I love to quote.  But You probably notice that already. You, clever you. For me, quoting tawdry or cutesy lines from novels, poems, movies, songs, commercials, disclaimers, and even product nutrition panels, is less an attempt to reaffirm my steps or missteps. It is more a way to clutch something, to remember something, to get a whiff of something from the hectic stream of everyday-life. piece by piece. poco a poco. Nonetheless, my routine quote of the day is less a forgotten gem of my life.  Everyday, I wake up around six in the morning and stare back at the still somnolent ceiling of emptiness and quote:

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
---The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Everyday.  A quote to ready myself for the wonder and joyous incredulity of a brand new day.

"Surprise me." I'd wave my squishy hands to this new day and say, "...and be gentle."

Documented instances of quoting Western classical music in jazz can be traced back as early as the beginning of the twentieth century.¹ Scholar Robert Brown singled out Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, Paul Whiteman, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, “Django” Rheinhardt, Eddie South, and Stephane Grappelly as pioneers of such technique.² During the Bebop Era, quoting Western classical music was by no means a unique technique of Parker’s as trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and other improvisers (or other cats--to meekly show-off my knowledge of jazz slang) frequently employed this technique as well. For example, Gillespie quoted a fragment from Georges Bizet’s Carmen when performing Hot House with Parker at their televised appearance on February 24, 1952, after accepting the Down Beat awards.

The variety of quotations from a diverse repertories of Western classical music indicate Parker’s great familiarity with the genre. Charlie Parker scholar Thomas Owens listed some of Parker’s favorite quotations derived from the Western classical music repertory:

Quotation from the classical and semi-classical repertory include Chopin’s “Minute” Waltz in D-flat, op. 64 #1, Stravinsky’s “Introduction” from The Rite of Spring and “Dance of the Ballerina” from Petrouchka, Grieg’s “Anitra’s Dance,” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt, Paderewski’s “Menuet Célère” from Humoresques de Concert, Wagner’s “Star of Eve” from Tanhauser, Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, and Grofé’s “On the Trail” from Grand Canyon Suite.³

I can remember sitting there, and him playing Laura, and in the middle of Laura hearing parts of the Firebird Suite of Stravinsky. And, when it was all over, say to him something like, “Charlie, do you know what you did?” And he had no––wasn’t even aware of it. It just came extemporaneously.⁶

Parker was also reportedly using 25 Daily Exercises for Saxophone by Hyacinthe Eleonor Klosé to build his technique, and fragments from the book were quoted in some of his improvisations. Parker answered affirmatively to alto saxophonist Paul Desmond’s assertion regarding his use of the quotation from the exercise book by Klosé: “Well, that was all done with books, you know.”⁷ Jay McShann recounted Parker’s extensive use of exercise books: “Every time you would see him he would have his horn on his arm and probably have the book you know. Exercise book. And in jamming he was permanent stuff.”⁸ Earl Hines’s recollection further suggests the impact of exercise books upon Parker’s improvisational style:

Charlie used to take his alto in the theater between shows––and have an exercise book, that’s all he did––sit down; between he and Dizzy, they ran over these exercise in these books they’re studying up. . . . And I think that was where actually Charlie got his particular style from, was from the different inversions and phrases in these exercises he had.⁹

As Parker’s influence extended into the repertory of “legitimate” ensembles––for examples, David Amram symphonies with passages for Parker-styled improvisations and John Lewis fugues and ballet––Gunther Schuller coined the term Third Stream to suggest a new pluralism inspired in large measure by Parker’s music.¹¹

* This is the third 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

In Charlie Parker's performance versions of Now's the Time, decorated enclosures, labeled as D.E.C., have somewhat restrictive regulation in choosing the object tone (Example 2).  If the quality of the implied chord is a major triad, as illustrated in the second instance in the example, the third of the chord is often used as the object note.  If the quality of the implied chord is a dominant seventh chord, the root of the chord is often targeted.  The upper leading tone is commonly employed in the off-beat to initiate the figure and the object tone is consequently placed on the down beat to reinforce the harmony.

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

Looking closely at these lines in the example and numerous occurrences of the decorated enclosure in Bird’s Now’s the Time, it is perhaps more practical to cautiously consider the figure as a decorative device of specific descending lines. When the underlying harmonic unit is a major tonic triad, the decorated enclosure can be considered as a part of linear embellishment of 5-4-3 descending line (Example 3), which can be further developed into two primary improvisational patterns as example 3C and 3D.  It is noted that, if F7 is used in the place of F, the major tonic triad, to create bluesier sound, the third of the chord remains as the objective note.

Example 3. The decorated enclosure employed in major tonic triad chord in Charlie Parker's Now's the Time.

Similarly, when the underlying harmonic unit is a dominant seventh chord, the decorated enclosure can be considered as a part of embellishment to 3-b2-1, a spicier 3-2-1, descending line (Example 4), and can be further developed into two primary improvisational patterns as example 4C and 4D.  These two patterns are frequently employed in the primary dominant seventh chord and are transposed to be used with secondary dominant seventh chords in Parker's Now's the Time as well (especially the superimposed V7/ii found in the eighth measure of the twelve-bar blues form).

Example 4. The decorated enclosure employed in the dominant seventh chord in Charlie Parker's Now's the Time.

Adding to the improvisational beauty of this 3-b2-1 construction, Parker also frequently employed an interesting linear technique to further prolong his Bebop line (Example 5).  The technique, labeled as the linear delayed resolution, has to wait a bit --- as I am out of fresh espresso beans to fuel my analytical ramblings.  Bird lives!

Example 5.  Further prolongation of 3-b2-1 descending line by employing delayed resolution technique.

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Dorothy: Weren't you frightened?
Wizard of Oz: Frightened? Child, you're talking to a man who's laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe... I was petrified.

---The Wizard of Oz (1939)

So it's okay to be a bit afraid of something now and then, I guess.

*NOTE: This article is based on materials and information presented in “Charlie Parker: The Analytical Study of Twenty-Two Performance Versions of Now's The Time”.