Bop Music CDs

As a pianist, composer and personality, Thelonious Monk was a complete original. Although he matured during the bebop era of the mid-to-late 1940s, his music actually stood apart in its own special category. Born in 1917, Thelonious Sphere Monk started his professional career as a teenager...

Although the sheer scope of this double-CD roundup of all of Dizzy's Victor sessions places it most obviously within the evolution of ebop, it is absolutely essential to Latin jazz collections as well. Here listeners find the discographical launching pad of Afro-Cuban jazz on December 22,...

Including sessions recorded the same day as those on Bags Groove, this album includes more classic performances from the date that matched together trumpeter Miles Davis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist Thelonious Monk, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Davis and Monk actually...

The music on this CD features the famous Massey Hall concert which teamed together (for the last time on records) the unbeatable team of altoist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie along with pianist Bud Powell, bassist Charles Mingus, and drummer Max Roach. The full quintet performs...

This CD gives one a strong sampling of pianist Bud Powell at his best. Powell is heard on a classic session with trumpeter Fats Navarro and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins (which is highlighted by exciting versions of "Dance of the Infidels," "52nd Street Theme," and...

Milt Jackson was one of the major vibraphonists of all time. He first made an impression during the classic bebop era, playing with the Dizzy Gillespie big band, and then in 1952 he joined the Modern Jazz Quartet. Although associated with the MJQ during 1952-74 and 1981-95, Jackson always had a...

Sorting through the dozen or so Dizzy Gillespie comps called Groovin' High can be a daunting exercise. This one, from Living Era/ASV is significantly different from all the rest. It begins with the title track by Dizzy Gillespie's classic sextet with Charlie Parker (the same cut...

Arguably the greatest jazz saxophonist of all time, Charlie Parker permanently changed jazz. His spontaneous phrases became the vocabulary of post-1945 jazz, many of his ideas from 60 years ago still sound futuristic and he could play extremely rapid lines in his solos which, if slowed down to...

Imported from Europe! Bebop marked the beginning of modern jazz — a musical and technical revolution and the first example of jazz as an "art." New harmonic structures coupled with improvising at a fast tempo, together with "hip" outfits like big, thick-rimmed glasses,...

Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross were three of the hippest jazz singers of the 1950s. Each had their own individual histories, with Lambert recording bop vocals as long ago as 1945 (with Buddy Stewart), Hendricks emerging as one of the great lyricists and Ross making Twisted famous....