Name	Norman Granz
Background	non_performing_personnel
Birth name	Norman Granz
Born	August 06, 1918
Died	November 22, 2001Geneva, Switzerland
Origin	Los Angeles, USA
Genre	Jazz
Occupation	Record producer
Years active	1944–present
Label	Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, Pablo
Associated acts	Ella Fitzgerald, Cannonball Adderley, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Paulinho Da Costa, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Bill Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holiday, Milt Jackson, Illinois Jacquet, Hank Jones, Barney Kessel, Gene Krupa, Howard McGhee, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O'Day, Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Bud Powell, Buddy Rich, Charlie Shavers, Sonny Stitt, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Lester Young, among many others.

Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 in Los Angeles, USA – November 22, 2001 in Geneva, Switzerland) was an American jazz music impresario and producer.

Granz was a fundamental figure in American jazz, especially from about 1947 to 1960. He was the founder of five record labels: Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve and Pablo.

Life and career

Born in Los Angeles, the son of Jewish immigrants from Tiraspol, he first emerged into the public view when he organised desegregated jam sessions at the Trouville Club in Los Angeles, which he later expanded when he staged a memorable concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944, under the heading of "Jazz at the Philharmonic".

The title of the concert, "Jazz Concert at the Philharmonic Auditorium", had been shortened by the printer of the advertising supplements to "Jazz at the Philharmonic". Only one copy of the very first concert program is known to exist. Norman Granz had organised the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert with about $300 of borrowed money.

Later known as JATP, the ever-changing group recorded and toured extensively, with Granz producing some of the first live jam session recordings to be distributed to a wide market.

After several JATP concerts in Los Angeles (In 1944 and 1945), Granz began producing JATP concert tours — from late fall/winter of 1945-46 to 1957 in USA and Canada, and from 1952 in Europe. Those featured Swing and Bop musicians and were among the first high-profile performances to feature racially integrated bands. Granz actually cancelled some bookings rather than have the musicians perform for segregated audiences. He recorded many of the JATP concerts, and from 1945 to 1947 sold/leased the recordings to Asch/Disc/Stinson Records (record producer Moses Asch's labels). in 1948 Granz signed an agreement with Mercury Records for the promotion and the distribution of the JATP recordings and other recordings. After the agreement expired in 1953 he issued the JATP recordings and other recordings on Clef Records (founded 1946) and Norgran Records (founded 1953). Down Home Records was meant to be reserved for traditional jazz works.

JATP Tours

Tours - USA and Canada (1945–1957):

1st National Tour: Late Fall/Winter of 1945-46. 2nd National Tour: Spring, 1946. 3rd National Tour: Fall, 1946. 4th National Tour: Spring, 1947. 5th National Tour: Fall, 1947. 6th National Tour: Spring, 1948. 7th National Tour: Fall, 1948. 8th National Tour: Spring, 1949. 9th National Tour: Fall, 1949. 10th National Tour: Fall, 1950. 11th National Tour: Fall, 1951. 12th National Tour: Fall, 1952. 13th National Tour (USA, Canada, Hawaii, Australia and Japan): Fall, 1953. 14th National Tour: Fall, 1954. 16th National Tour (Note: the 15th National Tour, in the fall of 1955, was renamed: 16th National Tour, just weeks before the start of the JATP Tour): Fall, 1955. 17th National Tour: Fall, 1956. 18th National Tour: Fall, 1957.

Tours - Europe (1952–1959):

1st European Tour: Spring, 1952. 2nd European Tour (Only two concerts in the UK: London, March 8): Spring, 1953. 3rd European Tour: Spring, 1954. 4th European Tour: Spring, 1955. 5th European Tour: Spring, 1956. 6th European Tour: Spring, 1957. 7th European Tour (1st UK Tour!): Spring, 1958. 8th European Tour: Spring, 1959.

Jazz at the Philharmonic ceased touring the United States and Canada, after the JATP concerts in the fall of 1957 (One final North American Tour in 1967!), but continued intermittently mainly in Europe and Japan until 1983, with the very last JATP concerts being performed in October, 1983, in Tokyo, Japan.

Recordings

Many of the names that made history in jazz signed with one of Norman Granz's labels, including Cannonball Adderley, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Louie Bellson, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Paulinho Da Costa, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Bill Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Billie Holiday, Milt Jackson, Illinois Jacquet, Hank Jones, Barney Kessel, Gene Krupa, Ken Kersey, Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Flip Phillips, Bud Powell, Buddy Rich, Charlie Shavers, Sonny Stitt, Slim Gaillard, Art Tatum, Ben Webster and Lester Young.

Granz became very wealthy and he saw to it that his musicians were well paid. In the segregated society of the 1940s, he insisted on equal pay and accommodation for white and black musicians. He refused to take his hugely popular concerts to places which were segregated, even if he had to cancel concerts, losing considerable sums of money thereby.

In 1944, Granz and Gjon Mili produced a famous jazz film which starred Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Barney Kessel, Harry Edison, Jo Jones, Sidney Catlett, Marlowe Morris, Marie Bryant a.o. This film, Jammin' the Blues, was nominated for an Academy Award.

It was in 1956 that the popular singer Ella Fitzgerald finally joined Norman Granz's "community", and Granz unified his activities under the common label of Verve Records. Granz became Fitzgerald's manager, and remained so until the end of her career. Fitzgerald's memorable series of eight Songbooks, together with the duet series (notably Armstrong-Peterson, Fitzgerald-Basie, Fitzgerald-Pass and Getz-Peterson) achieved a wide popularity and brought acclaim to the label and to the artists. Granz was also the manager of Oscar Peterson who was another lifelong friend.

In 1959, Norman Granz moved to Switzerland. In December 1960, Verve Records was sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Granz founded his last label (Pablo Records) in 1973. In 1987, he sold Pablo Records to Fantasy Records.

