Charlie Parker
What do the names Duke Ellington,
Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie
and Miles Davis all have in common? All are jazz greats, but none
are as "bird-like" as Charles "Yardbird" Parker
Jr. Parker got the nickname "Yardbird" while traveling to
a "gig" with the Jay McShann Orchestra. The car he was
riding in accidentally ran over a chicken and Parker insisted on
taking the dead "yardbird" and fixing it up for dinner at
their destination, rather than having it go to waste.
Perhaps the greatest young talent in jazz history, Parker was an
excellent musician living in a dark, cruel world. Drugs, alcohol,
and devastation all influenced Parker’s live, as the affected his
father’s. But through it all, Parker and his incredible musical
ability produced many great achievements.
Parker was born on August 29,1920 in Kansas City, Kansas, just about
the same time jazz was being invented by a new generation of African
American musicians. He was born to Charles Parker Sr., a singer and
dancer on the black vaudeville circuit, and Addie Parker, a
housewife. Because Parker’s father was away most of the time
entertaining, his only true parent was his mother.
When his father was home, the young Parker liked to listen to his
father play the piano. His father’s absence from home led to him
having affairs and alcoholism. When Parker turned eight, he and his
mother moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Shortly after this move,
Parker’s father died in a drunken quarrel. But other than those
tragedies involving his father, Parker’s childhood went well.
Parker received excellent grades while attending Attuck’s Public
School, and although he liked music, his favorite hobby was reading.
At age thirteen, he entered Lincoln High School. He was enrolled in
the overcrowded high school’s famous band program, and quickly
pick up his first instrument, the baritone horn. Soon, Parker grew
bored with the baritone and it’s long, low notes, so he switched
to his preferred instrument, the alto saxophone. His mother bought
one for him that was in very poor shape using $45 of her salary
earned by cleaning houses. He quickly mastered the instrument’s
basics and joined the "Deans of Swing." It performed at
the high school dances and other school events. By fourteen, Parker
knew his future would be in music.
When Parker wasn’t diligently practicing, he was out at jazz
clubs, picking up jazz concepts. Around this time, the Ruffins moved
in with Parker and his mom. Fanny Ruffin, Addie Parker’s dear
friend, had just gone through a divorce and she needed a place to
stay with her six children. Parker got very close to the oldest
daughter, Rebecca in that time. Even when Fanny Ruffin thought
Parker and Rebecca’s relationship was "improper" and
moved the family away so they couldn’t see each other, they
continued to meet secretly. The two were married when Parker was
only fifteen.
Meanwhile, Parker grew more and more dedicated to his beat up old
sax. He would sometimes skip school to practice, and spent every
night listening to jam sessions at jazz clubs. He even participated
in one of the sessions, but humiliated himself because of his lack
of knowledge in music theory. That experience prompted him to spend
many hours learning the different keys and the difference between
major and minor. Parker practiced scales for hours and hours. By
1936, he felt ready to start his professional music career.
Parker started out his career slowly by performing in small
regional bands in Kansas City. Unfortunately, for some unknown
reason, he also began doing heroine at about the same time. By 1937,
Parker was hired to be a 2nd alto sax in a band belonging
to Buster Smith, previously a member of the Count Basie Orchestra.
After becoming like father and son, Buster left for New York City
looking for opportunities for his new band. Once there though, he
decided not to return to Kansas City and his band broke up.
Parker also decided to leave Kansas City to search for more and
better opportunities. So, he pawned his sax for a ride on a freight
train to Chicago. Just before he left, his first son was born;
Francis Leon Parker. After arriving in Chicago, Parker made friends
with a fellow "jammer" named Goon Gardener. Goon gave
Parker needed clothes, food, and a clarinet to play until he earned
enough money to buy another sax.
Soon after, Parker pawned his friend’s clarinet to buy a bus
ticket to New York City. Once there, Parker found Buster and settled
there for a short time. While in New York, Parker developed his own
style of improvisation, using 9-13 intervals away from the melodic
note. Parker’s family life wasn’t going nearly as well as his
musical career was; in 1939, he and Rebecca divorced.
It was in 1939 when he joined the Jay McShann Orchestra. This
orchestra toured all over the country. It was when the orchestra was
in Wichita, Kansas that Parker made his first recordings. In 1941,
the orchestra made its first record with the Decca Record Company.
