The Rough Guide To Jazz Legends: Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Born on 29 August 1920 in Kansas City, Charlie Parker - or 'Bird' as he famously became known - began learning the alto saxophone as a child. After serving his apprenticeship with local musicians, he began experimenting with some of the harmonic concepts that led to the development of bebop, which would ultimately change the course of jazz.

Bebop was a dynamic and seemingly new form of jazz with a new approach to rhythm that used extended harmonies, complex substitute chords and chromatic intervals as the basis of improvisation. When Parker made his first live appearances on the legendary 52nd Street in New York City in early 1945 with the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, they were to establish an audience for bebop. This led to the recording of the classics 'Groovin' High', 'All The Things You Are' and 'Salt Peanuts'. In the months that followed, Parker started playing with the trumpeter Miles Davis and their earliest collaboration produced 'Now's The Time' and Parker's saxophone tour de force, 'Koko'.

After a residency in Los Angeles, which helped establish bebop in the west, Parker returned to New York in Easter 1947 and, over the next year or so, set down a remarkable sequence of recordings that are amongst the finest in jazz. This includes 'Scrapple From the Apple', the slow blues 'Parker's Mood' and one of the saxophonist's most accomplished ballad performances, 'Embraceable You'. In the autumn of 1948, Parker signed an exclusive contract with Norman Granz, which produced 'Just Friends', Parker's best-selling record ever. He continued to record superb pieces in the early 1950s, including 'Star Eyes', 'Lover Man' and 'Night And Day'. Despite his innovations though, his dependence on hard drugs and alcohol destroyed him. Worn out by years of abuse, he died on 12 March 1955, aged just 34.

Charlie Parker was the supreme creative figure of his time and has remained a major influence on many jazz musicians since. The bonus album features many of the artists, who along with Parker, helped develop the dynamic form of jazz known as bebop - including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, trumpeter Fats Navarro and trombonist Jay Jay Johnson.

Musicians

CD1: Charlie Parker

01 Tiny Grimes Quintette Feat Charlie Parker: Red Cross (1944)

02 Dizzy Gillespie Sextet Feat Charlie Parker: Groovin' High (1945)

03 Dizzy Gillespie &;amp Charlie Parker: All The Things You Are (1945)

04 Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker: Salt Peanuts (1945)

05 Charlie Parker's Reboppers: Now's The Time (1945)

06 Charlie Parker's Reboppers: Koko (1945)

07 Charlie Parker Septet: Ortnithology (1946)

08 Charlie Parker Quartet: Cool Blues (1947)

09 Charlie Parker Quintet: Embraceable You (1947)

10 Charlie Parker Quintet: Scrapple From The Apple (1947)

11 Charlie Parker All Stars: Parker's Mood (1948)

12 Charlie Parker: Repetition (1948)

13 Charlie Parker: Out Of Nowhere (1950)

14 Charlie Parker: Just Friends (1949)

15 Charlie Parker: Bloomdido (1950)

16 Charlie Parker: Star Eyes (1951)

17 Charlie Parker: Au Privave (1951)

18 Charlie Parker: My Little Suede Shoes (1951)

19 Charlie Parker: Lover Man (1951)

20 Charlie Parker: Blue For Alice (1951)

21 Charlie Parker: Night And Day (1952)

22 Charlie Parker: Confirmation (1953)

CD2 - Bonus CD: The Rough Guide to Bebop

01 Coleman Hawkins & His Orchestra: Woody'N You (1944)

02 Dizzy Gillespie All Stars: Bebop (1945)

03 Dizzy Gillespie Septet: A Night In Tunisia (1946)

04 Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: Things To Come (1946)

05 Kenny Clarke And His 52^nd Street Boys: 52^nd Street Theme

06 Miles Davis All Stars: Little Willie Leaps

07 Thelonious Monk: In Walked Byd (1947)

08 Thelonious Monk: Round Midnight (1947)

09 Fats Navarro: Barry's Bop (1947)

10 Fats Navarro: Nostalgia (1947)

11 Dexter Gordon Quintet: Dexter's Riff (1947)

12 Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: Manteca

13 Tadd Dameron With Fats Navarro: Lady Bird (1948)

14 Miles Davis: Move (1949)

15 Jay Jay Johnson's Boppers: Teapot (1949)

16 Bud Powell: Bouncing With Bud (1949)

17 Bud Powell: You Go To My Head (1949)

18 Sonny Stitt & Bud Powell Quartet: All God's Chillun Got Rhythm (1949)

19 Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie: Hot House (1953)