charlie parker and the dawn of bebop guitar

Charlie Parker and the Dawn of Bebop Guitar

Flip Peters

Charlie Parker and the Dawn of Bebop Guitar

Upon first hearing the May 11, 1945 recording of “Salt Peanuts” by Dizzy

Gillespie‟s All Star Quintet with Charlie Parker, guitarist Django Reinhardt is said to

have shaken his head in admiration and stupefaction, repeating over and over “They play

so fast, so fast.”1 Parker‟s influence on saxophone players is well known. Reinhardt‟s

influence on guitarists and that of Charlie Christian are also well known. At issue in this

paper is the influence, direct and indirect that Parker‟s approach to music has had on the

guitarists that came after him. Five transcribed guitar solos are included with this paper

and will be discussed.

The guitar is makes a very unlikely instrument for jazz solo improvisation. Its

tuning (E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4) make it well suited for the sharp keys etc but ill suited

for the flat keys favored by early jazz musicians. Its percussive attack makes it difficult to

get the legato line characteristic of jazz improvisation. Notes played on the guitar have

little sustain; they begin to decay almost immediately. Finally, the acoustic guitar has

limited dynamic range and can barely be heard in an ensemble when playing single-note

lines. Where the guitar does shine is in ease of chordal playing. With a relatively few

chord shapes, even a relatively unschooled guitarist can easily play major, minor,

diminished and augmented triads on all roots, switching between them with little

difficulty.

We will start with a brief history of jazz guitar from the 1920s to the early 1940s.

In a 1959 Down Beat Magazine article, John S. Wilson begins his history of jazz guitar in

1 Dregni 2004: 201

Charlie Parker and the Dawn of Bebop Guitar Page 2

1929. At that time banjoist Albert Edwin (Eddie) Condon began playing a four-string

guitar shaped like a lute with comb player and entertainer Red McKenzie. Surely this

lute-like instrument was not destined to replace the banjo in the rhythm section. Up until

this time the guitar had been used primarily by folk and blues musicians.2 Lonnie

Johnson was an early blues guitarist who ventured into the realm of jazz. Johnson

recorded with Duke Ellington in 1928, soloing on “The Mooche”. In December of 1927

Johnson joins Louis Armstrong‟s Hot Five for three tracks, “I'm Not Rough”, “Hotter

Than That”, and “Savoy Blues”.

The first important jazz guitarist was Eddie Lang (1902-1933). Lang‟s style

combined blues influences with European classical.3 (Lang had recorded as early as 1924

with McKenzie, predating Condon.) Wilson points out that Lang‟s influence contributed

to the guitar supplanting the banjo in the rhythm section. However his technical prowess

would have to wait to be duplicated. After Lang‟s untimely death in 1933 at thirty years

old, the guitar continued to play a primarily supportive role. Guitarists like Carl Kress,

Dick McDonough, George Van Eps and Al Casey ventured only occasionally into the

spotlight for rhythmic, chordal solos.4 Lang‟s solo on the May 13, 1927 recording of “For

No Reason at All in C” reveals his inventiveness and technical skill as well as some of

the aforementioned limitations of the acoustic guitar. See Transcription 1. Lang used

extra heavy strings with very high action (the strings were high off the fingerboard) to

compensate for some of the guitar‟s tonal shortcomings. 5 He plays cleanly and

melodically with a warm, round tone. He rhythm however is stiff and the solo sounds

2 Wilson 1959: 16

3 http://www.redhotjazz.com/lang.html

4 Wilson 1959: 16-17

5 Sudhalter 1999: 155


worked out. The motif in m1 is sequenced in m2 and m4. Measures 1-8, mm 9-16 and

mm 25-32 are almost identical A sections, differing only in their endings. Measures 17-

24 sound like a written out bridge. Most of the note values are eight notes, quarter notes

and half notes. The first three eight-bar sections end with dotted half notes, the last one

with a whole note. There are two sixteenth notes in m6 and triplets in m3, m7 and m27.

