Parkeology 019: Native Son John Fitch: Whom do you feel were the really important persons, besides yourself, who started to experiment? Charlie Parker: Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke. It was Charlie Christian… There was Bud Powell, Don Byas, Ben Webster, yours truly. – 1953 radio interview WHDH I think it’s significant that Bird includes Ben Webster in this list, because Webster isn’t remembered as a modern jazz innovator, despite his involvement at Minton’s. Note that Bird lists their names together, at the bottom. In my opinion, he’s acknowledging Webster’s influence on his own conception more than on the movement … Continue reading Parkeology 019: Native Son

Parkeology 018: Brute Force 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 there may be a deeper connection than he realized. Webster’s chromatic motifs might have added a missing component to Bird’s conception in the early 1940s. When I … Continue reading Parkeology 018: Brute Force

Parkeology 017: Growl Talk There are all kinds of anecdotes and stories about Bird, but he was really a shy, humble person. He was thoughtful and considerate of other people, and you can hear that in his playing, the great beauty in his playing. There was some anger–we all get angry–and you can hear the anger in his playing when he felt that way. I think he, more than most of us… you can hear his feelings when you listen to him, because he was so proficient that he could get out anything he felt. – Red Rodney I can’t … Continue reading Parkeology 017: Growl Talk

Parkeology 016: Can of Worms Really, all Bird needed was some dope. If Bird had had any dope right then, he’d have turned around and played like a champ. But at the time these records were made, he was without sufficient drugs. – Howard McGhee (Interview WKCR) It’s hard to discuss the “Lover Man” date without being sucked into the self-perpetuating melodrama surrounding Bird’s “nervous breakdown.” I’m referring, of course, to the infamous July 29, 1946 Dial recording session. The best antidote I know of is to stick with Howard McGhee’s melodrama-free account. He was there, and he contradicts Ross Russell’s … Continue reading Parkeology 016: Can of Worms

Parkeology 015: Buttons and Birds During the subsequent “Roost Period,” two developments on the 1948 national entertainment scene had some influence on Parker’s work. They were the popularity of Frank Loesser’s Slow Boat To China, and the release of the Bob Hope-Jane Russell comedy movie, The Paleface. Bird began playing Slow Boat at an uptempo as part of his repertoire, and the opening phrase of Buttons and Bows, a hit tune from the Hope movie, began creeping into his solos. – Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite “Buttons And Bows” is one of Bird’s most preposterous quotes, but I contend it … Continue reading Parkeology 015: Buttons and Birds

Parkeology 014: Dizzy Altitude On the live recording of Charlie Parker at Town Hall in 1945, Bird plays in the altissimo a little bit. Several high A’s and on “Salt Peanuts” gets up to an altissimo D. I don’t recall ever hearing him play any altissimo on any other studio or live recordings. Does anyone know of any other recordings where he goes up, or was he just feeling extra frisky that day? – Posting by DukeCity on Sax on the Web DukeCity raises an interesting point. Bird didn’t use the altissimo register (notes above the normal range of the … Continue reading Parkeology 014: Dizzy Altitude

Parkeology 013: Speedball I have seen him take several Benzedrine wrappers, wad them into a ball, and swallow it. Getting high the first time at fifteen, Bird told me what he felt. He pulled out $1.30, which was all he had, and said, “Do you mean there’s something like this in the world? How much of it will this buy?” – Buddy Jones I’ve been putting off my argument that the “Donna Lee” session catalyzed Bird’s backslide into heroin use. I spent Parkeology 012 making the case that Bird was drunk in the recording studio that day, May 8, 1947, … Continue reading Parkeology 013: Speedball

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 … Continue reading Parkeology 012: Chasten’ the Bird

Parkeology 011: Consternation Bird was a wizard at transmitting musical messages to us. If he was in the act of blowing his sax, he would find something to express and would want you to guess his thoughts. – Gene Ramey Biographers Ross Russell and Stanley Crouch abused this invitation to a fare-thee-well, but I won’t pretend to tap into Bird’s inner monologue. I will only try to guess his thoughts on May 8, 1947, a troubled and discouraging occasion. Bird recorded four tunes for Savoy Records that day (“Donna Lee,” “Chasin’ The Bird,” “Cheryl,” “Buzzy”) accompanied by Miles Davis, Bud … Continue reading Parkeology 011: Consternation

Parkeology 009: Flatiron My second first debt is to Stanley Crouch, friend and colleague, who has been working since 1982 on an exhaustive study of Parker’s life and art. In what was surely an unusual if not unprecedented act of scholarly comradeship, Stanley made all of his research available to me so that I could “get it right.“ His extensive interviews with Rebecca Parker Davis convinced me that she knew the story I wanted to tell. – Gary Giddins, acknowledgements, Celebrating Bird, 1987 I find it discouragingly ironic that Stanley Crouch’s Bird biography (Kansas City Lightning) so closely resembles Ross … Continue reading Parkeology 009: Flatiron