1 939.  Oodles of events happened in that year.  1939, that’s the year when Hitler & Mussolini signed "Pact of Steel"; the year batman comic book made its public debut; the year Joe Louis KOs John Henry Lewis in the heavyweight boxing title fight; the year "Wizard of Oz" fabulously premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. 1939, it’s also the year when Bach and Beethoven’s works peppered jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker’s inner musical world.1

I found that what the guys were jamming then already had been put down and, in most cases, a lot better.2

---Charlie Parker

Bird soon immersed himself in works by composers active in the first half of the twentieth-century.  In addition to Igor Stravinsky (read more here), composers of Western classical music that Parker venerated included Béla Bartók, Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, Sergey Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schönberg, and Dmitri Shostakovitch.  Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s works came to be on Parker’s listening menu around 1945.3 The influence of Bartók's harmony upon Parker’s approach has been suggested.4  Harvey Cropper recalled that at Parker's daughter Pree’s funeral, "he had them play some music of Bartók.”5  As to Debussy and Ravel’s music, George Salano recalled that Parker “played Debussy and Ravel on this fellow’s clarinet with amazing proficiency––and this was an old clarinet with a different fingering system.”6  Buddy De Franco recounted that “every time he’d get a new recording of Prokofiev, he’d say let’s go to my place and listen,”7  which demonstrated Parker’s admiration for Prokofiev’s compositions.  As for Ravel’s works, Eddie Baker cited that Parker “had one of the books by Ravel that he used to use as an exercise book.”8  Parker’s acquaintance with Ravel’s works is also revealed in his improvisation on Merry Go Round by paraphrasing Ravel’s Bolero.9  Additionally, Parker also admired works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Alan Morrison recounted Parker’s keenness for Mozart stating that Parker “especially enjoyed Eine kleine Nachtmusik.”10

Bird publicly expressed his interests in Western classical music on numerous occasions and reportedly attended classical concerts frequently.11  In a 1947 article published in Metronome, Parker articulated his partiality for Schönberg and Debussy’s music to Leonard Feather which marked the first documented account of Parker’s interest:

Have you heard that album of music by Schönberg with just five instruments playing while an actress recites some poetry, in German?  It’s wonderful thing. . . . Have you heard The Children’s Corner by Debussy?  Oh, that’s so much music!12

In a 1949 article published in Down Beat, Parker was paraphrased as stating that the direction of Bebop differed from the twentieth century classical music:

He admits the music eventually may be atonal.  Parker himself is a devout admirer of Paul Hindemith, the German neoclassicist, raves about his Kammermusik and Sonata for Viola and Cello.  He insists, however, that bop is not moving in the same direction as modern classical.  He feels that it will be more flexible, more emotional, more colorful.13

Parker, inspired by Paul Hindemith’s Kleine Kammermusik, discussed his concept of assembling a similar ensemble for a recording date in a 1953 Down Beat article.  Norman Granz, a noted jazz impresario and the producer of JATP Jazz at the Philharmonic series, initially opposed Parker’s idea by stating “what is this?  You can’t make money with this crazy combination.  You can’t sell this stuff!”14  Parker’s idea was later realized. By performing arrangements by Gil Evans with a combined instrumentation of woodwind quintet, a choral group, and a jazz rhythm section, Parker recorded the well-received Charlie Parker With Strings album on May 25, 1953, at the Fulton Recording Studios.

In the same article, Parker also restated his fondness for Western classical music and discussed his listening philosophy using Bartók’s work as an example:

I guess Bartók has become my favorite.  I dig all the moderns.  And also the classical men, Bach, Beethoven. . . . What you hear depends on so many things in yourself.  Like I heard Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto over here and later, I heard it again in France.  I was more acclimated to life, then, and I heard things in it I never heard before.  You never know what’s going to happen when you listen to music.  All kinds of things can suddenly open up.15

In a 1954 interview with Paul Desmond and John T. Fitch, Parker expressed his plan to study with French composer Edgard Varése and pursue formal music training:

I’m going to try to, um, go to Europe to study.  I had the pleasure to meet one Edgard Varése in New York City, he’s a classical composer from Europe.  He’s a Frenchman, a very nice fellow, and he wants to teach, in fact, he wants write [radio static] for me some things for me for a––you know, more a less on a serious basis, you know? . . . And, if he takes me over, I mean, after he finishes with me, I might have a chance to go to Academie de Musicale [perhaps the Conservatoire National de Musique] in Paris itself and study, you know.16

