Bird still lives

In the movie "Pulp Fiction" there's this scene where the Uma Thurman character snorts, I assume, some really good cocaine in the women's bathroom at a restaurant and exclaims: "I said God damn!"

Now this is not the most comfortable movie scene to be relating in a discussion of Charlie Parker CDs, for obvious reasons, but it came to mind when, after my Louis Armstrong jag last week, I went on a Bird binge and did the first two disks of the "Complete Savoy Live Performances: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950," both disks of "The Legendary Dial Masters" and "Charlie Parker with Strings, The Master Takes." Because more than once as I was listening, I thought: "I said God damn!"

If you don't get it, you need to listen for that sax, isolate it and pay attention to what the man does. It's simply amazing, which is why the guy's a legend, and these are three good and varied collections on which to hear it. For a one-set alternative, try "Yardbird Suite."