Fumi Tomita - Celebrating Bird: A Tribute To Charlie Parker

2020 release

Bassist Fumi Tomita celebrates the 100th anniversary of jazz icon Charlie Parker with thoroughly Parkerian flair and resourcefulness on "Celebrating Bird: A Tribute to Charlie Parker," set for a September 25 release on Next Level Records. Tomita, along with tenor saxophonist and longtime collaborator David Detweiler, presents an inspired set of contrafacts—new melodies, composed upon familiar chord changes—of tunes in Parker’s repertoire.

Bird was a legendary creator of contrafacts. One of the bebop revolutionary’s key innovations was the language with which he reimagined songs like “Cherokee,” “Lady Be Good,” and even the basic possibilities of the blues. It’s this spirit that Tomita and his quartet (Detweiler, pianist Art Hirahara, and drummer Jimmy Macbride) channel on "Celebrating Bird," both in terms of writing original songs on classic changes and the expression of those songs in a bright and upbeat bebop aesthetic.

RICHMOND, CALIF. (PRWEB) JULY 30, 2020