again, Bird puts some pure blues on the IV chord in the A sections. Deep waters….

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Thanks to everyone on the latest trio/solo tour who played with me or came out to the gigs!

Robert Hurst, Gerald Cleaver, Reuben Rogers, and Mark Whitfield Jr. at SFJAZZ:

Peter Erskine at Sam First in LA:

1937 Pierce-Arrow at the Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum:

Jack London Revue in Portland:

Special thanks to Mark Weiss in Palo Alto for underwriting a lot of awesome music all week at Earthwise. Marta Sanchez was featured on the Earthwise series playing her utterly distinctive prepared piano music. Hopefully a record is in the works...Here she is quickly undoing her preparations before I started playing:

Not only did I get a serious frisson when looking at the eclipse yesterday, I took a pretty good photo of Maile Okamura reacting to the moment: