Charlie Parker: The Dean Benedetti Recordings (Savoy) -- Way beyond my budget in those particularly hand-to-mouth days, there was no discusion -- only ecstatic surprise when mom sent this to me. Not the best place to start with Bird, but for somebody who'd heard most of the available recordings -- and had spent 5- 10 years playing many of them over and over and over -- this was so incredible. So many things I'd never heard Bird play before. The relaxed, straight-forward Bird after being released from Camarillo. Then the more thrilling, stylized playing upon his return to NYC (and H). And of course, the whole thing of Benedetti mostly just recording Bird solos, the odd configurations that brought to this set, the various cross-referenced scorecards, the archaeological feeling to the thing....