Charlie Parker at 100: Part 2

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, I posted about the five reasons why Charlie Parker was such an important jazz figure. I also posted about his first accomplishment, the invention of bebop with Dizzy Gillespie in 1945. Today, let's look at the second reason—his ability to improvise fluidly at a high speed. Speed was essential to bebop for several reasons.

First, jam sessions held at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem in the early 1940s was a laboratory for bebop's inventors, a small group of superb musicians that included not only Parker and Gillespie but also Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke. Those who stood out on stage had a rare gift for improvising fast and for playing complex lines. The result provided audiences with an electrifying thrill.

Second, high-speed improvisation and complex lines were also a defense strategy. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the blues was a folk form in the Deep South shared among Black musicians who expressed the misery of field work, low wages, racism and injustice.

By the 1920s, with the rise of the recording industry, the blues moved into the recording studios of the North and West. But composers of blues songs found it impossible to register their songs with ASCAP. The sole publishing company kept Black blues artists out through a tiered payment system. ASCAP feared watering down its prestige built up by prolific white composers of theatrical shows and losing its leverage to seek payment from those who performed and recorded their standards.

ASCAP viewed the blues as generic and not original, so prolific writers such as Jelly Roll Morton were denied membership or admitted only to ASCAP's lowest payout tier. As a result, Morton's many works, including King Porter Stomp, were recorded by dozens of white bands without having to pay him royalties. ASCAP, it turned out, collected the royalties but never turned them over to him.

In short, Black blues musicians were cheated out of their art and payments because whites who controlled publishing rights found a way to avoid doing so. Bebop musicians were keenly aware of the larceny. To prevent their music and livelihood from winding up in the same boat, one defensive measure was to improvise at a high speed and unleash torrents of complex lines.

Improvisation was impossible to rip-off, especially if played fast. Not only were the solos difficult to transcribe, they were impossible to duplicate. As for music publishing, once BMI was founded in 1939, jazz musicians were able to publish their original bebop songs, since BMI had an open-door policy when it came to composers, not a tiered payout system like ASCAP.

Which brings us to Charlie Parker, who played faster, more fluidly and more imaginatively than anyone else. His fleet, soulful, bluesy tone not only won hearts but also created a moat around his creative product and talent, making him impervious to theft.

Here are Charlie Parker recordings taken at a fast clip:

Here's Carvin' the Bird on February 26, 1947 for Dial in Hollywood, with Howard McGhee (tp), Charlie Parker (as), Wardell Gray (ts), Dodo Marmarosa (p), Barney Kessel (g), Red Callender (b) and Don Lamond (d)...



Here's Donna Lee for Savoy on May 8, 1947, with Miles Davis (tp), Charlie Parker (as), Bud Powell (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Max Roach (d)...



Here's Crazeology for Dial on December 17, 1947 with Miles Davis (tp), J.J. Johnson (tb), Charlie Parker (as), Duke Jordan (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Max Roach (d)...



Here's Bird Gets the Worm for Savoy on December 21, 1947, with Miles Davis (tp), Charlie Parker (as), Duke Jordan (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Max Roach (d)...



Here's Blues on Clef in April 1950, with Charlie Parker (as), Hank Jones (p), Ray Brown (b) and Buddy Rich (d)...



And here's Anthropology on March 31, 1951 at Birdland in New York, with Dizzy Gillespie (tp), Charlie Parker (as), Bud Powell (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Roy Haynes (d)...



Charlie Parker news. A bunch of Charlie Parker product is coming this year:

Charlie Parker: His Music and Life, a revised edition by Carl Woideck, is out now from the University of Michigan Press. Go here.

Graphic novel. Z2 Comics will release the graphic novel, Chasin’ The Bird: Charlie Parker In California, which chronicles the story of Bird’s time in Los Angeles starting in December 1945. Go here.

Verve box. Later this year, Verve/UMe will release a vinyl box set of Parker’s complete Mercury and Clef 10” albums featuring David Stone Martin’s iconic illustrated covers. Charlie Parker: The Mercury & Clef 10-Inch LP Collection will include five extraordinary albums Parker recorded for Norman Granz’s pre-Verve imprints: Bird and Diz, Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker Plays South Of The Border, Charlie Parker With Strings and Charlie Parker With Strings (Vol. 2). The LPs will feature newly remastered audio from the original analog tapes and will include faithful reproductions of the classic artwork and packaging for the first time in more than six decades.

David Stone Martin. The cover art of several Parker album featuring David Stone Martin’s iconic illustrations are also now available for purchase as archival quality, framed canvas prints exclusively via uDiscover. Go here.

Bird on Savoy. Craft Recordings will release The Original Savoy 10-inch Collection on CD in November. The collection, featuring newly restored and remastered audio, highlights Parker’s recordings for Savoy Records from 1944-1948. Previously released by Craft Recordings on LP earlier this year, the set features performances by jazz legends Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Bud Powell, Max Roach and more. Go here. 

Bird scores. For musicians wishing to investigate Parker’s music firsthand, Hal Leonard celebrates the 100th anniversary of Bird with the deluxe hardcover Charlie Parker: The Complete Scores book featuring note-for-note transcriptions of 40 classic performances for saxophones, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Go here.