Since we will be casually chatting about Charlie Parker’s nickname, I can’t help but think that this is a perfect cunning opportunity to admit, once and for all, that I am one of those “man without a nickname” (with mysterious organ music distantly sounded) kind of guys. For some reasons, nicknames stay far-far-away from me like cute squirrels hastily running away from big-bad falcons. I am of course not a big-bad-falcon-kind-of-person. (I hope, at least). Quite the opposite. I am somewhat timid and, frankly, can’t say no to a good bite of dark chocolate and any chance to make odd references to koala bears, kangaroos, Philip Glass, and obscure 80s’ films. See, no big-bad-falcon-attributes whatsoever. “How about JK?” One might ask. Well, JK isn’t really a nickname. Oh-no-no, it isn’t. It is simply an abbreviation of my given name. But, then, if one is to consider JK as the abbreviation of Just-Kidding, it would probably have qualified as an excellent dual-purpose pick-up line. Top ten on any list.

“Name is JK.” Delivering it with cool James Bond accent. “Or call me Just-Kidding.”

It was pretty common for jazz musicians to be nicknamed during the first half of the twentieth century. For instance, Charlie Parker's former employer Jay McShann was nicknamed "Hootie" and Henry Smith was nicknamed "Buster." While according to jazz scholar James Patrick’s research, a considerable amount of jazz musicians did not refer to Charlie Parker as “Bird,”¹ Parker’s nickname, to me, was something very special. Needless to say, Parker and his nickname now seem to be in each other’s happy-cheery lunchbox. But, more importantly, his nickname has become an identifiable symbolic reference to him and his music. The emblematical representation that was carried by Parker's nickname was everywhere in the history of Bebop. In 1949, a club was named in honor of Parker as the Birdland. In 1953, Parker appeared on an advertisement for the King Saxophone Company, advertising that "I'm as happy as a Bird with my King Super 20." Concerts and engagements advertisements billed Parker's as "Bird," "Yardbird," and the "Yardbird of Bebop."² The image of a bird as the graphical representation of Parker's nickname and his music was also frequently used in the cover art of Parker's recordings. Several of Parker's original compositions were also named with a reference to his nickname, such as Yardbird Suite and Bird's Nest. Furthermore, the words Bird Lives, reportedly created by Ted Jones, started to appear in the form of graffiti after Parker's death in 1955, and Parker's gravestone was officially inscribed with a drawing of a dove.³

In a 1949 article published in Down Beat, Parker was paraphrased in explaining the origin of his nickname:

It was back in his school days, he says, that his name started going through a series of mutations which finally resulted in Bird. As Charlie reconstructs it, it went from Charlie to Yarlie to Yarl to Yard to Yardbird to Bird.⁴

Due to varied versions of recollections associated with the origin of Parker's nickname, it is "difficult to accurately trace Parker's famous nickname."⁵  There is also a dispute regarding when Parker acquired his nickname. Parker Scholar Koch O. Lawrence informed us that Parker acquired his nickname as early as his association with the Deans of Swing,⁶ a student band Parker joined when attending Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri around 1932. Carl Woideck chronicled the event with Parker's stay in the Jay McShann Orchestra, as Woideck argued that "it was around the time of Parker's tenure with McShann that he acquired the nickname 'Bird.'"⁷ However, Parker's former employer Buster Smith's recollection suggests that Parker acquired his nickname prior to his association with the Jay McShann Orchestra, for Parker started playing in Smith's band in 1937 and joined the Jay McShann Orchestra in 1940. Smith recounted:

He got the name from . . . When he'd get off of work at night, he said, "I'm goin' home and knock over me one of them yardbirds." So the boys would ask him, I even asked him, "What do you mean, yardbird?" "I'm going to get me one of them chickens". . . . He'd go catch one of these chickens and kill 'em. I guess he was staying with his parents, and he'd have them cook him a chicken. Middle of the night, didn't make no difference to him. And so the boys got to callin' him Yardbird, and that's the way he [unintelligible].⁸

Jay McShann's recollection also provides a slightly varied version regarding the origin of Parker's nickname. Both Smith and McShann's accounts offer no direct reference to "Bird," suggesting that "Bird" was probably the shortened version of "Yardbird." McShann's recollection is as followed:

We started to do a lot of college dates. Bird got his name when we were going to Lincoln, Nebraska.⁹ Whenever he saw some chicken on the menu, he'd say, "Give me some of the yardbird over there." We were in two cars and the car he was in drove over a chicken, and Bird put his hands on his head and said, "No, stop! God back and pick up that yardbird." He insisted on it and we went back and Bird got out of the car and carefully wrapped up the chicken and took it with him to the hotel where we were staying and made the cook there cook it for us. He told him we had to have this yardbird.

Additionally, an interesting alternation of Parker's nickname was pointed out by "Symphony Sid" Torin, as he recounted that "in the old days we used to call him Feigele (Bird in Yiddish)."¹⁰

The disputes regarding the origin of his nickname notwithstanding, Parker seemed to gladly acknowledge his nickname, as Ralph J. Gleason recalled that "sometimes when he was introduced, he would smile benignly and say, 'People call me Bird'; and he could recited from Rubáiyát ("The Bird of Time has but a little way to flutter-and the Bird is on the Wing") and poets were his friends."¹¹

Bird Lives!

