#NowPlaying - can never get enough of these spring 1941 #jams by #CharlieChristian & #TheloniousMonk (& separately monk & #DizzyGillespie) from minton's in harlem, recorded on a portable disc cutter & broadcast on #WKCR by #jazz hero jerry newman, close pal of #JackKerouac. the disc-opening "topsy" (aka "swing to bop") is all christian, so beautiful & modern & wild. https://youtu.be/jYPC3JETJRw
1940s live #jazz recordist jerry newman (a taper before there was even tape) partying with high school friend #JackKerouac & unidentified woman, 1961.
@bourgwick The first time I heard “Topsy” was on Doug Schulkind’s show late 90s and was blown away—indelible memory—because it was so long, a strange characteristic of music of that era. I believe Jerry Newman named the track “Swing to Bop” much later. Good name, though.
@longrally not too much later, it was the 1st release on his esoteric label in '51. https://www.discogs.com/release/2152865-Charley-Christian-Jazz-Immortal
@bourgwick ahh yes, I guess he knew what he was doing.
@stevesilberman apparently, newman put that out right after jack's death (& only a few months before his own) & named the untitled track then in tribute. i'd not previously seen this 1961 photo of them together: https://heads.social/@bourgwick/109651475479374479
@bourgwick
I love that record! But I have read conflicting things about whether Monk plays on all the tracks. (I haven't looked into it deeply, though.)
@esilverman yeah, he's not on most of the dizzy tracks on side B if i've triangulated these sessionographies correctly.
gillespie: https://www.jazzdisco.org/dizzy-gillespie/discography/
monk: https://www.jazzdisco.org/thelonious-monk/discography/