The next important guitarist was Django Reinhardt (1910-1953). A Belgian-born

Manouche (French speaking gypsy), Reinhardt combined eastern European musical and

American jazz influences to create a unique and intensely personal style. He was the first

true virtuoso jazz guitarist. He recorded prolifically and toured Europe with his Hot Club

Quintette, featuring violinist Stephane Grappelli from 1934 until the beginning of World

War II in 1939. He was the most famous European jazz musician and American

musicians including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter recorded with him in France.

Reinhardt used very light-gauge strings on his acoustic guitar, enabling him to get a

sweet ringing sound. His years of playing in loud cafes had forced him to develop a

formidable right hand giving him a round, and loud sound. His single-string technique

was vastly superior to Lang‟s. In fact he referred to Lang as “very limited”, adding,

“There was nothing to be learned” from him.6 His solo on the 1937 recording of

“Swingin‟ with Django” exemplifies his early style. See Transcription 2. The line he

plays is much freer than Lang‟s. He moves through chord arpeggios, chromatic runs and

scale passages with ease, never sounding strained in spite of the fast tempo. He ends the

solo with five measures of almost uninterrupted eighth notes, sounding remarkably pre-

bebopish. His playing through the solo is legato and swinging, as the title implies.

6 Dregni 2004: 86


Reinhardt has raised the level of jazz guitar technique to new heights. The approach is

still very much that of a string player with glisses, tremolos, bent notes and ringing open

strings.

On this side of the Atlantic, Oklahoman Charlie Christian (1919-1942) was

revolutionizing jazz guitar with his approach to the recently invented electric guitar. The

amplified guitar, in addition to its louder sound, can sustain notes like a woodwind or

brass instrument. Although other guitarists, notably Eddie Durham with the Count Basie

Orchestra and Floyd Smith with Andy Kirk‟s Clouds of Joy, had performed on electric

guitar, it was Christian who first took a horn-like approach in his single-line improvising.

Christian was influenced by Reinhardt but added deep blues sensitivity to his

improvisations. Wilson states “In his two short years of prominence before his death

early in 1942, Christian upset the entire conception of jazz guitar—giving it a firm place

as a front-line voice, putting it on a more flexible and swinging foundation, and

practically reading the unamplified guitar out of jazz.” Although Christian was a regular

participant in the Minton‟s jam sessions where the “musical brew that came out as bop”

was developing, his was still primarily a swing era style.7 His solo on the November 22,

1939 Benny Goodman Sextet recording of his composition “Seven Come Eleven” is one

of the most famous guitar solos in jazz. See Transcription 3. This song has an AABA

structure and Christian takes a full chorus. In the three A sections he is playing primarily

around the tonic (Ab) triad, adding the sixth, flatted seventh, ninth and blue third. The

style is rhythmic, bluesy and firmly rooted in the swing-riff tradition. In the bridge he

digs in and plays long eighth note lines. Of particular interest are accented passing tones,

7 Wilson 1959: 17


both major sevenths against dominant seventh chords in mm 20-21. Christian has now

fully established the electric guitar as a melody instrument, alongside the horns and will

influence the next generation of jazz guitarists.

On September 15, 1944 Charlie Parker recorded four sides for Savoy Records

with the Tiny Grimes Quintette. Guitarist Grimes, was a self-taught musician who had

worked with Art Tatum. He was limited as a player but his showmanship and eagerness

to better his musicianship enabled him to perform with musicians who were far superior

to him. When Tatum disbanded his trio in the summer of 1944 Grimes formed his own

group for an engagement at Tondaleyo‟s on 52nd

Street. It was there that Parker sat in

with Grimes, frequently enough to become a “shadow member” of the group.8 In his solo

on the master take of “Red Cross”, Grimes clearly shows his Charlie Christian roots. See

Transcription 4. This Parker composition is based on the chord progression to George

Gershwin‟s “I Got Rhythm”. Throughout the first two A sections Grimes is playing

swing-blues riffs very similar to those played by Christian. In mm 14-16 he plays a string

of eighth notes. Here Grimes shows that he has been absorbing Parkers influence.

