Charlie Parker - Bird and Diz

Charlie Paker, or Bird as he was widely know, changed jazz like no other musician. The transformation from swing to bebop in the early '40's was basically his doing. He played faster and with more improvisational skill than anyone had before, revolutionizing jazz. Along with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk he put out some of the most innovative music of the late 40's and the early 50's. While Parker's catalog is not as extensive as some of the other jazz greats, he does have a lot of reissues and prepacked compilations out there. One of the better ones is the remaster of Bird and Diz, which is a recording in 1950 with Monk on piano and Buddy Rich on drums (how much better would this have been with Max Roach!). Parker and Gillespie played together on many of their major recordings and this captures their skills and interplay perfectly. Sadly Parker was a heroin addict from an early age and it took a savage toll on his life, with stints in the mental hospital and finally losing his cabaret license in NY in 1953, making it nearly impossible for him to get a gig. He died in 1955 at the age of 34.