Concerts That Changed Jazz
Jazz at the Philharmonic
Saturday 5 May 2007 18:00-18:30 (Radio 3)
John Fordham presents a guide to jazz performances that had a significance outside jazz, and signalled a change, a beginning or an end of a movement or era.
Playlist:
2/4. Jazz at the Philharmonic started in 1944 at the LA Philharmonic Hall and by the end of World War II had become a significant presence on the American jazz scene, reflecting founder Norman Granz's enthusiasm for jam sessions and small band swing.
But a session in 1946 was the first to feature new boppers such as Charlie Parker, whose fiery performance of Lady Be Good, a song Lester Young had made his own, was so radically powerful that none of the swing generation musicians would follow him onstage. It was the point at which the jazz mantle was publicly, and embarrassingly, handed on to a new generation.
