Charlie Parker

By the mid-1940s, he had already flipped the jazz world on its head. After he returned to New York in 1947, he would finally find fame. Ever the innovator, Charlie Parker sought to expand upon his bebop breakthrough for the rest of his musical career.

He was a self-taught innovator who used the alto saxophone to change the way musicians would forever speak. He was one of the great improvisers in jazz and together with Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk, he fashioned a new music called "Bebop."

In a career that spans seven decades, pianist Hank Jones has worked with everyone who's anyone in jazz, including Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Billie Holiday. One of the last of his era, Jones celebrates the legends of his time, seeming to downplay his own genius.

There are thousands of apple varieties — even a new breed called "Jazz." Much like the music that lends its name to this autumn delight, Jazz is a hybrid. The time is ripe for planning that apple-picking day trip, so get the caramel ready for five crisp, fleshy jazz tunes related to a certain favorite fall fruit.

At the record store, Tom Cole spent most of his time warding off scornful looks as he toted Mothers of Invention LPs around. One day, he decided he needed to learn about jazz. A clerk at Discount Records and Books in Washington, D.C., suggested these five records. No standards; just his absolute favorites.

It would be impossible to put all of Charlie Parker's significant recordings on one album, but Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker Collection comes close. This two-CD set contains most of Bird's 1945 bebop sessions, as well as "Ko-Ko," one of NPR's "100 Most Important Works of the 20th Century."

John Lewis, the artistic director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, once said that Charlie Parker was the "only jazz artist whose every single solo was perfect." Confirmation: Best of the Verve Years captures "Bird" at the height of the bebop era when he was still in his twenties.