Anti-racism

Norman Granz is generally remembered also for his notable anti-racist position and for the battles he consequently fought for his artists (many, perhaps the majority, of whom were black), in times and places where skin color was the cause of open discrimination. In 1955, in Houston, Texas, he personally removed the labels "White" and "Negro" that would have separated the audience in the auditorium where two concerts were to be performed by (among others) Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie; between the two shows they were found playing cards in the dressing room and arrested by local police, but after some nervous negotiations allowed to perform the second show, and only formally released after that. Granz nevertheless insisted on fighting the charges, which cost him the immense sum of $2,000. Oscar Peterson recounted how Granz once continued to insist that white cabdrivers take his black artists as customers even while a policeman was pointing a loaded pistol at his stomach from close range (Granz won). Granz also was among the first to pay white and black artists the same salary and to give them equal treatment even in minor details, like dressing rooms.

Beloved by his artists, not only because he paid more than average, he had three main goals, as he repeatedly and frankly declared: to fight against racism, to give listeners a good product, and to earn money from good music.

See also

Verve Records

Pablo Records

:Category:Albums produced by Norman Granz

List of Jewish-American music producers

References

External links

Obituary at jazzhouse.org

The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation

Category:Impresarios Category:Ella Fitzgerald Category:Jewish American musicians Category:American record producers Category:American music industry executives Category:Jazz record producers Category:American Jews Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:1918 births Category:2001 deaths

Name	Count Basie
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	William James Basie
Born	August 21, 1904Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	April 26, 1984Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
Instrument	Piano, organ
Genre	Swing, big band, piano blues
Occupation	Musician, bandleader, composer
Years active	1924–1984

William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump" and "April In Paris".

Biography

Early life

William James Basie was born to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lilly Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several families in the area. His mother, a piano player who gave Basie his first piano lessons, took in laundry and baked cakes for sale and paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.

Basie was not much of a scholar and instead dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by the carnivals which came to town. He only got as far as junior high school. He would hang out at the Palace Theater in Red Bank and did occasional chores for the management, which got him free admission to the shows. He also learned to operate the spotlights for the vaudeville shows. One day, when the pianist failed to arrive by show time, Basie took his place. Playing by ear, he quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to silent movies.

Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. However, the obvious talents of another young Red Bank area drummer, Sonny Greer (who was Duke Ellington's drummer from 1919 to 1951), discouraged Basie and he switched to piano exclusively by age 15. When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park, New Jersey, playing at the Hongkong Inn, until a better player took his place.

Early career

Around 1924, he went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, living down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band. Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were making the scene, including Willie "the Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson.

Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies as part of the Hippity Hop show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White. His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many great jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.

Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie got his first steady job at Leroy's, a place known for its piano players and its "cutting contests." The place catered to "uptown celebrities," and typically the band winged every number without sheet music (using "head" arrangements). He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City). As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie "the Lion" Smith helped Basie out during the lean times arranging gigs at house-rent parties, introducing him to other top musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.

In 1928 Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals. A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as "Count" Basie (see Jazz royalty).

Kansas City years

The following year, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington's or Fletcher Henderson's. Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy," the Moten band was classier and more respected, and played in the "Kansas City stomp" style. In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who actually did the notating. During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted. The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.

When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months as Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms until the band folded, when he returned to Moten's newly re-organized band. When Moten died in 1935 after a surgical procedure, the band unsuccessfully attempted to stay together. Then Basie formed a new band, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece "One O'Clock Jump." According to Basie, "we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F." It became his signature tune.

Hammond and first recordings

, from the film Stage Door Canteen (1943)]] At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City and honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom in Chicago. Right from the start, Basie's band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Lester Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, the two were split apart and placed one on each side of the alto players, and soon Basie had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.

In that city in October 1936, members of the band participated in a recording session which producer John Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with". Hammond, according to Basie, had heard Basie's band over short-wave radio, then he went to Kansas City to check them out. The results were Lester Young's earliest recordings. Those four sides were released under the name Jones-Smith Incorporated, because Basie had already signed with Decca Records but had not started recording for them (his first Decca session was January 1937). The sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Oh, Lady Be Good".

By now, Basie's sound was characterized by a "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone). Lester Young, known as "Prez" by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. Basie became known as "Holy Man", "Holy Main", and just plain "Holy".

Basie favored blues, and he showcased some of the most notable blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.

New York City and the Swing years

When they arrived in New York, they made the Woodside Hotel their base (where they often rehearsed in the basement). Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which in his words was something like, "We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing". Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie's band lacked polish and presentation. Hammond advised and encouraged them, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, more standards, and saving their hottest numbers for later in the show to give the audience a chance to warm up. His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including "Pennies from Heaven" and "Honeysuckle Rose".

Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday who was soon singing with the band. (Holiday didn't record with Basie, however, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos). The band's first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with vocalists Holiday and Rushing getting the most attention. Eddie Durham came back to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part their numbers were worked out in rehearsal, with Basie, guiding the proceedings, and the results written out little if at all. Once they found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their collective memory.

Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for jitterbugging, while the Roseland was more of a place for fox-trots and congas. In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a "battle of the bands" with Chick Webb's group. Basie had Holiday and Webb countered with Ella Fitzgerald. As Metronome magazine proclaimed, "Basie's Brilliant Band Conquers Chick's", then it went on in detail, : "Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick's forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick's brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick's thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary". The publicity over the battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a big boost and they gained wider recognition, as evidenced by Benny Goodman's recording of One O'Clock Jump shortly thereafter.

A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw's band, and was replaced by Helen Humes; she was also ushered in by John Hammond, and stayed with Basie for four years. Co-arranger and trombone player Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller's orchestra and was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie's 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot, with a CBS network feed and air conditioning. Their fame took a huge leap. Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines) particularly for "Cherokee", "Easy Does It", and "Super Chief". In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.

In 1942, Basie moved to Queens with Catherine Morgan, after being married to her for a few years. On the West Coast, the band did a spot in Reveille With Beverly, a musical starring Ann Miller, and also a "Command Performance" for Armed Forces Radio with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and singer Dinah Shore. Other minor movie spots followed including Choo Choo Swing, Crazy House, Top Man, and Hit Parade of 1943. They also started to record with RCA. The war years caused a lot of member turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians' strikes of 1942-44 and 1948 began to be felt and the public's growing taste for singers.

Post-war and later years

The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film 'Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet. He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band and Norman Granz for getting him into the Birdland club and promoting the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels. The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock'n'roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie's new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on "head" and more on written arrangements.

