Were it not for dedicated night owls such as Dean Benedetti and Boris Rose then whole crucial swathes of jazz may have gone unrecorded. Nightly, Rose and others either frequented jazz clubs or, relying on basic recording apparatus, captured live broadcasts beamed from the bandstands of Birdland or, in this instance, The Royal Roost. As such they were prone to transmission vagaries – most nights the WMCA airshots were crystal clear, other nights they were afflicted by certain degrees of static. But one should not be put off by such minor inconvenience. Overall, the fidelity is quite acceptable, yet the music is indispensible. Now, whereas Benedetti recorded just the theme and Bird's solos before switching off his contraption, Rose captured the entire proceedings: Symphony Sid's announcements, commercials and occasional bandstand banter, which is presented here totally unedited thus being a priceless document of history in the making. For along with Bird's basic repertoire (‘Ornithology’, Scrapple From The Apple', ‘Half Nelson’ etc) there are numerous other highlights including one-off performances of ‘White Christmas’ and ‘On A Slow Boat To China’, sadly, along with the sound of a bombed out Bird falling apart during an attempt at ‘Groovin’ High' but (thankfully) this is an isolated occurrence. Though Miles is pictured on the cover with Charlie Parker, he only performs on one CD. For the three remaining discs it's the often-underrated Kenny Dorham who is Bird's front line partner. In the final reckoning, it doesn't matter how many Charlie Parker albums you own, you just have to obtain this – no argument.