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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZHAIG, Al(b 22 July '24, Newark NJ; d 16 Nov. '82). Piano. Played with Charlie Barnet on West Coast '45, already one of the first bop pianists, ubiquitous sideman with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro in '40s (to France with Parker '49); then fell victim to the 'Crow Jim' syndrome of a white in black music: he was accepted initially by black musicians but they felt pressure on them to hire other blacks when there were not enough jobs to go around. Haig played with Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Chet Baker in '50s, but cocktail piano gigs and periods of obscurity took over. His own small-group records '48-54 were on various labels (compilations Trio And Quintet on Prestige; two vols of Meets The Master Saxes on Spotlite, '48 tracks with Getz, Gray, Coleman Hawkins, John Hardee, Zoot Sims, Allen Eager, etc); there was a mysterious '65 LP on an obscure Mint label. The inevitable question 'Whatever happened to Al Haig?' led to a comeback: a trio date Invitation in London with Kenny Clarke, a quartet Special Brew in London with old associate Jimmy Raney on guitar, Haig on electric piano on some tracks, both '74, issued on Spotlite. Solo sessions Piano Interpretations, Piano Time, and Duke 'n' Bird, duets with bass Interplay all '76 were issued on Trio (Japan), Seabreeze (USA) (some solos on Spotlite LP Solitaire); duo, trio, quartet and quintet LPs Serendipity, A Portrait Of Bud Powell, Manhattan Memories, Reminiscence, Plays Jerome Kern '76-8 also variously on Trio, Seabreeze, Inner City, Interplay; Strings Attached '75 on Choice with Raney; '77 tracks on Columbia collections Bebop Piano, They All Played Bebop; Al In Paris and Parisian Thoroughfare both duos with Pierre Michelot '77 on Musica; Stablemates '77 with UK trumpeter Jon Eardley, tenor Art Themen; Expressly Ellington '78 with Themen, Quintet Of The Year Revisited all on Spotlite. Most records after '75 featured bassist Jamil Nasser (b 21 June '32, Memphis), who had played with Ahmad Jamal Trio for more than a decade from '62. Guitarist Raney and bassist Bill Crow wrere quoted as saying that during the postwar period Haig was one of the pianists most responsible for establishing chord changes on newly standadized tunes, his reharmonizing to jazz specifications being widely adopted, so that he was even more infuential than listeners at first thought. |