Charlie Parker Bebop & Bird, Volume 2 CD

Rhino's BEBOP AND BIRD VOLUME ONE was a fine compilation, but its successor volume is possibly even better. Its 16 tracks, recorded in the mid-'40s with a variety of lineups, including several Charlie Parker standards, including three very different takes of his composition "Cool Blues," the track generally credited with starting the cool jazz movement later led by Parker's former trumpeter--who doesn't appear on this set--Miles Davis. Another proponent of cool jazz was pianist Errol Garner, whose relaxed, impressionistic runs on several of these tracks, including both takes of "Relaxin' at Camarillo," sound like they heavily influenced the more cerebral solos of later pianists like Lennie Tristano and Bill Evans. As always with Rhino reissues, the sound quality is positively superb, and the packaging and annotations are excellent.

Recorded at C.P. MacGregor Studios, Hollywood, California on July 29, 1946, and February 19 and 26, 1947; live at Rockland Palace Dance Hall, Harlem, New York on September 26, 1952. Includes liner notes by John Breckow.

Personnel includes: Charlie Parker (alto saxophone); Wardell Gray (tenor saxophone); Howard McGhee (trumpet); Jimmy Bunn, Erroll Garner, Dodo Marmarosa, Walter Bishop (piano); Barney Kessel, Mundell Lowe (guitar); Bob Kesterson, Red Callender, Teddy Kotick (bass); Roy Porter, Harold "Doc" West, Don Lamond, Max Roach (drums).

Compilation producer: John Breckow.