Basie added touches of bebop "so long as it made sense", and he required that "it all had to have feeling". Basie's band was sharing Birdland with bebop greats Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, though, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, "so it doesn't matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat". Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied. Soon, they were touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, and Idrees Sulieman, Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd Johnson (tenor sax); Marshall Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax). Down Beat said "(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this".

In 1954, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially strong in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; These countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably "Lil Darlin'". By the mid-1950s, Basie's band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the "Birdland Stars of 1955", whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.

In 1957, Basie released the live album Count Basie at Newport. "April in Paris" (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album. The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza.He was a guest on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie's band recorded a "greatest hits" double album The Count Basie Story (Frank Foster, arranger) and "Basie and Eckstine, Inc.": album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capital Records.

Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to "Sweet Georgia Brown", followed in January 1960 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls. That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording First Time! The Count Meets the Duke, each providing four numbers from their play books.

During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap. Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1970s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film Cinderfella (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles (1974), playing his arrangement of "April in Paris".

Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.

Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the early 1960s — their albums together included the live recording at Las Vegas and Strike Up the Band, a studio album. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. Other notable recordings were with Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie's biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times.

Legacy

Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music. As he summed up the key to his understated style, in his autobiography, "I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter".

Other cultural connections include Jerry Lewis using "Blues in Hoss' Flat" from Basie's Chairman of the Board album, as the basis for his own "Chairman of the Board" routine in the movie The Errand Boy, in which Lewis pantomimed the movements of a corporate executive holding a board meeting. (In the early 1980s, Lewis revived the routine during the live broadcast of one of his Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons). Blues in Hoss' Flat, composed by Basie band member Frank Foster, was also the longtime theme song of San Francisco and New York radio DJ Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins. In addition, Basie is one of the producers of the "world's greatest music" that Brenda Fricker's "Pigeon Lady" character claims to have heard in Carnegie Hall in 1992's . Drummer Neil Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush recorded a version of "One O'Clock Jump" with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and has used it at the end of his drum solos on the 2002 Vapor Trails Tour and Rush's .

The Count Basie Theatre and Count Basie Field in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey were named in his honor. The street on which he lived, Mechanic Street has the honorary title of Count Basie Way.

On September 26, 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmark building where Count Basie and Paul Robeson lived.

Discography

The majority of Basie's recordings were made with his big band, see Count Basie Orchestra Discography.

Basie also made several small group recordings without his band:

Count Basie Sextet (1954, Clef)

Count Basie and the Kansas City 7 (1962, Impulse!)

Basie Swingin' Voices Singin' (1966, EMI)

Loose Walk (with Roy Eldridge) (1972, Pablo)

Basie Jam (1973, Pablo)

The Bosses (with Big Joe Turner) (1973)

For the First Time (1974, Pablo)

Satch and Josh (with Oscar Peterson)

Basie & Zoot (with Zoot Sims) (1975, Pablo)

For the Second Time (1975, Pablo)

Basie Jam 2 (1976, Pablo)

Basie Jam 3 (1976, Pablo)

Kansas City 5 (1977, Pablo)

The Gifted Ones (with Dizzy Gillespie) (1977, Pablo)

(live) (1977, Pablo)

Satch and Josh...Again (with Oscar Peterson) (1977, Pablo)

Night Rider (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

Yessir, That's My Baby (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

(1979, Pablo)

Kansas City 7 (1980, Pablo)

Kansas City 6 (1981, Pablo)

Mostly Blues...and Some Others (1983, Pablo)

Filmography

Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet (1950) – as himself

Cinderfella (1960) – as himself

Blazing Saddles (1974) – as himself with his orchestra

Awards

Grammy Awards

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Grammy Award History |- |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Results |- align=center | 1982 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | Warm Breeze | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1984 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | 88 Basie Street | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1980 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | On The Road | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1977 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | Prime Time | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1976 | Best Jazz Performance By A Soloist (Instrumental) | Basie And Zoot | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1963 | Best Performance By An Orchestra – For Dancing | This Time By Basie! Hits Of The 50's And 60's | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1960 | Best Performance By A Band For Dancing | Dance With Basie | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1958 | Best Performance By A Dance Band | Basie | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1958 | Best Jazz Performance, Group | Basie | Jazz | Winner |- align=center |}

Grammy Hall of Fame

By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Grammy Hall of Fame Awards |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1939 | Lester Leaps In | Jazz (Single) | Vocalion | 2005 |- align=center | 1955 | Everyday (I Have the Blues) | Jazz (Single) | Clef | 1992 |- align=center | 1955 | April in Paris | Jazz (Single) | Clef | 1985 |- align=center | 1937 | One O'Clock Jump | Jazz (Single) | Decca | 1979 |- align=center |}

Honors and Inductions

On May 23, 1985, William "Count" Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by his son, Aaron Woodward.

On September 11, 1996 the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Award History |- ! Year ! Category ! Result ! Notes |- align=center | 2007 | Long Island Music Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center | 2005 | Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center | 2002 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award | Winner | |- align=center | 1983 | NEA Jazz Masters | Winner | |- align=center | 1981 | Grammy Trustees Award | Winner | |- align=center | 1981 | Kennedy Center Honors | Honoree | |- align=center | late 1970s | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Honoree | at 6508 Hollywood Blvd. |- align=center | 1970 | Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia | Initiated | Mu Nu Chapter |- align=center | 1958 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center |}

National Recording Registry

In 2005, Count Basie's song "One O'Clock Jump" (1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

References

External links

International Jose Guillermo Carrillo Foundation

Basie biography at swingmusic.net

BBC Profile of Count Basie

Downbeat Magazine

U.S. Postal Service Biography

Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – May 23, 1985

Basie biography and album list

Category:1904 births Category:1984 deaths Category:People from Red Bank, New Jersey Category:Swing pianists Category:Swing bandleaders Category:African American actors Category:African American musicians Category:African American pianists Category:American bandleaders Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz organists Category:Apex Records artists Category:Big band bandleaders Category:Cancer deaths in Florida Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Decca Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Reprise Records artists

Name	Coleman Hawkins
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Coleman Randolph Hawkins
Born	November 21, 1904
Died	May 19, 1969
Origin	Saint Joseph, Missouri
Instrument	Tenor saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet
Genre	Swing music, bebop
Years active	1921-1969
Associated acts	Ben Webster, Max Roach

Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s. Having returned to the United States, on October 11, 1939 he recorded a two chorus performance of the pop standard "Body and Soul", which he had been performing at Kelly's Stables. A landmark recording of the Swing Era, recorded as an afterthought at the session, it is notable in that Hawkins ignores almost all of the melody, only the first four bars are stated in a recognizable fashion. In its exploration of harmonic structure Later he toured with Howard McGhee and recorded with J. J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He also toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

In 1948 Hawkins recorded Picasso, an early piece for unaccompanied saxophone.

