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Al Haig

A fine bebop pianist, Al Haig will come to mind as a participant on the Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool” sessions. Though this might be the primary recollection point on his resume, Al Haig was quite a player in his own right, though time has unjustly diminished his reputation.

Haig was born July 22, 1922, in Newark, New Jersey, and his early jazz leanings were heavily influenced by Teddy Wilson. Moving to New York in 1944, he started playing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. He performed and recorded with Gillespie from 1944 to 1946, Parker from 1948 to 1950, and then joined up with Stan Getz from 1949 to 1951. Though he was best in a small combo setting, he also played in the big bands of Charlie Barnet and Jimmy Dorsey during this period. He spent a brief time with Chet Baker, in 1952, then formed his own trio and quartet which went on to record some fine bop albums from 1954 to 1957.

He went through a brief person crisis around 1968, where he was suspected then acquitted of murdering his wife. This strangely enough led to his resurgence on the jazz scene where he went on a creativity tear from 1974 up until his death in 1982. He has left quite an impressive listing of recordings and became quite a cult figure as a bop giant in his final years. Source: James Nadal

Charlie Parker: Be Bop Live

Read "Be Bop Live" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 6, 2021

The name of the record label is ezz-thetics, which was also a composition by George Russell and an album of the same name (which featured Eric Dolphy) released by Riverside Records in 1961. Maybe a better moniker for the label is “Lest We Forget." Not that we could ever abandon Charlie Parker, but today when streaming services replace CDs and LPs, which also replaced 78s and live radio broadcasts (the streaming service of its day), Parker has the possibility of ...

Album Review

Charlie Parker Quintets: Be Bop Live

Read "Be Bop Live" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
January 25, 2021

Benvenuti a uno dei convegni di bellezza più eccitanti che il jazz abbia mai prodotto. Royal Roost, New York City, dicembre 1948-febbraio 1949, due mesi in cui Charlie “Bird" Parker teneva il cartellone nel club della Quarantasettesima, sconvolgendo il pubblico con alcune tra le sue esibizioni più brillanti. Il bop era già linguaggio assimilato ormai, ma l'eccezionalità di quelle serate confermava Parker come punta di diamante di tutta la cultura africana-americana, al di là delle correnti jazzistiche.Questo doppio ...

Video / DVD

Al Haig and Bud Powell

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 18, 2023

Yesterday, I posted about Al Haig playing on early bebop recordings in New York with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Which begs the question, did Haig conceive of his style on his own or was he influenced by other New York jazz pianists besides Art Tatum? The answer is a little of both. As Carl Woideck, author of Charlie Parker: His Music and Life, noted in an email after yesterday's post, “The early history of bebop piano is a challenge ...
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Recording

Al Haig: Invitation

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 17, 2023

Al Haig was a fascinating and mysterious pianist. Haig's style was an elegant synthesis of hard-core bebop and lounge, which means he had an extraordinary technique. And his bop recordings are so early—at the start, in fact—that Haig and Bud Powell most likely influenced each other through mutual visits at Harlem clubs. Today, Haig is largely forgotten, despite his many accomplishments. Raised in Nutley, N.J., Haig was the pianist on Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's first bebop recordings, for Guild, ...
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Video / DVD

Al Haig Captured on Video

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 15, 2013

I've never seen a video clip of pianist Al Haig, have you? Yesterday I found one of Haig playing with James Moody (alto sax), Ray Brown (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums). It comes from Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop Reunion—a 1975 PBS SoundStage show in Chicago. I'm alerted that my good friend Doug Ramsey featured the clip earlier this month at Rifftides. For background on the clip you're about to see, here's New England Public Radio host and blogger Tom Reney. And ...
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Recording

Al Haig Plays Jerome Kern

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 30, 2013

Pianist Al Haig is most often thought of as a bebop boilermaker—laboring shoulder to shoulder with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the '40s with terrifying dexterity and rock-solid feel for the new music. But Haig also had a tender, romantic side in his later recordings, and his solo work is still hair-raising. One of his finest late-period albums is Al Haig Plays the Music of Jerome Kern. Recorded in 1978, the date featured Haig on solo piano or accompanied ...
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166

Music Industry

Al Haig: March 13, 1954

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 15, 2009

Like Bud Powell, Al Haig had two sides to his piano-playing personality. He could play as fast and as meticulously as any bebop pianist on New York's 52nd Street in the 1940s, making him a first pick of both Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. But Haig also had a lush, romantic side that favored melody, dense chord changes and impressionistic tempo changes. And like Powell, Haig had inner demons.

The delicate side of Haig is most evident on a March ...
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Recording

Test of Time Reissues Duke 'N' Bird by al Haig

Source: All About Jazz
October 17, 2008

Test of Time Records is proud to announce the remastered reissue of Al Haig's Duke 'N' Bird. his unique solo piano album recorded on May 6th 1976 at New York’s Vanguard Studios. It is being released now on CD for the first time in the U.S. Al Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey on July 22, 1924. Starting early as a boy, he played piano, harp and clarinet. He started concentrating on the piano when ...
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