The tune recorded was titled "Hootie Blue" and featured
Parker. After vocalists became part of the orchestra, Parker decided
in August of 1942 to pursue his own career in New York City. He soon
settled in New York and started playing in clubs along 52nd
street. This stretch was simply known as "The Street" and
ran between 5th and 7th avenues.
A year later, Parker married his second wife, Geraldine Scott.
But most of his time was still devoted to music. Things didn’t go
well for him in terms of earning a living and his marriage suffered.
He soon left his wife, separating instead of divorcing. As work
became harder to find, Parker became more and more disturbed. He
turned to heroine for relief, which made his life even more
difficult.
One day in 1946, after returning to his hotel, he caused a
disturbance in the lobby and started a fire in his room. That led to
his being committed to Camarillo State Hospital, a California
institution for the mentally ill. Going there though was probably
the best thing to ever happen to his health. He broke his
dependencies on liquor and heroine, had plenty of sleep, and ate
full nutritious meals. Some of the constructive activities he
participated in were leading and playing in the band at the
hospital, and working in the veggie garden. He quickly gained back
his health, and after six months, resumed his music career.
After returning to New York City, Parker put together his own
group. It was comprised of Miles Davis (trumpet), Max Roach (drums),
Duke Jordan (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), and himself on sax. He and
his band worked mainly on The Street at clubs. However, in 1947,
they recorded songs like "Honeysuckle Rose,"
"Embraceable You," and "Bird of Paradise" for
the Dial and Savoy Record Companies.
On September 29, 1947, Parker was invited to perform with former band mate
Dizzy Gillespie and his band at Carnegie Hall. That concert
broke previous attendance records, and all who went adored the two
former band mates, as they "flew" on stage.
Later that year, Parker and his band toured across the country
with a Philharmonic orchestra, which lasted until the start of 1948.
After the successful tour, they returned to New York City to work at
the Royal Roost, a Broadway nightclub.
Through out this good time in Parker’s life, he had remained
involved with his wife-to-be, Doris Snyder. They married in 1948,but
split up without a legal divorce less than a year later. Parker also
started heroine again, and the addiction got worse after the break
up. Because Parker and his music was getting more and more popular
with time, young musicians began to look to heroine as the key to
success. This was not true though, and Parker made sure he set
whoever thought that way straight. "Any musician who says
he’s playing better either on ‘tea’, the ‘needle’, or when
he is ‘juiced’ is a plain straight liar," Parker is quoted
saying for Downbeat Magazine in 1949.
May 1949 brought an invitation to Parker to perform at the 2nd
annual Paris Jazz Festival. His trip also gave him new improvisation
ideas of mixing jazz and classical styles. One of his early attempts
at this was the recording of three albums of "Bird with
Strings." Many fans and critics didn’t like this new attempt
at all, but grew to appreciate it with time.
At the same time, Parker resumed a relationship with a jazz fan
he met at a club called Chan Richardson. Although they never
married, Chan changed her last name to Parker and lived with him.
They had two children; Pree was born in 1952, but died in 1954, and
Baird who was born in 1953.
Birdland, the New York jazz club named after Parker opened in 1949.
He also performed at Carnegie Hall again, but this time with his
quintet for the Modern Jazz All-Star Concert later in the year.
A European tour followed in 1950, adding to his fame. He was
accompanied by a group of Swedish beboppers across northern Europe.
When he wasn’t performing, he was partying! While in Europe,
Parker was given a large amount of drugs and alcohol, and
unfortunately, was unable to complete the tour because of it.
Drugs seemed to be getting Parker in to more and more trouble
with time, when in 1951, New York City Police found him in
possession of heroine. As a result, Parker’s cabaret card was
taken, leaving him in financial trouble. He had to go out of state
to work for long periods of time. Having his card taken also gave
him a reputation of being unreliable and unpredictable, so when he
did get his card back in 1953, no clubs desired his performances.
With everything going wrong, and Murphy’s Law in effect, Parker
attempted suicide twice by drinking iodine in 1954. His health was
deteriorating quickly, and it was only a matter of time until Parker
died on March 12, 1955. He passed away after succumbing to a heart
attack, pneumonia, ulcers, and cirrhosis of the liver. Although he
lacked a sense of principle, his love, talent and dedication for
music lived on, and still does to this day. Bird is still considered
one of the all-time jazz greats and has influenced many jazz
musicians how followed him.
Lauren Peterson |