After 1948 Hawkins divided his time between New York and Europe, making numerous freelance recordings. In the 1960s, he appeared regularly at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan.

Hawkins directly influenced many bebop performers, and later in his career, recorded or performed with such adventurous musicians as Sonny Rollins, who considered him as his main influence, and John Coltrane. He appears on the Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside) record. In 1960 he recorded on Max Roach's We Insist! - Freedom Now suite.

Later life

He also performed with more traditional musicians, such as Henry "Red" Allen and Roy Eldridge, with whom he appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, and recorded Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow tenor saxophonist Ben Webster on December 16, 1957, along with Oscar Peterson (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and Alvin Stoller (drums). In the 1960s, he recorded with Duke Ellington.

When record collectors would play his early 1920s recordings during Hawkins's later years he would sometimes deny his presence on them, since the playing on the old records sounded so dated._{citation needed}

In his later years, Hawkins began to drink heavily and stopped recording (his last recording was in late 1966). He died of pneumonia in 1969 and is interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

A biography of Hawkins, The Song of the Hawk (1990), was written by British jazz historian John Chilton.

Discography

As leader

Body and Soul (1939-1956, RCA)

Picasso (album) (1948)

The Hawk in Paris (1956, RCA Victor Gold)

The Hawk Flies High (1957)

Hawk Eyes! (1959)

In a Mellow Tone (1960)

Bean Stalkin' (1960)

At Ease with Coleman Hawkins (1960), Rerelease (1985) OJC-181

Night Hawk (1961, with Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Swingville)

The Hawk Relaxes (1961, Moodsville)

Good Old Broadway (1962, Moodsville)

Alive! (1962)

Sonny Meets Hawk! with Sonny Rollins (1963)

Sirius (1966)

Jazz Reunion (with Pee Wee Russell, Candid Records)

;Impulse! Records

1962: Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins

1962: Today and Now

1962: Desafinado

1965: Wrapped Tight

;Xanadu Records

Jazz Tones

Dutch Treat

Thanks For The Memory

;Verve Records

1957: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster

1957: The Genius of Coleman Hawkins

1958: Coleman Hawkins and Confreres

1962: Hawkins! Eldridge! Hodges! Alive at the Village Gate

As sideman

With Abbey Lincoln

Straight Ahead (Candid, 1961)

With Shelly Manne

2-3-4 (Impulse!, 1962)

With Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside, 1957)

With Max Roach

We Insist! - Freedom Now (Candid, 1960)

References

External links

Internet Movie Database

BookRags biography

The Red Hot Jazz Archive biography

Jazz for Beginners biography

Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival

Category:1904 births Category:1969 deaths Category:People from St. Joseph, Missouri Category:African American musicians Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists Category:Bebop saxophonists Category:Gennett recording artists Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Swing saxophonists Category:Candid Records artists Category:Xanadu Records artists Category:Impulse! Records artists Category:Verve Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Manor Records artists

{{ Infobox musical artist | Name = Charlie Parker | Img = Charlie Parker.jpg | Img_capt = | Img_size = | Landscape = | Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | Birth_name = Charles Parker, Jr. | Alias = Bird, Yardbird,Zoizeau (in France) | Born = August 29, 1920Kansas City, Kansas, U.S. | Died = March 12, 1955New York City, New York, U.S. | Origin = | Instrument = Alto saxophone, tenor saxophone | Genre = Jazz, bebop | Occupation = Saxophonist, composer | Years_active = 1937–1955 | Label = Savoy, Dial, Verve | Associated_acts = | URL = Official Site | Notable_instruments = Buescher, Conn, King and Grafton alto saxophones. }}

Charles Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Parker, with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, is widely considered to have been one of the most influential jazz musicians. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career, and the shortened form "Bird" remained Parker's sobriquet for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology" and "Bird of Paradise."

Parker played a leading role in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuoso technique, and improvisation based on harmonic structure. Parker's innovative approaches to melody, rhythm, and harmony exercised enormous influence on his contemporaries. Several of Parker's songs have become standards, including "Billie's Bounce", "Anthropology", "Ornithology", and "Confirmation". He introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including a tonal vocabulary employing 9ths, 11ths and 13ths of chords, rapidly implied passing chords, and new variants of altered chords and chord substitutions. His tone was clean and penetrating, but sweet and plaintive on ballads. Although many Parker recordings demonstrate dazzling virtuosic technique and complex melodic lines – such as "Ko-Ko", "Kim", and "Leap Frog" – he was also one of the great blues players. His themeless blues improvisation "Parker's Mood" represents one of the most deeply affecting recordings in jazz. At various times, Parker fused jazz with other musical styles, from classical to Latin music, blazing paths followed later by others.

Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat generation, personifying the conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than just a popular entertainer. His style – from a rhythmic, harmonic and soloing perspective – influenced countless peers on every instrument.

Biography

Childhood

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Charles and Addie Parker. Charles, an alcoholic, was often absent. Parker attended Lincoln High School. He enrolled in September 1934 and withdrew in December 1935 about the time he joined the local Musicians Union.

Parker displayed no sign of musical talent as a child. His father presumably provided some musical influence; he was a pianist, dancer and singer on the T.O.B.A. circuit, although he later became a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways. His mother worked nights at the local Western Union. His biggest influence however was a young trombone player who taught him the basics of improvisation.

Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11 and at age 14 joined his school's band using a rented school instrument. One story holds that, without formal training, he was terrible, and thrown out of the band. Experiencing periodic setbacks of this sort, at one point he broke off from his constant practicing.

Early career

It has been said that, in early 1936, Parker participated in a 'cutting contest' that included Jo Jones on drums, who tossed a cymbal at Parker's head in impatience with his playing. However, in the numerous interviews throughout his life, Jones made no mention of this incident. At this time Parker began to practice with great diligence and rigor, learning the blues, "Cherokee" and "rhythm changes" in all twelve keys. In this woodshedding period, Parker mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas of be-bop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said he spent 3–4 years practicing up to 15 hours a day. It has been said that he used to play many other tunes in all twelve keys. The story, though undocumented, would help to explain the fact that he often played in unconventional concert pitch key signatures, like E (which transposes to C# for the alto sax).

Groups led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten were the leading Kansas City ensembles, and undoubtedly influenced Parker. He continued to play with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time certainly influenced Parker's developing style.

In 1938, Parker joined pianist Jay McShann's territory band. The band toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City. Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann's band. It was said at one point in McShann's band that he "sounded like a machine", owing to his highly virtuosic yet nonetheless musical playing.

As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while in hospital after an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. Heroin would haunt him throughout his life and ultimately contribute to his death.

New York City

In 1939, Parker moved to New York City. There he pursued a career in music, but held several other jobs as well. He worked for $9 a week as a dishwasher at Jimmie's Chicken Shack where pianist Art Tatum performed. Parker's later style in some ways recalled Tatum's, with dazzling, high-speed arpeggios and sophisticated use of harmony.

In 1942, Parker left McShann's band and played with Earl Hines for one year. Also in the band was trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, which is where the soon to be famous duo met for the first time. Unfortunately, this period is virtually undocumented because of the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which no official recordings were made. Nevertheless, we know that Parker joined a group of young musicians in after-hours clubs in Harlem such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and (to a much lesser extent) Minton's Playhouse. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, and drummer Kenny Clarke. The beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams: "We wanted a music that they couldn't play" – "they" being the (white) bandleaders who had taken over and profited from swing music. The group played in venues on 52nd Street including the Three Deuces and The Onyx. In his time in New York City, Parker also learned much from notable music teacher Maury Deutsch.

, Miles Davis, and Max Roach, Three Deuces, New York, NY]]

Bebop

According to an interview Parker gave in the 1950s, one night in 1939, he was playing "Cherokee" in a jam session with guitarist William 'Biddy' Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled him to play what he had been hearing in his head for some time, by building on the chords' extended intervals, such as ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths. Still with McShann's orchestra, Parker at this time realized that the twelve tones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing.

Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts with comments like Eddie Condon's putdown: "They flat their fifths, we drink ours." The beboppers, in response, called these traditionalists "moldy figs". However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents.

Because of the 2-year Musicians' Union recording ban on all commercial recordings from 1942 to 1944 (part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians), much of bebop's early development was not captured for posterity. As a result, the new musical concepts only gained limited radio exposure. Bebop musicians had a difficult time gaining widespread recognition. It was not until 1945, when the recording ban was lifted, that Parker's collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and others had a substantial effect on the jazz world. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was rediscovered and issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Bebop began to grab hold and gain wider appeal among musicians and fans alike.

On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for the Savoy label, marketed as the "greatest Jazz session ever." The tracks recorded during this session include "Ko-Ko" (based on the chords of "Cherokee"), "Now's the Time" (a twelve bar blues incorporating a riff later used in the late 1949 R&B; dance hit "The Hucklebuck"), "Billie's Bounce", and "Thriving on a Riff".

Shortly afterwards, the Parker/Gillespie band traveled to an unsuccessful engagement at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles. Most of the group returned to New York, but Parker remained in California, cashing in his return ticket to buy heroin. He experienced great hardship in California, eventually being committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six month period.

Addiction

Parker's addiction to heroin, which began in his late teens, caused him to miss gigs and to be fired for being high. To satisfy his habit, he frequently resorted to busking on the streets for drug money, receiving loans from fellow musicians/admirers, pawning his own horn and borrowing other sax players' instruments as a result. Parker's situation was typical of the strong connection between drug abuse and jazz at the time.

Although he produced many brilliant recordings during this period, Parker's behavior became increasingly erratic due to his habit. Heroin was difficult to obtain after he moved to California for a short time where the drug was less abundant, and Parker began to drink heavily to compensate for this. A recording for the Dial label from July 29, 1946, provides evidence of his condition. Prior to this session, Parker drank about a quart of whiskey. According to the liner notes of Charlie Parker on Dial Volume 1, Parker missed most of the first two bars of his first chorus on the track, "Max Making Wax." When he finally did come in, he swayed wildly and once spun all the way around, going badly off mic. On the next tune, "Lover Man", producer Ross Russell physically supported Parker in front of the microphone. On "Bebop" (the final track Parker recorded that evening) he begins a solo with a solid first eight bars. On his second eight bars, however, Parker begins to struggle, and a desperate Howard McGhee, the trumpeter on this session, shouts, "Blow!" at Parker. McGhee's bellow is audible on the recording. Charles Mingus considered this version of "Lover Man" to be among Parker's greatest recordings despite its flaws. Nevertheless, Parker hated the recording and never forgave Ross Russell for releasing the sub-par performance (and re-recorded the tune in 1951 for Verve, this time in stellar form, but perhaps lacking some of the passionate emotion in the earlier, problematic attempt).

During the night following the "Lover Man" session, Parker was drinking in his hotel room. He entered the hotel lobby stark naked on several occasions and asked to use the phone, but was refused on each attempt. The hotel manager eventually locked him in his room. At some point during the night, he set fire to his mattress with a cigarette, then ran through the hotel lobby wearing only his socks. He was arrested and committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where he remained for six months.

Coming out of the hospital, Parker was initially clean and healthy, and proceeded to do some of the best playing and recording of his career. Before leaving California, he recorded "Relaxin' at Camarillo", in reference to his hospital stay. He returned to New York – and his addiction – and recorded dozens of sides for the Savoy and Dial labels that remain some of the high points of his recorded output. Many of these were with his so-called "classic quintet" including trumpeter Miles Davis and drummer Max Roach.

