Charlie Parker had pawned his saxophone. BROWNLEE: Dina Bennett is a doctor of ethnomusicology and interim director of the American Jazz Museum. BENNETT: He was given the plastic saxophone to play.

Charlie Parker smiles at the Massey Hall concert in 1953. He was joined, from left to right, by pianist Bud Powell, Charles Mingus on bass, drummer Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet.

Seventy years ago, Charlie Parker and four other be-bop legends created what many call the greatest jazz concert ever— with Parker playing a plastic saxophone. A reissue of the recording is out.

Born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1920, Parker grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where he learned to play the saxophone and ...