(LOOTPRESS) – Charles Parker Jr., commonly known as “Bird” or “Yardbird” was an American saxophonist born on this day in 1920.
The nearly inconceivable scope of Parker’s revolutionary and pioneering influence on the development of the bebop form of jazz through rapid-fire tempos and advanced harmonic technique established him as one of the most highly regarded and widely influential musicians, not only in the history of jazz, but of all time.
In jazz music, the reproduction and reimagining of standards – broadly recognized compositions considered to be significant to the genre’s repertoire – has always been a key element of the form.
A primary contribution of Parker’s to the jazz form is that of taking this process of reimagining a step further, interpolating the melodies of the original compositions over existing jazz numbers through a process down as contrafact which continues to be implemented to a high degree today.
This practice came to be associated with the revolutionary bebop movement of which Parker was a leading figure, and helped transition jazz as a genre away from the nearly-exclusive use of standards in material and toward independent composition.
Parker also put radical spins on tried and true traditional forms such as the standard 12-bar blues structure, which for numbers like “Blues for Alice,” utilizes a series of sequential ii-V or secondary ii-V progressions. This methodology worked chord substitutions into basic 12-bar structures to open them up for inclusion of greater harmonic variation.
But perhaps the contribution for which Parker is most remembered is that of the development of bebop, a subset of jazz which expanded the musical and creative possibilities of the genre and transcended popular demand for the swing and dance styles which were popular at the time.
The form allowed musicians to explore faster tempos and advanced harmonies, allowing for further development of the form by artists such as Thelonious Monk, Clifford Brown, and one of Parker’s closest colleagues, Dizzy Gillespie.
Some of the most highly influential musicians in jazz first gained recognition playing as part of ensembles with Parker, including Monk, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis.
The technical mastery and creative genius displayed on his instrument could not offset Parker’s personal issues, however. Ongoing struggles with alcohol and heroin addiction relegated the virtuoso composer to an existence plagued by health and financial problems which would follow him throughout the entirety of his adult life.
Parker’s recording and performance dates were interspersed with periods of isolation, incarceration, and even a great deal of time spent in psychiatric hospitals.
Charlie Parker passed away on March 12, 1955 in New York City. Lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer were listed as the official causes of death, though he had also suffered a heart attack and had an advanced case of cirrhosis at the time. The coroner responsible for conducting the autopsy estimated the body to be between 50 and 60 years of age. Parker was 34 when he died.
As is often the case with the great artistic geniuses of history, Parker’s work, for the most part, failed to receive a proper analytics appraisal until some time after his passing.
Since then, the saxophonist has had recordings inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “qualitative or historical significance,” the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, and covered in tributes by countless musicians over the ensuing decades. Parker was also honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1995 when a 32-cent commemorative postage stamp was issued in his honor.
In the span of his tragically brief life, Charlie Parker changed the way music is perceived, performed, composed, and heard. He served and continues to serve as a primary influence to many of the greatest artists and performers to come after him, and arguably revitalized the jazz genre – jolting it from an artistically sedentary fate of pandering to dancehall patrons in pre-World War II America.
On this day, we honor the one and only Bird.
Happy Birthday, Charlie Parker! Additional LOOPTRESS coverage of jazz history can be found here.