Charlie Parker with strings

A longstanding desire of Parker's was to perform with a string section. He was a keen student of classical music, and contemporaries reported he was most interested in the music and formal innovations of Igor Stravinsky, and longed to engage in a project akin to what later became known as 'Third Stream Music', a new kind of music, incorporating both jazz and classical elements as opposed to merely incorporating a string section into performance of jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians. Six master takes from this session comprised the album Bird With Strings: "Just Friends", "Everything Happens to Me", "April in Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "If I Should Lose You". The sound of these recordings is rare in Parker's catalog. Parker's improvisations are, in comparison to his usual work, more distilled and economical. His tone is darker and softer than on his small-group recordings, and the majority of his lines are beautiful embellishments on the original melodies rather than harmonically based improvisations. These are among the few recordings Parker made during a brief period when he was able to control his heroin habit, and his sobriety and clarity of mind are evident in his playing. Parker stated that, of his own records, Bird With Strings was his favorite. Although using classical music instrumentation with jazz musicians was not entirely original, this was the first major work where a composer of bebop was matched with a string orchestra.

Some fans thought this record was a sell out and a pandering to popular tastes. It is now seen to have been artistically as well as commercially successful. While Charlie Parker with Strings sold better than his other releases, Parker's version of "Just Friends" is regarded as one of his best performances. In an interview, Parker said he considered it to be his best recording to that date.

Prominence

6M "Lady Face" alto sax with highly distinctive underslung octave key, a model that Parker is known to have used. ]]

By 1950, much of the jazz world had fallen under Parker's spell. Many musicians transcribed and copied his solos. Legions of saxophonists imitated his playing note-for-note. In response to these pretenders, Parker's admirer, the bass player Charles Mingus, titled a tune "Gunslinging Bird" (meaning "If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there would be a whole lot of dead copycats") featured on the album Mingus Dynasty. In this regard, he is perhaps only comparable to Louis Armstrong: both men set the standard for their instruments for decades, and few escaped their influence.

In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Bud Powell and Max Roach. Unfortunately, the concert clashed with a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott and as a result was poorly attended. Thankfully, Mingus recorded the concert, and the album Jazz at Massey Hall is often cited as one of the finest recordings of a live jazz performance, with the saxophonist credited as "Charlie Chan" for contractual reasons.

At this concert, he played a plastic Grafton saxophone (serial number 10265); later, saxophonist Ornette Coleman used this brand of plastic sax in his early career. There is a story that says Parker had sold his alto saxophone to buy drugs, and at the last minute, he, Dizzy Gillespie and other members of Charlie's entourage went running around Toronto trying to find Parker a saxophone. After scouring all the downtown pawnshops open at the time, they were only able to find a Grafton, which Parker proceeded to use at the concert that night. This account however is totally untrue. Parker in fact owned two of the Grafton plastic horns. At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and new materials. Parker himself explains the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9 of 1953 broadcast from Birdland and does so again in subsequent May 1953 broadcast.

Parker was known for often showing up to performances without an instrument, necessitating a loan at the last moment. There are various photos that show him playing a Conn 6M saxophone, a high quality instrument that was noted for having a very fast action and a unique "underslung" octave key.

Some of the photographs showing Parker with a Conn 6M were taken on separate occasions. because Parker can be seen wearing different clothing and there are different backgrounds. However, other photos exist that show Parker holding alto saxophones with a more conventional octave key arrangement, i.e. mounted above the crook of the saxophone e.g. the Martin Handicraft and Selmer Model 22 saxophones, among others. Parker is also known to have performed with a King 'Super 20' saxophone, with a semi-underslung octave key that bears some resemblance to those fitted on modern Yanagisawa instruments. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.

Death

Parker died in the suite of his friend and patron Nica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City while watching The Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis of the liver and had had a heart attack. Any one of the four ailments could have killed him. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker's 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.

It was well known that Parker never wanted to return to Kansas City, even in death. Parker had told his common-law wife, Chan, that he did not want to be buried in the city of his birth; that New York was his home and he didn’t want any fuss or memorials when he died. At the time of his death, though, he had not divorced his previous wife Doris, nor had he officially married Chan, which left Parker in the awkward post-mortem situation of having two widows. This complicated the settling of Parker's inheritance and would ultimately serve to frustrate his wish to be quietly interred in his adopted hometown. Dizzy Gillespie was able to take charge of the funeral arrangements that Chan had been putting together and organised a ‘lying-in-state’, a Harlem procession officiated by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and a memorial concert before Parker's body was flown back to Missouri to be buried there in accordance with his mother's wishes. Parker was buried at Lincoln Cemetery, 8604 E. Truman Road, Kansas City, Missouri.

Charlie Parker was survived by both his legal wife, Doris Parker (née Doris June Snyder, August 16, 1922 – January 17, 2000), and his partner, Chan; a stepdaughter, Kim Parker, who is also a musician; and a son, Baird Parker; their later lives are chronicled in Chan Parker's autobiography, My Life in E Flat.

Musical approach

Parker's style of composition involved interpolation of original melodies over pre-existing jazz forms and standards, a practice still common in jazz today. Examples include "Ornithology" ("How High The Moon") and "Yardbird Suite" ("What Price Love"). The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop; however, it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and began to compose their own material.

While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "Billie's Bounce", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional 12-bar blues changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for his tune "Blues for Alice". These unique chords are known popularly as "Bird Changes". Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition although he did employ the use of repetitive (yet relatively rhythmically complex) motifs in many other tunes as well, most notably "Now's The Time".

Parker also contributed a vast rhythmic vocabulary to the modern jazz solo, one in which triplets and pick-up notes were used in (then) unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist with more freedom to use passing tones, which soloists would have previously avoided. Within this context, Parker was admired for his unique style of phrasing and innovative use of rhythm. Via his recordings and the popularity of the posthumously published Charlie Parker Omnibook, Parker's uniquely identifiable vocabulary of "licks" and "riffs" dominated jazz for many years to come. Today his ideas are routinely analyzed by jazz students and are part of any player's basic jazz vocabulary.

