Bebop gave jazz unprecedented capital as art music and signified its move into its current, albeit precarious, position at the intersection of high art and popular culture.---Eric Porter
Bebop continues to be a core element of the language of jazz. It informs the work of most contemporary players, and many stylistic and technical innovations created in the 1940s remain integral parts of jazz education. Bebop marked the ascendance of the small combo as the basic performing unit of jazz (which remains the case today) and its production and reception transformed the meanings associated with jazz and its place in American youth culture, bebop garnered new capital for jazz as a music that spoke to observers of social and cultural resistance. At the same time, bebop also gave jazz unprecedented capital as art music and signified its move into its current, albeit precarious, position at the intersection of high art and popular culture.1
In recent years, parallel to the development of jazz music and the growing recognition of Bebop as a musical art form, jazz-related study has also emerged itself as a neoteric discipline in the scholastic field, integrating into academic clique to reach a larger percentage and broader spectrum of acceptance. Some scholars consider the growing interest of jazz study within the academic community to be long overdue. Lawrence W. Levine states that "the increasing scholarly interest in jazz symbolizes what I trust is an ongoing reversal of a long-standing neglect by historians and their colleagues in many other disciplines of a central element in American culture. The neglect, of course, has not been an aberration on the part of academics. In neglecting or ignoring jazz, scholars have merely reflected the values and predispositions of the larger society in which they operated".2 The advent of institutionalized jazz education and flourishing scholarly investigations of jazz-related subjects has transformed and impelled jazz into an unprecedented era. The impact of jazz-oriented institutions, such as the Berklee College of Music and the numerous jazz study programs in major conservatories and universities, and professional journals, such as Annual Review of Jazz Studies, is also noticeable. Not only are scholarly platforms for jazz study being instituted, but the direct promotion of jazz music in general and further intertwining between performance practice and the academic investigation in jazz-related topics are being realized as well. Leroy Ostransky points out that "there have been critical examinations of jazz by those who believe jazz to be an important aspect of twentieth-century music, deserving its own definition in musical terms."3 Krin Gabbar further comments on the phenomena of the increasingly active scholarly approach on jazz:
Jazz talk is becoming jazz discourse. Scholars at the major universities are now granted the Ph.D. primarily on the basis of their contributions to jazz scholarship. The institutionalization of jazz in higher education would be consistent with current demystifications of the distinctions between high and low culture, with the growing trend toward multiculturalism in university curricula, and with the postmodernist cachet now enjoyed by marginal arts and artiest. Signs of jazz's ascendancy can be found in such periacademic phenomena as the proliferation of jazz titles now being published by university presses, the birth of jazz repertory orchestras, and the new jazz division at New York's Lincoln Center.[4. Krin Gabbard, "The Jazz Canon and its Consequences," Annual Review of Jazz Studies 6 (1993): 65.]
Whereas the study of jazz has been gradually accepted as one of the legitimate disciplines among academic institutions, the volume of work concerning jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker's improvisation technique in the field of analytical study consequently increased with great rapidity attributable to Parker's stature as one of the originators of Bebop and his influential standing as one of the most prominent virtuoso improvisers in the history of jazz. Scholars at major universities have begun to engage themselves in the extensive examination of Parker's music, producing numerous substantial works such as Thomas Owens' dissertation "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisations," Carl Woideck's thesis "The First Style-Period (1940-1943) and Early Life of Saxophonist Charlie Parker," David Baker's monograph Charlie Parker: Alto Saxophone, and numerous related articles by Lawrence Koch. Recent literature reviews reveal an emergence of a group of scholars such as Steve Larson and Henry Martin who fruitfully analyze Parker and other jazz improvisers' works by utilizing the Schenkerian analytical method.
