Charlie Parker Evolved into “The Birdman” and Changed Jazz Through Bebop
By: Thomas O'Grady
Tags: Music, History, Culture, Jazz, Art

Charlie Parker Evolved into “The Birdman” and Changed Jazz Through Bebop

The iconic saxophonist was born 100 years ago and left a lasting imprint on music and the 20th century during his short life

Photo by Janine Robinson on Unsplash

“Bird’s contribution to all the jazz that came after involved every phase of it. He sure wasn’t the beginning, and he wasn’t the end- but that middle was bulging!” — Dizzy Gillespie.

There is something special about a virtuoso musician that allows them to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.

Since Charlie Parker’s death in 1955, his skillful spirit is still very much alive in the music emanating from the horns of jazz musicians. This year marks what would have been the Birdman’s 100th birthday.

And the sixty-five years since Parker’s passing has seen the lives of Americans change immensely. The Civil Rights Movement occurred shortly after Parker’s death and since that time minorities have made strides towards equality.

The time period leading up to Parker’s discovery was unique in that it allowed for a young and ambitious artist to come onto the jazz scene and make it big. Few people realized at the time that this new icon would be at the forefront of a stylistically new sound known as bebop.

When critiquing a figure of great importance it is important to retrace their roots. Individuals that adapt to the social and economic issues of a time period tend to be the ones that history remembers.

In the late 1920’s the stock market on Wall Street crashed and several other factors led to what would be known as the Great Depression. During a time when most of the country was experiencing a devastating economic depression, Kansas City hosted a phenomenal entertainment industry.

The night clubs that fueled this industry shielded it from the hardships faced by many other parts of the country. Thriving entertainment requires several talented individuals to keep a hot scene on fire.

Many musicians came to Kansas City during the 1930s because it was considered a musical haven. With such a large amount of talent concentrated in an area with a radius of about fifty miles would make it inevitable that new talent would be discovered.

Parker was only a young boy when he first began to discover music. According to the jazz guitarist and composer Jens Larsen, Parker had little parental guidance during his youth. Parker’s father left the family and his mother was forced to work nights to provide for her children. Like most young children seeking a thrill, Parker occupied his time by being mischievous. While wandering around Kansas City in the evenings, Parker would usually find himself sneaking into one of the many music halls that existed in the city.

A lack of authority figures in Parker’s life, in combination with the exciting atmosphere of his childhood, most likely fostered what would become his unique thrill-seeking personality. After all, Parker was not only in search of big things musically, but he was also interested (or became immersed) in the highs and lows of heroin addiction.

Parker’s battle with drugs may have stemmed from seeing his childhood hero Lester Young become afflicted with alcoholism at the end of his career. Another aspect of Parker’s personality was that he was a loner.

Many people who knew Parker described him as such, although his actions would not have left any doubt concerning his status as a loner. Quiet seeking likely gave him the dedication and time needed in perfecting his saxophone trade.

Parker would often frequent a local club known as the Reno Club. This place served both black and white customers and attracted some fairly big names from the area. Parker most likely visited this club so often because his childhood idol, Lester Young, was known to play here very often.

Lester Young is described as one of the tenor saxophone’s “Titans”. Parker looked up to Young so much that he learned to play each one of Young’s solo’s note for note. Young unlike many people had a unique approach to jazz.

On many occasions, the sound that emanated from his horn could be described as very melodic. Also, the resonance of Young’s music was considered to be far more developed than his contemporaries.

One of the reasons why Young was so talented was because of his melodic rhythmic notions that would come to evolve from the beat. Examples of this in Parker's music are pointed out by Giddin’s Visions of Jazz, in which Orintholgy sets a beat of one quarter equals 187. The lines of music progress with scores of eighth and sixteenth runs tied together by little melodic triplets.

In addition to the melodic rhythms, Parker also picked up a stylistic approach from Lester Young. Young was well known for his defined blues legacy and style. Parker utilized the style and musical rhythms to produce musical scores that almost told a story. In Visions of Jazz Giddins points out that many pieces in which Parker soloed used a technique of placing extended rests throughout the song.

