Now's The Time - The Charlie Parker Quartet (1LP Vinyl) [Verve by Request]

Now's The Time by The Charlie Parker Quartet.

There are records that document a moment, and then there are records that capture an artist in full command of his language. "Now's The Time" by The Charlie Parker Quartet belongs firmly to the second category, a generous collection that lets you sit inside Parker's phrasing across a dozen tracks and hear the alto voice that reshaped modern music.

The program opens with "The Song Is You," a springboard into the session's easy authority, before moving through the compact originals "Laird Baird" and "Kim." That the record includes "Kim (Alternate Take)" is part of its quiet pleasure, offering a second pass at the same idea and letting you trace how Parker reworked a line rather than simply repeating it. The same generosity extends to "Cosmic Rays" and its alternate take, two windows onto the same room.

Side B is where the collector's instinct really lights up. "Chi Chi" appears three times, first as the master and then across two further alternate takes, an unusually rich stretch that turns a single composition into a study in variation. Placed back to back, these versions reward close listening; the differences are small on paper and vivid in the air, and few sequences on any Parker collection give you this kind of extended look at his process.

From there the record settles into some of the most enduring material in the bebop canon. "I Remember You" brings a standard into Parker's orbit, the title track "Now's The Time" delivers the blues theme that became a jazz vocabulary lesson for generations of players, and "Confirmation" closes things with one of the most celebrated melodies Parker ever wrote, a piece that has functioned ever since as a rite of passage for anyone learning to navigate changes at speed.

A word for the detail hunters who care about pressings as much as playing. The runout information here is hand-etched throughout, with one telling exception: the STERLING marking is stamped rather than scratched by hand. It is the kind of small physical fact that separates one pressing from another, and the sort of thing worth turning the disc to the light for before it goes back into the sleeve.

Taken as a whole, this is a record that works on two levels at once. Play it straight through and it stands as a satisfying survey of Parker at his most melodically fluent; return to it with the alternate takes in mind and it becomes something closer to a listening lab. Either way, it earns its place on the shelf at

Pressing Details:
Runout information:
Runouts hand-etched except STERLING which is stamped.

Track Listing:
A1. The Song Is You
A2. Laird Baird
A3. Kim
A4. Kim (Alternate Take)
A5. Cosmic Rays
A6. Cosmic Rays (Alternate Take)
B1. Chi Chi
B2. Chi Chi (Alternate Take)
B3. Chi Chi (Alternate Take)
B4. I Remember You
B5. Now's The Time
B6. Confirmation

Artist: The Charlie Parker Quartet

Format: 1LP

Genre: Jazz

Label: Verve Records

Catalog Number: B0038339-01

Series: Verve by Request

Release Year: 2023

Country: United States

Condition: Sealed (New)