Charlie Parker

Charlie "Bird" Parker, full name: Charles Christopher Parker Junior ( Kansas City , August 29 1920 - New York , March 12 1955 ) was an American composer and alto saxophonist . Parker is one of the most important names in the transition from traditional to modern jazz . He, along with Dizzy Gillespie , Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, regarded as the inventor of bebop .

Life
Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City and played saxophone since he was seven. He was by no means a child prodigy but practiced like mad. His idol was Lester Young. At fifteen were happening three noteworthy things: Charlie Parker decided to devote himself to music; Charlie Parker was at a jam session by Jo Jones sent degrading manner of stage and Charlie Parker began heroin use (a habit that would draw the rest of his life).

After the flop Jo Jones applied Parker even more fanatical than before and in the years that followed he made ​​steady career in various bands, especially in the jump-blues band of Jay McShann . In December 1939 Parker was located in Harlem, New York. Here was his own style final form when he made his now extensive harmonic knowledge applied during improvisations on the song "Cherokee". It would remain one of his favorite pieces during the rest of his career. In 1941, during a session with the band of Jay McShann the first commercial recording of a Charlie Parker solo, "Hootie Blues" from that moment the inspiration for many a jazz musician and the status of Parker as influential innovator was established definitively.

In 1942 broke McShann and Parker their cooperation. Parker played in several bands since 1944, and formed a team with another jazz innovator: trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie . Bebop broke this definitively as contemporary jazz form.

Charlie Parker and trumpeter Red Rodney (1947), photo by William P. Gottlieb .

In 1946 ended, during a tour in California, working with Dizzy who returned to New York. Parker remained in Los Angeles and hired the promising young trumpeter Miles Davis in. Then something bad happened to him: drug dealer "Moose the Mooche" had to serve a prison sentence and Parker could not therefore come to heroin. Shortly after, during a recording session had played a heartbreaking uneasy version of "Loverman" Parker collapsed psychologically collapsed and he was then more than half a year included in Camarillo State Hospital. (He later wrote a piece titled "Relaxing at Camarillo.")

In January 1947, Parker went back to New York where he again performed occasionally with Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1949, " Birdland "opened a jazz club named after Parker. As a gimmick the room was decorated with many resident birds in cages, which, however, by the smoky atmosphere soon got killed. In the same year left Parker on 'Charlie Parker with strings', accompanied by orchestra, hear another side of his talent. He made several trips to Europe where in the meantime, especially in Paris, lively interest in his music existed.

Charlie Parker played a few Savoy recordings on tenor saxophone, he played tenor on Miles Davis first Savoy label recordings, including songs like "Half Nelson and Sippin'at Bell's

Since 1950 the decline began. Although he still gave performances at times, the drug use began increasingly to take its toll. In 1954, Charlie Parker made two suicide attempts. In 1955 he died, 34 years old.

The labels on which Parker told his Dial , Savoy , Capitol and Verve . There are also many Benedetti recordings and live recordings.

From 1985 to 2006, during the North Sea Jazz Festival awarded the Parker named Bird Award. In 2006 this was renamed the Paul Acket Akward .