I did my repeated listening with “My Melancholy Baby” by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Most of the time when I listen to new music, I just lay down, close my eyes, and listen to the entire album from start to finish. Because of this, I pick up quite a few details on the first try as I’m used to this way of hearing music. Despite this, I did hear some very smaller details come through once I got to my last few listens. I noticed especially the subtle interaction between the soloists and the rhythm section. The soloist would play and phrase and leave some space in between the next. In that space, the pianist would either play something as a response as a continuation of the line or repeat the same rhythm the soloist just played. There is also a ton of interplay between the rhythm section and the soloists when playing simultaneously. Another really small detail I never noticed until near the end of my listening was from 2:37-2:40. It is extremely faint in the background, but it sounds like someone is talking right before the head comes back in. I can’t make out what it says at all, but maybe it has something to do with the melody coming back in? It’s very interesting that even though I thought I had heard everything, one small little thing came out of nowhere, and now I can’t unhear it.
This piece of music is, as a whole, incredibly brilliant. The blazing-fast lines of Charlie Parker are astounding. The phrasing he uses is incredible and all the subtitles would be absolutely impossible to pick up on the very first listen. As you listen more you can start to hear which notes he might be tonguing and which ones he’s slurred over from the previous. Listening closely to the background, you can hear that the comping of the piano is obviously not extremely consistent. You could listen tens of times and still never exactly pick up every single thing that the piano does. This goes the same for the drum part. While there is a consistent gentle swing beat going the entire time, there is always a few things that change every once in a while, such as an occasional extra hit on the snare to keep it interesting. What I find particularly amazing about this is how so much is possible in such a short time, and I think that’s one of the beauties of jazz, especially if you have to keep the song short. Every player seems to be getting out their best ideas as much as possible in this rather short jazz recording, because that’s all the technology at the time would allow for. It is incurably inspiring how well everyone in the recording knows exactly what they’re going for, nom matter how unnoticeable it may to be to the average listener, and it seems completely effortless.