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Charlie Parker was
born and raised in Kansas City. He was the only child of Charles and
Addie Parker. There is no evidence that Parker showed musical talent as
a child. Parker's father would have provided some musical influence; he
was a pianist, dancer and singer. Charlie
As a small boy, he sang in the
church choir of a local Catholic Church. Parker's father provided much
musical influence, as he was a piano player and singer in a vaudeville
circuit. Parker grew up listening to jazz bands like Count Basie's and
Bennie Moten's. Although he
sometimes played tenor saxophone, he primarily played the alto
saxophone. He first recorded with Jay McShann's Kansas City orchestra. Parker moved to New York City,
where he emerged as the leading figure in the generation of artists that
created bebop. Building on the innovations of the preceding generation
of players especially Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young —
Parker developed a revolutionary musical vocabulary and style. He worked
with and inspired the most prominent and influential jazz musicians of
the era, producing a series of classic recordings with artists including
Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Christian, Kenny
Clarke, and Miles Davis. Parker's soaring, fast,
rhythmically asymmetrical improvisations could amaze the listener;
nevertheless close inspection shows each line to hold a complete,
well-constructed phrase with each note in place. Parker's harmonic ideas
were revolutionary, introducing a new tonal vocabulary employing 9ths,
11ths and 13ths of chords, rapidly implied passing chords, and new
variants of altered chords and chord substitutions. His tone was clean
and penetrating, but sweet and plaintive on ballads. Although many
Parker recordings demonstrate dazzling virtuoso technique and complex
melodic lines —
the early 'Ko-Ko' is a superb example —
he was also one of the great blues players. His themeless blues
improvisation 'Parker's Mood' represents one of the most deeply
affecting recordings in jazz, as fundamental as Armstrong's classic
'West End Blues.' Parker became an icon for the
Beat generation, and was a pivotal figure in the evolving conception of
the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather
than just a popular entertainer. At various times, Parker fused jazz
with other musical styles, from Igor Stravinsky to Machito, blazing
another path followed later by others.
He died while watching Tommy
Dorsey on television in the suite at the Hotel Stanhope belonging to his
friend and patroness Nica de Koenigswarter. He had suffered tragically
from drug abuse —
as a teenager he developed a morphine addiction while in hospital after
an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. His
heroin addiction ultimately caused his death at the age of 34, after a
lifetime of abuse (though the 'official' cause of death was a bleeding
ulcer and pneumonia). The coroner mistakenly estimated Parker's age to
be between 50 and 60. ALBUMS 1945 "Billie's Bounce" Jazz (Single) Savoy 2002 1953 Jazz at Massey Hall Jazz (Album) Debut 1995 1946 "Ornithology" Jazz (Single) Dial 1989 1950 Charlie Parker with Strings Jazz (Album) Mercury 1988 |
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Parker
was known for often showing up to performances without a horn and
borrowing someone else's at the last moment. At one venue he played on a
plastic Grafton saxophone.
