Jazz Corner Of The World

(album: Back On The Block - 1989)

(It had to be sweetness)
(... 'Cause I'd been in New York all the time, and he brought Charlie Parker in this hotel room, in the Booker Washington Hotel)
(There was nothing to do but play, you know, and we had a lot of fun trying to play, you know)
(... That man, Charlie Parker, was mine)
(That was the first time I ever had the pleasure to meet Dizzy Gillespie)
(I can remember Miles)
(Miles was in my original band)
(And Charlie Parker created the sound, and the moment I heard him I said, 'that's how music should sound')

[Kool Moe Dee:]
A tribute to the Birdman, the father of Birdland
A masterpiece that release the horns, words and
The musical greats, salute the late
Mentor, inventor of a sound of days back
From bebop to pop and pop to hip hop
Infuse the times of jazzing rhymes and got
Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane
To bring on the legends; Kane, hit the names

[Big Daddy Kane:]
I kick a rap to what you can relax to
A jazz soloist, play away with the sax to
Get the job done, next one up to do his duty
Ladies and gentlemen, mister James Moody

No one goes the mile like Miles Davis
Watch how he plays this trumpet and pump it
Just like a mechanic handles a tool
Here's the rebirth of the cool

What kind of noise can a string bring
Making you swing and sing things of a musical fling
Well listen to this star, next up is our...
Oh, George Benson bringing the guitar

[Big Daddy Kane:]
A voice of choice used just like an instrument
So magnificent, I'm proud to present
Divine, Sassy One, A.K.A. Sarah Vaughan
Honey you're on

I'm introducing a bop revolution
In jazz that has pizazz, he is one player using it
As who is, his first name's Dizzy
Last name Gillespie, now watch him get busy

Allow me to tell a story about Ella
Fitzgerald, who's sound can never be sterile
A woman with flexibility of range
Making octaves change, go ahead and do your thing

[Big Daddy Kane:]
This is a shoutout to one more man
Joe Zawinul, the writer of Birdland

[Kool Moe Dee:]
In the fifties, this was the place to be
From the bands down to the maitre'd
Now, who could forget the MC on the set
The emollient voice of Pee Wee Marquette

(Ladies and gentlemen, as you know we have something special down here at Birdland this evening)

A sound so profound it's come back around
52nd Street is now world-renowned
With horn licks with kick, and swift riffs to stick
Today bebop makes the hip hop pick
These musical genius's souls are so clever
They changed the face of music forever
And if you can't understand
Here's a past and present Birdland