The Modern Jazz Sextet The Modern Jazz Sextet The Modern Jazz Sextet is a jazz album featuring the combined talents of Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Percy Heath, Skeeter Best and Charlie Persip. The album was conceived by producer Norman Granz for his own label, Norgran Records. Although no single album artist is credited as a bandleader for this album, Verve Records - which owns the Norgran catalogue - files it as a Dizzy Gillespie album. Two of the album's rhythm section - Lewis and Heath - also feature in the 1952-founded Modern Jazz Quartet. Allmusic gives the album 4 stars stating "it
Charlie Parker on Dial material from 1948, including a session with Tadd Dameron's Orchestra, featuring performances by tenor saxophonists Allen Eager and Wardell Gray. The first volume features several sessions. In one, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform "Diggin' Diz". In another, described by Yanow as "superior", Parker and Miles Davis on trumpet lead a West Coast septet through several Parker standards, with variant takes. The final session on the album features Parker in performance with a Howard McGhee-led quintet where, according to Yanow, Parker's performance is seriously hampered by his poor physical condition. This volume features the first session, including alternate takes, that Parker