pbs - jazz a film by ken burns_ selected artist biography - charlie parker

Image courtesy of Frank DriggsCollection

Photograph by Herman Leonard

Charlie Parker

Powered by Oxford University Press.

Charles, Jr.; Bird; Chan; Charlie; Yardbird (1920-1955) Altosaxophonist

Hot HouseRecorded 1945(Courtesy Verve Music Group)

Charlie Parker was one of the most influentialimprovising soloists in jazz, and a central figurein the development of bop in the 1940s. Alegendary figure in his own lifetime, he wasidolized by those who worked with him, and heinspired a generation of jazz performers andcomposers.

Parker was the only child of Charles and AddleParker. In 1927, the family moved to KansasCity, Missouri, an important center of African-American music in the 1920s and 1930s. Parkerhad his first music lessons in the local publicschools; he began playing alto saxophone in1933 and worked occasionally insemi-professional groups before leaving school in 1935 to become afull-time musician. From 1935 to 1939, he worked mainly in Kansas Citywith a wide variety of local blues and jazz groups. Like most jazz musiciansof his time, he developed his craft largely through practical experience:listening to older local jazz masters, acquiring a traditional repertory, andlearning through the process of trial and error in the competitive KansasCity bands and jam sessions.

In 1939 Parker first visited New York (then theprincipal center of jazz musical and businessactivity), staying for nearly a year. Although heworked only sporadically as a professionalmusician, he often participated in jam sessions.By his own later account, he was bored with thestereotyped changes that were being used then.He said, "I kept thinking there's bound to besomething else…. I could hear it sometimes, but Icouldn't play it." While working over at theCherokee in a jam session with the guitarist BiddyFleet, Parker suddenly found that by using thehigher intervals of a chord as a melody line andbacking them with appropriately related changes he could play what he hadbeen "hearing." Yet, it was not until 1944-5 that his conceptions of rhythmand phrasing had evolved sufficiently to form his mature style.

PBS - JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns: Selected Artist Biography... http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_parker_charlie.htm

1 de 3 05/06/14 10:56 a.m.

Dizzie Gillespie and Charlie ParkerImage courtesy of Frank Driggs Collection

The NPR 100: "Ko Ko"Tom Vitale reports on the Charlie Parker tune that almostsingle-handedly gave rise to bebop. The tune is a selectionfrom National Public Radio's list of the 100 most importantAmerican musical recordings of the 20th Century.(Courtesy NPRJazz.org)

Parker's name first appeared in the music press in 1940, and from this datehis career is more fully documented. From 1940 to 1942 he played in JayMcShann's band, with which he toured the Southwest, Chicago, and NewYork, and took part in his first recording sessions in Dallas (1941). Theserecordings, and several made for broadcasting from the same period,document his early, swing-based style, and at the same time reveal hisextraordinary gift for improvisation. In December 1942, he joined EarlHines' big band, which then included several other young modernists suchas Dizzy Gillespie. By May 1944 they, with Parker, formed the nucleus ofBilly Eckstine's band.

During these years, Parker regularly participated in after-hours jamsessions at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House in New York,where the informal atmosphere and small groups favored the developmentof his personal style and of the new bop music generally. Unfortunately, astrike by the American Federation of Musicians silenced most of therecording industry from August 1942, causing this crucial stage in Parker'smusical evolution to remain virtually undocumented. Though there aresome obscure acetate recordings of him playing tenor saxophone datingfrom early 1943. When the recording ban ended, Parker recorded as asideman (from September 15, 1944) and as a leader (from November 26,1945), which introduced his music to a wider public and to other musicians.

NPR's Jazz Profiles: Charlie ParkerHost Nancy Wilson presents this profile of the great Charlie"Bird" Parker, the man who literally changed the course of jazzhistory with his music.(Courtesy NPRJazz.org)

The year 1945 marked a turningpoint in Parker's career: in NewYork he led his own group for thefirst time and worked extensivelywith Gillespie in smallensembles. In December 1945,he and Gillespie took the newjazz style to Hollywood, wherethey fulfilled a six-weeknightclub engagement. Parkercontinued to work in LosAngeles, recording andperforming in concerts andnightclubs, until June 29, 1946,when a nervous breakdown andaddiction to heroin and alcohol caused his confinement at the CamarilloState Hospital. He was released in January 1947 and resumed work in LosAngeles.

Parker returned to New York in April 1947. He formed a quintet (with MilesDavis, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter, and Max Roach) that recorded many ofhis most famous pieces. The years from 1941 to 1951 were Parker's mostfertile period. He worked in a wide variety of settings (nightclubs, concerts,radio, and recording studios) with his own small ensembles, a string group,and Afro-Cuban bands, and as a guest soloist with local musicians whentraveling without his own group. He visited Europe (1949 and 1950) andrecorded slightly over half his surviving work. Though still beset byproblems associated with drugs and alcohol, he attracted a very largefollowing in the jazz world and enjoyed a measure of financial success.

NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library: CharlieParkerNPR's Basic Jazz Record Library: Charlie Parker NPR's MurrayHorwitz and jazz critic and poet AB Spellman recommendParker's album Confirmation.


2 de 3 05/06/14 10:56 a.m.

(Courtesy NPRJazz.org)

In July 1951, Parker's New York cabaret license was revoked at the requestof the narcotics squad. This banned him from nightclub employment in thecity and forced him to adopt a more peripatetic life until the license wasreinstated (probably in autumn 1953). Sporadically employed, badly indebt, and in failing physical and mental health, he twice attempted suicidein 1954 and voluntarily committed himself to Bellevue Hospital in New York.His last public engagement was on March 5, 1955 at Birdland, a New Yorknightclub named in his honor. He died seven days later in the Manhattanapartment of his friend the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, sister ofLord Rothschild.

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Forpersonal, non-commercial use only. Copying or other reproduction is prohibited.


3 de 3 05/06/14 10:56 a.m.

pbs - jazz a film by ken burns_ selected artist biography - charlie parker

Documents