Kim Parker: Reminiscing in Jazz

Kim Parker is a marvelously talented jazz vocalist and the step-daughter of both Charlie Parker and Phil Woods. A sensitive, tasteful, and endearing jazz voice, Kim has recorded numerous albums as leader and others as an accompanying artist. She has a marvelously rich history in jazz both as a result of her famous families, as well as those legendary musicians she's encountered in her incredible life. Here, Kim shares memories and reflections in a fascinatingly honest and insightful manner.

All About Jazz: Good morning, Kim. What I thought we might do is spend some time talking about you, talking about your musical career, your musical background.

KP: Just fire away, and let me just tell you, I do tend to go off topic, so let's just see where we go.

AAJ: Well, we are jazz musicians, right?

KP: That's the way we go.

AAJ: Okay. I did a little research this morning on your discography, both the albums you performed for other leaders and then the albums that you did on your own. And what I found really interesting, in addition to your voice and the whole presentation, was that I get a sense that you prefer to sing more original music as opposed to things that pretty much come from the Great American Songbook or whatever. Is that true?

KP: I have always picked the tunes that I wanted to sing.

AAJ: Spotify unfortunately does not list the composers.

KP: Yeah, Spotify doesn't really do justice to the composers. And I don't appreciate that because where would I be without giving credit to to the composers?

AAJ: You and I are very much in agreement that composers, arrangers, all personnel need to be credited on any recording.

KP: Absolutely. My mother taught me when I was 5 years old about who wrote the songs. That's how I was brought up.

AAJ: How have critics described your voice?

KP: Well, the nicest thing, and I can't remember the critic who wrote it, was that "she sings it like she wrote it."

AAJ: When I was listening to your various recordings, I can tell your vocal approach is very touching. It's a precious, intimate voice.

KP: I appreciate that, thank you. Yeah, because I don't get up and sing like anything cheesy. That's not who I am. And I will not stand up and give you a cheesy rendition of anything, and it will break my heart to sit in an audience and listen to anybody giving a cheesy rendition of anything. It crushes me to hear it.

AAJ: Where does that approach come from?

KP: It comes from the bottom of my soul. I was born with it. I don't know where it comes from. It just comes from within me.

AAJ: Do you have perfect pitch?

KP: No, I don't, but I wish I did.

AAJ: Your pitch quality, your intonation on your recordings is dead on.

KP: Thank you so much. But my motive is dead on.

AAJ: Being involved with Chan, Bird, and Phil Woods and all the musicians you encountered in your life, did you ever feel pressure to become a musician, to become a vocalist? Or was that something that came naturally?

KP: No. Not ever. Let me just stop you. It was just inherent. There was nothing put on me, ever.

AAJ: OK, you are a young child and you are with Chan and you are living in Manhattan, and you are visiting all of the clubs, 52nd Street, the nightlife.

KP: That's where I lived. I lived on 52nd Street.

AAJ: What were your impressions as a young child 5-6 years old at that time?

KP: Yeah well, that was my block. That's where I lived. My grandma would give me a quarter every night and I would walk over to 6th Avenue to Ferrara's Delicatessen and get a Hires Root Beer and cupcakes. And I would come back with my little treats of the night and I would sit on the stoop next door at Jack and Charlie's which was a speakeasy during the 20s and I would have my little treats and watch the celebrities go into the 21 Club, the famous nightclub. I would sit there and I would be like a 5 or 6-year-old person sitting out on 52nd Street. But the thing is my "pretend godfather" was the doorman there. Then I'd walk home and Grandma would cut me up an apple into slices and put me to bed.

AAJ: You mentioned your grandmother [Chan's mother]. Was she the person that worked at the Cotton Club?

KP: Yes. She was the hat check girl at the Cotton Club. My grandmother was a fantastic person.

AAJ: What was your impression when you first met Charlie Parker?

KP: Oh, I don't remember the first time that I met him actually, but I do remember us going up to upper Broadway to get me a bicycle. That I remember. Yeah, Bird bought me a bicycle and Bird loved me.

AAJ: Did you ever meet the Baroness?

KP: Yes, I did. I do believe I met Nica when Thelonious Monk died. It was at Fat Tuesday's at the memorial for Monk. It was wonderful because I had never met her before. And she was just wonderful. The funny story was—it was a small, prestigious club—and I was sitting next to Art Blakey who I knew since I was a little girl. And, I was like 30 years old at the time. Art was extremely deaf, and since it was a jazz club, everyone was respectful and quiet. And, Art was talking to me in this really loud voice because he was deaf. And, no one was going to say anything to him since he was Art Blakey. But, Art was a dear man. And my mother had contacted both Art Blakey and Max Roach to try to reach out and straighten my brother Baird out. But, he was sort of unreachable. Mom kept up with people and everybody tried to help everybody else out and that was that.

AAJ: Did you ever meet Thelonious Monk?

KP: No, I never did. But Phil was the person who introduced me to Monk through his music. But when I came to live with Phil, I heard Monk's music.

AAJ: What about the first time you heard Charlie Parker?

KP: Well, I heard him when I came to live with him and I went to Birdland.

