Charlie Parker - Out of Nowhere (1947)

As with a previous post, Bird’s improvisational wizardry defies explanation or categorization. In the end, this is genius at its pinnacle. And Miles ain’t too shabby, neither.

Charlie Parker - Embraceable You (1947)

For all of Bird’s legendary pace and pyrotechnical prowess, this cut’s three and a half minutes includes one of the prettiest solos you’ll hear anywhere.

Art Blakey, Duke Jordan, Thelonious Monk, and Henri and Ny Renaud at Birdland New York City 1954 (with musicians’ signatures)

[I want to party at this table.]

Louis Smith - Tribute to Brownie (1958)

Cannonball Adderley was a busy man February 4, 1958.

This session is recorded the same day as Miles Davis’s legendary Milestones session, on which Cannonball also stars; this LP serves as an unexpected companion piece to Davis’s better-known session.

Louis Smith’s LP compares favorably, especially on this ringer with Louis Smith doing his very best Clifford Brown impersonation, and Cannonball, well, being Cannonball. On a side note, due to contractual obligations at the time to Mercury Records, Cannonball appears under the comedic pseudonym “Buckshot La Funke.”

Duke Jordan - Starbright (1960)

After making a name for himself in the ’40s as Charlie Parker’s bebop pianist of choice, Duke Jordan’s only LP for Blue Note finds him in a creative peak, highlighted by this sumptuous ballad, where the underplayed trumpeter Dizzy Reece mines a particularly rich and beautiful vein.

Art Taylor, during Duke Jordan’s Flight to Jordan session, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 4, 1960 (photo by Francis Wolff)