Ko-Ko, by Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker, Three Deuces, New York, 1947 

Photograph by William Gottlieb  last.fm

The genius of Charlie Parker gave birth to one of the most important changes in the history of music: Bebop was the aesthetic and technical breakthrough which put forward jazz musicians as accomplished artists, and also influenced works as diverse as those of the Beat generation and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I was twenty-two years old when I first listened to Ko-Ko, and my relationship with music changed forever. Ko-Ko also features landmark performances by Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Curley Russell (bass), and Max Roach (drums).