VA - First Steps - First Recordings From The Creators Of Modern Jazz (Savoy)

Savoy Records established its reputation by being first to present some of the all time greats of modern jazz: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Dexter Gorden. These are the radical sounds which set the jazz world on fire.

In the early 1940s, these mostly 20-something musicians, among others, were the rebels of their time. They were part of the movement that begat bebop - a swirling, improvisational, and sometimes drug-influenced reaction to the sterilized sway of the erstwhile mainstream swing sound.

For today’s young rebels who wish to reject established modes while at the same time appreciating their forbears, Savoy Jazz is re-releasing a truckload of old recordings by these seminal musical iconoclasts. First Steps captures some of bebop’s earliest and finest practitioners in the act of inventing a brusquely expressive and stylistically irreverent genre.

A fairly balanced mix of well-known and obscure names appears here, resulting in an engaging cross-section of artists with varying styles and dispositions. To uninitiated ears, it may come off as homogenous at first, but for jazz aficionados and neophytes with patience, this is a veritable minefield of sonic jewels, each one possessing the singular personality of the different performers who carved them out.

VA - First Steps - First Recordings From The Creators Of Modern Jazz (Savoy)
(320 kbps, front cover included)