Robert McElhiney James (born December 25 , 1939) is an American jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer. He founded the band Fourplay and wrote "Angela", the theme song for the TV show Taxi.According to VICE (magazine), music from his first seven albums has often been sampled and believed to have contributed to the formation of hip hop. Among his most well known recordings are "Nautilus", "Westchester Lady", "Tappan Zee", and his version of "Take Me to The Mardi Gras".
Here is some Wikipedia information about Yardbird Suite:
"Yardbird Suite" is a bebop standard composed by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in 1946. The title combines Parker's nickname "Yardbird" (often shortened to "Bird") and a colloquial use of the classical music term "suite" (in a manner similar to such jazz titles as Lester Young's "Midnight Symphony" and Duke Ellington's "Ebony Rhapsody"). The composition uses an 32-bar AABA form. The "graceful, hip melody, became something of an anthem for beboppers."
Three Charlie Parker recordings
Although, as Bob Dorough wrote in the liner notes to the re-release of his album Yardbird Suite, fans used to follow Parker everywhere he played and often taped his performances, there are only three known commercial recordings of Parker himself playing the tune. The first two were recorded with a septet at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on March 28, 1946. The session was supervised and produced by Ross Russell for his Dial Records label. Besides Parker on alto saxophone was Miles Davis on trumpet, Lucky Thompson on tenor saxophone, pianist Dodo Marmarosa, Arvin Garrison on electric guitar, bassist Vic McMillan, and Roy Porter on drums. The last of four takes became the master (takes two and three are lost), released as 78 shellac single (D 1003).
Never copyrighted, the track was frequently reissued on single 10" EP and, since the mid-1950s, on LP on various labels, in most part together with Parker's other Dial recordings although often also on albums assigned to Miles Davis.
The third known recording of "Yardbird Suite" was a session at the home of Chuck Copely in Hollywood, on February 1, 1947, also recorded by Ross Russell of Dial Records. The track itself is incomplete and, like the two versions of "Lullaby in Rhythm" recorded that day, of poor quality, but nevertheless released on Spotlite, initially in 1972 on Lullaby in Rhythm Featuring Charlie Parker.
There are two other recordings of Parker playing the song live, one at the Three Deuces, the other at the Onyx club, recorded by Dean Benedetti.
The Charlie Parker Septet's 1946 master recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
Here is the playlist for this show:
