Charlie "Bird" Parker blew the sound of his soul through his alto and tenor sax, and for many musicians, hearing his music was like a religious conversion. He is immortalized as jazz music's "first existential hero," a blazing talent that burned...
[more]Charlie "Bird" Parker blew the sound of his soul through his alto and tenor sax, and for many musicians, hearing his music was like a religious conversion. He is immortalized as jazz music's "first existential hero," a blazing talent that burned out at age 35 from heroin, alcohol, and racism.
The teenage Parker built up his chops by sitting in with bands in Kansas City, where he and other local horn blowers Ben Webster and Herschel Evans challenged visiting sax stars to blowing matches. The matches also developed the improvisational skills that became the center of Parker's aesthetic.
After a few rough gigs (one ended with Parker drying up in the middle of a solo) he toured with a few swing outfits and gained valuable performance experience. While touring with George E. Lee, pianist Carrie Powell gave Parker instructions in harmony. He took these lessons and his improv skills to the stage with the Jay McShann band, stealing the spotlight in solos on 'Sepian Bounce,' 'Jumpin' Blues,' and 'Lonely Boy Blues.' He made his first recording with the band in 1941.
Through stints in the Earl 'Fatha' Hines and Billy Eckstein big bands, he crossed paths with another young innovator named Dizzy Gillespie. The two left the waning big band scene for the intellectual mecca of Harlem, where they played the clubs of 57th street to an audience of future jazz luminaries. Parker eventually jammed with virtually all the major jazz figures of the twentieth century, including Webster, Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and a young Miles Davis. The technical intricacies of Parker's music demanded virtuosity from all players, and these young musicians shared a love of experimentation.
Under the leadership of Parker, the musicians refined a style that worked off of the top notes of underlying chord sequences. Coined be-bop, this intensely energetic, melodious new sound crossed into popular consciousness in the mid-1940s -- Parker, Gillespie, and the other boppers were catapulted into hipster renown.
In 1945 labels such as Savoy, Guild, Manor, and Comet pressed 78s of his music, and Parker's subsequent tours of the West Coast and Europe solidified his position as a major evolutionary force. Ironically, few mainstream jazz critics would acknowledge his innovations, instead reserving their praises for white Parker imitators.
Parker's virtuosity -- so remarkable that it is said that he never repeated himself -- eventually suffered from his drug and alcohol use. His gigs and recording sessions (which could be variously inspired and notorious) were interspersed with bouts of illness or rehabilitation. Parker was interested in extending his music along classical and avant-garde veins, but the idea didn't see fruition past a single record.
1955 saw his final, catastrophic performance. At Birdland (the club named after him), Parker and pianist Bud Powell fought onstage, the latter storming off with bassist Charles Mingus. Parker died eight days later. Parker's role in the jazz world then passed into the realm of tradition: the sounds and styles of Davis, Gillespie, Coltrane, and others carried Bird's legacy to new musical frontiers. One critic noted that within the dizzyingly vibrant confluence of sounds that make up jazz, "Parker's genetic fingerprint is the clearest."
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