Charlie Parker is a towering figure in American music history. “Bird” was one of the main architects of be-bop, a form of music that Wikipedia describes as “a style of jazz characterized by a fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and sometimes references to the melody.”
The Daily Music Break has posted on Parker a couple of times: A short post featuring a video of “Dexterity” and a playlist featuring “Yardbird Suite,” “April in Paris,” “Orinthology,” “Summertime” and “Koko.”
I recently spoke to jazz critic and author Scott Yanow about Parker, what he did and where he fits into the landscape of jazz. We also discussed the nature of bebop — which is a bit confusing. Yanow, whose site is here, discussed the tgreat Louis Armsrong with The Daily Music Break in August.
The quality of the audio is not great in the later half of the podcast. Apologies. The intro and exit music is “Yardbird Suite.”
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