At the present time, the major analytical work pertaining to Charlie Parker's improvisation has been Thomas Owens' dissertation "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation." Owens methodically scrutinizes approximately 190 transcribed improvisations by Parker to formulate a classified list of roughly one hundred motives so as to establish the analytical groundwork for subsequent studies on the subject of Parker's improvisation that is commonly considered to be formulaic in principle:4
Except in a handful of cases, Parker's solos appear to have been composed spontaneously, rather than in advance. In spontaneously composing, he drew primarily on a repertory of about one hundred motives of varying lengths, modifying them and combining them in a great variety of ways. Consequently, his solos are normally organized without reference to the theme of the piece being performed.5
Owens' argument is validated by several subsequent and correlated investigations. Jazz scholar James Patrick's observation of Parker's improvisation technique is confirmatory with Owens' premise on which his analytical foundation in connection with Parker's improvisational method is based. In addition to citing his capability to assimilate well-rehearsed formulas into coherent improvisational units, Patrick further suggests that Parker's formulaic works present a remarkable analogy to the operation of the "cento"6 used in the Western classical music:
Parker most often used a technique of improvisation known in musicology as the cento (or patchwork) method, where the performer draws from a corpus of formulae and arranges them into ever-new patterns. This aspect of Parker's art has been exhaustively investigated by Owens, who codified Parker's improvisational work according to about one hundred formulae. Many of these are specific to certain keys (where they may be easier to finger) or to particular pieces. Some occur in earlier swing music, particularly in the work of Lester Young, but others originated with Parker himself, and later became common property among musicians working in the bop style. . . Although it is based on a limited number of such formulae, Parker's work is neither haphazard nor "formulaic" in a restricted sense: the arrangement of the formulae was subject to constant variation and redisposition, and his performances of a piece were never identical. The overriding criterion was always the coherence and expressiveness of the musical line.7
Barry Kernfeld, who substantiates Owens' findings by utilizing his motive classification listed in "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation" to conduct an observation of Parker's formulaic approach in KoKo,8 has favorably noted Parker's proficiency with the formulaic improvisation technique. Kernfeld writes that:
. . . the concept of formulaic improvisation illuminates a technique for responding instantaneously to the intense requirements of his preferred style, bop. Influenced far more by the generalities of key and tempo and by the specifics of moment-by-moment harmonic progression than by the particular tune that he happened to be playing, Parker brought to any musical situation a well-rehearsed body of formulas, which he then embedded into his lines in a fluid and frighteningly effortless manner.9
George E. Lewis also confirms that the formulaic improvisation, not as a technique that was exclusively associated with Parker, had been commonly adopted by the improvisers of the Bebop era, stating that:
In a further abstraction, bebop improvisers felt no obligation to use the melodic material of the "head" as material for improvisational transformation. Instead, the underlying harmonic sequence, usually subjected to extensive reworking by the improvisers, became the basis for improvisation.10
In his comparatively recent study Charlie Parker and Thematic Improvisation, Henry Martin argues that the linear coherence found in Parker's improvisation is achieved with the amalgamation of his formulaic and thematic improvisation technique, citing that the effectual construction of a competent improvisation is mainly attributable to the latter.
. . . it is not the use of practiced phrases that determines the quality of the solo, but their logic and interaction, both internally and externally, with the originally thematic material. In other words, what keeps Parker's formulas, even at the large-scale, from sounding mechanical or stale is his ability to integrate them into a coherent whole characterized by voice-leading fluency and subtle thematic interconnection, both internally and with the original melody.11
The outcome of Martin's examination concerning the linear relationship between the thematic material and the associated improvisation built upon the formulas in Parker's improvisation subsidiarily suggests the existence of a higher structural correspondence that conjoins the well-practiced formulas into a coherent improvisational unit. With the recognition of such internal linear correspondence in mind, the secondary goal of this thesis is to introduce the concept of motivic alliance, a set of associated motives or phrases that fortify the musical consistency within an improvisation, attempting to exploit it to elucidate the linear correspondences within Parker's improvisation that is predominantly formulaic and is seemingly incongruent on the foreground level.
Below is a short list of selected academic studies of Charlie Parker’s music. A more comprehensive listing of analytical studies of Bird’s music, with brief annotations, can be found in "The Annotated Bibliography of Analytical Studies of Charlie Parker’s Music".
Selected Studies
Owens, Thomas. “Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation.” Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1974.