As in a book, it seems likely that these rests signaled the end of a chapter during a song. A transition such as this would create dissonance in which the listener would anticipate what would come next. just like awaiting a new book chapter.

In addition to the heavy influence of Young, Parker was also influenced by parts of Coleman Hawkins’s bebop music that seemed appealing. Ornithology was by no means the limit to which Parker could play.

Bebop was the opposite to swing because it went to the polar extremes (slow and fast) of the beat. Coleman Hawkins was a person who made sure that concentration was taken to the rhythm.

Many pieces composed by Parker reach into the upper two hundred for quarter note beats. If it is not hard enough to concentrate on the rhythm at this speed then it will be hard to believe that one of Parker’s compositions actually set the quarter notes at 310 beats per minute.

Ben Webster says it best in Quotable Jazz when he states, “That horn ain’t supposed to sound that fast”.

As a saxophonist myself, it is obvious from my first-hand experience that many of Parker’s transcribed solos are almost impossible to site read at first unless the tempo is cut (at least) in half.

Then with some dedicated practice and improvisation by yourself it becomes manageable. This undoubtedly has inspired numerous jazz players since Parker’s day.

John Coltrane is a perfect example of someone who began playing a lot of notes and very fast. This style of music, known as sheets of sound, most likely would never have evolved had it not been for Parker.

Parker learned more than just playing aggressively from Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins was a native of the Midwest like Parker and he was considered by many to be The Father of the Tenor Saxophone. As a soloist, Hawkins was renowned for coming up with impressive solos and pushing the envelope on sound.

Most likely the biggest impact that Hawkin’s career had on Parker was the style of Vertical Playing. Vertical playing is considered an improvising style of musical play that is not based on melody as much as a chord progression.

Parker picked up on this philosophy while pioneering the new form of music known as bebop. Unlike Swing, which is very organized, Parker seemed to view jazz as an improvisational way of expressing himself.

The chromatic implications of many of Parker’s pieces are very profound. In fact, Parker describes a moment in which “the light bulb in his head essentially switched on”.

This light bulb moment, which can be described as the profound musical instant of Parker’s career, occurred when it was discovered that the aspects of playing improvisations high in the upper partials of chords created a very interesting and exciting sound. Park was whaling in the altissimo range. This is the musical discovery that he would leave as his legacy.

Parker’s high octave playing becomes more evident when looking at saxophonist soloists before and after Parker. Many people began to attack altissimo chord improvisations after hearing Parker’s recordings.

Parker was never a soprano saxophone player himself but may have inspired the generation after him to begin playing this previously underused instrument.

One of Parker’s followers, John Coltrane likely made a late-career switch from tenor saxophone to soprano saxophone because of Parker. The soprano saxophone before this switch had almost no soloists. Afterward, more and more people began looking to play the soprano saxophone with its ability to belt out the high octave sounds in crisp and delighting detail. Further evidence of Coltrane’s admiration of Parker comes from the relentless sound, speed, and diversity of his solos.

Many people claim that history repeats itself and this may be the reason for Gary Giddon’s statement that, “Jazz is based on a cyclic motion” in his book Visions of Jazz.

It is evident throughout history that talent does not always mean success. It appears that those people who often see the most success are those individuals that are dedicated to and love their hobby.

While Parker is an all-time great, he was by no means considered a natural on the saxophone. It was at Parker’s childhood hangout, the Reno Club, that he faced one of the most embarrassing events in his life.

At the young age of seventeen, Parker decided to stop in on a jam session that was being held at Reno. The star of the night was a drummer named Jo Jones who was a vital part of Count Basie’s orchestra.

Accounts of the incident describe the sound of Parker’s playing as being so bad that Jones became appalled and refused to continue playing. If this was not embarrassing enough, Jones decided to hurl a cymbal at Parker.

This cymbal incident is as much a part of Charlie Parker's lore as is his contribution to Jazz and his assuming the nickname “The Bird”. This horrifying event did not deter Parker from continuing to play.

