Charlie Paker
The only child of Charles and Addie Parker, Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940’s. Charlie Parker, also named “Bird”, was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas. He was one of the major forces in the creation of modern jazz known as Be-bop. Bop, known as Be-bop or Re-bop, is a form of jazz that was created as a revolt against the restrictions on creative freedom that were typical of the big bands of the swing era. Charlie’s tone and approach on the alto saxophone, as well as his musical ideas have been followed, understood, adopted, and imitated by performers of all jazz instruments. During this time, two other individuals, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, began following a similar approach to the new form of music as Parker did. Basically, they were following the form of A-A-B-A, or the 12-bar blues pattern in their music.The piece of music that I chose to analyze is the Confirmation by Charlie Parker, composed in 1953. In addition to Charlie’s alto saxophone there are three other instruments which are being played in this piece of music, that of piano, bass, and drums. All these accompaniments play important roles in this piece, since they
By looking at the very first eight bars of this piece of music, hearing the harmonic progression within the linear line of the solo would not be a hard task to follow, even if there was no piano player. Angular points in the solo would make one think that it would be difficult to hear the chord progression; however, even then, the notes involved in the angularity are important and strong notes of the chord with strong resolutions to the next chord. For example, the second measure, the 3rd and 7th are being stressed on the strong beats with a half step resolution to third measure. For the first 5 seconds, it sounds like the texture of the piece is homophony, but it changes when Parker starts to play to polyphony. Although it is obvious that at most times more than two instruments are being played, each instrument’s work is recognizable as a distinguishable unit of sound. Charlie Parker was fonder of musical quotations than any jazz artist who came before him. His improvisations included melodies from Bizet, Stravinsky, and Wagner, popular songs, light classics, and from earlier jazz performances such as Louis Armstrong's West End Blues. The fact that musical quotations became a popular characteristic of bop style jazz music is another testimony to Charlie Parker's stylistical influence on jazz music. This piece of music is following the pattern of A-A’-B-A from a harmonic analysis. The first t
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Charlie Parker,
Be-bop Re-bop,
Parker Basically,
West Blues,
Stravinsky Wagner,
City Kansas,
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Thelonious Monk,
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,
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musical quotations,
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minor minor,
piece changing,
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Approximate Word count = 953
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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