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What A Life

This is the place where I will write everything weird that comes in my way of life. I invite all of you to share your experiences, similar or otherwise. Vent out your anger and disappointments here, so that we could enjoy our time out there.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

By: Khayyam Saleem



Charles Christopher Parker JR. was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas. His ethnicity was black. His parents’ names were Charles and Addie Parker. When Charlie was still a young boy, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz, blues, and gospel music were prosperous.

In 1931, at the age of eleven, he learned how to play the saxophone. At the age of fifteen, Charlie Parker showed an enormous amount of concentration in playing the alto saxophone. Soon, Charlie Parker was playing in local bands until 1935, when he left his school to pursue a musical career.

From 1935 through 1939, Parker worked in Kansas City with several local jazz and blues bands, from which he had improved his playing of the alto saxophone since he had taught himself how to play. In 1936, Charlie married Rebecca Ruffin. When they had married, Rebecca Ruffin was only sixteen years old. She had been shy for a week before their marriage. In the time of 1938, Charlie Parker joined the band of pianist Jay McShann, whom he took on a tour of Southwest Chicago and New York. Here, he got his nick name Yardbird. There are two stories. Charlie Parker was free as a bird. He is also called Yardbird because while he was touring with Jay McShann, they accidentally ran over a chicken (a yardbird) and Charlie Yardbird Parker insisted they should stop and pick it up so Charlie could have his landlady cook it for him, and they did.

A year later, Parker traveled to Chicago and was a regular performer at a club on fifty-Fifth Street. Charlie Parker soon moved to New York. He washed dishes at a local food place where he met Biddy Fleet, the man who taught Charlie Parker about instrumental harmony. Shortly afterwards, Charlie Parker returned to Kansas City, Missouri to attend his father’s funeral. Once Charlie reached Kansas City, he joined Harlan Leonard’s Rockets and stayed for five months. In 1939, Charlie visited New York, and he stayed there for nearly a year, working as a professional musician and often participating in jam sessions. The New York atmosphere greatly influenced Charles Christopher Parker JR’s harmonious technique.

Then, 1939, Charlie Parker reunited Jay McShann’s pop group. In 1940, Jay McShann made Charlie in charge of the reed section in his band. Throughout the two couples of years Parker stayed in the midst of the McShann band, he got to do many solos including the 1941 hit Confessing the Blues. In 1942, while Charlie was on an expedition with Jay McShann, Charlie Parker performed in jam sessions at a place called MONROE’S & MINTON’S PLAYHOUSE in Harlem. There Charlie got the attention of up-and-coming jazz artists Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. In 1943 he married Geraldine Scott. Then, in 1945, Charlie Parker broke with Jay McShann and joined Earl Hines for eight months.


The year 1945 was extremely important for Charlie Parker. During that time he led his own group in New York and also worked with Dizzy Gillespie in quite a lot of ensembles. In December, Charlie and Dizzy Gillespie took their music to Hollywood on a six-week long nightclub tour. Charlie Parker continued to work in Las Angeles until June 1946, when he suffered a nervous breakdown and was confined at a state hospital. After his release in 1947, Charlie Parker returned to New York and formed a quintet that performed some of his most eminent tunes.



From 1947 to 1951, Charlie Parker worked in a quantity of nightclubs, radio studios, and other venues performing solo or with the accompaniment of other musicians. In 1948, Charlie married Doris Sayder. This was his third wife. The he had divorced 3 times in his life. His last wife before he died was Chan Richardson, whom he married in 1950. He had five children. Also in 1947 through 1951, he visited Europe where he was cheered by devoted fans and did numerous recordings. March fifth, nineteen-fifty-five, was Charlie Parker’s last public engagement at Birdland, a nightclub in New York named in Parker’s honor.


Charles Christopher Parker Jr. died on March 12, 1955 in New York. It happened in a friend’s apartment. He died at the young age of thirty-five because of pneumonia. He was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Kansas City Missouri.
Charles "Yardbird" Parker was an amazing saxophonist who gained wide recognition for his brilliant solos and innovative improvisations. He was, without a doubt, one of the most influential and talented musicians in jazz history.



Bibliography

For more in formation, please visit the following links:

http://www.nndb.com/people/676/000026598/ Charlie Parker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://www.cmgworldwide.com/music/parker

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