By Frances [email protected]
"You can tell the history of jazzin four words: Louis Arm-strong. Charlie Parker."Thus spoke Miles Davis, theterrifically talented trumpeter,who knew jazz inside and out.Not surprisingly thereforemillions of this planet's inhabi-tants will celebrate the Centen-nial of the Arrival of the Angelof the Alto Saxophone, CharlieParker, on Saturday, Aug. 29,2020.If you can't travel to the birth-place — Kansas City, Mo., — ofthis avant-garde jazz genius -you can still virtually (and oth-erwise) raise the scales withhim on your very own "BirdSuite" chase.Across the pond, although theGuinness Cork Jazz Festival2020 has been canceled, Diageorecently announced that theyare fully committed to sponsor-ing the festival in October 2021.
Meanwhile "3G and ChrisEngel" will play “Bird,” recreat-ing Ronan Guilfoyle's LinguaFranca BIRD that debuted in2000. Join the Stream from
Arthur's by visiting www.jazz-ireland.ie, and purchasing aticket link (valid for 24 hours) tothe live Birthday performanceat 8:00pm, Saturday night.
The arc of Parker's life is anout-of-his control cyclone,within which he exploresunique and advanced ap-proaches to harmonic ideas,punctuated by introducingbebop fast tempos, electricpassing chords and other virtu-oso technique into the jazzidiom.During a professional careeras musician and composer thatspanned the late-1930s throughthe mid-1950s, Parker's prodi-gious output appeared on theSavoy, Dial, Verve and Mercurylabels, to name but a few,breaching some time-honoredformulaic jazz soloing stric-tures.Although his star turn as im-proviser extraordinaire surelyearned him time-honored sta-tus as the Bull of Bebop, curi-ously there were eight leaders -inclusive of Jay McShann,Dizzy Gillespie and SarahVaughan — on recording ses-sions on which he appeared —
before Parker himself took thehelm as the music was made.That slow upward incline be-lies the razzmatazz of his seem-ingly meteoric starry fame —more popular and renowned in1950 than Bing Crosby — thatthe facts reveal. Charlie Parker paid his duesto and for himself. In the Fall of1936 while traveling to a gig inthe Missouri Ozarks, duringwhich time a car accident re-sulted in three injured ribs anda fractured spine, the-then16-year-old was treated with painkillers and opioids (includingheroin), which precipitated alife-long addiction.Ultimately after a spectacularflop performance in the springof 1936 the soon to emerge sem-blance of the icon he becameflowered after close to fouryears of fifteen hour daily self-induced practice sessions.During the recent NationalEndowment for the Arts 2020Jazz Masters post-Tribute Con-cert Q&A - a live on-line session- an honoree, Bobby McFarrin,reflected on jazz improvisationstating that "each person gets tobring their universe of influ-ence." If as opined during that dis-cussion "improvisation is a veryrisky act of faith" then CharlieParker was for jazz the risk-taker in chief. He played theGospel of a Bird in flight with adestination known only to theCreator.No matter how you decide toacknowledge this monumentalmoment in the history of jazz -whether partaking in the 92Y -Charlie Parker "Now's TheTime" extravaganza of activities(92y.org/charlie parker), tuningin to 89.9FM (WKCR.org) forthe marathon "Charlie ParkerCentennial Festival" (all dayfrom tomorrow through all dayThursday, Sept. 3), or enjoyingthe entire month-long Birdmanhomage on 88.3FM(WBGO.org), one thing's forsure: Charlie Parker transi-tioned 65 years ago with musiche still had not yet composedbut was playing nonetheless inhis head.Come Aug. 29, 2020, wher-ever you may be, open a win-dow and your heart. A bird willappear.Listen carefully for whatyou'll hear is a song that gotaway.If you haven't yet had your fillof Pandemic to Pandemic cap-stones, visit NY1920.com andyou'll discover almost dailyposts featuring milestonemaker/events in New York'sculture and history a la 1920.
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Charlie Parker at the Three Deuces in New York in August 1947.
“The Dalkey Boaters.” Artist Padraig McCaul on Achill Island.
“A Western Road.”
World is celebrating Bird at 100Echo Arts & Lifestyle
Getting to knowMcCaulThe Doorway Gallery in Dublin is hosting weekly online exhi-bitions called “Getting to Know.”“We feel that people now have time to get to know our artists,”
Doorway said in a statement. ‘Some of our artists haven’t had soloshows with the gallery yet, so we thought it would be nice to pro-vide an insight into the typical lifestyle of our artists. and to beable to really get to know the Doorway Gallery artists.“We want you to experience the journey that the painting makesbefore it hits the gallery setting,” the statement continued.Padraig McCaul, whose studio is a former schoolhouse on AchillIsland, will be the artist featured for the week beginning nextMonday, Aug. 31, at 3 p.m. (Irish time). McCaul is a landscape painter but also does figurative and semi-abstract work. For more information about the series, and a Face-book Q&A with McCaul on Thursday evening, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m.(3 p.m. EST), go to thedoorwaygallery.com.
