Bird at 100

August 31, 2020. Miles Davis once said, “You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.” August 29th, 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the latter’s birth, and alto saxophonists Vincent Herring, Bobby Watson, and Gary Bartz got a head start on celebrating earlier this year with Bird at 100—a worthy tribute to the man of insatiable appetites who became a God-like figure to the Beat generation and redefined jazz to mean the highest form of musical improvisation.

Charlie "Yardbird" Parker's music is a mainstay on WRTI, so obviously our jazz hosts get to hear a lot of his music ona regular basis. We've asked them to weigh in on their favorite songs from Bird, or favorite interpretation of his music from another artist. Here's what they had to say.