Yes, Bird lives, for those of us who still remember him, still find comfort, joy, pleasure, and companionship in his music. Great artist always live on through their works as long as they are still reaching and touching people.

 

He died March 12th, 1955.

 

Yes I just realized that I had the date wrong because I assumed from the article that it was today, instead of just being in the Sunday paper for this week.

 

Thanks for that. Jazz is just as relevant as it was 60 years ago and thanks to the Internet there may be even more people listening to it.

I never agreed with the way the question was posed in that other thread. After bebop jazz was finally recognized as an art form it has only been played and enjoyed by a select few. Although musical geniuses, Art Tatum for one, came before Bird no one took the world by storm the way he did.

He always had the pedal to the metal. Certainly not the prescription for a little long life but he got the most out of his 34 years. His protégé, Coltrane, picked up Bird's best habit of almost nonstop practice and lived to the ripe old age of 40. After he kicked Bird's worst and most destructive habits he took jazz beyond being an art form into a transcendent spiritual realm.

He became a family man and provided a wholesome environment for his family, and for a jazz musician he left them some serious cash too. So just as he evolved from the drug and alcohol dependency he also evolved from bebop and composed the last bebop tune, Giant Steps. No wonder so many hate Trane. LOL.

Anyway this is about the greatest alto player ever and arguably the greatest sax player ever. Trane possibly showed us where Bird might have gone if Bird had lived longer.

I never met Trane nor Bird but I did meet and hang out with Jackie McLean and Frank Morgan, two more Bird protégés. Through them I heard a glimpse of what it was to hear the Yardbird live. Those are the best saxophone lessons by the way, to hear how a sax sounds when played by a master.

When I think about it we are all Bird protégés.

He changed the saxophone.

He changed music.

He changed the world!

 

Thanks for that. Jazz is just as relevant as it was 60 years ago and thanks to the Internet there may be even more people listening to it.

I never agreed with the way the question was posed in that other thread. After bebop jazz was finally recognized as an art form and has only been played and enjoyed by a select few. Although musical geniuses, Art Tatum for one, came before Bird no one took the world by storm the way he did.

He always had the pedal to the metal. Certainly not the prescription for a little long life but he got the most out of his 34 years. His protégé, Coltrane, picked up Bird's best habit of almost nonstop practice and lived to the ripe old age of 40. After he kicked Bird's worst and most destructive habits he took jazz beyond being an art form into a transcendent spiritual realm.

He became a family man and provided a wholesome environment for his family, and for a jazz musician he left them some serious cash too. So just as he evolved from the drug and alcohol dependency he also evolved from bebop and composed the last bebop tune, Giant Steps. No wonder so many hate Trane. LOL.

Anyway this is about the greatest alto player ever and arguably the greatest sax player ever. Trane possibly showed us where Bird might have gone if Bird had lived longer.

I never met Trane nor Bird but I did meet and hang out with Jackie McLean and Frank Morgan, two more Bird protégés. Through them I heard a glimpse of what it was to hear the Yardbird live. Those are the best saxophone lessons by the way, to hear how a sax sounds when played by a master.

When I think about it we are all Bird protégés.

He changed the saxophone.

He changed music.

He changed the world!

You said it really well Phil. Bird was and still is The Word.

 

Gotta say that his album "Charlie Parker With Strings" is my absolute favourite. His phrasing, sound, time, feeling & emotion is all there. That's hard to accomplish as an artist.

 

Yeah, Mitch Miller's oboe ain't bad either.

 

Bird's playing still leaves me speechless. I'm not big on comparisons or trying to say who's the best or greatest ever, but Bird is the one exception. Simply untouchable and yes, the greatest sax player who ever lived.

It will be interesting to see if he gets any press here in the U.S., where he was born and lived, come March 12. He wasn't treated well by the 'authorities' in NYC when he was alive.

