Cherokee

[Sam Byrd]

Charlie Parker's earliest recording of "Cherokee" was in early 1942, and
is available on CD on "The Charlie Parker Collection Vol. 1," Stash 
STD-CD-2502 (1995).

As mentioned earlier, he also reworked it into "Koko." The studio version
of this was released on the Savoy label, and is currently in print only
on the Denon reisuues of the Savoy material, I think. (There was a boxed
set of the complete Savoy stuff a while ago, but it's way out of print.)
I take it back; there is I think a Savoy master takes CD around, and it
should be on there, and also the new Rhino collection (intro sampler to
Bird) probably has it.

There's also at least one concert recording of "Koko."  To really get
the flavor of what he was working with, though, I'd go for the Stash
1942 rendition.

Esquivel put out a pretty evocative version of "Cherokee" as well, but
that's neither here nor there...

Sam Byrd