Brother Zeno preaches the righteous truth. This is as perfect of a set as you will find. These cuts are available in other permutations, but this is the definitive set.
And If I may, a few words about Tommy Potter, who played on the album...
When bass players gather and begin talking about the great stand-up players, one of us always mentions Jimmy Blanton or Scottie LaFaro or Mingus or Percy Heath (who also plays on this album). And rightfully so. But Potter, for various reasons, is less well remembered today than he should be, especially for a musician who played a role in the primary innovation in jazz history. He is horribly underrated.
For a start, he played in Bird's best quintet, with Miles and Max Roach. Now, that alone doesn't qualify him for legendary status. After all, nobody is claiming a genius tag for Noel Redding just because he played behind Hendrix. But Potter was easily Bird's most compatible bassist; his dexterity and harmonic flexibility was uniquely suited for Parker's more daring work. He was not a great soloist, and his melodic sense was less inventive than catalytic. He was basically a walking, four to the bar kind of player. But he was a wonderfully sympathetic player, especially for bebop's ridiculous technical requirements; lesser players would sound stilted or even manic, but Potter infused the Parker quintet with an easy and unforced swing, propulsive when necessary, while always in the pocket and perfectly underlining the performance. Potter, as much as any player of any instrument, can take credit for developing and defining "groove" as a concept. His timing and subtlety gave life to many a
performance.
He also played with
Bud Powell, and gave Powell an easy pocket that enhanced his idiosyncratic musical inventions. Also,
Stan Getz,
Miles Davis, and (the also criminally under-appreciated)
Wardell Gray.
A bass player's job is to make everyone else sound good, and Potter succeeded on an astounding level. He was a musician's musician.