Charlie Parker - Very Best of the Dial Years (2005)

The 20th century was full of musical geniuses who made tremendous contributions despite being highly dysfunctional and living dark, tragic lives. That was true of Marvin Gaye, Hank Williams Sr., Chet Baker, Billie Holiday and Kurt Cobain, and it was most certainly true of Charlie "Bird" Parker. One need only examine some of the song titles on Very Best of the Dial Years to see some evidence of Bird's dysfunction; "Moose the Mooche," as singer Athan Maroulis points out in his insightful liner notes, was named after Bird's heroin dealer in Los Angeles, and the title "Relaxin' at Camarillo" was inspired by the six months he spent in a California mental hospital. But Bird's demons didn't prevent him from recording a lot of brilliant, incredibly influential music, including the 78s he made for Dial Records in 1946 and 1947. Despite all the bad things that happened during Bird's visit to California (setting a hotel room on fire, suffering a nervous breakdown, the time at Camarillo), Bird's West Coast sessions for Dial were truly historic -- and many of the bebop treasures he recorded in Hollywood became standards, including "Ornithology," "Yardbird Suite" and "Cool Blues" (all of which are on this excellent CD). But not all of Bird's Dial sides were made in L.A.; for example, "Bird of Paradise" and "Scrapple From the Apple" (which are also on this album) were recorded after he returned to New York City. And it should be noted that this release's three bonus tracks ("Donna Lee," "Chasin' the Bird" and "Cheryl") were recorded for Savoy instead of Dial, which is why those 1947 gems are offered as bonus tracks. This 23-song, 69-minute CD isn't the last word on Bird's Dial output, but it's a fairly generous, nicely assembled collection that is enthusiastically recommended to anyone with even a casual interest in '40s bebop.~Alex Henderson