Jazz Articles about Charlie Parker

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

Charlie Parker: At Jirayr Zorthian's Ranch, July 14, 1952

by David Rickert
September 16, 2006

Jirayr Zorthian was a painter and sculptor whose large ranch was known for wild parties attended by hordes of intellectuals, artists and naked women frolicking about. Thus it's easy to see why Charlie Parker wound up there in 1952. This concert captures a moment that is mentioned in every serious Parker discography, but is only available now for the first time.

This session was not a formal concert performance, but rather an informal musical party, and thus featured ...

Charlie Parker with Lennie Tristano: Charlie Parker with Lennie Tristano: Complete Recordings

by Greg Thomas
August 18, 2006

This recording, a fine addition to Charlie Parker's oeuvre, documents Lennie Tristano's extensions of the bebop idiom. Considered by some to be more of a cult figure with a small school of followers than a recognized major innovator of jazz, Tristano's contributions may now be viewed at in a better light. Parker's seminal place in the pantheon of jazz gods has long been established and rightfully so. Tristano himself once said, “If Charlie Parker wanted to invoke plagiarism laws, he ...

Charlie Parker: The Genius of & Blue Bird

by AAJ Staff
October 2, 2005

By P. Christopher Dowd

To approach the aesthetic history of jazz would unequivocally lead to Charlie “Bird Parker. With the majority of musicians, we speak of their contributions to the musical lexicon in terms of what they added to the foundation. In the case of Charlie Parker, he didn't just contribute, he pulverized all that preceded him with his blinding-speed rhythm, phrasing and soloing. Parker, along with fellow luminaries Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell ushered in ...

Charlie Parker: Liveology

by AAJ Staff
April 27, 2005

Back in the days of vinyl, I remember Everest as a reissue label that issued live Charlie Parker material in haphazard fashion, with little or no discographical information and muddy sound. Boris Rose airchecks were thrown in with tracks from Bird's 1950 Birdland session with Fats Navarro and Bud Powell, and it was often left to the listener to sort things out. But now, Empire Musicwerks has acquired the Everest catalogue, and with this notable compilation, the label has begun ...