Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker

261 Pages·2005·31.75 MB·English

by  Brian Priestley

CHASIN’ THE BIRD
Popular Music History
Series Editor: Alyn Shipton, journalist, broadcaster and
former lecturer in music at Oxford Brookes University
This new series publishes books that challenge established orthodoxies in
popular music studies, examine the formation and dissolution of canons,
interrogate histories of genres, focus on previously neglected forms, or
engage in archaeologies of popular music.
Published:
Handful of Keys:
Conversations with Thirty Jazz Pianists
Alyn Shipton
The Last Miles:
The Music of Miles Davis 1980–1991
George Cole
Forthcoming:
Jazz Visions:
Lennie Tristano and His Legacy
Peter Ind
Lester Young:
His Life and Music
Dave Gelly
CHASIN’ THE BIRD
THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF CHARLIE PARKER
BRIAN PRIESTLEY
Published by
UK: Equinox Publishing Ltd
Unit 6, The Village,
101 Amies St.,
London, SW11 2JW
US: DBBC,
28 Main Street,
Oakville, CT 06779
www.equinoxpub.com
First edition published under the title Charlie Parker in 1984 by Spellmount. This revised
and expanded edition rst published in 2005 by Equinox Publishing Ltd.
© Brian Priestley 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 1 84553 036 5 (hardback)
Typeset by CA Typesetting, www.shefeldtypesetting.com
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe, Chippenham
eISBN: 1845534794
contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Body and soul 9
2 The jumpin’ blues 22
3 Now’s the time 39
4 Parker’s mood 55
5 Celebrity 71
6 I remember you 88
7 The song is you 106
8 Conrmation 125
Discography 139
Notes 199
Bibliography 231
Index 233
v

preface
It is always stimulating to write about a major artist such as Charlie Parker.
That it is also challenging, and sometimes depressing, perhaps goes with-
out saying. But this book has been a unique experience for me, initially
because much of the work was done in new surroundings in a friendly but
foreign land. The main claim to uniqueness, however, was that this project
necessitated revisiting and expanding an earlier work, written at a very dif-
ferent time of my life.
The challenge seemed to be one of preserving whatever qualities
the original had, notably concision, while adding incidental information
(some of which has only come to light since the rst version) and hope-
fully some increased insight. Other writers in such a situation might want
to start from scratch, to improvise a new take, but might end up repeat-
ing themselves. My own leanings towards composition and arrangement
(and the consequent quirk of not wanting to throw away anything) led
me to preserve virtually all of my rst text — except where it has since
turned out to be inaccurate — and add new layers, more akin to overdub-
bing than improvising.
Whereas I thought this would prove difcult, it seemed surprisingly
easy, once the typescript of my previously published text had been located.
The real headache turned out to be that my notes were not retrievable, and
that the original brief was for a short book, with no space allowed for notes
or sources. So some of the quotations used the rst time around seemed
very unfamiliar, except in the context of my own publication. Help in trac-
ing these has come from several individuals and, in addition, I have had the
support and assistance of many people, some of whom I didn’t even know
personally back in 1984.
Without going on at length about their various kindnesses and ef-
ciencies, I am grateful to: Chris Albertson, George Avakian, Philippe Bau-
douin, Roger Boyes, Frank Büchmann-Møller, Alan Cohen, Chris DeVito,
Krin Gabbard, Mark Gardner, Dave Gelly, Gary Giddins, Ira Gitler, Max-
ine Gordon, Dennis Harrison (Wendover Bookshop), Geoffrey Haydon,
Nat Hentoff, David Hill, Orrin Keepnews, Wolfram Krauer, Joan Malin,
vii
David Meeker, Dan Morgenstern (Institute of Jazz Studies), David Nathan
(National Jazz Archive), Lewis Porter, Peter Pullman, Peter Symes, Alain
Tercinet, Thierry Trombert, Ken Vail, Malcolm Walker, Tony Williams, Val
Wilmer and Carl Woideck. I am also indebted to Janet Joyce and Valerie
Hall of Equinox Publishing, my editor Sarah Norman, my agent Barbara
Levy and especially to Alyn Shipton, who rst suggested the project. The
whole thing would have proved impossible without the spirit of adventure
and the supportiveness of my wife Yvette Shea.
A further source of stimulus over the last few years has been the
teaching of groups of jazz history students. This not only made it manda-
tory for me to listen again to classic recordings (no great hardship, to be
sure, yet often allowed insufcient time when journalism requires assess-
ing the new rather than the old), and to focus on details worth highlight-
ing and ways to describe them. All the above have been signicant in
bringing this book to the state in which you now nd it, although any
errors remain my own responsibility.
Brian Priestley
London, January 2005
viii ch asin’ the b ird
acknowledgements
Another Hair-Do
Music by Charlie Parker
©1948, 1976 Atlantic Music Corp./Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc., USA
Screen Gems-EMI Music Ltd, London WC2H 0QY
Reproduced with permission of Atlantic Music Corp./International Music Publications
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Anthropology
Music by John Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker
©1946, 1948 (Renewed) by Music Sales Corp. (ASCAP) and Atlantic Music Corp.
Reprinted with permission of Music Sales Limited and Atlantic Music Corp.
International copyright secured. All rights reserved.

Billie’s Bounce
Music by Charlie Parker
©1945, 1973 Atlantic Music Corp./Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc., USA
Screen Gems-EMI Music Ltd, London WC2H 0QY
Reproduced with permission of Atlantic Music Corp./International Music Publications
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Cherokee (Indian Love Song)
Words and music by Ray Noble
©1938 Peter Maurice Music Co. Ltd, London WC2H 0QY
Reproduced with permission of International Music Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright renewed and assigned to Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc., New York for USA
and Canada
International copyright secured. All rights reserved.
Used with permission.
Embraceable You
Music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
©1930 Chappell & Co. Inc., USA
Warner Chappell Music Ltd, London W6 8BS
Reproduced with permission of International Music Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
Hootie Blues
Words and music by Charlie Parker, Jay McShann and Walter Brown
©1941, 1963 MCA Music (a division of MCA Incorporated, USA)
ix