Dizzy Gillespie: Cubano Be, Cubano Bop (aka Afro-Cuban Drum Suite)

Listed on the album as "Afro-Cuban Drum Suite," this version of George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop" features an especially rich, improvised duet by conguero Chano Pozo and Gillespie not heard on other versions. Recorded live in France as part of a very successful European tour in 1948, this was the last time Pozo would record this seminal piece of jazz history with the Gillespie band (he was murdered in November of the same year). The composition was originally commissioned for a September 1947 concert at Carnegie Hall that was the premiere of Gillespie's new Afro-Cuban jazz aesthetic, later dubbed "Cubop." In his improvisation, Gillespie demonstrates a remarkable affinity for Afro-Cuban rhythms, which he seamlessly melds with bebop phrasing and vocabulary.