Weekly Posting, January 3rd, 2020

As a result of recent edits to this post, it has jumped to the top, but it was in fact the very first posting of 2020. As such, it was really a brief promotional blurb for the POSTunderground’s regular Friday night jazz events, devoted to Bird’s music in honor of his hundredth birthday. Many of the earliest posts were shorter promotional emails. I recently replaced two of them with new essays, then changed my mind. As of today, May 25th, 2021, I have added an extensive introduction to the weekly postings, which incorporates the two new essays, and restored the early posts to their original form.

John Purcell

The world has made it to 2020, and that’s cause for celebration in itself. But there’s cause for a larger, more sustained, celebration, because 2020 is Charlie Parker’s centennial year.  That’s right, Bird was born on August 29th,1920, and would be 99 years old as of this writing. Tragically, he didn’t come remotely close. When he died in Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter’s NYC apartment on Saturday, March 12th, 1955, the headlines screamed “Bop King Dies in Heiress’ Flat” and the Baroness became embroiled in a scandal that ultimately led to her divorce. The newspaper accounts listed Bird’s age as 53, an estimate made by the attending physician. He was 34.

Is John Purcell the foremost Charlie Parker fanatic in Boston? I’m not sure anyone is keeping track, but I make this bold assertion nonetheless. Every Friday, from now until Friday, August 28th, he will present Bird’s music and will ramble, in his stream-of-pointlessness fashion, about Bird’s life. Tonight, the House Band will recreate the program that was captured in a radio broadcast from the Royal Roost on January 1st, 1949. Charlie Parker was at the height of his artistry and celebrity, yet well along the path to his own destruction. It also marked the debut of trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who had replaced Miles Davis in the quintet just days before, Why did Miles quit? That question, among others, will be pondered tonight, so be there or be downward spiral!