TURNTABLE? PUT A BIRD ON IT!

A long time ago, a good friend (who would later become a DJ partner) was living with a guy named Phong, who was the jazz buyer for the local Tower Records location. Having met him, but not really knowing him, I nonetheless sought him out when I was about to take the next big step, which wasn't buying a jazz album. I'd already busted my jazz you-know-what with Dave Brubeck's Time Out. No, the big step was asking a relative stranger for advice on what to buy. I usually heard someone's music before buying it, or read about it, or heard about it in conversation with someone I knew. So, even though I knew Charlie Parker was supposed to be the shit, I did know that much, I had no clue where to start. One day in the record store when I spotted Phong wandering the aisles, I approached him and asked to recommend a good Charlie Parker album. He looked at me with a rather deadpan look and answered "There is no bad Charlie Parker."  Dang me if he wasn't correct. I haven't heard as much Charlie Parker as a full on jazz fiend, but it's been a couple decades and every random Parker title I've heard has been, what I guess I knew all along, the shit.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Charlie Parker - My Little Suede Shoes mp3 at Basement Rug
Charlie Parker and Miles Davis - Cheryl mp3 at Pixieradio
Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Charlie Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie - Hot House mp3 at Pixieradio