Discography

Sessionography

See Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial Sessions

Awards and recognitions

;Grammy Award {| class=wikitable |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| Charlie Parker Grammy Award History |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Result |- align=center | 1974 | Best Performance By A Soloist | First Recordings! | Jazz | Onyx | Winner |}

;Grammy Hall of Fame Recordings of Charlie Parker were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="6" style="text-align:center;"| Charlie Parker: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! Genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1945 | "Billie's Bounce" | Jazz (Single) | Savoy | 2002 |- align=center | 1953 | Jazz at Massey Hall | Jazz (Album) | Debut | 1995 |- align=center | 1946 | "Ornithology" | Jazz (Single) | Dial | 1989 |- align=center | 1950 | Charlie Parker with Strings | Jazz (Album) | Mercury | 1988 |}

;Inductions {| class=wikitable |- | colspan="5" style="text-align:center;"| |- ! Year Inducted ! Title |- align=center | 2004 | Jazz at Lincoln Center: Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame |- align=center | 1984 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award |- align=center | 1979 | Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame |}

;National Recording Registry

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored his recording "Ko-Ko" (1945) by adding it to the National Recording Registry.

;U.S. Postage Stamp

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"| |- ! Year Issued ! Stamp ! USA ! Note |- align=center | 1995 | 32 cents Commemorative stamp | U.S. Postal Stamps | Photo (Scott #2987) |}

Musical tributes

Lennie Tristano's overdubbed solo piano piece "Requiem" was recorded in tribute to Parker shortly after his death. It begins with a classically-tinged introduction, and then turns into a slow blues that gradually accumulates layers of overdubbing – one of the earliest experiments in jazz with multiple overdubbing.

Deeply touched by Charlie Parker's death, street musician Moondog wrote his famous "Bird's Lament" in his memory. Moondog affirmed that he had met Charlie Parker in the streets of New York and that they had planned to jam together.

The Californian ensemble Supersax harmonized many of Parker's improvisations for a five-piece saxophone section, which to many listeners bring new life to them, whereas others consider the arrangements as somewhat constructed.

Saxophonist Phil Woods recorded a tribute concert for Parker, and in an interview stated that he thought Parker had said everything he needed to say.

Weather Report's jazz fusion track and highly acclaimed big band standard "Birdland", from the Heavy Weather album (1977), was a dedication by bandleader Joe Zawinul to both Charlie Parker and the New York 52nd Street club itself. The piece featured Jaco Pastorius playing electric fretless bass. (Pastorius had made a name for himself when he included on his debut solo album an astounding rendition of the Charlie Parker and Miles Davis standard "Donna Lee".) The Manhattan Transfer made a vocalese cover version of the composition with lyrics by Jon Hendricks.

In 2003 various artists including Serj Tankian and Dan the Automator put out Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project. This album created new songs by remixing Charlie Parker's originals.

The biographical song "Parker's Band" was recorded by Steely Dan on its 1974 album Pretzel Logic.

British jazz-rock band If paid tribute to Parker in the title track of their last album, Tea Break Over, Back on Your 'Eads (1975), including a Parker-styled saxophone solo and the lyrics "The Bird was the man to be heard" and "The music was the word".

The avant-garde trombonist George Lewis recorded Homage to Charles Parker (1979), an album that offers a unique combination of electronic music and the blues.

TISM's The White Albun (2004) contains the song "Tonight Harry's Practice Visits the Home of Charlie 'Bird' Parker". The song focuses on celebrity resentment and the possibility that taking drugs will make the otherwise dull celebrities more interesting. The title of the song refers to Australian television show Harry's Practice and, more specifically, the segment where Dr. Harry Cooper would visit a celebrity, in this case, the visit is to Charlie "Bird" Parker's house.

Sparks released the song "(When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing" on their 1994 album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, which prominently features Charlie Parker's name in the lyrics and makes references to his saxophone playing.

Duane Allman devised a unique slide guitar technique that enabled him to mimic the sounds of chirping birds, stating in at least one interview that this was his tribute to Parker. This can be heard in numerous live recordings, most notably "Mountain Jam" on The Allman Brothers Band's CDs Eat a Peach and The Fillmore Concerts (shortly before the drum interlude). Another, more delicate, version is in the song "Finding Her" on Boz Scaggs' self-titled debut album, first released in 1969. This technique can also be heard at the end of Derek & the Dominos 1970 hit "Layla" on which Allman played.

The Only World by poet Lynda Hull includes the poem "Ornithology" about Charlie Parker.

The poem "Song for Bird and Myself" by Jack Spicer was written in memory of Charlie Parker.

The song Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come, on the album Foreign Affairs by Tom Waits has a line that goes: with charlie parker on the bandstand not a worry in the world.

In the song "Can't Stop" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, the lyrics refer to Parker with the line "birds that blow the meaning into bebop."

Richard Thompson references Charlie Parker in his song "Outside of the Inside" on the album The Old Kit Bag (2005).

Charlie Parker is referenced in the song "Rothko Chapel" by David Dondero on the album Simple Love (2007).

Harry Chapin references Charlie Parker in the song 'There Only Was One Choice' from the 'Dance Band On The Titanic' album.

Refused included live recordings of Parker at the end of the song "Liberation Frequency" and transitioned it into "The Deadly Rhythm" on the album The Shape of Punk to Come.

Charlie Parker Residence

Name	Charlie Parker Residence
Nrhp type	nrhp
Caption	(2011)
Locmapin	New York City
Lat degrees	40
Lat minutes	43
Lat seconds	36
Lat direction	N
Long degrees	73
Long minutes	58
Long seconds	50
Long direction	W
Coord parameters	region:US-NY_type:landmark
Location	151 Avenue BManhattan, New York City
Built	c.1849
Architecture	Gothic Revival
Added	April 7, 1994
Designated nrhp type	April 7, 1994
Refnum	94000262
Governing body	private
Designated other2 name	NYC Landmark
Designated other2 date	May 18, 1999
Designated other2 abbr	NYCL
Designated other2 link	New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Designated other2 color	#ff0000

From 1950 to 1954, Parker and his common-law wife, Chan Richardson, lived in the ground floor of the townhouse at 151 Avenue B, between East 9th and 10th Streets across from Tompkins Square Park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The Gothic Revival building, which was built c.1849, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and was designated a New York City landmark in 1999. In addition, in 1992, Avenue B between East 7th and 10th Streets was renamed Charlie Parker Place in 1992.

