Parkeology 012: Chasten’ the Bird

Bird didn’t have any heroin, so he needed something. He tried drinking, but drinking don’t do it. It takes you another direction. – Howard McGhee

As noted in Parkeology 011, I believe Bird was drunk at the May 8, 1947 Savoy session that produced “Donna Lee.” I also believe this was the last time he was drunk in the studio (excluding “Serpent’s Tooth”).

Both these points can be argued on the recorded evidence, but I will go further and suggest that the “Donna Lee” session triggered Bird’s backslide into heroin use, an argument based entirely on my rich fantasy life.

The first step, though, is to establish that Bird can be demonstrably drunk in live performance. This requires little effort. On February 26, 1949, Bird, at the height of his powers, was captured at a very low moment on a Royal Roost broadcast. Here’s the alto break in “A Night In Tunisia.”

Bird actually goes on to play some interesting new ideas, the cruel irony being that alcohol, which impaired his motor skills and ultimately killed him, still fueled his creative process. Here’s his solo on “Half Nelson,” from the same broadcast. It has a flow and logic that transcends his beleaguered reflexes.

But the hallmarks of intoxication are plain. His sluggish articulation and random squawks are the equivalent of slurred speech, his uncoordinated fingers the equivalent of a weaving gait. Witnesses at the Hi-De-Ho Club report that Bird could be passed out, face down at a table, and yet rise and play when the time came to solo.

“Donna Lee” is based on “Indiana,” and I’m still not convinced that Bird was fond of these changes. After all, it was Miles who appropriated them. https://lewisporter.substack.com/p/parker-what-did-he-learn-at-camarillo?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email But “Indiana” was in rotation at the Hi-De-Ho, and you can’t help but hear Bird’s solos there as precursors to his “Donna Lee” solo, impaired reflexes included. 

One of alcohol’s most insidious effects was to shift Bird’s lines behind in the time. This isn’t the same as dragging. He’s in parallel with the rhythm section, but slightly out of sync. This could be a matter of basic neurology, since alcohol dulls reaction time.

Bird may have been in the earliest stages of intoxication on “Indiana #49,” but it’s a tough call. The tempo is a bit faster than “Donna Lee,” not an issue, and he’s close to in sync. Some of these ideas appear verbatim in his “Donna Lee” solo. (Note: the first couple of bars went unrecorded, and I fade out at the end of his first chorus.)

There’s a fair amount of repetition in this solo, as though he’s practicing specific ideas, without much concern for spontaneity (Parkeology 010). These two phrases appear in the first chorus, like miniature alternate takes of the same idea.

Ditto these two phrases from his second chorus.

The next solo, “Indiana #138,” shows definite signs of impairment, to about the same extent as his “Donna Lee” solo. Bird’s articulation is muddled, his eighth notes are uneven, and he bobbles some phrase endings. He’s also much further back in the time, and somewhat out of tune (also a problem in “Donna Lee”). And yet this is a more sincere attempt at melodic invention than the previous solo. (Note: as above, I fade out at the end of his first chorus.)

There’s another factor to bear in mind here: Bird is trying to solidify his latest conceptual advances, consciously syncopating against upbeats and phrasing across bar lines, innovations conceived of while locked up at Camarillo. This process is taking place in real time at the Hi-De-Ho Club, and causes its own share of glitches, similar to, but independent of, intoxication. This is equally true of his “Donna Lee” solo. Here’s Take 5 (master):

Bird plays a number of phrases found verbatim in “Indiana #49,” and “Indiana #138.” 

Again, just because Bird is drunk, it doesn’t necessarily mean his “Donna Lee” solo is inferior. I doubt he was happy with it, though. As a rule, Bird tried not to use the same phrase twice in any given solo. But he didn’t hold himself to that standard here, perhaps because he was determined, under heavy fire, to get a usable take and move on. Here are the repeated phrases found in “Donna Lee” Take 5.

This news may come as a relief, but I am yet again going to put off my closing argument. If, however, you’re willing to allow that Bird was drunk at this recording session, perhaps you’ll be open to the notion that he was deeply disconcerted by it. You may not want to follow me any further than that, but let me say this. For all my unseemly speculation about Bird’s heroin use, at least I’m granting him agency over his own life, including his addictions, which were part of his creative process.

Bird wasn’t a heedless drug addict wrestling “demons.” He was a profoundly intelligent and self-aware man who bestowed upon us untold riches and received precious little in return.

He’s been chastened enough.