[GREAT NEWS: Duncan Heining’s detailed biography, “Stratusphunk: the Life and Works of George Russell” is back in print.] “The one entrée to the group was talent…people who later on were talented were welcomed. It didn’t last, but it was the prevailing feeling at the time, a feeling of great openness, you know. I don’t know what the cause of that was particularly, but, one thing, it was like Charlie Parker was the center of that. And I think it was his spirit, and generous spirit, that encouraged very much this community feeling around what was happening mainly because of him.” … Continue reading George Russell’s arrangement of “Relaxin’ at Camarillo”

On April 3rd, 1946, Charlie Parker (Bird) drew up a handwritten agreement assigning to Emry Byrd, a Los Angeles drug dealer, fifty percent of all future royalties from contracts with Dial Records. Biographers generally take this at face value, presenting it as a measure of Bird’s desperation for heroin and also his poor business acumen. There is no doubt that Bird was utterly addicted to heroin. He couldn’t function without it, and Los Angeles was prone to supply problems. Even when you could get it, the quality ranged from so-so to rock bottom, including a product called “mud”, which lived … Continue reading Weekly Posting, April 3rd, 2020

Ross Russell, the founder of Dial Records, was a witness to jazz history. The ballads that Charlie Parker (Bird) recorded for his label in the late 40s (Embraceable You, Out Of Nowhere, My Old Flame, Don’t Blame Me) are among the most sublime creations in 20th Century music. In fact, all of Bird’s Dial recordings are of immeasurable value. Russell deserves a great deal of credit for making this happen, and it was, in many ways, a thankless task. Did this qualify him to write Bird’s biography? Yes and no. The biography in question, Bird Lives, published in 1973, is more accessible, entertaining, and … Continue reading Weekly Posting, March 28th, 2020

There is much evidence of Bird’s extensive vocabulary and his love of wordplay, but he left behind almost no writings, aside from his many telegrams to Chan, which are a story unto themselves. So the long letter he wrote on Saturday, May 22nd, 1954, is one of the very few we have. Unfortunately, it’s a rebuttal to charges brought by Jack Tucker, the manager of the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles, where Bird was working the week Pree died. As such, Bird’s tone is matter-of-fact and understandably humorless, but he expresses himself clearly in long, well-constructed sentences interspersed with short, … Continue reading Weekly Posting, March 20th, 2020

Charlie Parker (Bird) died of old age at 34. His life was not cut short. When he died at the Stanhope Hotel on March 12th, 1955, the arc of his existence was complete. By the close of 1954, after his two-year-old daughter had died and his marriage to Chan had disintegrated, Bird was living in poverty in Greenwich Village, waiting for death to claim him. He was well aware that his heart, liver, and stomach were finally giving out. Roaming the streets on New Year’s Day, he remarked to a friend, “I never thought I’d live to see 1955.” Bird … Continue reading Weekly Post, March 12th, 2020

Here’s a standard by Suesse and Coslow that came and went in 1939. Artie Shaw recorded it (with a vocal by Helen Forrest), a few other bands gave it a try, but it never gained traction in the popular music scene. The song is posted here because the repeated phrase that starts the melody was used by Charlie Parker when he recorded Embraceable You for Dial records on 10/28/47. The first take – the A take – was something of a jukebox hit for Bird at the time, and occasionally he would use the phrase in live performances of the … Continue reading A Table in the Corner

When Art Taylor set out to record the interviews with his colleagues that were later published as Notes and Tones, he says, “[I] made it a point to discuss Charlie Parker and Bud Powell extensively with everyone I interviewed because I was trying to get as much accurate information about them as possible.” Here are Kenny Dorham’s reminiscences of Bird as published in the book. “I was living up on Sugar Hill at 157th Street, and Harry Belafonte, who was working at the Royal Roost with Bird, came by one day to let me know that Bird wanted to speak … Continue reading Kenny Dorham: Bird Painting the Town Red in Milwaukee

On Saturday, March 6th, 1954, Charlie Parker’s two-year-old daughter, Pree, died from what may have been undiagnosed cystic fibrosis. Bird was out on the road in California when she died, and not by choice. After a grueling road trip with Stan Kenton, during which Bird was in constant pain from his ulcers, the Moe Gale agency booked a one-week appearance at theTiffany Club in Los Angeles, preventing him from returning to New York. This was a disaster in every conceivable way. Pree’s condition was critical, and during the week Bird learned that she had been placed in an oxygen tent. … Continue reading Weekly Posting, March 6th, 2020.

How close were Charlie Parker (Bird) and Dizzy Gillespie (Diz)?  It’s worth noting the statement Bird (allegedly) made to Ahmed Basheer a few months before his death. He said, “Basheer, I don’t let anyone get close to me, even you.” When Basheer asked why, Bird said, “Once in Kansas City I had a friend who I liked very much, and a sorrowful thing happened. He died.” Bird was referring to Robert Simpson, a trombonist six years Bird’s senior, who was an older-brother figure and constant companion. Bird was just getting started on saxophone, and was, by all accounts, terrible, but … Continue reading Weekly Posting, February 28th, 2020