The quintet included several of the most prominent modern musicians of the time: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell. This was the first time the five men had recorded as a group and the last recorded meeting between Parker and Gillespie. Parker was playing a Grafton Saxophone that day; Parker could not be listed on original album cover due to contractual reasons so he was called “Charlie Chan”, a reference to Parker’s fictional detective and Parker’s wife Chan. Original release on Mingus’ Debut label was from a recording by the Toronto New Jazz Society (Dick Wattam and Alan Scharf), Boyd Raeburn, Roger Feather, Boyd Raeburn, Arthur Granatstein. Mingus brought the recording to New York, where Max Roach and Mingus dubbed in the bass lines. They also exchanged solos on “All the Things You Are” by Mingus. Original plans were for the Jazz Society to share the profits. Due to the simultaneous boxing fight between Rocky Marciano u0026 Jersey Joe Walcott, the audience was too small for the Society to pay musicians’ fees. http://www.nme.com
