Recorded 1953, released 1956:
• From the new liner notes: “The session of March 16, 1956 is one of most beautiful, laid-back, floating-on-a-cloud experiences one can have. The first time I listened to it, I replayed it three times. Side note: ‘Vierd Blues’ is the same piece that appears on Miles’s Trane’s Blues, and there credited to John Coltrane, as it was when Trane first recorded it on a Kenny Drew session, years before. Until it was combined with the 1956 date, the Miles-Bird-Sonny session lay in the vaults. Meanwhile, on May 15, 1953 Bird and Dizzy Gillespie recorded their famed Massey Hall concert in Toronto. When that record was issued ‘Charlie Chan’ was used as Bird’s pseudonym. That’s how it came to be used for Collectors’ Items.” (Ira Gitler)
• Personnel: Miles Davis, trumpet; Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker (originally under the pseudonym Charlie Chan because he was under contract with Norman Granz, tracks 1-4 only), tenor saxophone; Walter Bishop (1-4), Tommy Flanagan (5-7), piano; Percy Heath (1-4), Paul Chambers (5-7), piano; Philly Joe Jones (1-4), Arthur Taylor (5-7), drums
