Charlie Parker. After trading his horn for 50 cents and a quart of Jim Beam, Parker arrives with a toy instrument. When the mouthpiece melts during his solo on "Rifftide," he fashions his right hand into a tube and contorts his left into a bow and bell, a technique he will rely on for the remainder of his career.
Early in the set, Bird loses consciousness and dreams of a circle of fifths spinning circumscribed within an infinite number of others, each coming to a stop at one of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Charting his progression, that of a butterfly whose patterns change with each flap of the wings.
Fats Navarro. The eccentric of the group, Navarro (born Theodore) adds obsessively to his prized collection of animal fats, which by 1953 will require that he transform his Manhattan apartment into a custom walk-in refrigerator.
"The most noteworthy functions of fat include maintaining healthy skin, regulating cholesterol metabolism, and carrying the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, aiding in their absorption from the intestines," he can be heard to tell an attractive and impressionable young fan during the break. "Fats also help living creatures to use carbohydrates and proteins in a more efficient manner."
Art Blakey. Inventor of drum jumps, Art leaps one foot each onto the toms, perching there on custom footrests and finishing the number without missing a beat. Blakey's profane exhortations to the rest of the group can be heard in the left channel beginning 1:06 into "Perdido" and continuing uninterrupted throughout the set, during the closing moments of which he can be heard to vomit loudly onto the table of three socialites, after first proclaiming the universe, and space-time in general, to be cylindrical in shape, declaring that art must attempt to draw the viewer into deeper spatial awareness, and swearing adherence to a Constructivist ethos in response. For subsequent performances, Blakey will incorporate found objects into his kit, including plastics, fishing line, bronze, sheets of Perspex, and boulders.
Curly Russell. I drink ten screwdrivers and take three pills that I can't identify and pass out in the head. Then there’s this guy shaking me, "Wake up, man, you're Curly Russell." The problem being that I am not Curly Russell, I am a tax attorney from Long Island. He drags me on-stage and I realize to my horror that I am a jazz bassist who has never played a note in his life. We keep stopping mid-song, with Bird giving these agitated snores and starts. Finally, Blakey takes over, still standing on the toms, plucking with his foot and hitting notes with different parts of his face, me just holding the thing upright, him telling me that if I drop it, so help him God...
Bud Powell. Numerous treatments for this session. A0 is a toggle between 33 rpm and 45 rpm for the whole group, often deployed to begin and end Powell's solos. C8 serves as an eject button for the piano bench (force variable based on strike pressure). Middle C triggers an off-stage player piano, with each key synced via EKG wires to a distinct rat. Rats receive variable stimuli (e.g. food, light electric doses, pictures of other rats) to trigger variable notes and durations.
Powell is famously said to channel the swift dances of leprechauns. "I like how those green little fuckers move," he will tell Downbeat in 1951. "In my own work, I have always sought to capture that spritely precision, that capricious violence. Have I succeeded? Let history be my judge."
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