Leo Parker
Appearances
Both part-time jump-and-jivers and full-time swing aficionados will find something to dig on the classics-and-curiosities-laden Swingin' at Capitol, a [more]
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The Legendary Big Band 1943-1947 features 42 of Billy Eckstine's most memorable songs as played by one of the most powerful bebop big bands in jazz history. A powerful [more]
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With a wealth of saxophone masters spread across 21 cuts, Indigo's Art of the Saxophone Ballad is an hour-long treatise on the power of reeds to put over a ballad. [more]
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The Proper label continues its stellar jazz box-set series with this mammoth four-disc survey of drummers from early jazz to [more]
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![Settin' the Pace [Proper]](/cache/JHS/e7/130x130_on-sale_e74227lph7b.png)
One of the most important yet overlooked figures in jazz is given his due with this amazing four-disc set on Proper. Going for the label's usual bargain-basement rate [more]
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![Dizzy Gillespie Story: 1939-1950 [Box Set]](/cache/JHS/f8/130x130_on-sale_f85013jdswo.png)
This four-disc, 100-track box set traces famed bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's career from his early years with Teddy Hill, Lionel Hampton and Cab [more]
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Timeless Dizzy Gillespie represents a nice single-disc overview of the bop stylings that the influential trumpeter/vocalist recorded during the late [more]
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Biography
- Born Apr 18th 1925 in Washington, D.C.
- Died Feb 11th 1962 in New York, NY
Leo Parker was the proud owner of a big, beefy baritone sax tone and a fluent technique that struck a great match between the gritty, down-home feeling of R&B and the advanced harmonies of bebop. At first, he studied alto in high school, even recording with Coleman Hawkins' early bebop band at age 18 on that instrument in 1944. But upon joining the legendary Billy Eckstine bop band in 1944-1945 and 1946, Parker switched to baritone and began to garner notice. He worked with Dizzy Gillespie's band on 52nd Street in 1946 and Illinois Jacquet's group in 1947-1948, and recorded with Fats Navarro, J.J. Johnson, Dexter Gordon, and Sir Charles Thompson; he scored a hit with Thompson, "Mad Lad," on the Apollo label. Parker seemed to be on his way, but drug problems -- an epidemic in the bop community -- kept interfering with his career, and he recorded only sporadically in the 1950s. In September and October 1961, Parker began a comeback on the Blue Note label with two lively albums that successfully combined his blues, gospel, and bop backgrounds. But only a few months later, a heart attack felled him at the age of 36. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
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