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Charlie
Parker
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he was born on the Kansas side of the state line, Parker was
actually raised across the Kaw River in Kansas City, Missouri.
His nickname was originally "Yardbird" due to his
propensity for eating fried chicken - later this was shortened
to the more poetic "Bird". Musicians talk of first
hearing his alto saxophone as if it were a religious conversion.
Charles Christopher Parker changed the face of jazz and shaped
the course of twentieth-century music. Kansas City saxophonists
were a competitive bunch. Ben Webster and Herschel Evans both
came from Kansas. Before they became national celebrities
they would challenge visiting sax stars to "blowing matches".
It is this artistically fruitful sense of competition that
provided Charlie Parker with his aesthetic. Live music could
be heard at all hours of the night, a situation resulting
from lax application of prohibition laws by the Democrat Tom
Pendergast (city boss from 1928-39). While in the Crispus
Attucks high school Parker took up the baritone. His mother
gave him an alto in 1931. He dropped out of school at the
age of 14 and devoted himself to the instrument. A premature
appearance at the High Hat Club - when he dried up mid-solo
on "Body & Soul" - led to him abandoning the
instrument for three months; the humiliation was repeated
in 1937 when veteran drummer Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his
feet to indicate he was to leave the stage (this time Parker
just went on practising harder). Playing in bands led by Tommy
Douglas (1936-37) and Buster Smith (1937-38) gave him necessary
experience. A tour with George E. Lee and instructions in
harmony from the pianist Carrie Powell were helpful. His first
real professional break was with the Jay McShann band in 1938,
a sizzling swing unit (with whom Parker made his first recordings
in 1941). Parker's solos on "Sepian Bounce", "Jumpin'
Blues" and "Lonely Boy Blues" made people sit
up and take notice: he was taking hip liberties with the chords.
Brief spells in the Earl "Fatha" Hines (1942-43)
and Billy Eckstine (1944) big bands introduced him to Dizzy
Gillespie, another young black player with innovative musical
ideas and a rebellious stance. Wartime austerities, though,
meant that the days of the big bands were numbered. Parker
took his experience of big band saxophone sections with him
to Harlem, New York. There he found the equivalent of the
Kansas City "cutting contests" in the clubs of 52nd
Street, especially in the "afterhours" sessions
at Minton's Playhouse. Together with Dizzy and drummers Kenny
Clarke and Max Roach, and with the essential harmonic contributions
of Charlie Christian and Thelonious Monk, he pioneered a new
music. Furious tempos and intricate heads played in unison
inhibited lesser talents from joining in. Instead of keeping
time with bass and snare drums, Clarke and Roach kept up a
beat on the cymbal, using bass and snare for accents, whipping
up soloists to greater heights. And Parker played high: that
is, he created his solo lines from the top notes of the underlying
chord sequences - 9ths, 11ths, 13ths - so extending the previous
harmonic language of jazz. Parker made his recording debut
as a small combo player in Tiny Grimes' band in September
1944. |
Full Biography and Discography -->
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