100th Anniversary of Charlie Parker's Birth

[Prairie Sage]

Today is the 100th anniversary of Charlie Parker's birth. There are few musicians whose entrance on the scene makes a demarcation, a before and after. I won't get into a discussion of others here, rather just give the examples of Louis Armstrong and Jimi Hendrix. Charlie Parker was another. Most of what you have probably heard of Parker is blistering solos on alto saxophone. Here I am linking the Ballad Medley from the Charlie Parker Jam Session LP. Charlie is the second soloist. I've always loved this particular 17 minutes of Jazz.



List of solos:
Ballad Medley (17:23)
3a All The Things You Are
Soloist – Kessel*Written-By – J. Kern/O. Hammerstein II*
3b Dearly Beloved
Soloist – BIRD*Written-By – J. Kern*, J. Mercer*
3c The Nearness Of You
Soloist – Webster*Written-By – H. Carmichael*, N. Washington*
3d I'll Get By
Soloist – Hodges*Written-By – Ahlert*, Turk*
3e Everything Happens To Me
Soloist – Peterson*Written-By – T. Adair*, M. Dennis*
3f The Man I Love
Soloist – Brown*Written-By – G. & I. Gershwin*
3g What's New
Soloist – Phillips*Written-By – J. Burke*, B. Haggert*
3h Someone To Watch Over Me
Soloist – Shavers*Written-By – G. & I. Gershwin*
3i Isn't It Romantic?
Soloist – Carter*

 

[treeplanter]

Today is the 100th anniversary of Charlie Parker's birth. There are few musicians whose entrance on the scene makes a demarcation, a before and after. I won't get into a discussion of others here, rather just give the examples of Louis Armstrong and Jimi Hendrix. Charlie Parker was another. Most of what you have probably heard of Parker is blistering solos on alto saxophone. Here I am linking the Ballad Medley from the Charlie Parker Jam Session LP. Charlie is the second soloist. I've always loved this particular 17 minutes of Jazz.



List of solos:
Ballad Medley (17:23)
3a All The Things You Are
Soloist – Kessel*Written-By – J. Kern/O. Hammerstein II*
3b Dearly Beloved
Soloist – BIRD*Written-By – J. Kern*, J. Mercer*
3c The Nearness Of You
Soloist – Webster*Written-By – H. Carmichael*, N. Washington*
3d I'll Get By
Soloist – Hodges*Written-By – Ahlert*, Turk*
3e Everything Happens To Me
Soloist – Peterson*Written-By – T. Adair*, M. Dennis*
3f The Man I Love
Soloist – Brown*Written-By – G. & I. Gershwin*
3g What's New
Soloist – Phillips*Written-By – J. Burke*, B. Haggert*
3h Someone To Watch Over Me
Soloist – Shavers*Written-By – G. & I. Gershwin*
3i Isn't It Romantic?
Soloist – Carter*

Good stuff!

Bird flies high - always

 

[Prairie Sage]

This week, on Thursday, our cat Parker who was 17 years old, had nine seizures so we had to say goodbye. On the way home I turned off the freeway and saw some graffiti sprayed on one of the posts on the underpass. It read "BIRD."

 

[CrabHusker]

Parker, Coltrane and Art Pepper are my favorite jazz sax players for a variety of reasons.

That music has moved on and will never be the same, but I frequently revisit it and still very much enjoy it.

 

[Prairie Sage]

Parker, Coltrane and Art Pepper are my favorite jazz sax players for a variety of reasons.

That music has moved on and will never be the same, but I frequently revisit it and still very much enjoy it.

Suggest you listen to Maria Schneider's Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. It's still happening. The virtuosity of many of today's players is off the charts, but when you put them in a big band context they can still swing and play music that's accessible.

There's also a lot of music from the 50s that was rarely heard. Your mention of Art Pepper shows you know some of it. The West Coast Jazz of the 1950s is incredible and fun to listen too, without the anger of the East Coast stuff.

 

[CrabHusker]

Suggest you listen to Maria Schneider's Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. It's still happening. The virtuosity of many of today's players is off the charts, but when you put them in a big band context they can still swing and play music that's accessible.

There's also a lot of music from the 50s that was rarely heard. Your mention of Art Pepper shows you know some of it. The West Coast Jazz of the 1950s is incredible and fun to listen too, without the anger of the East Coast stuff.

I'll dig into that. You mention virtuosity and that's fine, but for some of the old guys like Parker, Coltrane, Chet Baker, Pepper, etc., the music was 'feeling' not precision. I did and still do prefer that kind of music.

Pepper, and jazz in general, was actually an accident for me. One of my High School teachers was a Pepper fan and I was fortunate enough to get an education in Jazz in the late '70's while paying for some of my bad behaviors in detention.

 

[Prairie Sage]

I'll dig into that. You mention virtuosity and that's fine, but for some of the old guys like Parker, Coltrane, Chet Baker, Pepper, etc., the music was 'feeling' not precision. I did and still do prefer that kind of music.

Pepper, and jazz in general, was actually an accident for me. One of my High School teachers was a Pepper fan and I was fortunate enough to get an education in Jazz in the late '70's while paying for some of my bad behaviors in detention.

There's a million places to start. I've been listening a lot to big band music recently since that what was on in the background of most of the TV shows when I was growing up. Not the commercial big bands of Goodman and Miller, but start with Kenton and Woody Herman. Kenton is a little loud for me but the Woody Herman stuff from the mid forties on is great stuff. They only recorded a few albums but the Gerry Mulligan Concert Band from the late 50s is also top notch. Then in the 60s you had the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band. Also the big band charts from Quincy Jones and Oliver Nelson are great. And then, if you can find them, there are 6 or so albums by the Terry Gibbs big band that will knock your socks off. A lot of the players from Kenton and Herman bands arranged and played a ton of the movie and TV soundtracks. Art Pepper started in the Kenton band. One last name, Bill Harris, trombone player for Woody Herman. A unique talent and worth seeking out.

 

[Prairie Sage]

Forgot to mention Art Pepper + Eleven as an album to definitely find and listen to. A "small" big band with arrangements by Marty Paich (although I suspect some of the sax session work was scored by Med Flory) If you read the names of the players, it's a who's who of the "West Coast" sound.