Early Bird holy grail truly mindblowing

There are holy grails in music, legendary lost recordings that have the obsessed core of collectors and aficionados wringing their hands and drooling at the thought of 'what if'. But the recording is not the same as the experience of hearing someone play, a concept lost on a culture brought up on recorded music, where we explore music by recordings, and then go seek out the musicians to play what we hear on record. So often when these works are unearthed, their context is lost, and they almost never live up to their expectations.

But I don't think I've ever had moment of musical discovery quite like hearing 'The Complete "Birth of the Bebop"'. A caveat; I'm not a musical researcher, so pardon me if the details are a bit fuzzy; The first tracks on this collection were recorded in 1940 and 1940, the start of a particularly lost period of American Musical recording, a period when jazz went through a major transformation, as it was kicked in the ass by Parker, when modern jazz was born, when swing became more complex, and the stage was set for the range of musical possibilities that would be born out by Miles, Mingus, Coltrane, and the like.

Tragically, just as Bird had discovered the way to play what he'd been hearing, a recording ban was instituted in the united states (in order to preserve vinyl, which was to be used instead for the purposes of kiling).

So these recordings qualify as "basement tapes" when such things had to be recorded on wierd portable cylinder or wire recording devices. What is stunning about them how advanced Parker sounds in 1940, and how inspiring, masterful and musical. His playing is. The Honeysuckle Rose/Body and Soul track is a vindication of sorts, as it was these tunes that were the source of a humiliating experience he had at a jam session, where he was ridiculed for his playing. The experience drove him to learn how to play. and this early recording shows him at full genius-level of inspiration and technique.

I'm continually drawn to these recordings. I even find myself playing them back with a program that slows them down so I can hear exactly what he's doing. I can't possibly imagine how mind-blowing it must have been to hear him back then...