Other tributes

in Kansas City, Missouri]]

In 1949, the New York night club Birdland was named in his honor. Three years later, George Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland", named for both Parker and the nightclub.

A memorial to Parker was dedicated in 1999 in Kansas City at 17th Terrace and The Paseo, near the American Jazz Museum located at 18th and Vine, featuring a tall bronze head sculpted by Robert Graham.

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is a free two-day music festival which takes place every summer on the last weekend of August in Manhattan, New York City at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Tompkins Square Park in the Lower East Side, sponsored by the non-profit organization City Parks Foundation. The festival marked its 17th anniversary in 2009.

Every August, the Tribes Gallery in New York's Lower East Side sponsors a Charlie Parker Festival that includes musical performances, art exhibits, poetry readings.

Every weekday morning, disc jockey Phil Schaap plays Parker's music on WKCR in New York. His show, called Birdflight, is devoted to Parker's music and has been running since 1981.

In one of his most famous short-story collections, Las armas secretas (The Secret Weapons), Julio Cortázar dedicated "El perseguidor" ("The Pursuer") to the memory of Charlie Parker. This piece examines the last days of Johnny, a drug-addict saxophonist, through the eyes of Bruno, his biographer. Some qualify this story as one of Cortazar's masterpieces in the genre.

A biographical film called Bird, starring Forest Whitaker as Parker and directed by Clint Eastwood, was released in 1988.

In 1984, legendary modern dance choreographer Alvin Ailey created the piece For Bird – With Love in honor of Parker. The piece chronicles his life, from his early career to his failing health.

In 2005, the Selmer Paris saxophone manufacturer commissioned a special "Tribute to Bird" alto saxophone, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Charlie Parker (1955–2005). This saxophone will be built until 2010, each one featuring a unique engraving and an original design.

Parker's performances of "I Remember You" and "Parker's Mood" were selected by Harold Bloom for inclusion on his short list of the "twentieth-century American Sublime", the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century.

Parker is referenced in Jack Kerouac's On the Road as being a major influence of the Bop movement, at the time, Kerouacs character watches a performance of Parker at a club in downtown Chicago

The Oris Watch Company created a limited edition timepiece in Charlie Parker's name. The watch features the word "bird" at the 4 o'clock hour, in honor of Parker's nickname and signifying "Jazz, until 4 in the morning".

Jean-Michel Basquiat created many pieces to honour Charlie Parker, including Charles the First, CPRKR and Discography I.

The main character in Jim Jarmusch's Permanent Vacation is an avid Parker fan.

In 1995, Live Bird, a one-man play about Charlie Parker, written and performed by actor/saxophonist Jeff Robinson, made its premier at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts.

A Far Side cartoon published on Parker's birthday in 1990 titled "Charlie Parker's private hell" shows him locked in a recording booth, screaming, while a whistling devil pipes in nothing but new age music.

Charley Parker, the real name of comic book character Golden Eagle, is a reference to Parker.

In an episode of Cowboy Bebop, Jet Black dreams that Parker tells him, "Only hands can wash hands. If you want to receive, you have to give."

In an episode of Metalocolypse William Murderface of the band Dethklok is heard to be singing his own tribute to Charlie Parker while drunk in a bar in the opening minutes of an episode. The lyrics included "Stand up U.S.A, stand up like Charlie Parker stood up, stand up Charlie Parker style..."

Owen Dodson wrote a poem whose title itself indicates the tribute. It is called "Yardbird's Skull".

On the Del Close recording How to Speak Hip, John Brent's character, Geets Romo, says it is "uncool to claim you used to run with Bird, or that you have Bird's ax, and you know, it's even less cool to ask, 'Who is Bird?'" This is also sampled in the 1994 Hans Dulfer song "Jazz Disaster (Cool)".

Parker plays at a night club in The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac. He appears in other works by Kerouac as well.

In episode 16 of The Mighty Boosh, Charlie Parker's rare "Yardbird" LP can be seen on one of the racks in the Nabootique.

The protagonist in John Connolly's series of crime novels is named Charlie Parker and even shares the nickname "Bird."

Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, wrote a children's book entitled "Ode to a High Flying Bird" as a tribute to Parker. Watts has cited Parker as a major influence in his life as a young man learning to play jazz.

Spanish Rock Band Saratoga wrote a song named "Charlie se fue"(Charlie is gone) as a tribute to Charlie Parker. It is included in its 1999 album Vientos de Guerra. In the beginning of the song it says: "Antes que Malcom y King, que Lennon, en Kansas City surgio la estrella." ("Before Malcolm and King, before Lennon, in Kansas City arose the Star")

See also

Charlie parker discography

References

;Notes

;Bibliography

Aebersold, Jamey, editor (1978). Charlie Parker Omnibook. New York: Michael H. Goldsen.

Giddins, Gary (1987). Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker. New York: Beech Tree Books, William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-05950-3.

Koch, Lawrence (1999). Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker. Boston, Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55555-384-1.

Reisner, George (1962). Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker. New York, Bonanza Books.

Russell, Ross (1973). Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker. New York:Charterhouse. ISBN 0-306-80679-7.

Woideck, Carl (1998). Charlie Parker: His Music and Life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08555-7.

Woideck, Carl, editor (1998). The Charlie Parker Companion: Six Decades of Commentary. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-864714-9.

Yamaguchi, Masaya, editor (1955). Yardbird Originals. New York: Charles Colin, 2005. Originally published in 1955.

External links

Charlie Parker discography at Discogs

Charlie Parker discography

Charlie Parker Sessionography

The Official Site of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker

Clips and notes about Parker

Charlie Parker at Find A Grave

Camarillo State Mental Hospital History (Parker was a patient there)

Category:1920 births Category:1955 deaths Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas Category:African American musicians Category:American buskers Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz saxophonists Category:Bebop saxophonists Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York Category:Jazz alto saxophonists Category:Musicians from Missouri Category:Savoy Records artists