Chu Berry & Roy Eldridge: Body and Soul

This record exerted a tremendous influence during the late 1930s. Coleman Hawkins may well have learned from Berry's example -- although Hawk's famous tenor solo on the same chord changes eleven months later shows how fast jazz was evolving during these years. But Berry's tenor musings are merely an appetizer for the main course provided by Roy Eldridge. Eldridge upstages the bandleader with a trumpet solo for the ages. A generation of brass players studied this performance, and even saxophonists memorized these licks -- a recording of Charlie Parker from 1940 finds him quoting Eldridge's solo. This landmark recording sums up the previous decade, and looks forward to the next stage in the evolution of the jazz idiom.