The Music
While swing music tended to feature orchestrated big band arrangements, bebop
music was much more free in its structure
A head would be presented in unison at the beginning and the end of each
piece, with improvisational solos based on the major chords making up the body
of the work
Bebop music extended the jazz vocabulary by exploring new harmonic territory
through the use of altered chords and chord substitutions
Contrafacts
Melodies grew in complexity from those of swing jazz, and began to twist, turn,
and jump rapidly to follow quickly-changing chord progressions
As bebop grew from its swing-era roots, these progressions often were taken
directly from popular swing-era songs and reused with a new and more complex
bebop melody, forming new compositions known as a contrafacts
While contrafaction was already a well-established practice in earlier jazz, it came
to be central to the bebop style
Musicians and audiences alike were able to find something familiar in this new
exotic sound, but perhaps more importantly, small record labels such as Savoy,
often avoided paying copyright fees for pop tunes
Ornithology
Recorded on March 28, 1946 in Hollywood
Written by Charlie Parker and Benny Harris
Based on the chord changes to How High the Moon
Personnel
Charlie Parker (alto saxophone)
Lucky Thompson (tenor saxophone)
Miles Davis (trumpet)
Arvin Garrison (guitar)
Dodo Marmarosa (piano)
Vic McMillan (bass)
Roy Porter (drums)
Mintons Playhouse
A jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Hotel Cecil at 210 West 118th
Street in Harlem
Mintons is famous for its role in the development of modern jazz, where in its
jam sessions in the early 1940s, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, Charlie
Christian, and Dizzy Gillespie, pioneered the new music
Mintons thrived for three decades until its decline near the end of the 1960s, and
its eventual closing in 1974
The club reopened its doors in 2006, under the name Uptown Lounge at Mintons
Playhouse
This came to symbolize the soaring flight of his music and his genius
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
Parkers improvisations are, relative 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
When he did record and perform with strings, some fans thought it was a
sell-out and a pandering to popular tastes
Death
Parker died while watching Tommy Dorsey on television in the suite at the
Stanhope Hotel belonging to his friend and patroness Nica de Koenigswarter
Though the official cause of death was pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, his
death was hastened by his drug and alcohol abuse
The 34-year-old Parker was so haggard that the coroner mistakenly estimated
Parkers age to be between 50 and 60
Sources
History and Tradition of Jazz by Thomas E. Larson
Jazz for Dummies by Dirk Sutro
Jazz a film by Ken Burns
http://en.wikipedia.org
Discography
1. Bebop by Dizzy Gillespie
from the album Ultimate Dizzy Gillespie
Verve
2. Ornithology by Charlie Parker
from the album The Genius of Charlie Parker
Savoy Jazz
3. Thriving on a Riff by Charlie Parker
from the album Charlie Parker Memorial, Volume 2
Savoy Jazz SV-0103
4. Relaxin at Camarillo by Charlie Parker
from the album The Genius of Charlie Parker
Savoy Jazz
5. Salt Peanuts by The Quintet
from the album The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall
Debut Records
6. Just Friends by Charlie Parker
from the album Charlie Parker with Strings Complete Master Takes
Verve POCJ-2078