Jazz Classics
1996
The Legendary Dial Masters
About This Album
There's no denying the weight of history on these tracks -- 14 out of 35 here are also on Rhino's two-CD Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Collection. Several titles -- "Moose the Mooche," "Yardbird Suite," "Ornithology," "Relaxin' at Camarillo," "Klact-Oveeseds-Tene," "Scrapple from the Apple" -- have been written about so much they're part of the common vocabulary of jazz. What the two-CD Legendary Dial Masters truly offers is a trajectory -- you hear the inspired performances in the context of the lion's share of Bird's recordings from 1946-1947, and thus get a clearer idea of the milieu he moved in and the way his sound developed. But bear in mind that what was totally radical and trail-blazing in 1946 rapidly became a new orthodoxy copied by way too many others. In many ways, this music sounds so much like jazz is supposed to sound (you dig, man?) that it's hard to grasp why it was considered so groundbreaking. There's always Bird the fast and fluid, interval-jumping genius soloist -- the solo cult the rock world inaugurated with Cream and Jimi Hendrix began with Charlie Parker -- but the music surrounding him has lost a measure of freshness and distinctiveness in this post-bop world.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 9,10,11,12,13,14,15 and 17)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,3,5,7,8,10,11,13,14 and 16)

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