Charlie Parker

What I consider to be a rather tragic life, Charlie Parker was first brought to my attention when doing the play, "Crumbs From the Table of Joy." One of the characters, Lily, mentioned that, while she never cared for the Pledge of Allegiance, she just "can't get enough of that Charlie Parker, 'salt peanut, salt peanut." That next week, while watching the Ken Burns Jazz series, Charlie Parker was brought up and I just wanted to know a little bit more about him. Sadly, the truth of the man nowhere reflects the grandeur and splendor of his music.

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, on August 29th, 1920. His father, according to the Ken Burns series, bailed on him before he was 10. But not before he helped influence Charlie, for he also shared a love of music and had some of the talent required to play them. But his father left, and Charlie was not one to stay for school, knowing what he wanted to do with his life, and dropped out in 1935, before joining the Musicians Union.

He started playing in a lot of other bands, mainly Kansas City, New York, and Chicago, and made his first Jazz recording with Jay McShann's territory band in 1938. He was only a higher level of musicianship at this point, saying at one point in an interview that he was practicing 15 hours a day.

However, as amazing a musician as he was, no man is without his faults. After an early childhood automobile accident, he become addicted to morphine, which ultimately caused him to move on to Heroin. Charlie would remain addicted to Heroin for most of his life, causing him to be broke many a time, and sometimes resorting to busking on the streets for cash to buy drugs. When he stayed in California after his band left (cashing in his return ticket to by Heroin), he had to switch over to alcohol to compensate for the loss of Heroin out West. But this proved to be a major issue too, as it would spill over into his recording times in the studio. Reportedly, one time he become so intoxicated that his producer had to come out and hold him up, just so he could continue to play. After he moved back to New York, he picked right back up where he left off with Heroin, and this would ultimately lead to his downfall.

Charlie Parker died on March 12, 1955. The cause of death officially was lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, however, Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack. Yet everyone knew the real cause of death was the drugs and alcohol. The coroner who performed the autopsy reported that his body was that of a 50-60 year old man.

He was only 34.

Yet while the man died, his music lives on. Charlie Parker's influence upon Bebop is equivalent only to Dizzy Gillespie. Many said that Jazz today would be so different if he was never around.

"Don't play the Saxophone. Let it play you."
 -Charlie Parker

Sources:

1) Woideck, Carl (October 1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life 

2) Salamone, Frank A. (2009). The Culture of Jazz: Jazz as Critical Culture

3) Gitler, Ira (2001). The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide

4) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charlie_parker.html