Album of the Day

“You can tell the history of jazz in four words,” Miles Davis once said. “Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.” The latter saxophonist remains among the music's greatest icons, pioneering bebop with an incendiary approach to improvisation. Most of Parker's recorded output features him playing in small combos, but the live ONE NIGHT IN WASHINGTON offers a rare chance to hear him perform in a big band setting. Cut in February 1953 at Washington D.C.'s Club Kavakos, the alto legend played “Fine And Dandy,” “These Foolish Things” and a half-dozen others without rehearsal or sheet music – only “Bird” could wing it so perfectly. Charlie Parker was born on this day in 1920, and we'll mark the occasion with ONE NIGHT IN WASHINGTON.