Charlie Parker—”White Christmas” (1948)
Earlier this week our Classic Jazz Lovers group member Frans Ronday posted the only Christmas song ever recorded by Charlie Parker and I would like to share this song recorded during the Christmas Day 1948 WMCA radio broadcast from the Royal Roost: Irving Berlin’s 1942 composition “White Christmas.” During his solo Parker quotes “Jingle Bells.”
Charlie Parker-alto sax; Kenny Dorham-trumpet; Al Haig-piano; Tommy Potter-double bass; and Max Roach-drums. The announcer is Sid Torin, better known as Symphony Sid, New York City, December 25, 1948.
24-year old bebop trumpeter McKinley Howard “Kenny” Dorham had just joined the quintet at the Royal Roost the day before to replace Miles Davis. On Thursday, December 23, Davis had stormed off the band stand of the Royal Roost to which the Parker Quintet had returned on the 9th for a four-month long engagement. Miles complained to Parker’s manager Ross Russell that “Bird makes you feel about one foot high!” Drummer Max Roach also quitted but agreed to stay two more nights until Joe Harris could take over.
In the early hours of Saturday December 25, 1948, between 3 and 4 a.m., Charlie Parker and the Quintet played on this WMCA broadcast from the Royal Roost. The Royal Roost at 1580 Broadway was originally a basement chicken restaurant. In 1948 it was Symphony Sid who persuaded the new owner to present modern jazz there. The new jazz club had an entrance fee of 75 cents, and it had a novelty milk bar for those to young to drink alcoho, plus a lounge where people could sit and listen without having to order any consumption.
That same Christmas Day in 1948 -- which for Charlie Parker had begun with his Royal Roost sets -- he appeared in the evening with Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra at a Christmas night “Xmas Bop Concert” at Carnegie Hall. To my knowledge there were no recordings made of this concert, as had been done during their first concert at Carnegie Hall which was recorded illegally from the recording room directly above the auditorium. But who knows what might surface one day?
