Jazz Legend Charlie Parker’s Mystery Music Uncovered - The Daily Beast

"61 years after jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker died, a new album of hitherto unheard recordings is being released, and yet no one will say where they came from.

When new works by dead artists are discovered, the first question asked is, Where have they been hiding all these years? Perhaps a safe deposit box in a Swiss bank? Or maybe a warehouse in a broken down industrial neighborhood? Or did a lucky collector pick it up at a garage sale?

Last November, a lost cantata by Mozart came to light in the archives of the Czech Museum of Music—its origins long unrecognized because the composer’s name was written in a code. A few months earlier, a missing score by Stravinsky was discovered in a dusty pile of manuscripts, untouched for decades, in a storage area of the St Petersburg Conservatoire. If the room hadn’t been emptied for repairs, the music might never have been found.

So when the Verve label announced a few months ago the impending release of Unheard Bird, a double album of unreleased music by legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, fans wondered where this music had been hiding in the 64 years since it was recorded."

Jazz Legend Charlie Parker’s Mystery Music Uncovered - The Daily Beast