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2020 wasn’t just Beethoven’s year, it was also the centenary of Charlie Parker’s birth. And if it hadn’t been for the pandemic, the world would have seen notices of all kinds of major concerts to celebrate the legacy of Bird (as Charlie Parker was known), one of the giants of jazz; one of the great musical innovators of the 20th century; the co-inventor of bebop; and probably the most important and influential saxophonist in jazz.
Magnus Lindgren was voted Sweden’s Best Jazz Musician in 2001, he has gone on to win many important prizes internationally. He says: “When I started playing the saxophone at 13, Charlie Parker was my ultimate hero, so this project really does bring me full circle.” Lindgren has been Artist In Residence with the SWR Big Band since 2018, a post which has been renewed for him for another three years. He has overseen an on going development in the band’s sound both through reinforcing its engagement as a specialist ensemble in orchestral jazz, and also by exploring various projects involving modern reinterpretations and makeovers of works from the jazz / big band canon.
John Beasley’s work as composer-arranger and pianist extends beyond jazz into film and television, notably alongside Thomas Newman working on‘1917’, James Bond ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’. Beasley has nine GRAMMY nominations and won Best Arrangement for Charlie Parker’s ‘Donna Lee’ in2021. Beasley is Music Director for International Jazz Day global gala concerts hosted by the Herbie Hancock Jazz Institute. His 2016 ‘Jazz in the White House’ earned Beasley an Emmy nomination for Best Musical Direction.
Tracklist
Cherokee/Koko (Ray
Noble, Charlie Parker)
Summertime (George & Ira
Gershwin, DuBose
Heyward)
Scrapple from the
Apple/Ah Leu Cha (Charlie
Parker / arr. by John
Beasley)
I´ll Remember April (Gene
Paul, Don Raye / arr. by
John Beasley)
Confirmation (Charlie
Parker)
Donna Lee (Charlie Parker)
Laura (David Raksin)
Overture to Bird (Charlie
Parker, Barry Harris, David
Raksin, George Gershwin,
Gene DePaul / arr. by
Magnus Lindgren)