When Charlie Parker died unexpectedly at the age of 34 on March 12, 1955, the jazz world was devastated—and almost immediately, like the “Bird Lives!" graffiti that began to appear around New York City, musicians began to pay tribute, through live performances of his music, to the man who had done so much to revolutionize jazz. Phil Woods, J.J. Johnson, Howard McGhee, and Dexter Gordon were just a few of the colleagues and proteges who would honor Parker's musical legacy through memorial concerts in the years following his death. This Night Lights program focuses on their interpretations of Parker's own compositions, taken from shows that were released on LP.