AAJ: And Bird was playing there?

KP: And I heard him in person.

AAJ: What year do you think that was? Any idea? It had to be what? Early '50s?

KP: Yeah, probably.

AAJ: So, you probably met all of the people that hung out at Birdland—Pee Wee Marquette and others.

KP: Yes. We would be over on the left of stage and listen to Bird and all the musicians. I'd have a Coke and if I got tired, I'd curl up with mom. I wasn't the center of attraction. But it was a wonderful time for me. I'm so happy to have been there and gone through this period of my life.

AAJ: I would think that one of the misconceptions about Bird that people don't know about, and you've spoken about this before, is that Bird was a very loving family man. Tell us more about that. Tell us more about Bird at home.

KP: Oh, well, Bird was just a cutie. He was a very loving family man.

AAJ: Do you think that Bird was somewhat of a man-child?

KP: Yes, he was a man-child. And I think it's ... 'cause I'm going to cry. I think if Bird had been planted down in a different situation at a different time, he would have been able to grow.

AAJ: And I think also you had mentioned to me that Bird kept his professional playing life outside of the house, and he never had musician friends come over. Is that true?

KP: Well, it's true both for Phil and for Bird. They didn't rehearse and be beboppers at home. Their playing life was internal. They didn't do it.

AAJ: I see. When was the last time you were with Bird?

KP: After my Mom moved with Baird and me to Pennsylvania when I was eight, I remember the last time I saw Daddy. It was the fall and I was walking hand-in-hand with him down our little lane to the taxi waiting to take him to the train back to the city. We were walkin,' just we two. It was a crisp sunny October day and we had to pass through the apple orchard. There were many apples on the ground, covered with drunken yellow jackets going crazy. Daddy and I just kept on and we didn't get stung once, neither of us. It was a very lovely last memory for me to keep.

AAJ: What was your relationship with Baird?

KP: Baird was my younger brother, and he was a pain. He was an annoying little boy. Later, Baird was a great cook. He was very funny. Later, he and I were in a rock band together when we were in France. That was when mom had expatriated to France. She couldn't stand the news on TV about Vietnam. She went to Europe and Phil had two weeks at Ronnie Scott's. That's how Phil wound up in Europe in those years. My mother and I were closer at that time. She was happy to be there. We would go to market and then have wonderfully elaborate four-hour dinners. It was a wonderful time being there, rather than having to see the war on TV. Then we bought a farmhouse outside of Paris that was over 200 years old and fixed it up. Phil and Mom and my sister and brother, Gar lived in the main house. I lived with my husband in the hayloft in the barn. We had to climb a ladder to go to bed. Baird lived in an adjunct to the garage. Baird then went back to America in 1972.

AAJ: Do you remember when Pree was born?

KP: Yes. You know what? Well, because the crib had been set up for her, for Pree and I was sitting there waiting for her to come home.

AAJ: Now for the purposes of our audience, Bird legally adopted you, is that correct? As a child?

KP: No, he "illegally" adopted me. That's what I was told and we never discussed it further. Listen, you wanna know what?

AAJ: Sure.

KP: I thought I was half Syrian until I got ... What is it when you go online and you get, what is it? You go online...

AAJ: Oh, your ancestry?

KP: Yeah. Ancestry online, I thought I was half Syrian. And because my mother had a one-night stand and she told me I was half Syrian, and then I found out like a couple of years ago, Oh, no, you weren't half Syrian, 'cause there's no half Syrian in your blood. Well, shit, man so you don't know until you get your DNA read.

AAJ: Can you share what it indicated.

KP: It was, I'm nowhere near the Middle East, that's all I can tell you.

AAJ: I see.

KP: So, I can't tell you anything about me. It's all a lie, it's all a lie. I have no idea. But you know what in the end it doesn't really matter.

AAJ: That's right, it's all about the music.

KP: Well, it's not all about the music; it's all about who I am and where I wind up and here I am.

AAJ: Tell me a little bit about, Phil Woods, how did you meet Phil with Chan and how that transpired?

KP: Oh, well, Phil was beautiful, he was wonderful to me. He was beautiful to me because my mother was very cruel to me, because after Bird died, my mother was really horrible to me and later on Phil really stood up, he stood up for me. Mom and I became closer later on.

AAJ: Why do you think that was?

KP: She was hard on me. But, that is probably understandable because my mother, who had lost her father when she was 6 years old and here she was the "Queen of 52nd St.," she lost Pree when she was 24, and then my mother lost Bird the year after that. And in 1955 when she was 30, we were in the Delaware River flood and we lost everything. Everything was gone. My mother saved Bird's horns and a few other things, but we lost everything. We lived on the Delaware River and she went back and forth on a boat to the house to save things until they stopped her, since electric lines were down. I had moved everything to the attic. I had some treasures there that didn't get flooded and I got them and have them to this day.

AAJ: So, you lost everything because of the flood?

