Ornithology

Bird

Charlie Parker

Yardbird

I still remember the first time I heard a recording by Charlie Parker.  I was 15 years old and the band director at the school was going to teach us to play “Billie’s Bounce”, or at least the melody of the tune.  I don’t know what I thought Jazz was before I heard that record, but my brain soon learned, once I listened to the alto saxophone of Charlie Parker.  My ears could barely listen fast enough to hear what was happening, I simply could not imagine someone who could play like that, let alone improvise as he went along.  Simply put, it was a musical epiphany.

Charlie Parker, “Billie’s Bounce”

That day set me on a listening quest that led me from Bird to Diz, Miles, Monk, Clifford Brown, Coltrane, and on and on.  I bathed in bebop, tuned my radio to the jazz music…