{"id":60,"date":"2020-07-12T14:44:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T14:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2020-07-12T14:44:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T14:44:45","slug":"jazz-starts-here-celebrating-charlie-parker-at-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/jazz-starts-here-celebrating-charlie-parker-at-100\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Starts Here: Celebrating Charlie Parker at 100"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Charlie Parker, the prodigiously talented alto saxophonist, passed away, his obituary in The New York Times <\/em>listed his age as \u201cabout 53.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, Parker was only 34.<\/p>\n

What created this egregious error? New York Times\u2019<\/em> obits are usually spot-on.<\/p>\n

The story of Parker\u2019s death is as tragic as much of the rest of his life. As the astute jazz chronicler, Nat Hentoff, wrote: \u201cThere have been a number of instances in jazz history of the incandescent hero-as-world-overturning-improviser eventually plunging, like Icarus, into burnt out extinction\u2026but there has been no more daring, dangerous, revolutionary flight than that of Charlie Parker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jazz critic Whitney Balliett put it this way: \u201cParker\u2026was one of the wonders of 20th century music\u2026he tragically consumed himself, and at the same time he was a demon who presided gleefully over the wreckage of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s final journey began on March 9, 1955 when, on the way to a gig in Boston, he stopped off at New York\u2019s posh Stanhope Hotel to visit his friend and patron, Baroness Nica de Koenigswarter.<\/p>\n

Leaving his luggage in the car, Parker appeared at the Baroness\u2019 suite in rumpled distress.<\/p>\n

She offered him a drink, which he refused, saying that he was on the wagon. He did accept some ice water to \u201ccool\u201d his fiery ulcers \u2014 and then promptly began vomiting blood.<\/p>\n

Alarmed, the Baroness summoned her physician, Dr. Robert Freymann \u2014 the same doctor who later famously lost his license over his liberal use of amphetamine prescriptions for celebrity clients. Freymann immediately urged Parker to enter a hospital; Parker refused, but did agree to remain in the Baroness\u2019 apartment to recover.<\/p>\n

A few days later, Parker appeared to be on the mend. He was allowed to sit in the living room to watch Tommy Dorsey\u2019s program on television; suddenly, Parker began choking and, within minutes, was dead.<\/p>\n

Although the official cause of his death was pneumonia, a friend more accurately put it, \u201cCharlie died of everything.\u201d Years of alcohol and drug abuse compounded with intemperate habits finally killed him.<\/p>\n

So decimated by his life style, Parker\u2019s body appeared to be that of a much older man: 53 was just a guess on the part of the authorities.<\/p>\n

But personal chaos will never overshadow the musical legacy Parker left in his wake.<\/p>\n

Miles Davis said it well: \u201cyou can tell the history of jazz in four words.\u00a0 Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although \u201cBird,\u201d as he was nicknamed, is primarily remembered for creating bebop, he mastered the entire Jazz genre.<\/p>\n

Balliett described it: \u201cNo other saxophonist has achieved as human a sound. It could be edgy, and even sharp\u2026it could be smooth and big and somber. It could be soft and husky\u2026the blues lived in every room of his style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker had eclectic taste in music; he keenly admired the classical composer, Igor Stravinsky. One memorable evening, Stravinsky and three companions came to see Parker perform live at a nightclub \u2014 aware of his presence in the audience, Parker added a portion of Stravinsky\u2019s Firebird Suite<\/em> into one of the numbers, much to the delight of all present.<\/p>\n

Charlie Parker was a musical genius \u2014 he took his life and his art to the limits. As he said, \u201cif you don\u2019t live it, it won\u2019t come out of your horn.\u201d<\/p>\n

2020 marks Parker\u2019s 100th birthday; it will be celebrated with remastered musical releases, limited edition art works and public performances (COVID permitting). A forum, Bird and Beyond, Celebrating Charlie Parker at 100<\/em> took place in January at Lincoln Center \u2014 it can viewed here.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=brW_pggLy14<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, Bird<\/em>, the 1988 Clint Eastwood film about Parker\u2019s life is showing on Amazon Prime. It\u2019s a bittersweet account which deftly balances his remarkable gifts and his equally remarkable self-destructiveness. The soundtrack is extraordinary: through technical wizardry, Parker\u2019s original mono-recordings are paired with current musicians.<\/p>\n

Critics have called the soundtrack his final masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Charlie Parker, August 29, 1920 \u2013 March 12, 1955.\u00a0 RIP.<\/p>\n

ARTICLE SOURCE:
\nOriginally written by https:\/\/blog.martinoakscemeteryandcrematory.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Majestic Funeral Services<\/span> has been in operation for more than 50+ years and is located at 189-06 Liberty Avenue \u2022 Hollis, Queens, New York 11412<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Charlie Parker, the prodigiously talented alto saxophonist, passed away, his obituary in The New York Times listed his age as \u201cabout 53.\u201d In reality, Parker was only 34. What created this egregious error? New York Times\u2019 obits are usually spot-on. The story of Parker\u2019s death is as tragic as much of the rest of … Continue reading “Jazz Starts Here: Celebrating Charlie Parker at 100”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/economycremations.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}