Charlie Parker With Strings: The Master Takes

It'd be natural to assume that it was producer Norman Granz's idea to put bebop's foremost improviser in front of a string ensemble, perhaps as a stab at commercial success. But by most accounts, this was Bird's brainchild, an idea he'd wanted to pursue for years; it was a chance for him to show his versatility as a musician and pay his respects to the classical world that he so admired. Parker's first session with strings (most likely the first ever by a full-time jazz musician) was November 30, 1949, and it yielded six standards, which were collected in a set of three 78s. Though controversial at the time - and still so today - Charlie Parker with Strings proved to be a huge success. "Just Friends" became Parker's biggest single and immediately showed the potential of the format: the delicate harp and wistful strings of the introduction give way to the fluid flurry of Parker's alto, which sounds inspired and liberated, not constrained. In fact, he and Granz were pleased enough to keep the string ensemble for further sessions in 1950 and 1952, plus a series of live dates, and this set offers a few tracks from Carnegie Hall to augment the original studio tracks. Though not all of the arrangements are compelling, Parker's ability to soar atop them, to effortlessly incorporate his blues and bop idioms in such settings, is nothing short of remarkable.