Bird: life and sounds of Charlie Parker

Bird: life and sounds of Charlie Parker

AP Music Theory, Mr. Ubovich, July 24, 2007

Matt Louie

“In some ways he was like Picasso, ever searching for new ways of expression”-Michael H. Goldsen

What is Jazz?What is Jazz?

• Encompasses a variety of musical styles

• Taking liberties with music• Improvisation

Influences in the DevelopmentInfluences in the Development

Early DaysEarly Days

• 1920-Grew up in Kansas City

• Poor Family, no father• Managed to learn

rudiments of the alto saxophone

• 1934-drops out of High school

• Got Frustrated with Barry

• Works with Local Groups

"I kept thinking there's bound to be something else ...I could here it sometimes, but I couldn't play it."

-Parker

Parker wasn’t a child Prodigy, he practiced…and practiced…and practiced.

Rise to FameRise to Fame

• 1940-Joins Jay McSchann’s Band• 1942-Earl Hines’ Orchestra & 1944-Billy Eckstine’s band; both include Dizzy

• Experienced an Epiphany• Plays at the Minton’s Playhouse with jazz all-stars including: Thelonious Monk,

Gillespie, Hawkins, Young, and Eldridge.• Tours with Gillespie from 1944-45• 1945-47-Parker moves to California where he spends six months at Camarillo

State Hospital: addictions and a nervous breakdown.• 1947-1951- “the top of his career”; records various songs with Miles Davis and

Max Roach

"Charlie Parker heard rhythm and rhythmic patterns differently, and after we had started playing, together, I began to play, rhythmically, more like him. In that sense he influenced me, and all of us, because what makes the style is not what you play but how you play it."- Dizzy Gillespie

Out with a Bang…Out with a Bang…

• 1951-1953-Parker Travels around; health and state of mind continue to slide through addiction to narcotics.

• 1953-Massey Hall Concert• 1953-1955-Second wife,

Chan Parker, cannot tame him; debts increase, ill-health

• 1954-Daughter, Pree, dies; attempts suicide twice and commits himself to Bellevue Hospital in NY.

• Dies in March 1955 of a bleeding ulcer and pneumonia

Musical InfluencesMusical Influences

Lester Young

Art Tatum

Count Basie

Famous PiecesFamous Pieces

• Include:Ko KoYardbird

SuiteDonna LeeParker’s

MoodSalt Peanuts

Events in his TimeEvents in his Time

• American Federation of Musicians has silenced most of the recording industry since August 1942

• January 21, 1924 – Vladimir Lenin dies, Soviet Dictator. • May 19, 1925 – Malcolm X is born. • 1923 – First Transcontinental airplane flight from New York to San

Francisco. The flight took 26 hours and 50 minutes. • September, 1928 – Penicillin is created.

Jazz Eras Jazz Eras

Jazz Era: Early Jazz

Swing Jazz

Bebop Jazz

Cool Jazz

Key Aspects:

•Embellish melody•“Jazzing Up”

•Less stiff•“Big Band Era”

•Counter-culture

•Ind. Improv.

•Softer, more relaxed

How is it different?

•Collective

Improvisation •Looser feeling•More

Improvisation

•Big Band v. Small Combo•Smoother, cleaner

•Small Combo

•Fast Paced

•More Complex

•“Comping"

•Response to Bebop

•Airy, more loose quality

•Cooler

Instrument •Piano, banjo, drums, tuba, trumpet,, sax

•Sax, High-hat, cymbals, string bass

•Solo Instruments

•Lighter and subdued instruments

Famous Jazz ArtistsFamous Jazz Artists

Early Jazz

Louis Armstrong

1901-1971

Swing EraCount Basie1904-1984

Cool Jazz

Lee Konitz

1927-

Bebop

Charlie Parker

1920-1955

the Bebop Erathe Bebop Era

• Founding Fathers: Art Tatum

Tadd DameronDizzy GillespieJ.J. JohnsonThelonius MonkFats NavarroCharlie ParkerOscar PettifordBud Powell

"Hot jazz, over-heated, with overdone lyrics full of bawdiness, references to narcotics and double-talk"

 

Time Magazine, 1944

“Bop was never a conscious movement, but the accidental meeting of forward thinking musical minds” -www.jazzscript.com

ContemporariesContemporaries

• Dizzie Gillespie:• 1917-1993

• Another Bebop icon

• Trumpet

• Bud Powell:• 1924-1966

• Master “comper”

Style of ImprovisationStyle of Improvisation

• First to include scales and substitute scales

• Fast Paced, “hard to listen to”

• A complex mixture of scales and non chord tones over basic melody chord changes

• Chromatic licks as well

What made him unique

Influences on the Future Influences on the Future

• His drug lifestyle paired with his amazing talent led many aspirers to do drugs as well

• His solos and songs were and still are studied note by note by jazz artists during his life and after his death.

• Credited as the Saxophonist of the Bebop Era

Interesting FactsInteresting Facts

• He got his nickname “Bird” by his love of chicken

• At a young age, he tried to play Body and Soul in Double Time and was laughed off the stage

• Body was so messed up doctors thought he was 60 when he died

BibliographyBibliography

• Goldsen, Michael. “Charlier Parker Omnibook” Atlantic Music Corp., © 1978

• Penn, Steve. "Kansas City Jazz Chronology". Kansas City Jazz. 1997

• "Some Jazz History and Interesting Facts". The New York Times Magazine. 1995

http://www.j51.com/~jayl/jazz/jazzfacts.html (2000)

• Ronallo, Doug and Ricci, Michael. "All About Jazz: History of Jazz Time Line" All About Jazz.

2000 <http://www.allaboutjazz.com/timeline.htm> (2000)

Bibliography (continued)Bibliography (continued)

• Porter, Lewis. "History and The Big-Band Era". Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99.Redmond: Microsoft Corporation, 1998.

• Reisner, Robert George. The Legend of Charlie Parker Bird. New York: The Citadel Press, 1962.

• Judden, Air. “Charlie Parker.” February 15, 1999 <http://airjudden.tripod.com/index.html>

• History of American Music: It’s Composers and Musicians. <http://www.smhsmusic.org/jazz2/index1.htm>

• Deaths and Births of the 20’s <http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC051907/Timeline%20and%20Int

eresting%20Facts%202.html>• Charlie Parker and Bebop

<http://www.jazzscript.co.uk/life/beboptime.htm

Picture BibliographyPicture Bibliography

• Charlie Parker & Lester Young

<http://www.smhsmusic.org/jazz2/index1.htm>

• Dizzie Gillepsie <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://

www.150.si.edu/images/10trump.jpg>• Art Tatum

<http://web.media.mit.edu/~mike/music/VanCliburn2000/i/tatum.jpg>