Yardbird Suite

"Yardbird Suite" is a fully original bebop composition by Charlie Parker, not a contrafact as sometimes claimed. Though the AllSolos database lists "Rosetta" as its base tune, musicologist Carl Woideck and other scholars have refuted this connection, demonstrating that Parker's composition is harmonically and melodically independent. Composed around 1940 while Parker was with the Jay McShann Orchestra, it was originally titled "What Price Love?" and featured lyrics by Parker about romantic disappointment. The piece was first commercially recorded on March 28, 1946, for Dial Records in Hollywood, with Parker joined by Miles Davis, Lucky Thompson, Dodo Marmarosa, Arv Garrison, Vic McMillan, and Roy Porter. Earl Coleman recorded the first vocal version in 1948, and Carmen McRae performed it frequently, notably at Carnegie Hall on March 12, 1955, the night Parker died. The composition's 32-bar AABA form became a bebop standard, attracting over 150 documented recordings including Gil Evans' 1947 arrangement for Claude Thornhill's orchestra with Lee Konitz, the Modern Jazz Quartet's chamber music interpretation (1958), and Joe Lovano's extended 12-minute version on "Bird Songs" (2010). "Yardbird Suite" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.