The Bad Plus on the early recording of Ornette Coleman and Paul Bley playing a Charlie Parker tune:
Ornette and Don play the same intro, head, and tempo that Bird played.
Ornette solos first, on the form, with Bley laying out.
Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately? --Bley comes in on the third
bridge in the wrong place, and the form is kind of a free-for-all
afterwards, although they don’t leave Bb much, and there seems to be at
least one more clear bridge. Cherry’s brief comments behind Ornette’s
solo include the melody of “Congeniality.” The most astonishing moment
is the rubato unison line that Ornette and Don play to conclude the
solo. It is significant that on his versions of other people’s music,
Ornette always includes some original written material.
Parker and Coleman both being musicians who couldn't help but play what was in their heads.
And John Litweiler in his Ornette Coleman biography asserts that Parker and Coleman (along with Buddy Bolden and Louis Armstrong) provided the "major turning points in the course of jazz history."
I'm fascinated by this intersection of two jazz legends, although frankly, this particular song is not all that great.
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