Groovin' High

Gillespie wrote it on the changes of "Whispering" (1920, by Vincent Rose, John Schonberger and Richard Coburn); MusicBrainz also credits Charlie Parker and Frank Paparelli. Jazzdisco places the studio recording on February 28, 1945 in New York, matrix G554A-1, with Gillespie on trumpet, Parker on alto, Clyde Hart on piano, Remo Palmieri on guitar, Slam Stewart on bass and Cozy Cole on drums. Sources disagree: Wikipedia says it was first recorded on February 9 and released in March 1947 on Musicraft, JazzStandards gives both dates, and Jazzdisco lists a February 9 take with Dexter Gordon that is on a Masters of Jazz CD only. Gillespie said he may have taken the idea from a childhood matinee serial that used "Whispering" as its theme.

Thomas Owens called it the first famous bebop recording. Gillespie played it at Town Hall in New York on June 22, 1945 with Parker, Al Haig, Curly Russell and Max Roach, at Billy Berg's in Los Angeles in December 1945, at Carnegie Hall on September 29, 1947 and on the 1956 State Department tour. Gerald Wilson made the first big-band version in 1946; later versions are by Hampton Hawes (1956), Lou Donaldson (1957), Cannonball Adderley (1958), Art Pepper (1959), Booker Ervin (1964), Toots Thielemans (1994) and Al Jarreau, who added lyrics in 2004. We could not identify which reissue our Topic upload comes from.