Artist: Charlie Parker
Album: Charlie Parker at Jirayr Zorthian's Ranch, July 14
Genre: Jazz
Bitrate: VBR Kbits/s
Playtime: 73:52 min
Tracks: 09
Rip Date: Nov-22-2006
Street Date: 000-00-0000
01 Dixie / Yankee Doodle March 04:23
(Traditional) Into I Got The Rhy
02 A Night in Tunisia 07:00
03 Ornithology 06:57
04 Embraceable You 03:45
05 Hot House 06:36
06 Scrapple from the Apple 13:24
07 Cool Blues 12:29
08 Scrapple from the Apple No. 2 06:04
09 Au Privave / Dance Of The Infidels 13:14
One of a handful of musicians who can be said to have
permanently changed jazz, Charlie Parker was arguably the
greatest saxophonist of all time. He could play remarkably
fast lines that, if slowed down to half speed, would reveal
that every note made sense. "Bird," along with his
contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, is
considered a founder of bebop; in reality he was an
intuitive player who simply was expressing himself. Rather
than basing his improvisations closely on the melody as was
done in swing, he was a master of chordal improvising,
creating new melodies that were based on the structure of a
song. In fact, Bird wrote several future standards (such as
"Anthropology," "Ornithology," "Scrapple from the Apple,"
and "Ko Ko," along with such blues numbers as "Now's the
Time" and "Parker's Mood") that "borrowed" and modernized
the chord structures of older tunes. Parker's remarkable
technique, fairly original sound, and ability to come up
with harmonically advanced phrases that could be both
logical and whimsical were highly influential. By 1950, it
was impossible to play "modern jazz" with credibility
without closely studying Charlie Parker. Born in Kansas
City, KS, Charlie Parker grew up in Kansas City, MO. He
first played baritone horn before switching to alto. Parker
was so enamored of the rich Kansas City music scene that he
dropped out of school when he was 14, even though his
musicianship at that point was questionable (with his ideas
coming out faster than his fingers could play them). After
a few humiliations at jam sessions, Bird worked hard
woodshedding over one summer, building up his technique and
mastery of the fundamentals. By 1937, when he first joined
Jay McShann's Orchestra, he was already a long way toward
becoming a major player. Charlie Parker, who was early on
influenced by Lester Young and the sound of Buster Smith,
visited New York for the first time in 1939, working as a
dishwasher at one point so he could hear Art Tatum play on
a nightly basis. He made his recording debut with Jay
McShann in 1940, creating remarkable solos with a small
group from McShann's orchestra on "Oh, Lady Be Good" and
"Honeysuckle Rose." When the McShann big band arrived in
New York in 1941, Parker had short solos on a few of their
studio blues records, and his broadcasts with the orchestra
greatly impressed (and sometimes scared) other musicians
who had never heard his ideas before. Parker, who had met
and jammed with Dizzy Gillespie for the first time in 1940,
had a short stint with Noble Sissle's band in 1942, played
tenor with Earl Hines' sadly unrecorded bop band of 1943,
and spent a few months in 1944 with Billy Eckstine's
orchestra, leaving before that group made their first
records. Gillespie was also in the Hines and Eckstine big
bands, and the duo became a team starting in late 1944.
Although Charlie Parker recorded with Tiny Grimes' combo in
1944, it was his collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie in
1945 that startled the jazz world. To hear the two
virtuosos play rapid unisons on such new songs as "Groovin'
High," "Dizzy Atmosphere," "Shaw 'Nuff," "Salt Peanuts,"
and "Hot House," and then launch into fiery and
unpredictable solos could be an upsetting experience for
listeners much more familiar with Glenn Miller and Benny
Goodman. Although the new music was evolutionary rather
than revolutionary, the recording strike of 1943-1944
resulted in bebop arriving fully formed on records,
seemingly out of nowhere. Unfortunately, Charlie Parker was
a heroin addict ever since he was a teenager, and some
other musicians who idolized Bird foolishly took up drugs
in the hope that it would elevate their playing to his
level. When Gillespie and Parker (known as "Diz and Bird")
traveled to Los Angeles and were met with a mixture of
hostility and indifference (except by younger musicians who
listened closely), they decided to return to New York.
Impulsively, Parker cashed in his ticket, ended up staying
in L.A., and, after some recordings and performances
(including a classic version of "Oh, Lady Be Good" with
Jazz at the Philharmonic), the lack of drugs (which he
combated by drinking an excess of liquor) resulted in a
mental breakdown and six months of confinement at the
Camarillo State Hospital. Released in January 1947, Parker
soon headed back to New York and engaged in some of the
most rewarding playing of his career, leading a quintet
that included Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter, and
Max Roach. Parker, who recorded simultaneously for the
Savoy and Dial labels, was in peak form during the
1947-1951 period, visiting Europe in 1949 and 1950, and
realizing a lifelong dream to record with strings starting
in 1949 when he switched to Norman Granz's Verve label. But
Charlie Parker, due to his drug addiction and chance-taking
personality, enjoyed playing with fire too much. In 1951,
his cabaret license was revoked in New York (making it
difficult for him to play in clubs) and he became
increasingly unreliable. Although he could still play at
his best when he was inspired (such as at the 1953 Massey
Hall concert with Gillespie), Bird was heading downhill. In
1954, he twice attempted suicide before spending time in
Bellevue. His health, shaken by a very full if brief life
of excesses, gradually declined, and when he died in March
1955 at the age of 34, he could have passed for 64. Charlie
Parker, who was a legendary figure during his lifetime, has
if anything grown in stature since his death. Virtually all
of his studio recordings are available on CD along with a
countless number of radio broadcasts and club appearances.
Clint Eastwood put together a well-intentioned if
simplified movie about aspects of his life (Bird). Parker's
influence, after the rise of John Coltrane, has become more
indirect than direct, but jazz would sound a great deal
different if Charlie Parker had not existed. The phrase
"Bird Lives" (which was scrawled as graffiti after his
death) is still very true.