Charlie Parker

The record Bird said he wanted to make his whole life. Just Friends, the opening track, was Parker's own favorite of all his recordings. The strings divided critics in 1950 and have been winning the argument ever since.

The last studio summit of bebop's two founders, with Thelonious Monk on piano and Buddy Rich on drums. Bloomdido and Leap Frog capture the Parker and Gillespie telepathy one final time under studio lights.

The greatest jazz concert ever, or at least the most famous: Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach in Toronto, May 1953. Reviewed on our Bud Powell page, where the whole story of the night is told.

The late quartet sessions, stripped to alto and rhythm section. Hank Jones or Al Haig on piano, Max Roach throughout, and definitive readings of Now's the Time and Confirmation. The best small-group studio Parker of the final years.

The 1951 quintets: one session with Miles Davis, Walter Bishop Jr., Teddy Kotick, and Max Roach, the other with Red Rodney, John Lewis, Ray Brown, and Kenny Clarke. Au Privave, K.C. Blues, Star Eyes, and Blues for Alice all live here.

The Clef collection of the 1951 master takes, issued in the year of Parker's death. The same brilliant quintet material later expanded on Swedish Schnapps, here in its original LP form with the iconic David Stone Martin cover art.

Savoy's memorial collection of the foundation recordings: Now's the Time, Ko-Ko, Parker's Mood, Billie's Bounce. The sessions that built bebop, with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Max Roach in the room.