A fitting companion to the Dials reviewed above, this Savoy set has marginally fewer tracks done under the leadership of Parker himself, but those all feature versions of his quintet with the young, sometimes struggling Miles and the inspiring Max Roach. From ‘Now's The Time’ and the then avant-garde ‘Ko-Ko’ to the contrapuntal heads of ‘Ah-Leu- Cha’ and ‘Chasin’ The Bird' (good title for a book!), there's not only stimulating material but mindboggling work from the leader and some focused playing by the other members. Though constrained by the limits of 78rpm discs, it always sounds as if Parker has all the time and all the relaxation in the world. Nearly all of the second disc consists of bonus material (not all highlighted as such and not incorporated in an exact chronology), which merely means tracks originally recorded for other small labels and then reissued on Savoy. These include the first-ever sides with just Diz and Bird as the front-line, such as ‘Groovin’ High', ‘Dizzy Atmosphere’, ‘Salt Peanuts’ and ‘Hot House’. Less ground-breaking are the enjoyable Slim Gaillard session and the one, never issued at the time, led by Clyde Bernhardt with McShann (but not, I think, Gene Ramey and Gus Johnson). But, whatever the creative or entertainment intentions of the original producers, each of these 54 tracks has nuggets – and sometimes much more – of the unique Parker.