When was Bird’s first version of “Cherokee” recorded? (Part Two of Three) How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? –Sherlock Holmes Welcome to the Hall of Mirrors, wherein I shall present my final argument concerning the recording date of Bird’s first “Cherokee.” Here’s the recording in question: Here’s the problem: The assumptions involved make this argument a house of cards. My guess about the recording date is based on the musical evidence presented in my previous Ben Webster posts. In order to believe this guess … Continue reading Parkeology 038: The Dating Game Part Three

When was Bird’s first version of “Cherokee” recorded? (Part Two of Three) Webster said he’d come back the next night to make sure he heard what he thought he heard, and Monroe dared him, “Well, if you come back tomorrow I’ll put him in the show, and he’ll be playing CHEROKEE.” If the story is to be believed, and Webster said he did return and heard Parker “stop the place,” then it makes sense that Parker should be playing over a specialty arrangement with the Monroe House Orchestra. –Dan Morgenstern, liner notes Early Bird, Stash Records (1991). The mysteries surrounding … Continue reading Parkeology 037: The Dating Game Part Two

When was Bird’s first version of “Cherokee” recorded? (Part One of Three) From a considerably better recorded paper disc in the collection of the late Jerry Newman (although probably not recorded by Newman himself), this is believed to be Bird’s earliest extant performance of the tune he virtually invented modern jazz with. The circumstances as to how this tightly swinging solo concerto, with definite prearranged accompaniment, was recorded are still vague. – Dan Morgenstern Everyone loves a good mystery, but it’s hard to love a mystery that can’t be solved, such as the exact date of Bird’s first “Cherokee” recording. … Continue reading Parkeology 036: The Dating Game Part One

One prominent critic wrote, “Parker’s version of bebop varies from Dizzy’s in so much as he plays chromatic scales up and down all the keys.” Charlie was to quote this gem for years, often admonishing his sidemen to “watch out for those chromatics.” –Ross Russell, Bird Lives One of the clearest distinctions between Bird’s early style (1940-43) and his mature style (1944 onward) can be found in his use of scale runs. (I define scale runs as consecutive notes of a scale used in a melodic line.) In Bird’s apprenticeship period, scale runs often spanned an octave or more. By … Continue reading Parkeology 035: Brute Force Part Three

Still, one is brought up short by the realization that a “typical” Parker phase turns out to be much the same phrase one had heard years before from, say, Ben Webster. The secret is, of course, that Parker inflects, accents, and pronounces that phrase so differently that one simply may not recognize it. – Martin Williams Williams seems to have picked Ben Webster’s name out of a hat, but the connection might be deeper than he realized. Webster’s chromatic motives may have added a missing component to Bird’s conception in the early 1940s. When I say chromatic motives, I’m talking about … Continue reading Parkeology 033: Brute Force Part One

“I put quite a bit of study into the horn, that’s true. In fact, the neighbors threatened to ask my mother to move once, when I was living out west. They said I was driving them crazy with the horn. I used to put in at least eleven, from eleven to fifteen hours a day.” –Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond Interview, January 1954 When Bird returned to Kansas City for his father’s funeral (late 1939 or early 1940) he moved back in with his mother. His wife, Rebecca, and his son, Leon, were living nearby, but Bird didn’t reunite with them, … Continue reading Parkeology 032: Every Honeybee Part Two

Charlie Parker’s chronology from late 1938 to early 1940 is rather sketchy. It is known that his mentor, Buster Smith, left Kansas City for New York in 1938, and that Parker eventually followed suit. By early 1940, Parker was definitely back in Kansas City working with McShann. –Carl Woideck We know this because Bird’s estranged father died, stabbed to death by the woman he was living with, and nineteen-year-old Bird was called home to Kansas City for the funeral, moving back in with his mother. Always eager to go out on a limb, I will argue that Bird spent this … Continue reading Parkeology 031: Every Honeybee

Unfortunately, the surviving editor, Nat Hentoff, cannot reconstruct how the second version came to be written in such a way. Hentoff believed that Nat Shapiro edited the Parker section in question, but he felt it was unlikely that Shapiro would have simply altered the Down Beat text to make it read better. Hentoff could not recall if perhaps Shapiro worked from notes supplied by Levin or Wilson. Attempts to pursue this point with John S. Wilson, co-author of the original article, have thus far failed. — Carl Woideck And that’s the last word on the Levin-Wilson article and its one-sentence … Continue reading Parkeology 030: Child of the Prairie

M.1A is an ascending arpeggio, usually played as a triplet, but also common in other rhythmic configurations. Preceded by an upper or lower neighbor, it fre­quently begins a phrase. About forty percent of these arpeggios are of minor-seventh chords; E minor-seventh is the most common. – Thomas Owens, 1974 Dissertation Forty percent is quite a statistic, and the fact that Em7 is the most common certainly suggests that D major was Bird’s primal key. More broadly, it confirms that four-note ascending arpeggios were central to Bird’s vocabulary. This is so self-evident that no examples are required. What’s needed, though, is … Continue reading Parkeology 029: Marmaduke Part Two

I’d learned the scale and I learned how to play two tunes in a certain key, in the key of D for your saxophone, F concert? I learned to play the first eight bars of “Lazy River” and I knew the complete tune to “Honeysuckle Rose.” I didn’t never stop to think about there was other keys or nothing like that! –Charlie Parker It’s hard to overstate the importance of “Honeysuckle Rose” in Bird’s development. It was the first song he recorded on his own, and among his first with Jay McShann. Furthermore, “Scrapple From The Apple,” based on the … Continue reading Parkeology 028: Marmaduke Part One