Jazz Articles about Charlie Parker

like 820

Unpacking My Bird... A Discovery Most Joyful!

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 2, 2008

It is about thirty short strides, from my office in the cellar of my home, to a storeroom, where I keep the boxes-full of CDs that have remained unpacked since I have moved into this town home. But today will be different. I have something more to look forward to. Something I have waited a long time for. So I have decided to descend to the storeroom to re-evaluate an important part of my collection. Now I ...

like 3,007

John Taylor's Jazz Caricatures: Charlie Parker

by John Taylor
February 13, 2008

About John Taylor For me, art and music flow into a creative confluence. Encouraged by my family to draw and play the drums at an early age, I continue to find expression in these art forms. Motivation for a career in art and music developed in the 1960's as I observed theme park caricaturists at work and listened to recordings of the inimitable Buddy Rich. Gifted editorial caricaturist, David Levine, also influenced my artwork.

like 656

Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker

by J. Robert Bragonier
October 16, 2007

Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker Brian Priestley Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19--532709-0 2007 Brian Priestley is a recorded jazz pianist and arranger with extensive British jazz-radio experience to boot, and discovering that a biographer is himself a musician tends to impress me. Priestley is also co-author of The Rough Guide To Jazz (now in its fourth edition) and biographer of both bassist Charles Mingus and saxophonist John ...

like 616

My Life In E-Flat

by Chris May
July 23, 2007

My Life In E-Flat Chan Parker ISBN 1-57003-245-9 Paperback, 191 pages University Of South Carolina Press 1999

The nearest I ever got to meeting alto saxophone and bebop incendiary Charlie “Bird" Parker was attending an auction of objects once owned by or associated with him. Held in London in 1994 by the international art auctioneers, Christie's, the prize exhibit was the white plastic saxophone played by Parker during his celebrated ...

like 506

Charlie Parker: Bird & Diz

by Samuel Chell
April 14, 2007

A 1950 recording released on a 10" LP in 1952, this session was conceived by Norman Granz as an opportunity to win for Charlie Parker a larger audience by showcasing him in the company of jazz stars playing “pretty tunes written by good songwriters. But with the exception of “Melancholy Baby" these are exactly the same kinds of bebop heads based on blues and “Rhythm" chord changes that Bird had recorded at Dial and Savoy. What distinguishes the album--apart from ...

like 512

Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie: Bird And Diz

by Chris May
April 3, 2007

Charlie Parker played in some strange settings during his career--with a cowboy band in Hollywood, a “Gypsy" string trio in a Manhattan restaurant, the street busker Moondog, and several klezmer bands--but such liaisons tended to be random, unrecorded encounters in clubs and restaurants. Aside from a 1945 session which included the novelty hipster, vocalist and guitarist Slim Gaillard and the New Orleans drummer Zutty Singleton, which was issued under Gaillard's name, bop's pre-eminent saxophonist preferred to record with carefully chosen, ...

like 562

Charlie Parker's telegrams to Chan Parker, on hearing of the death of their daughter

by Bill Siegel
March 31, 2007

Chan, please help me Dropping from the wires, a cry hangs in the air like a dustcloud about the shoulders of the man alone working its way into the wrinkles of his coat the cracks of his face filling his jowls, bending his neckChan, please help In his head, he works over one word tries it out on the lampposts, the hydrants the curbstones Like last night's music ...