Who can't already know this music – 18 performances from Parker's Dial discography which include such bop anthems as ‘Moose the Mooche’, ‘Relaxin at Camarillo’, ‘Scrapple From The Apple’ and ‘Ornithology’?

Indeed, this is another of those frustrating reissues which mitigate their own pointlessness (these tracks are available on literally hundreds of other albums) with the value of their contents. Anyone listening to this music for the first time will hear Parker and co. creating and perfecting the language of modern jazz on track after track, relishing in its helter-skelter post-Atomic complexity and yet, simultaneously, ushering in a new kind of exposed lyricism, most keenly felt in ballads like ‘Don't Blame Me’, ‘Out of Nowhere’ and – infamously – the voyeuristic ‘Lover Man’. All this in a little under two years!

So what does this issue give you that others don't. Erm? Well, there's a nice cover design, based on a Dial original and I suppose those in love with vinyl will welcome the opportunity to lower the tone arm, but other than that it's yet another example of these sort of labels vain cash-grabbing expediency. Music for the ages, though.