The answer is C: Davis's Kind of Blue.
Explanation for each option:
A. Davis's Birth of the Cool - This album is significant in the development of cool jazz, not hard bop. Cool jazz is characterized by a more relaxed tempo and lighter tone, contrasting with the more intense and rhythmically complex hard bop.
B. Parker and Gillespie's Bird & Diz - This collaboration is more closely associated with bebop, a precursor to hard bop. Bebop is known for its fast tempos and complex chord progressions, which influenced the development of hard bop but is not itself a hard bop album.
C. Davis's Kind of Blue - This album is one of the most influential in jazz history, but it is more closely associated with modal jazz rather than hard bop. However, it had a significant impact on the jazz genre as a whole, influencing many musicians who played hard bop.
D. Ellington's Black and Tan Fantasy - This piece is a classic example of Duke Ellington's early work and is more aligned with the big band and swing era of jazz, not hard bop.
While "Kind of Blue" is not a hard bop album, it is often mentioned in discussions of influential jazz albums due to its widespread impact on the genre. However, for a more accurate representation of hard bop, albums by artists like Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers or Horace Silver would be more appropriate.