Album Notes

Dizzy Gillespie returned to Europe in 1952 and again in '53, his style, in the studios at least, already somewhat mellowed. For his triumphant February return to Paris's Salle Pleyel, however, for his concert presented here, he had his all-American quintet digging deep into the bop bag. The long opening number immediately announces the mood: uncompromising bebop, as if to prove to defenders of the cause that all is well. Perhaps the most noticeable change is that, despite infrequent injections of Afro-Cuban elements, a conventional 4/4/ tends to have taken over from the previous web of polyrhythms. This album is a fascinating look at a high point of Dizz's career, one no jazz fan will want to miss!