Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW February 6, 2021

Charlie Parker: Be Bop Live

Read "Be Bop Live" reviewed by Mark Corroto

The name of the record label is ezz-thetics, which was also a composition by George Russell and an album of the same name (which featured Eric Dolphy) released by Riverside Records in 1961. Maybe a better moniker for the label is “Lest We Forget." Not that we could ever abandon Charlie Parker, but today when streaming services replace CDs and LPs, which also replaced 78s and live radio broadcasts (the streaming service of its day), Parker has the possibility of ...

BOOK REVIEW December 27, 2020

Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California

By Douglas Groothuis

Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California David Chisholm: writing drawing and lettering; Peter Markowski: colors 144 Pages ISBN: 978-1940878386 (13) Z2 Comics 2020 History remembers (and misremembers) the greats of human achievement. They are celebrated, critiqued, deemed over-rated, deemed under-rated, interpreted, and reinterpreted through myriad forms of expression, such as books, articles, films, poems, and plays. Charlie Parker (aka Bird), the alto saxophonist and composer, is one such great as a pioneer ...

RADIO December 26, 2020

Donald Byrd & Lou Donaldson

By Joe Dimino

In honor of the new jazz book Sittin' In by Jeff Gold, we dedicate an entire hour to the music of the 1940s and 1950s. The hour begins with Charlie Parker and ends with Dizzy Gillespie. In between those titans, we profile a huge swath of jazz music and hear from the author about the book, that era and the current jazz silence we are living through. A much needed book and era during these 2020 times of ours. Cheers.... ...

BOOK REVIEW September 10, 2020

Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California

By Mark Sullivan

Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California David Chisholm: writing drawing and lettering; Peter Markowski: colors 144 Pages ISBN: 978-1940878386 (13) Z2 Comics 2020 Bebop pioneer Charlie Parker came to California in December, 1945 to play alto saxophone in trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band at Billy Berg's Hollywood jazz club. Their reception was mixed, with many in the audience unable to embrace the bebop revolution. When the two month residency ended Parker stayed behind, ...

RADIO September 4, 2020

August Birthdays

By Marc Cohn

August birthdays this week, celebrating the centennials of Charlie Parker, singer Jimmy Witherspoon and bassist George Duvivier. George only did one session as a leader for a French label, which I have never been able to find. So, we pair him with other August celebrants: Jimmy Rushing, Lester Young, Arnett Cobb and Art Farmer. We also celebrate with Bennie Maupin (still with us at 80) as a sideman with Herbie Hancock and Jack DeJohnette (also his birthday). And there are ...

HISTORY OF JAZZ August 29, 2020

Charlie Parker: In Praise of Bird on His 100th Birthday!

By Victor L. Schermer

A hundred years ago, on August 29, 1920, soon after jazz was born, Charlie Parker came into this world, and in the 35 years of a life cut short by addictions and impulse-driven living, he changed the face of the music. His innovations as one of the creators of bebop and his stunning sound and virtuosic saxophone playing changed the way music is composed and played, not only in jazz but most other musical genres as well. The changes he ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 2, 2020

Charlie Parker: Birth Of Bebop - Celebrating Bird At 100

By Mark Corroto

Let's face it, there is absolutely nothing new to say about the music of Charlie Parker, unless (insert joke here) you happen to be Phil Schaap. Lao Tzu's quote “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long" is fitting. John Coltrane was 40 when he died in 1967, Eric Dolphy 36 in 1964, and Clifford Brown died at 25 in 1956. Parker was dead at the age of thirty-five in 1955. His legend has grown larger with ...