Imagine that you are now sitting in your home, warm, safe, and sound on a random Tuesday evening in early summertime, with the windows open and a nice cool breeze blowing through. Suddenly, you are transported to a NYC alleyway three quarters of a century in the past, 18 years before you were even born, while a crashing rainstorm is coming down all around you with a warm, hissing sound. Even with the storm, a small window from the alley into what was called The Onyx club, a jazz bar, is open to the playing area. You hear the unmistakable sound of the Bird soloing You can't get into the room, through the crowd at the front door all standing there with umbrellas and raincoats waiting for someone to be forced to leave for some reason so they can go inside. So you just stay at the small window and listen, hunched outside in the rain with your coat up around your cheeks, because you know you have been given the rare privilege of hearing the Bird solo live. That's what listening to this album is like. You need to use alot of imagination, but it's worth the effort. It's not, however, worth buying a recorded relic of the experience when you can stream it online.
I listened to this only because the brilliant guitarist Robert Quine mentioned it as one of his favorite albums of all time. Obviously, I'm not in the market for things like this, but I'm immensely glad to have known it.
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