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Many evenings I go past a vintage clothes shop in Ladbroke Grove. An old black man sits outside the shop at a table with Bird’s records playing in the shop. I ain’t got no need for vintage threads but those notes sure lift the heart.

In the story of jazz, bebop is about as epochal as the birth of Christ is to Christians and pretty much everything can be measured post and pre-bebop. Ironically, the early years of Christ were about as well documented as those of bebop. Liminal figures all, these were great musicians but visible if at all only as second sax in someone else’s big band. When the uptown clubs closed at 3AM, these cats would roll on back to Harlem for the real gigs of the night. The long thin bar at Minton’s and dozens of other places in that hood would be going ‘til dawn. Too late, too far, too black and too far out to be taken much notice of outside of musicians, bebop was poorly documented during its crucial birthing period, which more or less coincided with the Second World War.

To make it worse, shellac, which was used to make records was now being used exclusively for the war effort. So anyone who sets out to document this time has everything stacked against him.

In this awe inspiring work of scholarship, Michael D. Anderson collects 100 tracks and dozens of interviews to tell the story of Charlie Parker in this obscured time. The four discs are packed with what must be just about everything you could ever need to hear from this seminal time in musical history.

Stay clear if you are not a jazz nut but if you are, you are really going to love this a lot.