Charlie Parker at 100

Charlie Parker died at 34, and the 66 years since he has died have only increased his reputation.

The sad thing that happened after a car accident was that he was given heroin and sought it out after recovered. The other sad thing is that his greatness paired with drug use, caused a lot of people to try drugs in an effort to be like him. He was great in spite of the drug use, not because of it.

My journey with jazz started with Richard Davis. I took his class at UW, and when I moved to NYC, I lived with my aunt and uncle, and my uncle had a good jazz CD collection. He favored Miles Davis, but had some great stuff. Zoot Simms, Oliver Nelson were some CDs I loved.

I've seen a lot of Saxophone leaders and they were all influenced by Parker. I lived in the East Village, a few blocks from Parker's house. My first wife thought my interest in jazz was weird. I liked it all, wanted to hear it all. Tompkins Square had a Bird Festival every Labor Day weekend. I've gone a few times in the 30 years I've lived in NYC.

Phil Schaap has a radio show on WKCR, Bird Flight, and I've not listened to that show enough. I gave money to WBGO when I had some money, and they hounded me for years.

I don't listen to as much jazz since I started meditating, and since I've been poor the past few years haven't seen any live jazz. But I love to catch free broadcasts of Smalls.

Links:

NY Times Article by Alan Scherstuhl.

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