Norman Granz’ J.A.T.P Carnegie Hall, 1949

Jazz impresario Norman Granz, who died last November at the age of 83, got his start in the music business in 1944 by staging Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Hall (hence the J.A.T.P. acronym) that featured musicians of different schools in a sort of organized jam session.

This newly released 1949 concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall features boppers Charlie Parker, Sonny Criss and Fats Navarro in company with Flip Phillips, Tommy Turk, Hank Jones, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne on three 11-minute-plus tracks and Navarro in company with Coleman Hawkins on four others.

As might be expected, altoists Parker and Criss and trumpeter Navarro strike different sparks than the frenetic Phillips, whose agitated soloing (most famously on “Perdido” at an earlier JATP concert) always got the crowds roaring. After Phillips warms the place up, trombonist Turk is next followed by Parker, whose silvery solos lead perfectly into Navarro’s pungent offerings; last up is Criss (at 22 he was, like hundreds of others, under Parker’s spell) with his impressive take on the tune.

Although of an earlier generation, tenor sax giant Hawkins dug the modern sounds, too, and this is his only pairing with the ebullient Navarro. Terrific music, especially the 15-minute jam on "Lover Come Back to Me."