The Dial sessions are collected on Charlie Parker on Dial Completed (Toshiba/EMI CJ25 5043-6), released in 1989 and later reissued as The Complete Dial Sessions (Toshiba TOCJ 66231/4). They are also available on The Complete Dial Sessions (Stash STCD 567/70 and Spotlite Jazz SPJ-CD4-101, both released 1993), also on Jazz Classics JZCL 5010 (1996) and Definitive Records DRCD 11154 (1999). The Stash set includes the "Home Cookin'" material from February 1947. More recently (2016) the Dial recordings have been collected, along with extra material from 1945-1946, on four CDs from Essential Jazz Classics (EJC 55691).

The master takes from the Dial sessions are collected on two CDs, The Complete Dial Master Takes (Definitive Records DRCD 11149), released in 1999.

All of the Dial recordings -- not just those involving Parker but also those made by Red Norvo, Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee, Errol Garner, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Dodo Marmarosa, and others -- were released in 1995 on ten CDs as The Complete Dial Recordings (Toshiba/EMI TOCJ 0001/10). Mosaic Records released its own version in 2014, The Complete Dial Modern Jazz Sessions (Mosaic MD9-260). [details (Parker only)] [Mosaic discography (PDF)]

The studio sessions were issued in Japan on three CDs in 1986, The Complete Savoy Studio Sessions (Savoy K30Y 6163/3), and in the UK in 1988, The Complete Charlie Parker Savoy Studio Sessions (Savoy ZDS 5500). They were collected on four CDs, The Complete Savoy Sessions (Definitive Records DRCD 11148), in 1999. The following year these sessions, along with the 1945 Guild recordings with Dizzy Gillespie, were issued on four CDs from Nippon Columbia, The Complete Studio Recordings on Savoy Years, Volumes 1-4 (COCB-50400/3, reissued many times: COCB-53033/6, COCB-53436/9, COCB-53883/6, and COCB-54230/3). More recently (2016) the Savoy studio sessions have been collected, together with some bonus tracks from 1945-1950, on four CDs from Essential Jazz Classics (EJC 55685).

The master takes can be found on two CDs: The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes) (Savoy Jazz ZDS 4402), released in 1985; also The Savoy Recordings: Master Takes (Savoy K32Y 6083), released in Japan in 1986. These have been reissued several times since: Complete Savoy Masters (Disconforme GV 1349, 2002); The Complete Savoy Master Takes (Definitive Records DRCD 11140, DRCD 44420); The Complete Savoy Masters (Essential Jazz Classics EJC 55676, 2015).

The Royal Roost material from 1948-1949 has been reissued on four CDs from Nippon Columbia, The Complete Royal Roost Live Recordings, Volumes 1-4 (COCB-50405/8, reissued as COCB-53037/40, COCB-53440/3, and COCB-53887/90). This material, minus most of Symphony Sid Torin's commentary, is available from Definitive Records (DRCD 11153), and on Savoy Jazz (Savoy SVY-17021/4).

The Savoy recordings, both the studio sessions and the Royal Roost broadcasts, are collected on eight CDs, The Complete Charlie Parker on Savoy Years (Nippon Columbia COCY-75791/8) released in 1993.

The Dial and Savoy studio sessions have been reissued together on eight CDs (Savoy SVJ-17079; also Savoy/Atlantic 92911) or ten 180-gram LPs (Savoy SVY-16067) with (in some cases erroneous) pitch-correction. You can also get these together on Definitive Records DRCD 44402 (also eight CDs). The Savoy and Dial studio master takes are collected on The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes (four CDs, Savoy Jazz SVY-17148).

More recently (2019), most of the Dial and Savoy master takes have been issued on The Charlie Parker Quintet Complete Studio Masters (Jazz Images 38118, two CDs).

Craft Recordings reissued the 10" Savoy LPs in a boxed set to mark Charlie Parker's centennial. The set comprises four 10" LP plus a booklet with photos and liner notes by Neil Tesser.

Most of the then-known Emarcy/Clef/Mercury/Verve recordings were issued in 1983 on ten LPs in Japan, Charlie Parker on Verve, 1946-1954 (Verve 00MJ 3268/77). In 1988 a fuller collection was released on ten CDs, Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve (Verve 837141, also Verve [J] JOOJ 29001/10). The master takes from these sessions are collected on three CDs, The Complete Verve Master Takes (Verve 0044006559728), released in 2003. More unissued Verve studio material has appeared since then: two CDs of Charlie Parker with Strings: Deluxe Edition (Universal B0022596-02), and another two CDs of Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (Universal B0024802-02).

