"Confirmation" is an instrumental bebop standard by Charlie Parker, dating from 1945. It has a long AABA head of 32 bars built on rapid chord changes that move through an extended cycle of fifths, known as "Bird changes"; the jazz educator Dariusz Terefenko points to the speed and intricacy of its harmonic rhythm. The A sections follow the progression of "Twilight Time" (1944) by Al Nevins and Buck Ram, making the piece a partial contrafact, while Parker wrote his own B section.
The first recording, made in February 1946 by Dizzy Gillespie and his Jazzmen for Dial Records, was produced by Ross Russell, and Parker was not present. Parker himself recorded no studio version until July 1953; a 1947 Carnegie Hall performance with Gillespie is the earliest known live one. Henry Martin (2020) called it possibly Parker's finest display of compositional skill, and Martin Williams (Down Beat, 1965) described it as a continuous, linear invention. Ted Gioia counts it among jazz standards.
