Jimmy Bunn
Piano
March 24, 1997 (Age None) died
About
Jimmy Bunn was a West Coast jazz pianist who contributed to some of bebop's most historically significant recordings during the mid-1940s and early 1950s. Based in Los Angeles, he became a trusted sideman within the city's thriving jazz scene, recording for Dial Records and other labels. His most celebrated work came on July 29, 1946, when he played piano on the landmark Charlie Parker session that produced "Lover Man," "The Gypsy," and "Bebop." Bunn also appeared on recordings with Howard McGhee, Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Dupree Bolton, and Gerald Wilson's orchestra. His career was interrupted by incarceration at San Quentin from 1959 to 1963, where he remained musically active in the prison's jazz ensemble. He continued playing in California after his release and died in Los Angeles on March 24, 1997. His passing went unreported in the jazz press.
Trivia
On the famous 1946 "Lover Man" recording, Bunn demonstrated quick-thinking musicianship by seamlessly covering the melody when Charlie Parker momentarily missed his entrance, a moment later praised by jazz enthusiasts as a textbook example of skilled sideman awareness. Bunn was a member of the San Quentin prison jazz band alongside saxophonists Frank Morgan and Earl Anderza, trumpeter Dupree Bolton, and drummer Frank Butler, a remarkable concentration of talent later documented in Pierre Briancon's book San Quentin Jazz Band.
Early Life
Jimmy Bunn was born in 1926 in the United States. Specific details about his family background, childhood, and formal musical training have not survived in the historical record. He came of age musically during the late 1930s and early 1940s within California's developing jazz infrastructure, absorbing the bebop innovations that were taking shape on the West Coast independently from the more celebrated New York scene. By his late teens, Bunn had developed sufficient technical facility on the piano to begin participating in professional recording sessions. His earliest documented studio work dates to 1945, when he was approximately nineteen years old. That he was entrusted with significant recording dates at such a young age suggests he had received systematic musical training, though the specific nature and context of that education remain undocumented.
Jimmy Bunn Solos
1946
Piano solo - Max Making Wax - 1946
4/4 swing in C major at 335 BPM
Piano solo - Lover Man - 1946
4/4 swing in Dâ™ major at 63 BPM
Piano solo - Bebop - 1946
4/4 swing in F minor at 316 BPM