JAM, XVII: Charlie Parker on "Passport"

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.), so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001. International Jazz Day, so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog. 

Yesterday's installment featured Joe Henderson playing over the other "Passport." Tomorrow's will feature Johnny Griffin taking care of business with Monk.

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The more commonly known "Passport," a rhythm changes, is collected in the Omnibook and was recorded by Joe Henderson, but the more rarely heard version is a blues in C. What's the story behind the two different "Passport" tracks that Bird recorded? 

Passport, via Wikimedia Commons

According to Phil Schaap's liner notes to Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve, released in 1990, nobody knows:

DISCOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Re: titles "Segment," "Diverse," and Passport." Because of ledger/mastering/producer errors, the titles and the music they represent have been hopelessly scrambled. TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TUNES BEAR THE NAME "PASSPORT"! While one other tune has DIFFERENT TITLES FOR EACH TAKE. I have added the Tune X,Y,Z listings with the descriptions: alternate, rare and common.

Schaap's exasperation is detectable in the above excerpt, but certainly this is a rose called by any other name kind of situation—it's all still great music, a document of Bird and co. (Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, Tommy Potter, Max Roach) on Thursday, May 5th, 1949. And, in classic Bird fashion, they got through with it quickly:

...Bird also got to use his working band in the recording studio. It was the only time this occurred under [Norman] Granz' aegis. Max Roach concurs that expedience was the deciding issue. 

"There was a code: get to your best shit fast. Don't fool around, get to your climax now... And I know we did this session in literally three hours. I know that was it." 

The hurried circumstance may also explain the tune title mix-up. As with the "Visa" of the previous session, the trip inspired one of the song titles and one can only ask if Charlie Parker carried two passports?

A historically ambiguous solo seems fitting for the 100th solo transcription on this blog. I'm not sure how many more there will be going forward, but, then again, I always bemoan the excess of transcriptions, but they keep coming. Here's "Passport":

C
Bb
Eb

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Boston jazz nerds/fans/listeners, this is happening tomorrow:

We'll be listening to:

• "After You've Gone," Clifford Brown, from More at the Beehive (1955)
• "On The Trail," Joe Henderson, Four! Live with the Wynton Kelly Trio (1968)
• "I Want To Talk About You," John Coltrane, April 2, 1965, Half Note (1965)

Join us if you're around; it's free.