In music, "bird songs" probably suggest the great French composer, Olivier Messiaen, more than any other, but for jazz people "bird songs" automatically mean Charlie "Bird" Parker. It's the title given to a countrywide tour by an international quartet, which opens in New Ross on Thursday.
Led by bass guitarist and composer Ronan Guilfoyle, the group is completed by saxophonist Julian Arguelles, guitarist Rick Peckham and drummer Tom Rainey. It's a seasoned quartet whose individual CVs read like a jazz equivalent of Debrett's peerage; collectively, their experience includes working with such notables as Dave Holland, John Abercrombie, Carla Bley, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Kenny Werner and Lee Konitz - and that's just for starters.
Not that they need any gilt by association, but the kind of cutting-edge approach these names represent also makes it certain that the Bird Songs tour will not be simply retreads of Parker's past glories. There will be no bows to famous blues like Now's The Time or Parker's Mood. Instead, the tour, which is being organised by Music Network, the Improvised Music Company and Belfast's Moving On Music, and sponsored by the ESB, will be a contemporary response to Parker's music.
Guilfoyle acknowledges this won't be easy. Unlike Thelonious Monk's music, on which he also worked, Parker's material offers less space. "The tunes have lots of notes. They're very quaver-oriented," he says. And Bird, who worked with the blues and popular songs, had the gift of creating his own universe regardless of what material he used.
So a fresh take on Bird has to be found. In Scrapple From The Apple, a line based on the harmonies of Honeysuckle Rose and I Got Rhythm, Ronan Guilfoyle has taken fragments of the Parker melody and supported it with different changes for the quartet. My Little Suede Shoes, has been simplified harmonically and made almost folk-like. Other Parker tunes, seldom heard, likely to be included are Dewey Square, an altered Ah-Leu- Cha, Segment and Confirmation, "one of the most beautiful chord progressions", says Guilfoyle, as well as standards such as Embraceable You and My Old Flame, plus Ornette Coleman's tribute, Bird Food.
Tour runs until February 28th. Further de- tails from Music Network: 01 6719429