Charlie Parker?

5845 Views 25 Replies 11 Participants Last post by spiderjames, Jul 22, 2007

Jonathan C.

Discussion Starter · Jul 21, 2007

Did Charlie Parker play a Martin Handcraft?
I recently recieved a picture today, and it looked like Charlie Parker was playing a Martin Handcraft? Could this be possable? And if so what model handcraft could he have played?

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saxymanzach

· #2 · Jul 21, 2007

Well, he played a lot of horns, but his main horn was a King Zephyr.

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jacobeid

· #3 · Jul 21, 2007

Didn't he also play a 6m for awhile too? Or am I mistaken? I know that king was his main horn, but he also notoriously played that grafton. I have never heard that he played a martin.

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Jonathan C.

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 21, 2007

Right, however the Zyphers didn't come out until the late 30's early 40's though, right?

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saxymanzach

· #5 · Jul 21, 2007

Because of his drug habits, he often would pawn his horns for money to get his next fix, and ended up borrowing a lot of guys horns (I've heard of at least one case where he pawned the borrowed horn, too!). So, I'm not sure you can really name every horn that he played, probably hundreds. Phil Woods is now in possesion of Parker's King and his wife, haha go Phil!

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coolsax2k7

· #6 · Jul 21, 2007

As Jacobeid said, he even played a plastic Grafton alto. There is a live cd I think it's from Massey Hall and he's with Diz and he's playing a Grafton. I can hear the difference in his sound, too.

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saxymanzach

· #7 · Jul 21, 2007

coolsax2k7 said:
He even played a plastic Grafton alto. There is a live cd I think it's from Massey Hall and he's with Diz and playing his Grafton. I could hear the difference in the sound.

Yeah, greatest live album ever recorded, IMO. It mentions the horn in the liner notes, I think.

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Agent27

· #8 · Jul 21, 2007

Bird played a lot of horns. As mention, he often hocked them (and other players horns as well) to get money for heroin. He played 6M's, Super 20's, Selmers, and even the infamous Grafton plastic also which he used on the famous Massey Hall recording. If you named a horn that was available in the 40's or 50's, I wouldn't be surprised if Bird played on it at some point.

Phil Woods owns (through his late wife) Bird's Super 20. They sold the Grafton to a museum in Kansas City a while back. Phil tells a story of pawning his horn to buy groceries for his wife and Bird's kids. He got called for a gig but his horn was in the pawn shop so he used Bird's Super 20. Charles Mingus walked into the club, saw the horn with Bird's name engraved on it, and gave Phil a dirty look. At the break, Phil got an advance for the gig and went and got his horn out of hock.

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Seasax

· #9 · Jul 21, 2007

he played cigar cutters aswell,
it is possible that he did play one and quite likely,
he played many horns

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saxymanzach

· #10 · Jul 21, 2007

Agent27 said:
Phil Woods owns (through his late wife) Bird's Super 20. They sold the Grafton to a museum in Kansas City a while back. Phil tells a story of pawning his horn to buy groceries for his wife and Bird's kids. He got called for a gig but his horn was in the pawn shop so he used Bird's Super 20. Charles Mingus walked into the club, saw the horn with Bird's name engraved on it, and gave Phil a dirty look. At the break, Phil got an advance for the gig and went and got his horn out of hock.

Yeah, you can hear that story on his concert on Yamaha's Podcasts, its pretty funny.

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Agent27

· #11 · Jul 21, 2007

saxymanzach said:
Yeah, you can hear that story on his concert on Yamaha's Podcasts, its pretty funny.

Yeah, that's where I got it from. I can't remember how much they sold the Grafton for, but I'm thinking in the neighborhood of $200,000. So when anyone asks him if he has Bird's horn he says "Yes, but I only have a few left."

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saxymanzach

· #12 · Jul 21, 2007

Agent27 said:
Yeah, that's where I got it from. I can't remember how much they sold the Grafton for, but I'm thinking in the neighborhood of $200,000. So when anyone asks him if he has Bird's horn he says "Yes, but I only have a few left."

HAHAHA! Yeah, I rolled on the floor when I first heard that.

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spiderjames

· #13 · Jul 21, 2007

Handcraft?

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coolsax2k7

· #14 · Jul 21, 2007

spiderjames said:
Handcraft?

Famous photo. But I never realized it was a Martin.

I seem to remember this pic from the liner notes of my Savoy set. He does some stuff with Miles on it. I guess he may be playing the Martin on those tracks?

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turtle

· #15 · Jul 21, 2007

I don't know what the Grafton went for in its auction in London, but Bird's Super 20 was sold in 2005 at a New York auction for $286,000.

See http://www.guernseys.com/Auctions/PastEvents/Jazz/About.html and look at lot 39 in the prices realized PDF.

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hakukani

· #16 · Jul 21, 2007 (Edited)

Conn:

View attachment 2092

Selmer 'cigar cutter' :
View attachment 2093

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coolsax2k7

· #17 · Jul 21, 2007

More Bird with Martin...

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spiderjames

· #18 · Jul 21, 2007

I wonder how many of these horns were his and how many were borrowed?

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coolsax2k7

· #19 · Jul 21, 2007

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Jonathan C.

Discussion Starter · #20 · Jul 21, 2007

I wonder if my Martin could be one that he played? That would be really cool

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