Charlie Parker was born 94 years ago today. Known as Yardbird and Bird, Parker was an accomplished American jazz saxophonist and composer. He acquired the nickname Yardbird early in his career and the shortened form, Bird,” which continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspired the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as Yardbird Suite,” Ornithology,” Bird Gets the Worm and Bird of Paradise. Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and improvisation. He introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Many Parker recordings demonstrate virtuosic technique and complex melodic lines, sometimes combining jazz with other musical genres, including blues, Latin and classical. Parker was an icon for a hip subculture and the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than an entertainer. Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 joined his schools band using a rented school instrument. His father, Charles, was often absent but provided some musical influence; he was a pianist, dancer and singer on the T.O.B.A. circuit. In the late 1930s, Parker began to practice diligently. During this period he mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas that led to bebop. Bands led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten undoubtedly influenced Parker. He played with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique, with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time influenced Parkers developing style. In 1938, Parker made his professional debut with Jay McShanns territory band. As a teenager, he developed a morphine addiction while in the hospital, after an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. He continued using heroin throughout his life, which ultimately contributed to his death. In 1939, Parker moved to New York City, to pursue a career in music. He held several other jobs as well. He worked for nine dollars a week as a dishwasher at Jimmies Chicken Shack, where pianist Art Tatum performed. In 1942, Parker left McShanns band and played with Earl Hines for one year, whose band included Dizzy Gillespie, who later played with Parker as a duo. Unfortunately, this period is virtually undocumented, due to the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which time few recordings were made. Parker joined a group of young musicians, and played in after-hours clubs in Harlem, such as Clark Monroes Uptown House and Mintons Playhouse. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian and drummer Kenny Clarke. One night in 1939, Parker was playing Cherokee in a jam session with guitarist William Biddy Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled one of his main musical innovations. He realized that the twelve tones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing. Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts. The beboppers responded by calling these traditionalists moldy figs.” However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents. It was not until 1945, when the recording ban was lifted, that Parkers collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and others had a substantial effect on the jazz world. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was rediscovered and issued in 2005: a concert in New Yorks Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Bebop soon gained wider appeal among musicians and fans alike. On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for the Savoy label, marketed as the greatest Jazz session ever. The tracks recorded during this session include Ko-Ko and Nows the Time.” Parkers chronic addiction to heroin caused him to miss gigs and lose work. He frequently resorted to busking on the streets, receiving loans from fellow musicians and admirers, and pawning his saxophones for drug money. Heroin use was rampant in the jazz scene and the drug could be acquired easily. Parker died in the suite of his friend and patron Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City while watching The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parkers 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age. Here, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform “Hot House” on television in 1952.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 04:19:32 +0000
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