Gibbs Gets Set to Celebrate Early Bebop Years

Terry Gibbs remembers exactly when he first heard the word “bebop.”

It was the early 1940s, he was in the military, and he kept receiving letters from a close friend, drummer Tiny Kahn, describing “bebop,” a new style of jazz sweeping through New York.

“Of course, when he said ‘bebop,’ ” says Gibbs, “that was like me saying, ‘Hey, there’s a new music called ‘mifflegip.’ It sounded just as strange as that. Bebop? What was that? I knew there was something going on. But there was a recording ban at that time, so I didn’t have any way to hear it.”

It wasn’t until he came home on leave that he found out exactly what bebop was all about, when Kahn took him to Manhattan’s 52nd Street jazz clubs to hear Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

“I practically had a nervous breakdown,” Gibbs recalls. “It was like I’d found something that I’d been looking for all my life.”

The experience was such an epiphany that he was unwilling to have it end.

“After the job was over at 4 o’clock,” he says, “I followed them uptown to Minton’s, to Small’s, to jam sessions. Everywhere they went, I went. I slept in the doorways of stores. My folks, old-fashioned Jewish people, called the police: ‘Please, find our son, a young 18-year-old soldier in a uniform.’ ”

Gibbs, who is now considered--with Milt Jackson--one of the two primary bebop vibraphone players to emerge from the explosive musical period of the ‘40s, has never left the music behind.

Next Thursday through Sunday, he will be among an impressive lineup of players, some from the early bebop years, participating in “Groovin’ High: A Celebration of the Bebop Era,” presented by the L.A. Jazz Institute at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach & Marina Hotel.

The participants include Duke Jordan, Chubby Jackson, Allen Eager, Cecil Payne, Sir Charles Thompson, James Moody, Phil Woods, Teddy Edwards, Buddy DeFranco, Hank Jones and others. It would be hard to imagine a more inclusive collection of boppers together in the same place in decades.

Gibbs will perform in two settings. In the first, he will appear on Thursday afternoon in an unusual, cross-generational quintet with pianist Alice Coltrane, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, drummer Gerry Gibbs and bassist Darek Oles. If that sounds surprising, it’s worth recalling that Alice Coltrane had a significant straight-ahead jazz style before her musical and personal partnership with John Coltrane.

“She was one of the best bebop piano players I ever heard,” Gibbs says. “She sounded just like Bud Powell. Alice worked with me in the early ‘60s when we were playing opposite John Coltrane. And I saw them little by little falling in love. She was--and is--a good human being, and John was a sweet, gentle person.

“The funny thing is that my son Gerry and her son Ravi then wound up as roommates in New York, even though they didn’t know each other out here when they were kids.”

Gibbs actually decided to call Coltrane spontaneously, not sure if she would be receptive to this sort of gig.

“I just said, ‘Alice, you want to play a bebop date?’ And she said, ‘Oh, I haven’t played bebop in years.’ As soon as she said that, instead of just saying, ‘No,’ I knew she was going to do it. But then she said, ‘Why don’t I call Ravi and see if he’ll play with us?’ I said, ‘Great, I’ll get Gerry.’ And I knew we had something.

“Now, I know Alice likes to get outside with her playing. And so do Ravi and Gerry. But they’re not going to get outside here. They’re going to get inside. Because we’re going to be playing bebop.”

Which is exactly what Gibbs, 76, has been doing for the last five decades, as a key member of the Woody Herman Four Brothers Band, with his own groups, his own big, swinging Dream Band, on television shows with Steve Allen, Regis Philbin and Mel Torme, and in frequent pairings with bop clarinetist Bud Powell.

In the “Groovin’ High” celebration’s final concert next Sunday night, he will perform with DeFranco, along with Phil Woods, Hank Jones and others.

Inevitably, any bebop tribute is obliged to place Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at the center of its focus, and there will be panel discussions examining their contributory roles. For Gibbs, however, it all comes down to Parker, whom he describes as a “true genius.”

“That word is too loosely used by a lot of people,” he says. “A genius, you can’t find nothing at fault with them at all. Maybe Dizzy Gillespie, maybe Art Tatum. But if there’s a maybe, he’s not a genius. And with Charlie Parker, I can’t find a maybe.”

Gibbs recalls how intimidated he was when he first had an opportunity to perform with Parker.

“Bird used to ask people for money to support his drug habit,” says Gibbs, “and he’d always promise to come and sit in with you the next night in return. But he’d never show up, even though the word would get out, and the places would be jammed in anticipation.”

But Gibbs’ admiration was such that he could never refuse Parker. Giving him a few dollars at one point, he was promised a visit at his next gig.

“I never expected him to show,” says Gibbs, “but just as I’m starting the melody to ‘Out of Nowhere,’ Bird comes walking in holding that plastic saxophone of his.

“Now in my heart, if you asked me if I’d want to get in the ring with Mike Tyson or follow Charlie Parker in a solo, the answer would be Mike Tyson. Boom, once, and I’m out. With Bird, you have to follow him. Anyhow, he came up and when it sounded as though he was going to end his solo, I bent over and pretended to tie my shoes. After a couple of more choruses, I pretended to drop something.

“After about 20 choruses, the piano player bent over at the same time and said, ‘I know what you’re doing, and I’m not going to follow him either.’ We were like a bunch of scared kids.’ ”

But it didn’t dim their admiration, and Gibbs eventually played with Parker under more felicitous circumstances.

“Just being on the same stage with him was one of the great experiences of my life,” he says. “Bird made everyone sound better. He left us with something that is completely pure. In my life, I still have not heard a better musician, even today, than what he did 50 years ago. Not even close.”

“Groovin’ High: A Celebration of the Bebop Era” at the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach & Marina Hotel, 300 N. Harbor Drive, Redondo Beach. Thursday through next Sunday. Ticket prices for individual panels and concerts range from $10 to $40. Full four-day registration tickets covering all events are $350. Information: (909) 593-4180.

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