Home » Jazz Articles » Charlie Parker
Jazz Articles about Charlie Parker
Alto Saxophone
by Bob Bernotas
Of the many members of the saxophone family, the alto and tenor have emerged as its most prominent siblings. From the mid-1920s onward, many big band alto saxophonists have filled a dual role, best personified by the multi-talented Benny Carter, serving as the lead voice in the saxophone section as well as a featured solo improvisor. During that same time, Johnny Hodges began to reveal the alto's soulful, sensual character, applying the instrument to both ballads and blues.
Continue ReadingNow's the Time: Part 1-5
by Sean Murphy
Introduction The life and times of a minor jazz legend are recounted through his narrated memories. In this fictional treatment of jazz music in the mid-to-late 20th century, issues of race, creativity, addiction and, ultimately, redemption, are explored. With a title taken from the immortal Charlie Parker tune, “Now's The Time" is an extended meditation on the artistic life. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 It ...
Continue ReadingClassic Bebop
by Chris M. Slawecki
Bebop played the same part in the history of jazz that rock & roll played in the history of pop: Seemingly equal parts genius, accident, hard work, and willful rebellion, it was born of its turbulent times and forever changed the course of music. Bebop is the sharp dividing line between swing and modern jazz. It was born in the early 1940s from jam sessions led by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianists Bud Powell and ...
Continue ReadingKansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker
by David A. Orthmann
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker Stanley Crouch 365 ISBN:978-0-06-200559-5 Harper Collins 2013 Stanley Crouch's account of Charlie Parker's first twenty-one years isn't a litany of facts and antidotes rendered in an easily digestible form. Not unlike Parker, Crouch is brilliant, bold, ambitious, and mercurial. He delights in conjoining a dazzling array of topics, often introducing a particular subject, moving on to something else, and later on revisiting the ...
Continue ReadingTestimony: A Tribute To Charlie Parker
by Ian Patterson
Testimony: A Tribute To Charlie Parker Yusef Komunyakaa 156 pages ISBN: 978-0-8195-7429-9 Wesleyan University Press 2013 In terms of his global influence and enduring legacy, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker was unquestionably one of the most important artistic figures of the 20th century. Almost sixty years after his premature demise Parker's musical DNA can be detected almost everywhere jazz is played. Parker's music--and in no small measure his myth--has inspired countless jazz musicians but ...
Continue ReadingCelebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker by Gary Giddins
by C. Michael Bailey
Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker Gary Giddins 208 pages ISBN: 978-1-4529-4080-9 University of Minnesota Press 2013 Having read Gary Giddins' revised edition of Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker I am even more committed to my position in my recent review of Stanley Crouch's Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker: “Crouch casts a well-worn story, many times told, within the frame of an exhaustively-researched ...
Continue ReadingKansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker
by C. Michael Bailey
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker Stanley Crouch 365 Pages ISBN: # 978-0-06-200559-5 Harper 2013 Ross Russell, in the cover blurb of his biography of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker Bird Lives--The High Life and hard Times of Charlie “Yardbird" Parker (Quartet Books, 1973), asks “Why should a white man tell this story?" and proceeds to state the obvious: “Firstly, because [as Ross Russell points out] no black man has ...
Continue Reading
