Al Haig

Among the finest pianists from the bop period (and something who also learned from Bud Powell’s improvements quite early), Al Haig was quite busy during two intervals of his profession but unfortunately was pretty obscure within the years between. After providing in the Coastline Safeguard (playing in rings during 1942-1944) and freelancing around Boston, Haig worked well continuously with Dizzy Gillespie (1945-1946), Charlie Parker (1948-1950), and Stan Getz (1949-1951); and was on many recordings, mainly like a sideman (including some traditional Diz and Parrot sessions) but additionally as a head for Spotlite, Dawn, and Prestige. Nevertheless (apart from little-known schedules in 1954 for Esoteric, Golf swing, and Period), Haig didn’t lead any longer albums until 1974. He performed fairly often through the 1951-1973 period, but was generally overlooked. That transformed during his last 10 years, when he was finally named a bop large and documented for Spotlite, Choice, SeaBreeze, Interplay, and many Japanese and Western european labels.