Now, let’s take a look at the motive of the day.

This motive, nicknamed “Bebop Lick” and discussed in the study materials by David Baker and Jerry Coker, is also listed in Charlie Parker scholar Thomas Owens’ respected 1974 dissertation “Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation” as motive M.4A(b). Honestly, I am horrendous at naming things, stuffs, and motives. I mean, if I were in the Stargate Atlantis universe and Major Sheppard yelled at me as in the pilot episode of the first season that “Well, it's official. You don't get to name anything. Ever!” I’d probably mute my big mouth and follow his order without any question. Unfortunately, I am not currently living in the fabulously dangerous Stargate universe and, for the convenient of reference, I have to somehow name this motive.

The Kangaroo Motive? (Didn’t I tell you I am really bad at naming things?) Oh, well. Let’s name it as the Bebop Lick so to catch up with the tradition established by Baker and Coker.

Back to the Bebop Lick. Jazz scholar David Baker kindly taught us that this motive is one of the common concluding figures used to end an improvisational line, citing also the link between the Bebop Lick and the bebop scale.¹² Jerry Coker further comments on the general treatment of the Bebop Lick:

The bebop lick is a specific melodic phrase, generally taking place on dominant seventh and minor seventh chords, and closely related to the bebop scale, using a portion of that scale in its structure. As in the case of most of the device. . . the bebop lick evolved naturally, in the historical sense, not being studied or taught until recent years.¹³

The Bebop Lick, or motive M.4A(b), is one of the representative figures of the chromaticism most frequently employed on dominant seventh chord by Bebop improvisers (Example 1). As illustrated in the example, the principal tones of the first figure outline a descending scalar line with inserted chromatic passing tone, the pitch E4, as the linear embellishment. Remarkably, the first four notes of the motive can be analyzed as the retrograde of the common decorated enclosure figure. As both Bebop Lick and decorated enclosure are frequently employed in the same improvisation, an indirect linear coherence can be observed.¹⁴ Now, I have to read one of my adorable disclaimers out loud that I am, in no way, suggesting that Parker, or any other Bebop improvisers, has this super-computer in his head to calculate a motive’s retrograde, inversion, and retrograde-inversion when playing; I am simply pointing out a trivial point from the analytical viewpoint to satisfy my geeky way of life. (And, yes, it's O-KAY to be geeky.) The second figure in the example is further embellished with a chromatic passing tone, the pitch D-flat4, generating a prolonged descending chromatic line from the pitch F4 down to the pitch C4. The beauty of the Bebop Lick, as we can see, is that the employments of chromatic passing tones reinforce the metrically-strong placements of the chord tones.

Example 1. The linear construction of motive M.4A(b), aka the Bebop Lick.

Charlie Parker's usage of the Bebop Lick, aka motive M.4A(b), can be traced back as early as 1940 (Example 2). It is noticeable that Parker employs the Bebop Lick as an interior figure in a long improvisational line. The principal notes and chromatic passing tones outline a descending chromatic line from the pitch D4 down to the pitch A3.

Example 2. The occurrence of the Bebop Lick, aka motive M.4A(b), in Parker's improvisation on Lady Be Good recorded on November 30, 1940.

In Parker's improvisations on Now's the Time, the Bebop Lick can be frequently found in its diminution form (Example 3). Contrary to Baker's remark, the Bebop Lick is often employed as an interior figure in Parker's Now's the Time instead of the concluding motive.

Example 3. The occurrences of the Bebop Lick, aka motive M.4A(b), in Charlie Parker's performances of Now's the Time.

Now, before jumping back to our lovely discussion regarding nicknames and whatnot, let’s take a quick look at the quote of the day about Bebop from a not-so-fabulous-guy’s thesis:

Jazz music, during its comparatively brief history of one hundred years, has continuously manifested its unparalleled energy by progressively reinventing itself and generating new variants that directly or indirectly reflect the development of music in general; the advancement of music technology, and the social interactions, conflicts, and inevitable transformations. Bebop, in particular, exhibits a substantial impact that antagonizes its community internally and consequently challenges the identity and value of the subordinate social groups and their collective assembly. The influence of the Bebop within the jazz community is particularly extensive and enduring.¹⁵

All-right-all-right. I know it’s a lot of blah-blah-blah. Seriously, nobody talks like that. What’s wrong with this guy? So, now, I promise you that I won’t make it a tradition to quote my own thesis in Bebop Cookbook series. I have been a little bit sick and in some kind of writer’s block these few days. It sounds like a lackluster excuse; but, hey, from a guy who is 50% sick and without a cool nickname, it seems like an easy-quickie way to conclude this rambling with even more rambling.

So, excuse me, and Bird Lives!

Bebop Cookbook_Charlie Parker's Nickname & Bebop Lick_JK Chang_Exercises (213.54 kB)
Bebop Cookbook_Charlie Parker's Nickname & Bebop Lick_JK Chang_Exercises [BIAB Files] (13.61 kB)