Measures 17-22 are pure Christian. However in mm 23-24, coming out of the bridge,

Grimes plays a characteristic bebop two-note motif twice. The second time he ends on

the flatted fifth of the F7 chord, B natural. This is such a bop move that he must have

learned it from Parker. However he sounds so uncomfortable with it that he seems to be

struggling in the last eight to regain his footing.

. Barney Kessel‟s solo work on 1945 recordings with Artie Shaw‟s Gramercy

Five illustrates the pre bebop approach to guitar improvisation. His solo on “The

8 DeVeaux 1997: 369-370.


Grabtown Grapple” January 9, 1945 (also featuring Dodo Marmarosa on piano) is an

excellent example. See transcription 5. The solo is very clearly delimited into four bar

phrases. Upper notes of the chords are used but there is no side slipping, no blurring of

the bar lines, no chromaticism. In fact there are none of the melodic innovations that

characterize bebop. While Kessel is playing in a post-Christian swing style, it sounds as if

he is searching for new, original ideas. He begins the solo with a two-note motif based on

the raised 6th

and the raised 7th

of the D minor harmony. Christian was fond of the minor

6th

chord and liked to play the raised 6th

on accented beats. However, Kessel ends the first

and second phrases on the raised 7th

, and lets the note hang for two beats. This goes

beyond Christian while retaining the feel of a Christian solo. In mm 6-7 Kessel plays a

six-string altered Eb9 arpeggio against the D minor harmony. This is daring and original

but still not bebop. In m10 he restates the two-note motif, this time decorating it and

builds a sequence into m13. In mm 14-15 he juxtaposes an A7(#5) arpeggio against the D

minor harmony, again exploiting the raised 7th

. In the final two measures, he plays a

simple riff leading to the cadence, playing the raised 7th

one last time as the penultimate

note.

Kessel recounts the first time he played with Charlie Parker. It was in Los

Angeles in late 1945 after Dizzy Gillespie‟s engagement at Billy Berg‟s club had ended.

Kessel had gone to one of the after-hours clubs where Parker went to jam. That evening

Parker was playing to a “packed house that listened to his every nuance and watched

every move he made.” Kessel had met Parker briefly on a couple of occasions but they

had never played together. Parker recognized Kessel, invited him to join the jam and even

carried his amp into the club! Kessel states that bebop was new to him and that he didn‟t


quite understand it, even that there were things about it that he didn‟t understand. Kessel

who was twenty-two at the time described himself as “a guitarist of the swing era with

Charlie Christian influences and my own post- Christian development”, adding “I was

still playing in the swing form.” According to Kessel there was “no definitive guitar

approach or guitar posture regarding bebop”. Although Kessel was not satisfied with his

performance with Parker and the other bebop musicians that evening Parker “seemed

delighted with the music” they played together. After that initial encounter, Kessel played

with Parker at several more sessions and listened to a lot of bebop records, studying the

music of Parker, Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell and others. When Parker was

scheduled to record for Dial Records he asked for Kessel.9 That February 1947 session at

the C. P. McGregor Recording Studio produced “Stupendous”, “Carvin‟ the Bird”,

“Relaxin‟ at Camarillo” and “Cheers”. These songs were released as Charlie Parker Vol.

5 on Everest Records. The guitar solo on “Relaxin‟ at Camarillo” shows a remarkable

transformation. See Transcription 6. The solo begins with a simple tonic (key of C) triad

arpeggio. Measure 2 is a modified sideslip. It‟s an arpeggiated Db (or G) Major triad with

a flatted 5th

. He answers this two-bar phrase with a bebop-inflected phrase. Measure 3 has

a rhythmic figure of an eighth note triplet, a pair of eighth notes, another pair of eighth

notes and another eighth note triplet. The phrase ends with an arpeggiated C Major triad

with a flatted 5th

, which completes the call and response. Measures 5-8 consist of a

combination of eighth notes and triplets ending on a Parker-like “Tea for Two” figure.

