Jazz standard and Billy Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train" (1941). With the big bands struggling to keep going during World War II, a shift was happening in jazz in favor of smaller groups. Some swing era musicians, such as Louis Jordan, later found popularity in a new kind of music, called "rhythm and blues", that would evolve into rock and roll in the 1950s. Bebop emerged in the early 1940s, with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk leading the way. It appealed to a more specialized audiences than earlier forms of jazz, with sophisticated harmonies, fast tempos and often virtuoso musicianship.
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