Search - Charlie Parker :: Early Bird

The young Charlie Parker is a mythic figure, portrayed in Clint Eastwood's film Bird and Robert Altman's film Kansas City. Traces of his musical beginnings are scant, but much of what exists can be found on this collection of recordings that begins when Parker was 20 years old. Several tracks come from a Wichita broadcast by a Jay McShann-led octet. The band swings brilliantly, and there are outstanding solos by Parker on "Moten Swing," "Oh, Lady Be Good!" and "Honeysuckle Rose," demonstrating what was already an advanced musical conception. An amateur recording of "Cherokee," from Minton's Playhouse, is a unique example of Parker playing in the birthplace of bop. Bird's influences are more apparent here than they would be later, with sources in Lester Young and Roy Eldridge in evidence, but his work already has the stamp of originality. These are essential building blocks in his music, some of the earliest work of jazz history's greatest improviser. --Stuart Broomer