[Parker, Charlie. (1920-1955)]
Signed club table-photograph from the Hi-Hat, Boston, ca. 1950
A spectacular piece of Parker memorabilia, a souvenir of a fine night out at one of Boston's leading jazz clubs, this is a most intriguing photograph of the legendary jazz saxophonist, pictured with a group of fellow musicians at the Hi-Hat Club, Boston, circa 1950, all considerably "lit up" and signed and inscribed to the recipients, "Pete + Ginny," a couple who may be sitting largely obscured at the back corner of the booth; and also inscribed seemingly to Charlie Parker, by various members of the party including trumpeter Tommy Di Carlo, drummer Paul Drummond, bass player Sonny Dee, trumpeter Joe Gordon, and clarinetist and saxophonist Henry “Boots” Mussulli, who is shown opposite Parker and who appears to have signed under the nom de plume ‘Buddy Mack’ and noted his "respect to the greatest, Charlie Parker," with Di Carlo likewise inscribing "To the greatest ever," and Drummond writing "are you kidding 'Bird.'"Vintage gelatin silver print, 127 x 176 mm, in corresponding souvenir photo folder mount (folder cover lacking, annotated verso with Drummond and Di Carlo’s telephone numbers, and a Shawn Morgan, who also gives an address at the Schuyler Hotel in NY, a well-known musician's haunt), 165 x 218 mm. Folder defective and a little used, slightly split crease to the photograph but overall very good, signatures clean and unfaded. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, p.64); The Charlie Watts Collection.
Di Carlo was a talented trumpeter and band-leader, who played with Krupa and Goodman; Drummond was a local musician who played with Boots Mussulli's band at the Crystal Room in Milford, MA where Parker played at least once, between 1949 and 1952; Sonny Dee was Mussulli's bass player of the time; Joe Gordon's gigs with Bird at the Hi-Hat, 8-14 December, 1952, with pianist Dick Twardzik were famously recorded and he later played with Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie, becoming a highly-rated performer on the West Coast scene; Boots Mussuli was a technically prodigious clarinetist and altoist who played with Krupa, Kenton, Charlie Ventura, and Serge Chaloff, dedicating his later career to musical education.
This is a fine and almost unknown image of Parker cutting loose with some fellow musicians and was originally in the collection of Norman R. Sacks, and illustrated in his catalogue of Parker memorabilia. Subsequently, the photograph was in the collection of Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts. The photograph was originally described in the Saks collection and subsequently sold as a photograph signed by Parker himself. While the name and writing around it does show some similar features with the writing of Parker (especially if signed in the pictured state of inebriation!) we believe our above description to be accurate. (23138)
Signed Photograph Jazz