Best Of The Complete Savoy & Dial Studio Recordings

This enduring set offers more than just a brief taste of Charlie Parker’s epochal output in the late '40s—it traces a blueprint for modern jazz. Aside from two early tracks including the bracingly modernist “Ko-Ko” with Dizzy Gillespie, the focus here is Parker’s work with a new protégé, trumpeter Miles Davis. From the acrobatic bop original “Moose the Mooche” to the glowing Gershwin ballad “Embraceable You,” Davis cultivates his own ruminative voice while Parker sets the technical bar as high as it will go. Band lineups include the marvelously contrasting pianists Bud Powell, John Lewis, and Erroll Garner, among others.