Billie's Bounce

This article is about the composition by Charlie Parker. For the album by Dexter Gordon, see Billie's Bounce (album).

"Billie's Bounce" (also known as "Bill's Bounce") is a jazz composition written in 1945 by Charlie Parker in the form of a 12 bar F blues. Some sources claim that the song was dedicated to Dizzy Gillespie's agent, Billy Shaw, although according to Ross Russell, Shaw's "name was misspelled"^[1] accidentally. However, others claim that the song was in fact dedicated to Shaw's secretary, who was called Billie.^[2] The original recording by Charlie Parker and His Re-Boppers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.^[3]

"Billie's Bounce"
Composition by Charlie Parker
Released	1945
Recorded	November 1945
Genre	Jazz
Label	Savoy
Composer(s)	Charlie Parker

Originally an instrumental, lyrics were added later by Jon Hendricks and by Eddie Jefferson.^[4]

Personnel

The original 1945 recording was performed by the following lineup:^[4]

• Charlie Parker – E♭ alto saxophone
• Miles Davis – B♭ trumpet
• Dizzy Gillespie – piano (Gillespie also plays trumpet in other recordings from the same session)
• Curley Russell – bass
• Max Roach – drums

Renditions

• Ben Webster and the Modern Jazz Quartet – 1953: An Exceptional Encounter (1953)
• Shelly Manne – The Three and the Two (1954)
• Metronome All-Stars – Metronome All-Stars 1956 (1956)
• Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson – Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson at the Opera House (1957)
• Wes Montgomery – Fingerpickin (1957)
• Bud Powell – Bud Plays Bird (1958)
• Red Garland – Dig It! (recorded in 1957–58, released in 1962)
• Betty Roche – Singin' & Swingin' (1960)
• Clare Fischer – Surging Ahead (1963)
• Don Byas – Anthropology (1963)
• Dexter Gordon – Billie's Bounce (1964)
• Albert Ayler – My Name Is Albert Ayler (Debut, 1964)
• George Benson – Giblet Gravy (1968)
• Ella Fitzgerald – Montreux '77 (1977)
• Johnny Griffin – Birds and Ballads (1978)
• Robert Wyatt – Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981 (1981/2009)
• Bobby Enriquez, with Abraham Laboriel, Alex Acuna, and Poncho Sanchez –The Prodigious Piano of Bobby Enriquez (1981)
• Keith Jarrett – Still Live (1986); Tokyo '96 (1998)
• Milcho Leviev and Dave Holland – Up & Down (1987)
• Manfred Mann's Earth Band – Masque (1987)
• Oscar Peterson – Encore at the Blue Note (1990)
• Dizzy Gillespie – To Bird with Love (Telarc, 1992)
• David Murray – Saxmen (1993)
• Tina May – Tina May – Live in Paris (2000)^[5]
• The Stimulators – Style (2006)
• Frank Morgan – A Night in the Life (2007)

See also

Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial Sessions