Varése, who commented on Parker’s personality as “like a child, with the shrewdness of a child,”17  confirmed his willingness to provide Parker some forms of instructions.  However, Parker’s plan to study with Varése was never brought to fruition, as Varése recalled that “I left for Europe and told him to call me up after Easter when I would be back.  Charlie died before Easter.”18 Varése also recounted Parker’s inclination in becoming his protégé:

"Take me as you would a baby and teach me music.  I only write in one voice.  I want to have structure.  I want to write orchestral scores.  I’ll give you any amount you wish.  I make a lot of money.  I’ll be your servant.  I’m a good cook; I’ll cook for you.”19

Additionally, Parker also expressed his intention to study with Nadia Boulanger,20 and Stefan Wolpe.21 As to classical saxophonist, Parker raved about Marcel Mule whom he met during his visit to Paris for the International Jazz Festival.22  Teddy Reig’s recollection further confirmed Parker’s fondness for Mule, as Reig recounted that:

I’m still cursing him out for taking all my Marcel Mule records.  I had three copies of the Concertina de camera for Saxophone and Orchestra and Bird got every one.23

 

My good friend Q, a lovely girl with mad jazz piano skill from Japan whom I met when I was still a student at Berklee College of Music, always yelled at me for not diligently investing my free time trying to dig up the “long-lost Bebop Symphony No. 1” (“…by that Charlie-the-Bird person!” She’d say.”) While spending hours to assure Q that there’s no documents to support the existence of such piece, I’d secretly entertain that droll idea and wonder the musical beauty that Parker would bring us if he were to study with Nadia Boulanger and Edgard Varése.

 

* This is the second installment of a series of articles discussing the connections and usages of Western classical music in jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker’s Bebop improvisation. The first article focuses on the influence of Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky’s music on Charlie Parker. The second article discusses Parker’s acquaintances of music by the twentieth-century music composers. The third article concentrates on Bird’s technique by quoting fragments from works of Western classical music in his improvisations.

Article 1. When Charlie Parker Met Stravinsky & Bird’s “Slonimsky” Motive

Article 2. Charlie Parker and Western Classical Music & the Enclosure in Bebop Improvisation

Article 3. Charlie Parker’s Western Classical Music Quotations & Decorated Enclosure in Bebop Improvisation

 

The enclosure is one of the most common melodic figures in jazz improvisation. It is sometimes referred to as "encirclement", "indirect resolution", or "upper and lower neighbor approach".24 Occasionally, It is referred to as "chromatic rotation".25 Norman Meehan cites the significance of the enclosure in the history of jazz improvisation, stating that "enclosure phrase, sometimes referred to as those embellished by upper and lower neighbor tones, have been a part of the jazz argot since Armstrong began recording."26 Hal Crook uses the term "approach notes" and "target notes" to describe this practice. An approach note, defined by Crook, is "a melody note which sets-up or prepares a target note or another approach note. It usually moves by half step or whole step to the target note."27 Crook further delineates that a target note is "usually a harmonic or agreeable sounding melody note, although in special cases it may be nonharmonic--which is prepared by one or more approach notes."28 David Baker also states that the function of the enclosure is to extend the bebop line which is "accomplished by delaying the arrival of the chord tone by inserting the notes one half step above and one half step below the tone in question."29 The following definition by jazz scholar Jerry Coker concisely outlines the construction of this device:

An enclosure is a linear or melodic device in which an object tone is approached by both the upper and lower leading tones. The object tone is the eventual note aimed for by the improviser. An upper leading tone is one-half step above that object tone and the lower leading tone is one-half step below the object tone.30

Coker's definition limits the construction of the enclosure to using only the upper leading tone and the lower leading tone (Example 1). As illustrated in the example, the object tone, the pitch F4, is first approached by its upper leading tone, the pitch Gb4. The resolution of the upper leading tone is temporarily suspended to introduce the lower leading tone, the pitch E4, which exhibits the upward resolution to the object tone. Adopting Coker's definition, the figure, labeled as the classic enclosure by Coker, can be frequently observed in Parker's performances of Now's the Time.  As the object tone is chromatically approached, this figure also reflects the chromaticism which is one of the characteristics of Bebop style.  Furthermore,  the figure is also commonly employed in Parker's other improvisations and is labeled as motive M.5A by Charlie Parker scholar Thomas Owens.

 

Example 1. The construction of the enclosure defined by Jerry Coker.

