Bird (Charlie Parker)

Link (courtesy of Professor Tommy D.): http://www.charlie-bird-parker.com/

Name: Charlie "Yardbird" Parker
Born: August 29, 1920
Died: March 12, 1955
Instrument: Alto Saxophone

Interesting Trivia:
Bleeding Gums Murphy on The Simpsons was modeled after Bird.

Where does the nickname come from?
Charlie Parker loved chicken. Good old fashioned homestyle fried chicken. He is also known as "Yardbird", but the shortened version "Bird" is the more frequently used nickname.

The song "Lullaby of Birdland" is referring to a New York jazz club established in 1949 that was named after him.

Lullaby of Birdland (look up under: Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing)

Lullaby of birdland, that's what
I always hear when you sigh
Never in my woodland
Could there be words to reveal
In a phrase how I feel

Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Bill and coo when they love
That's the kind of magic
Music we make with our lips
When we kiss

And there's a weepy ol' willow
He really knows how to cry
That's how I cry in my pillow
If you should tell me
Farewell and goodbye

Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
Kiss me sweet & we'll go
Fliyin' high in Birdland
High in the sky up above
All because we're in love

Starting Out: Everyone Has Bad Days
Bird quit school at the age of 15 to follow the dream and become a musician. He didn't realize that jazz songs were only played in a few keys, so he learned the songs in all keys. This, of course, is a marvelous way to learn to play something. But Bird didn't start out as a legend. In fact, once he tried to play Body and Soul in double time on a gig and was laughed off the stage. Another time, while jamming with Count Basie's orchestra he got lost playing I Got Rhythm and the drummer, Jo Jones, threw a cymbal at the young Bird's feet. This is probably the best motivation for learning, and Bird did some real wood-shedding during the subsequent years.

Bebop
Every single sax player wants to play like Charlie Parker. All of them. Parker was a leading figure in the bebop scene in New York. He soloed by building chords on the higher intervals of a song's harmonies, something that sounds incredibly strange unless you are used to it. Fast tempos and a sense of liberation from the original melody-based soloing of the days before were his signature. Also, the flatted fifth is one of the key aspects of Bebop. Strongly dissonant ("wrong" sounding), it soon became just as common as the undetermined thirds and sevenths in traditional blues. Between these, and the tritone substitution, and the diatonic scale, and the modal jazz of the soon to evolve "hard bop" the danceable jazz of the old days was quickly being replace by the frantic, nervous, fragmented and chaotic.

Bebop Scales
Bebop Minor -> I - II - bIII - IV - V - VI - bVII
Bebop Dominant -> I - II - III - IV - V - VI - bVII - VII
Bebop Half-Diminished -> I - bII - bIII - IV - bV - bVI - VII

And example of tritone substitution:
A progression of -> IIm7 - V7 - I
Would become -> IIm7 - bII7 - I

Downfall
Bird had a car accident as a teenager and developed a morphine addiction while in hospital. This soon developed into a heroin addiction which created the illusion for many that his musical genius was related to the drug use, and unfortunately it may have led to many habits in later musicians. Charlie Parker eventually died while watching Tommy Dorsey on television in a hotel room. The cause of death was officially pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but drug and alcohol abuse had made him so haggard that the coroner mistakenly estimated Bird to be between 50 and 60. He had a wife, a daughter Kim Parker, who is a musician, and a son Baird Parker.

"BIRD LIVES!!" -- Ted Joans

The above is a lead sheet for All My Tomorrows. It gives the melody and the chord changes, and the rest is improvised by the players. This is why jazz is said to be "intellectual music". The players have to know their changes, know what they can do with the changes that will work, and be able to do so at a lightning fast tempo... most of the time while stoned out of there trees. (Let's face it here, it is too often the case.)
A little secret: While improvising in a solo, if you hit a note that sounds wrong, slide it a semitone up or down, and chances are it'll sound better. Never sit too long on a dissonant note, unless you know what you are doing, and are doing it on purpose.

The following mp3 is a sample of Bird playing along with the great Miles Davis (trumpet):

[file removed, available upon request]

The file isn't complete, but you get a good feel for his playing style. Bird's playing is completely unique, his tone has never been matched. A good horn-player's tone is like a man's voice, completely his own. When you listen to the soloing, see if you can hear where the tune would fit in underneath it. It's tricky, but there are clues in places as to where in the chorus he is.

Everyone wants to play like Charlie Parker, no one ever will.

(I will be removing the old mp3's at the end of every week, cause I'm sure I'll be breaking every copyright law known to man. If anyone objects to me putting up the recordings, I will take them down, just request it.)