Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945

To put this jazz treasure in context, when it was recorded 60 years ago, bebop was renegade music, upsetting the swing crowd wanting to dance and alienating horn-section players from the new breed of velocity-minded virtuosos. At its birth, the music was fast, frenzied, untamed and buoyant, as documented on this never-issued live recording of the Dizzy Gillespie-Charlie Parker quintet. The set, recently unearthed by an acetate archeologist, captures a wide-eyed and spirited performance by trumpeter Diz, alto saxophonist Bird and upstart drummer Max Roach, not long after the bop pioneers recorded their first sessions and shortly before they split up. Sound quality is decent, marred only by a few scratches and a consistent big-thump bass drum. Highlights include the band gleefully swinging through "Groovin' High" and then screaming into "Salt Peanuts" with unrestrained gusto. —Dan Ouellette