Instead, Parker had the will and determination to succeed in those endeavors that he may not have been good at but that he loved. Parker’s late teenage years were a point in his life when he practiced almost compulsively instead of giving up.

During this time it was stated that Parker attempted “playing clean and looking for pretty notes”. This intense practice is a musical term known as woodshedding.

Parker’s first break came in Kansas City after his intense practicing session. At the Reno Club, where he often watched his favorite players as a kid, Parker at the age of nineteen got a gig playing with Jay McShann.

It was while on the road with the McShann band that Parker received his nickname “The Bird”, which would stay with him for the rest of his life. After playing with McShann for a short period of time, Parker made his move to New York City. This change in atmosphere was critical in three distinct ways for Parker’s Life.

While in New York Parker begins dishwashing at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack. During this employment, Parker listened to Art Tatum perform nightly.

Tatum also inspired Parker musically. Parker adopted a technique of Tatum’s known as Harmonic Restructuring into his music. In fact, this may be directly linked to Parker’s epiphany moment, when he realized what kind of music could come out of tinkering with the higher octaves of the alto saxophone.

Although Parker did play some slow pieces many of his songs had the elements of Tatum’s speedy tempo. Also, Parker further defined the virtuoso playing that was started by people such as Art Tatum and Louis Armstrong.

While in New York City Parker also recorded his first piece, which was entitled Ornithology. Recordings and the radio were important during this era because unlike in the past, musicians were no longer restricted to having viewers in only a certain region.

People throughout the country began hearing and liking what Parker was playing. As a result of this, his musicianship quickly became very popular and many knew of his name. At the time of his death in 1955, it was believed Parker was one of the most recognized players on the radio in the United States.

New York City’s last impact on Parker is in the way that it tainted his life and career. After being introduced to heroin Parker would suffer from a lifelong battle of addiction to the drug. During this time Parker fell to pieces on several occasions.

Despite his recognition and popularity, Parker was almost completely unemployable at the time of his death because of his lack of organization and consistent no-shows for gigs. The dark side of Parker’s great, and shining, musical light are the mentions of arrests and hospitalizations for drug usage that accompany him when spoken of by historians. It’s alleged that Parker’s addiction led him to sell his saxophone for drug money. After realizing what a bad decision this was Parker forced to borrow a saxophone for that night’s performance.

Parker also made trips to the west coast. During Parker’s mid-1940’s journey to Los Angeles, he heard bebop for the first time. Although many were impressed with the music that was heard, they were also disgusted with the person they now viewed as a junkie who was performing.

While developing bebop ended up being among Parker’s greatest accomplishments his descent into drug use is one of Parker’s worst legacies. Many young people, who looked up to Parker, were attempting any means possible to play his type of music. Because of this impressionability, musicians would attempt to play under the influence of drugs because they believed that this inebriation would enlighten them. Drug problems in the music world are not uncommon and Parker’s usage and addiction are just part of his story.

When looking at Parker’s death, it is obvious that he died fairly young. Parker’s death coincidentally coincides almost exactly with Julius “Cannonball” Adderley’s rise to musical fame.

In a way, it is as if Parker passed the torch on to Cannonball through jazz fans. Although Cannonball showed many Parker-like aspects in his playing, he was not afraid to contribute musically his own beliefs.

This is true of Parker too, who took from his childhood heroes Young and Hawkins, yet still gave so much more to music than he borrowed. Jazz like most things truly is an entity that is in continuous evolution. Parker was an important contributor to the history of jazz that changed the genre and influenced those who came after it.

Like Lennie Tristano said, “If Charlie Parker [were alive and] wanted to invoke plagiarism laws, he could sue almost everybody who’s made a record in the last ten years [or since his death]”.

In this way, Parker’s short but lasting impact on jazz became fully incorporated into jazz’s rich history by those who were inspired to play in his style. Here’s to 100-years since the birth of the legendary jazz musician, Charlie Parker, who accomplished so much in a relatively short life.

As a person, Parker was complex and this complexity allowed him to transition into a jazz saxophonist known as The Bird who ushered in the subgenre of bebop within jazz.