Customer Reviews

Compact Jazz

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A very good overview of the sides Charlie Parker cut for Verve records back in the early '50s. Good audio quality too. Some of the outstanding tracks include: "My Little Suede Shoes", "Repetition", "Kim" and Billie Holiday's classic "Lover Man". A great sampler of Parker's sax work on Verve for those unfamiliar with him. One of the most innovative musicians ever, regardless of the instrument, Charlie Parker still makes my head spin whenever I listen to him play those "sheets of sound" on his sax!

The COMPACT JAZZ series hits another home run with it's CHARLIE PARKER album. Gleaned from the VERVE records archives, these sixteen 1948 to '53 hi-fi recordings feature Bird with a Who's Who of supporting players. Scattered throughout these sessions are folks like: Buddy Rich, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, John Lewis, Thelonius Monk, Curley Russell, Oscar Peterson, Shelly Manne, and of all people-- Mitch Miller, getting in his licks with an oboe!

Styles here vary from bop to lush orchestral crossover, and all points in between. This one is a must-have for all Charlie Parker fans, or anyone who appreciates great jazz as played by All-Stars. Highest recommendation.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME -- 50:27

You simply have to say Parker. And you don't have to add nothing more. You know you have to own the thing whatever it is, whatever repackaging of his music it may be. The only complaint you may move to some Parker recordings are the quality of the recordings themself, but this is not the case because Verve sessions are some of the best enviroments Bird was ever surronded by. This is a good sample of Bird's music and I hope that whoever may encounter this album on his road will find the will to go deeper in Parker's music which is unbelievable. Maybe I'd add "What is this thing called love" from the album "Jam session" and I would not add "Repetition" or "In the still of the night". Personal taste of course, but anyway. I mean, he's still Bird even when he played on a bad arrangement of "Still of the night". Whatever he played was gold. He was King Mida in Jazz. Whatever he touched became gold. I own more than 150 Bird's records I own almost everything ever published on cd I think. Yesterday I found this one used in a shop and I have bought it for almost nothing, just for collection pourpose. In the evening I was going to bed and I decided to give this cd a try just to see which takes they did choose for this collection. I ended up listening to it until the end. I was in "the still of the night" when it ended .. I had a big smile on my face!! But I hadn't enough of Bird so I put on some Supersax music (a superstar band that used to play Bird's solos in section in the seventies ... check them out!). Than when it was late, very late night, I closed my laptop, finally happy and satysfied. And then I found myself thinking "When this man played this unbelievable music, laptops, Ipods, Internet, peer to peer and all this stuff were neither dreams, were science fiction". It was centuries ago! =))Nevertheless I am (and I hope a lot of people would do the same) still listening to his music which is still far ahead of us!" Man what a genius Bird was! Bird's music is still so powerful, so right, so inventive, so creative, so melodic, so challenging, so innovative.. still 50 years later the recordings dates .. I can't even explain Bird's genius. He's ... I mean, he's BIRD! There will never be another one like him, he's Bird.

The cd is a good introduction to listening to Charlie Parker. I think the selections are a good variety of Charlie Parker recordings. Verve has made better digital recordings of these selections since this cd was made(1987?),however,as per myself,I am waiting for the Verve CD release of ALL his studio with string masters recordings(only).
The competitive edge of purchasing this cd would be the bargain price you can get it for. Selections that I would pay special attention to would be the Neal Hefti arrangement of "Repetition", the Sam Lewis and John Klenner composition "Just Friends", and the composition by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart,"I Didn't Know What Time It Was.".