Charlie Parker - Charlie Parker Collection 1941-54 (CD)

Charlie Parker was without doubt one of the most important and influential musicians in the entire history of jazz, as a pioneering and innovative alto saxophonist during the bebop era, as a composer of some of the enduring modern jazz standards, and as a bandleader and catalyst in a remarkable range of musical settings during a career that was all too brief, cut short by an early death as a result of the excesses of his pressurised lifestyle. Coming to the fore in the early 1940s, he was an early collaborator of like-minded luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and over the next decade produced a substantial and extraordinary body of recorded work. This great-value 137-track 6-CD set comprises some interesting early recordings with other leaders, and then a significant proportion of his recordings as a leader and as a prominent member of other leaders' bands, working in a variety of formats from quartets and quintets, through to noted recordings with strings. It includes most of his recordings on the Savoy and Dial labels, and on Mercury, Clef, Norgran and Verve for Norman Granz, his primary record company relationships, and features some of the finest musicians of the day, including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Buddy Rich, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Erroll Garner, Barney Kessel, Bud Powell, John Lewis, Hank Jones, Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, Percy Heath, Charles Mingus and more. It does not purport to be a complete or definitive anthology, but it certainly represents about as comprehensive and representative cross-section of his work as can be accommodated in this set.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Hootie Blues
2. Cherokee
3. Tiny's Tempo
4. Red Cross
5. Groovin' High
6. All The Things You Are
7. Dizzy Atmosphere
8. Salt Peanuts
9. Shaw 'Nuff
10. Lover Man
11. Hot House
12. Hallelujah
13. Get Happy
14. Slam Slam Blues
15. Congo Blues
16. Warming Up A Riff
17. Billie's Bounce
18. Now's The Time
19. Thriving From A Riff [Anthropology]
20. Ko-Ko
21. Dizzy Boogie
22. Slim's Jam

Disc: 2

1. Poppity Pop
2. Diggin' Diz [Bongo Beep]
3. Moose The Mooche
4. Yardbird Suite
5. Ornithology
6. A Night In Tunisia
7. Be-Bop [Dizzy's Fingers]
8. Lover Man
9. The Gypsy
10. This Is Always
11. Dark Shadows
12. Bird's Nest
13. Cool Blues [Hot Blues]
14. Relaxin' At Camarillo
15. Cheers
16. Carvin' The Bird
17. Stupendous
18. Donna Lee
19. Chasin' The Bird
20. Cheryl
21. Buzzy
22. Milestones
23. Little Willie Leaps
24. Half Nelson
25. Sippin' At Bell's

Disc: 3

1. Dexterity
2. Bongo Bop
3. Dewey Square [Prezology]
4. The Hymn
5. Bird Of Paradise [All The Things You Are]
6. Embraceable You
7. Bird Feathers [Schnourphology]
8. Klactoveesedstene
9. Scrapple From The Apple
10. My Old Flame
11. Out Of Nowhere
12. Don't Blame Me
13. The Bird
14. Drifting On A Reed [Air Conditioning]
15. Quasimodo
16. Charlie's Wig
17. Bird Feathers [Bongo Beep]
18. Crazeology
19. How Deep Is The Ocean?
20. Another Hair-Do
21. Bluebird
22. Klaunstance
23. Bird Gets The Worm
24. Barbados

Disc: 4

1. Ah-Leu-Cha
2. Constellation
3. Parker's Mood
4. Perhaps
5. Marmaduke
6. Steeplechase
7. Merry-Go-Round
8. No Noise
9. Mango Mangue
10. Okiedoke
11. Visa
12. Just Friends
13. April In Paris
14. Summertime
15. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
16. Star Eyes
17. Wahoo [Perdido]
18. Bloomdido
19. An Oscar For Treadwell
20. Mohawk
21. My Melancholy Baby
22. Leap Frog

Disc: 5

1. Relaxin' With Lee
2. Dancing In The Dark
3. Out Of Nowhere
4. Laura
5. East Of The Sun
6. They Can't Take That Away From Me
7. Easy To Love
8. I'm In The Mood For Love
9. I'll Remember April
10. Au Privave
11. She Rote
12. K.C. Blues
13. Star Eyes
14. My Little Suede Shoes
15. Tico Tico
16. Si Si
17. Swedish Schnapps
18. Back Home Blues
19. Lover Man
20. Temptation
21. Lover
22. Autumn In New York
23. Stella By Starlight

Disc: 6

1. La Cucuracha
2. Estrellita
3. Begin The Beguine
4. Night And Day
5. Almost Like Being In Love
6. The Song Is You
7. Laird Baird
8. Kim
9. Cosmic Rays
10. Compulsion
11. In The Still Of The Night
12. Old Folks
13. Chi Chi
14. I Remember You
15. Now's The Time
16. Confirmation
17. I Get A Kick Out Of You
18. Just One Of Those Things
19. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
20. Love For Sale
21. I Love Paris