KP: Yes, we lost everything. So, what happened between my mother and me was because of the loss of Pree, the loss of Bird, the loss of everything, she might have been an understanding mother, but, and she didn't understand that I was devastated, too. So, she didn't nurture me in that way, you know? She didn't protect me in that regard. I had to pull away to protect myself, because I was all I had except for my grandma who lived in New York. So, my mother and I were not close in my younger years, but, we became close later on. That's what I meant by hard on me. She was suffering from her own losses. And, my brother Baird didn't know any of this. He was 2 years old when Pree died and 3 when Bird died. He didn't know. He started smoking when he was 3 years old and everybody thought he was cute and called him "Little Bird." I thought he was obnoxious. What else was I going to think?

AAJ: Oh, God! That's terrible.

KP: Well, that's how it was. And I'm not saying that to be mean to my mother, that's just how it was.

AAJ: No, I understand.

KP: That's just how it was. But, later on Phil was there and he stood the middle ground for me and that was just so kind for him to be there for me because I needed that.

AAJ: And then of course you are living overseas, you're living in France?

KP: No, no. We were still in Pennsylvania, that was before we went to France, but I know it's a little confusing. It's a little confusing and anybody who's reading this, but that's how it is. People have to understand and I think for anybody who's reading this, please understand for anybody whose lives are confused, okay, shake my hand.

AAJ: Right, of course.

KP: That's my life too, so here we are together. We don't have to be confused alone.

AAJ: This is kind of a question from left field, but either with Phil or with Bird or Pree, or anyone in your life, do you ever get the sense that you kind of flash on them or you can sense their presence or something of that kind of...I don't want to say spiritual, but something kind of paranormal, you know what I'm trying to say? It's like you get someone in your mind and they're there and it's not that you want to get rid of them, but they're there, it's almost a tangible thing, do you ever get that with either Bird, Phil, or Chan, or any of the people that you had in your life?

KP: They're all with me every day. And I am so lucky to have had them all in my life.

AAJ: When Clint Eastwood made the movie with Forest Whitaker who played Bird, did they bring you in any way or have you consulting on that film?

KP: Yeah. I helped mom transcribe and edit her book, My Life in Eb (University of South Carolina Press, 1999), on which the movie was based and is still available on Amazon. It was very difficult, because it is not book about Bird, but an intro about my Gram and then the totality of my mother's life. It was difficult to smoothly draw it all together. Clint Eastwood was, of course, only interested in the Bird stuff for the movie. Bird had given mom one of the first reel to reel tape recorders. To economize, Mom would take it to some of his gigs in the city and only record the heads and Bird's solos. After so many years, the tapes were very brittle, so when Clint came to France, they went to a very good studio in Paris and transcribed what they could. Clint then took what he had back to Warner's and had Lennie Niehaus arrange it for orchestra for the soundtrack with Barry Harris on piano. Clint was very cool and reverential about the music and the musicians. Joel Oliansky, who had met my mother years before when there was talk about a project with another studio, had collaborated with her on a rough screenplay. I don't know who added to it here and there afterwards. There is certainly some bit of dramatic license in the film which had no part in my mom's story. I went out to LA and mom came in from France and we stayed there for two weeks during the filming, mostly doing business. I also experienced my first earthquake there.

AAJ: Do you think that Bird's, Chan's, and your stories have been told and have been told properly or do you feel that there's more to be told?

KP: Well, let's put my grandma's story in there too. Let's just not leave my Grandma's story out. And, then the other thing I wanted to tell you is that I was going to be doing this blog with Jeff Robinson. You can go to livebird (dotcom) and you can see about him. He's a saxophonist and writer. I first met him in Kansas City and he did this one-act wonderful play that he had written for Bird. I was prepared to hate it. And he just killed it. We've been friends ever since. He said he always wanted to do this blog thing and he was thinking there's nobody he'd rather do it with than me. I was so thrilled. We're going to try to get that going before summer. We'll see how it goes. It will be up on Spotify. I wanted to give that a mention.

AAJ: Are you doing any lectures or clinics or maybe future recordings, or performances?

KP: No, let me tell you what, I went out last night. No, I don't go out much because, I'm old and I make my own excuses. I went out last night for the first time in a long time. And I went out to listen to my wonderful friend Jesse Green play and my wonderful friend, Joanie Samra sing. And anyway, there was this guy and I'd seen him before, but anyway, he was staring across from me at the bar and it's this wonderful bar around near where I live, but I'd never been there before, but it was a beautiful bar. And anyway, he was sort of staring at me like from a far-off eye. And I was trying to figure out what's with this guy's eye, which is staring off from me, sort of a queer eye. And anyway, so we got up to the third set and Joanie said she was gonna sing "Alfie." Alright, now my long-time accompanist, Eric Doney, that was his favorite song, "Alfie." Alright. So, I said to my accompanist Jesse Green, who is trombonist Urbie Green's son, and who was the pianist last night. I said, that's Doney's favorite song. So. they started playing "Alfie." And I looked at this guy with a queer eye, and I went up to him at the bar at the far end of the bar and I said, "Do you dance?" And he said, "Well, maybe." And I got him up and I danced with this man. This awfully shy man. And I said, "Listen, next time when I see you, don't sit over at the far end of the bar, come sit next to me."

AAJ: Lovely

KP: Well, that's it, I can't change the world but I can change a few folks at a time.

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