 

Bird is to jazz what J.S. Bach is to classical music and Jimi Hendrix is to rock. Parker wanted more from his music but could not overcome being his own worst enemy. To this day some of Mingus' accounts of his behavior, especially when he was playing with Bud Powell gives me chills because of how dysfunctional it became towards the end. Nevertheless he is to many the greatest singular genius in jazz and along with Monk, Powell, and Gillespie, the clear leader in that collective group of geniuses

 

Just a side comment about Mitch Miller. Although I could never stand most of the music he made popular and his TV program, the guy was almost genius in how he could zero in on the potential of songs to make the hit parade. Gotta give him credit for his instincts. (I don't think his playing on the Strings album is anything to write home about, though. Competent journeyman stuff.)

 

I think the Miller aside is totally understandable Gary and I think people chiding his actual playing on the recordings is fair game. He could have easily gotten Buddy DeFranco for the dates but instead we get a pseudo modernist/classical oboist who is fairly talented and schooled but sounds stiff paired to Parker's myriad of sounds, nuances, genius, etc. And btw, he also just happened to be the chief A&R executive in the U.S. at the time. To be fair I would say that art & music has had far worse svengali characters than Miller.

 

To be fair I would say that art & music has had far worse svengali characters than Miller.

Ain't that the truth. One guy who really exploited jazz musicians in the late 50's and early 60's was Bob Weinstock the founder of Prestige and its associated labels like New Jazz. He often billed the musicians for studio time if they went over his one-take policy and always paid them a pittance for the gig instead of giving them royalties. He knew they were always in need of cash so took serious advantage of that to make his bundle on their work. Most of the real stars on that label moved over to Blue Note and Impulse as soon as they could get free of their contracts. Miles went to Columbia. The other notorious scam artists were the Chess Brothers, Leonard and Phil, who are said to have made look Weinstock look like a philanthropist by comparison.

Meanwhile, for you listening pleasure, here is some immortal Bird.

 

Yes, I don't think anyone is saying he is not a good oboe player. For me the oboe with Charlie sounds like a square peg in a round hole. Perhaps the title of the album Charlie Parker with Strings gave him the idea of a classical meets Jazz vibe. Or perhaps he thought as an executive for Mercury Records, this is an opportunity to be remembered by including his playing alongside CP. Also I think the Oboe is too prominent in the mix, or it is in my iTunes ver anyways.

 

His death at 34 is one of the great artistic tragedies, an unimaginable loss to the world. I pair him with Mozart, and can only wonder what additional musical treasures we would have if those two geniuses had lived for even just another five years. Parker wanted to go to Europe and study modern classical music. The mind reels at what might have resulted. Coltrane's early death is another terrible loss--where might he have gone, what might he have done, with just another five years? Hard to reconcile oneself to these losses.

 

yes one can only imagine what Parker being tutored by Varese and living in Paris would have brought to the world. Imagine Bird, Dolphy and Coltrane on the same stage...

 

Frank couldn't stand Mitch Miller.

 

Somewhere I heard it said that life is no respecter of persons. The early deaths of so many great artists of all types is proof of that. Clifford Brown, Booker Little, Eric Dolphy, Scott LaFaro, Lee Morgan, Larry Young, and on and on.

 

i wish "life" would leave the artists alone and start taking political types at an early age..like before they are old enough to get in office.

Bird lives!

 

very flattering but i'll leave to more talented people than myself. Besides, I see Terence Howard playing a thinner Mingus and was given no choice but to go to anger management classes and him complaining bitterly about it to Bird, Trane, and Dolphy...

 

You must have been reading my mind because I was trying to figure out who to get to play Mingus but couldn't decide. I was leaning towards Cuba Gooding Jr. but realized he is a dead ringer for Dizzy. But now I just realized that Clarence Williams III would be a perfect Mingus. This is basically the cast of The Butler and the director of that film could do this one to a T. And of course Oprah has to be in it as Alice.