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" Yardbird Suite" is a bebop standard composed by jazz Alto saxophone Charlie Parker in 1946. The title combines Parker's nickname "Yardbird" (often shortened to "Bird") and a colloquial use of the classical music term "suite" (in a manner similar to such jazz titles as Lester Young "Midnight Symphony" and Duke Ellington "Ebony Rhapsody"). The composition uses an 32-bar AABA form. The "graceful, hip melody, became something of an anthem for beboppers."Jack Chambers: Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis. Da Capo Press. Boston, 1998. . Pt. I, p. 48
Never copyrighted,Cf. Brian Priestley: Jazz on Record: A History. Elm Tree Books. London, 1988. . P. 99? the track was frequently reissued on single Extended play and, since the mid-1950s, on LP on various labels, in most part together with Parker's other Dial recordings although often also on albums assigned to Miles Davis.
The third known recording of "Yardbird Suite" was a session at the home of Chuck Copely in Hollywood, on February 1, 1947, also recorded by Ross Russell of Dial Records. The track itself is incomplete and, like the two versions of "Lullaby in Rhythm" recorded that day, of poor quality, but nevertheless released on Spotlite Records, initially in 1972 on Lullaby in Rhythm Featuring Charlie Parker. Hollywood, February 1, 1947 session as listed on Jazzdisco.org
There are two other recordings of Parker playing the song live, one at the Three Deuces, the other at the Onyx club, recorded by Dean Benedetti.
The Charlie Parker Septet's 1946 master recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
Many of the recordings featuring the song are explicit tribute albums to Charlie Parker or a homage to the bebop revolution of the 1940s (cf. album titles in list below). Most interpretations follow the bebop or hard bop idiom. Exceptions may be e.g. the Modern Jazz Quartet that rewrote the song in their chamber music style ( At Music Inn, Vol 2, 1958). Junior Cook played the tune quiet fast and ends his version citing John Coltrane, whereas Joe Lovano begins his twelve-minute-long interpretation as free floating ballad, then taking up speed in 6/8. Even former free jazz musicians like Archie Shepp and Anthony Braxton remember the avantgarde prior to them, but "pay tribute to the spirit and chance-taking of Charlie Parker rather than to merely recreate the past."
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