Boss Bird: Studio Recordings, 1944-1951 (Proper Box 46, four CDs), released in 2002, includes selections from Parker's Savoy, Dial, and Verve studio recordings. A similar set, Charlie Parker: A Studio Chronicle 1940-1948 (JSP Records 915, five CDs), from 2003, offers another large sample of the early studio recordings.

In France, Frémeaux & Associés released Intégrale Charlie Parker, consisting of thirteen volumes (40 CDs in all): "The aim of The Complete Charlie Parker, compiled for Frémeaux & Associés by Alain Tercinet, is to present (as far as possible) every studio-recording by Parker, together with titles featured in radio-broadcasts. Private recordings have been deliberately omitted from this selection to preserve a consistency of sound and aesthetic quality equal to the genius of this artist." The series began in 2010 and concluded in 2017. Here are the details. As you can see from the details for each volume, plenty of "private recordings" are included:

Volume 1: Groovin' High, 1940-1945 (FA 1331, 3 CD)
Volume 2: Now's the Time, 1945-1946 (FA 1332, 3 CD)
Volume 3: Lover Man, 1946-1947 (FA 1333, 3 CD)
Volume 4: Bird of Paradise, 1947 (FA 1334, 3 CD)
Volume 5: Parker's Mood, 1947-1949 (FA 1335, 3 CD)
Volume 6: Passport, 1949 (FA 1336, 3 CD)
Volume 7: Just Friends, 1949-1950 (FA 1337, 3 CD)
Volume 8: Laura, 1950 (FA 1338, 3 CD)
Volume 9: My Little Suede Shoes, 1950-1951 (FA 1339, 3 CD)
Volume 10: Back Home Blues, 1951-1952 (FA 1340, 3 CD)
Volume 11: This Time the Dream's on Me, 1952 (FA 1341, 3 CD)
Volume 12: Laird Baird, 1952-1953 (FA 1342, 3 CD)
Volume 13: I Remember You, 1953-1954 (FA 1343, 4 CD)

The best single source of live and unissued material is undoubtedly the "Bird Box," a 300-copy limited-edition 22-LP set issued in 1986 by Black Saint records in Italy: Charlie Parker Live and Private Recordings in Chronological Order (Bird Box 01-22). The music was reissued in 1989, also in Italy, on six 3-CD sets by New Sound Planet (Jazz Up Top Box JUTB 3001/3, JUTB 3004/6, JUTB 3007/9, JUTB 3010/12, JUTB 3013/15, and JUTB 3016/18). A Japanese edition (limited to 500 numbered copies) was issued in 1993: Charlie Parker Perfect Complete Collection (Sound Hills SSCD 8017/34). It was reissued in 2006, again in 500 numbered copies. All of these sets are out of print.

The Italian Philology label, managed by Paolo Piangiarelli, who died in January 2022, issued many volumes of Bird's Eyes Last Unissued. There were 23 pressed CDs (Volumes 1-25: the first six volumes appeared as LPs; the first three CDs combine the contents of two LPs). There were also many CD-Rs (Volumes 26 to 157). For the most part, the pressed CDs are worthwhile. The CD-Rs, unfortunately, were very haphazardly produced, usually duplicating material available elsewhere, often with much worse sound and erroneous and inconsistent discographical information. Nevertheless, several items on these discs are not available anywhere else. Many of the later Philology CD-Rs are pointless compilations -- e.g. all extant versions of "52nd Street Theme" or "Ornithology" or "Now's the Time" arranged chronologically -- and I have not included them in the discography. [Philology items in Miles Ahead discography]

A PDF file listing the contents of the issued CD-Rs (up to volume 156) is available elsewhere on this site.

Definitive Records in Andorra issued many Charlie Parker sets in addition to the Dial and Savoy boxes mentioned above. They went out of business in 2015.

Fresh Sounds' Rare Live Recordings has issued almost a dozen CDs of live Parker performances. These CDs are nicely produced, with informative liner notes; and some include modest improvements in sound quality.