Artist:Charlie Parker
Song:What Is This Thing Called Love
Album:Five Classic Albums
When Charlie Parker signed with Norman Granz and Verve Records, the whole idea was to make Parker a mainstream recording artist. Granz wanted Parker to appear on his Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series. I'm not sure what Parker's motivation was except to get his next heroin fix. So one thing Parker did was record with strings. Some critics assumed that Parker was forced to record it. But the truth is he wanted to record with an orchestra. Parker was classically trained and he respected the classics. He was an especially big fan of Igor Stravinsky. The original 1950 album Charlie Parker with Strings was the biggest selling album of his career. And it influenced other jazz musicians to record with strings especially Clifford Brown in 1955. Parker's recording of the Cole Porter standard What Is This Thing Called Love did not appear on the original LP. It first appeared on the 1995 release Charlie Parker with Strings: The Master Takes. Musicians are Al Haig on piano, Tommy Potter on bass, Roy Haynes on drums plus the strings. There was also a reissue in 2013. And that's the version on Avid's Five Classic Albums released last year at a budget price. The other albums are Bird & Diz, Charlie Parker Big Band, Charlie Parker Quartet and Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter. This is probably the best of Parker's Verve recordings. Even casual fans should get it at a budget price. Of course it all came to an end when Parker died on Mar. 12, 1955 at age 34. But Parker's music still lives. Here's a video of Charlie Parker performing What Is This Thing Called Love.
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