[patmiller]

Apologies if this has been posted before. I tried searching but you can easily get lost in that kind of a search. I am amazed. 1940 and unaccompanied. It's all there.

 

[Agent27]

It was 1936 when he was supposedly laughed off the stage at a jam session, the event that motivated him to study the sax intensely. Imagine going from being humiliated in public to sounding like that in 4 short years. That should be enough motivation for anybody.

It could even be earlier than 1940 though. The video says it was recorded in Kansas City but I think Parker moved to New York in 1939.

 

[FawltyTenor]

Well, as the legend goes he spent time in the Ozarks, for a year or so practicing everything he knew in every key or something like that. When he came back, he was ready to work. It's hard to imagine playing that much, I mean just having that much time.

That's why they call it the "woodshed", right?

Shawn

 

[Saxaholic]

Now a days kids have to go to school and study and get an education.

It's kind of insane to think if you never went to school past the 6th grade, and instead practiced your horn for 12 hours a day, you could make a living from it.

- Saxaholic