 

The enclosure (shorthanded as E.C.), like the inverted mordent, is extensively employed in Parker's improvisations in various versions of Now's the Time (Example 2). It is noticeable that the root, third, and fifth of a chord are frequently employed as the object tones. Crooker cites the possibility of first employing the lower leading tone before introducing the upper leading tone to downwardly resolve to the object tone, labeling the practice as "Above/Below Chromatic Approach." However, the reversed figure occurs sporadically in Parker's improvisations on Now's the Time.

 

Example 2. The employments of enclosure in Charlie Parker's performances of Now's the Time.

 

The metrical placement of the object tone is critical. With few exceptions, the upper leading tone is generally placed on the down beat to initiate the figure. Consequently, the object tone is placed on the down beat to reinforce the harmony. Additionally, it appears that Parker started to incorporate this figure during the early stage of his musical career, as enclosures can be found in I Found A New Baby and Honeysuckle Rose, Parker's early surviving improvisation samples, recorded on November 30, 1940.

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  1. Michael Levin and John S. Wilson, "No Bop Roots in Jazz: Parker," Down Beat, September 1949, 12. ↩
  2. Ibid. ↩
  3. Carl Woideck, Charlie Parker: His Music and Life, The Michigan American Music Series (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998), 205. ↩
  4. William Austin, "Jazz, Mainstream and Modern," in Music in the 20th Century: From Debussy through Stravinsky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1966), 291. ↩
  5. Robert G. Reisner, ed., Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975), 159. ↩
  6. Ibid., 203. ↩
  7. Gary Giddins, Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987), 104. ↩
  8. Kent J. Engelhart, "Musical and Cultural Factors in the Musical Development of Young Charlie Parker as Demonstrated Through Transcription and Analysis of the Improvised Solos of Young Charlie Parker with the Jay McShann Orchestra" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2000), 360. ↩
  9. James Patrick, "The Savoy Recordings," liner notes in Charlie Parker: the Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings (1944-1948), Savoy 92911-2, 2000, compact disc, 58. ↩
  10. Reisner, Bird, 154. ↩
  11. Francis Davis, “Bebop and Nothingness,” in Bebop and Nothingness: Jazz and Pop Art the End of the Century (New York: Schirmer Books, 1996), 28. ↩
  12. Leonard Feather, "Yardbird Flies Home (1947)," in Charlie Parker: Six Decades of Commentary, ed. Carl Woideck (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 64. ↩
  13. Parker, “No Bop Roots in Jazz: Parker,”1. ↩
  14. Reisner, Bird, 194. ↩
  15. Nat Hentoff, "Counterpoint," Down Beat, 13 January 1953, 15. ↩
  16. Charlie Parker, "Interview: Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond, and John T. Fitch," interview by Paul Desmond and John T. Fitch (Boston, January 1954), Charlie Parker: Six Decades of Commentary, ed. Carl Woideck (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 129. ↩
  17. Reisner, Bird, 229. ↩
  18. Ibid., 230. ↩
  19. Ibid., 229-230. ↩
  20. Woideck, Charlie Parker, 41, 249. Boulanger gave lectures in colleges in The United States during World War II, and her students included Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Roy Harris, Walter Piston, and Roger Sessions.  It is unclear when and under what circumstance Parker learned about Boulanger. ↩
  21. Frank-John Hadley, "Jazz on Campus: Modernist Dreams Come True at NEC Bird Festival," Down Beat, June 2003, 90. ↩
  22. Chan Parker, My Life in E-flat (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993), 28. ↩
  23. Bob Porter, “Talking with Teddy,” liner notes in Charlie Parker: the Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings (1944-1948), Savoy 92911-2, 2000, compact disc, 86. ↩
  24. Mark Voelpel, The Best of Charlie Parker: A Step-by-step Breakdown of the Styles and Techniques of a Jazz Legend (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003), 14. ↩
  25. Mike Steinel, Building a Jazz Vocabulary: A Resource for Learning Jazz Improvisation (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation, 1995), 70. ↩
  26. Norman Meehan, "After the Melody: Paul Bley and Jazz Piano After Ornette Coleman," Annual Review of Jazz Studies 12 (2002): 99. ↩
  27. Hal Crook, Ready, Aim, Improvise! Exploring the Basics of Jazz Improvisation (Germany: Advance Music, 1999), 121. ↩
  28. Ibid., 122. ↩
  29. David Baker, How to Play Bebop Vol. 1: The Bebop Scales and Other Scales in Common Use (Van Nuys: Alfred Publishing Co., 1987), 7. ↩
  30. Jerry Coker, Elements of the Jazz Language for the Developing Improvisor (Miami: CPP Belwin, Inc., 1991), 50. ↩
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