Music » Bebop Music

This date from June 6, 1950, was an unusual one for Charlie Parker. He chose to play with fellow bop creators Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, in a striking reunion with the trumpeter and the only occasion on which Parker recorded with the pianist. Though the three may have felt encumbered by the presence of swing drummer Buddy Rich, they're in brilliant form, with Parker and Gillespie spurring one another to heights that range from the warm to the electric. Bird's ideas flow with characteristic ease and swing while Gillespie sparks and flares. It's unlikely that anyone else but Gillespie could match Parker on the dazzling interplay of "Leap Frog," a performance supplemented by several alternate takes. Monk's characteristically skewed solos are a rare delight in what is otherwise an orthodox bop setting. The tunes are all Parker's except for "My Melancholy Baby," which inspires witty play. --Stuart Broomer

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Edgar "Eddie" Jefferson was a multi-instrumentalist, and a versatile entertainer with a head for business that allowed him to become a player/manager in the band of saxophonist James Moody. Jefferson fooled around with the concept of imitating famous solos by scat singing, but took the idea a step further, putting words to the solos. He fashioned words to Moody's famous solo in "I'm in the Mood for Love," thus coining a style which was subsequently popularized by King Pleasure and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and continues in vogue today. "Moody's Mood for Love" is included here, along with other adaptions like Miles Davis's "So What" and "Lester's Trip to the Moon (Paper Moon)." --John Swenson

Released in January 1960, John Coltrane's first album devoted entirely to his own compositions confirmed his towering command of tenor saxophone and his emerging power as a composer. Apprenticeships with Dizzy, Miles, and Monk had helped focus his furious, expansive solos, and his stamina and underlying sense of harmonic adventure brought Coltrane, at 33, to a new cusp--the polytonal "sheets of sound" that distinguished his marathon solos were offset by interludes of subtle, concise lyricism, embodied here in the tender "Naima." That classic ballad is a calm refuge from the ecstatic, high-speed runs that spark the set's up-tempo climaxes, which begin with the opening title song, itself a cornerstone of modern jazz composition. This exemplary reissue benefits from eight alternate takes of the original album's seven stellar tracks, excellent remastering of the original tapes, and an expanded annotation. --Sam Sutherland

Release Date: 1992-02-17, Audio CD, Ojc

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Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
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Release Date: 8-JAN-2002

Release Date: 1996-02-12, Audio CD, Ojc

Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork.

Release Date: 2003-08-26, Audio CD, Savoy Jazz

Release Date: 2003-06-10, Audio CD, Verve