Measures 9-10 sound like a paraphrase of mm 9-10 of Parker‟s “Now‟s the Time”. In

mm 15-16 and 19-20 Kessel plays figures very similar to figures Parker plays. Although

Kessel still seems to be bound to four-measure phrases he has clearly absorbed bebop

9 Kessel 1978: 16.


influences. In the space of two years he has gone from a post-Christian swing guitarist to

a bebop player.

Barney Kessel was not the first guitarist to record with Charlie Parker. Remo

Palmieri, Arvin Garrison and of course Tiny Grimes had been on records with Parker

before Kessel. But Kessel, a consistent poll winner in the 1950s brought bebop guitar to

the forefront. Through Kessel‟s influence guitarists like Howard Roberts began

incorporating the bebop vocabulary into jazz guitar. Other guitarists have acknowledged

Parker‟s direct influence on their playing. Chuck Wayne, who recorded with Parker in the

1950s for Norman Granz talks about his first influences. “…We had a record of Eddie

Lang and Carl Kress playing guitar duets. Eddie Lang was a solo player. He was an

interesting person. He was the first to play solo guitar…So we used to imitate the duo,

my brother and I. I would play Eddie Lang‟s part and he would play the

accompaniment.” Wayne goes on to say “I heard Coleman Hawkins playing „Body and

Soul‟. And I fell in love with that. I said „Oh wow, I wanna learn to play like that‟ …

Then I heard Charlie Christian. And I said „Wow, that‟s really great solo work on the

guitar, you know, almost like a horn‟. So now I had somebody to imitate, to try and

emulate.” Wayne‟s conversion to bebop occurred in the mid 1940s when he was playing

with Joe Marsala at the Hickory house on 52nd Street. “…Charlie Parker was playing at

the Three Deuces. …when I first heard him play … I said that‟s the way I want to play.

And that was the beginning of me trying to start to play bebop.”10

Joe Pass was arguably

the first guitarist who played in a very horn-like style. As a young musician (he started

playing professionally at age fourteen) Pass was influenced by Reinhardt. Later he

10

Cole 1996: 6.


studied and assimilated the styles of Parker, Gillespie and other modern horn players.11

Unlike most guitarists Pass‟s melodic approach to the guitar was very linear. Rather than

riffing around comfortable chord formations, Pass played fluid melodic lines. Like a

saxophonist (and unlike a typical guitarist) his playing was very legato with subtle shades

of dynamics and accents. His virtuosity allowed him to execute long double time

passages, much as Parker had.

Charlie Parker‟s innovations have molded generations of musicians who came

after him and guitarists were certainly among them. I would argue that his influence on

modern jazz guitar, both directly and through modern jazz guitar pioneers like Barney

Kessel is as pervasive as that of Reinhardt and Christian, long acknowledged as pioneers

of jazz guitar.

11

Pass and Thrasher 1970: End page


Transcription 1


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Transcription 4


Transcription 5


Transcription 6


Bibliography

Dregni, Michael. 2004. Django The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend. Oxford

University Press

Pass, Joe and Thrasher, Bill. 1970. Joe Pass Guitar Style. Gwyn Publishing

Company

Kessel, Barney. Guitar Journal Recording with Charlie Parker. Guitar Player

September 1978. Pp 16, 133.

Woideck, Carl. 1996. Charlie Parker His Music and Life. The University of

Michigan Press.

DeVeaux, Scott. 1997. The Birth of bebop. The University of California Press.

Sudhalter, Richard M. 1999. Lost Chords White Musicians and Their

Contribution to Jazz 1915-1945. Oxford University Press.

Wilson, John S. Evolution of Jazz Guitar. Down Beat June 25, 1959. Pp 16-18

Cole, Randy. Interview with Chuck Wayne. Cadence Magazine August 1996. Pp

5-14

http://www.swingmusic.net/Kessel_Barney_Biography_Jazz_Guitar.html

http://www.redhotjazz.com/lang.html


Cole, Randy. Interview with Chuck Wayne. Cadence Magazine August 1996. Pp

5-14

charlie parker and the dawn of bebop guitar

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