"Now's the Time" is a swinging rendition of Charlie Parker's classic blues head from A Night at Birdland Vol. 2, performed live by the Art Blakey Quintet in 1954. Set as a 12-bar blues in F at a comfortable medium tempo of roughly 162 bpm, the tune provides a perfect vehicle for extended improvisation. Lou Donaldson, whose style was deeply influenced by Parker, takes eight choruses of alto saxophone, paying homage to the composition's creator while stamping each chorus with his own personality. Clifford Brown follows with eight trumpet choruses of extraordinary melodic invention, demonstrating his ability to construct long-form solos that sustain interest from beginning to end. Horace Silver rounds out the solo section with six choruses of bluesy, swinging piano. The medium tempo allows for greater rhythmic variety than the album's fastest tracks, and each soloist takes advantage of the breathing room to develop ideas with patience and nuance. Parker's deceptively simple melody serves as a launching pad for some of the most satisfying improvisation in the Birdland series, confirming the enduring power of the blues as jazz's foundational form.