Owens’s dissertation is one of the most significant analytical works of Parker’s music and provides a well-researched foundation for the assumption of Parker’s formulaic approach in his improvisations. The dissertation consists of two volumes. The first volume offers discussion of Parker’s stylistic traits and analyses of Parker’s improvisations categorized in different keys. In addition to the detailed discussion of Parker’s use of motives, Owens also compares Parker’s treatments of improvisation in the same harmonic syntax of blues and rhythm changes, listing Parker’s preferred motives. Appendix I contains a list of a published transcriptions. Appendix II is a ninety-seven page annotated discography, that lists Parker’s recording session chronologically. Owens’s discography is comprehensive, listing personnel and information regarding performances. However, due to its publishing year, it does not cover recently discovered recorded material of Parker. The second volume contains a list of motives, approximate 190 categorized transcriptions, and Roman numeral analyses of chord progressions of Parker’s repertory. The accompaniment parts are also transcribed in some transcriptions.
Koch, Lawrence O. Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker, rev. ed. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999.
Lawrence, a notable jazz scholar, offers the most comprehensive monograph of Parker’s music and life. The book, first published in 1988, has been expanded into the current revised edition to include significant discoveries, such as the Dean Benedetti recording, and updates of the biographical and discographical data based upon current research. The study follows Parker’s recorded materials in a chronological order and can be used as a detailed discography, as Koch includes details of personnel and recording data for each recorded session. Koch provides analytical discussions, detailing significant archivements in each recorded example of Parker’s music. The biographical data is also attached or inserted between sessions, guiding the reader through events and their effects associated with recorded materials. Appendix A is a revised version of Koch’s article "Ornithology: A Study of Charlie Parker's Music" published as two parts in Journal of Jazz Studies in 1974 and 1975. Appendix B contains Koch’s codification of Parker’s works. A cataglozied bibliography is also include. Two details and useful indexes, the Index of Song Titles and the General Index, are included. A complete transcription of Parker’s improvisation on Embraceable You, take 1, dated October 1947, is included in appendix A. Transcribed musical examples and the solo transcription are provided for C instruments.
Review by K. R. Dietrich in Choice 37, no. 4 (Dec 1999): 732, and George L. Starks, Jr. in Black Perspective In Music 17, no. 1/2 (1989): 183 185. It is noted that the Starks’s review is based upon the first edition published in 1988.
Woideck, Carl. Charlie Parker: His Music and Life. The Michigan American Music Series. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998.
Woideck, also the editor of 1998 publication The Charlie Parker Companion: Six Decades of Commentary, offers an exemplary monograph of Parker’s music and life, demonstrating excellent scholarship in jazz research. Woideck uses his 1989 master thesis “The First Style-Period (1940-1943) and Early Life of Saxophonist Charlie Parker” as the foundation and expands it into a book-length study which is divided into two parts. The first part is the forty-eight page biographical outline of Parker’s life. In the second part of the study, Woideck divides Parker’s musical career into four periods and presents Parker’s musical activities and achievements with analytical approach in a chronological order. One additional feature of Woideck’s work is that the timings of the tracks in compact discs, associated with the musical excerpts, are indicated, providing the needed data to locate the music quickly. A discography is included as appendix A. Appendix B contains four transcriptions of Parker’s improvisations, including Honey & Body, a recording by the amateur recordist Clarence Davis, dated approximately 1940, Oh, Lady Be Good, dated 28 January1946, Parker’s Mood, take 5, dated 18 September 1948, Just Friends, dated 30 November 1949. Transcriptions are provided for C instruments.
Review by Rick Anderson in Library Journal 121, no. 16 (October 1996): 81, Richard Lawn in Notes 54, no. 2 (1997): 495-496, Robert Rawlins in College Music Symposium 38 (1998): 146-150, and Genevieve Stuttaford in Publishers Weekly 243, no. 44 (October 1996): 67.
Henriksson, Juha. Chasing the Bird: Functional Harmony in Charlie Parker's Bebop Themes. Acta Musicologica Fennica, no. 21. Helsinki: Suomen Musiikkitieteellinen Seura, 1998.
Henriksson offers a theoretical discussions of Parker's compositional style by using functional harmony theory to analyze Parker's 37 Bebop themes. Discussions as to the concepts and methods of jazz melodic and harmonic analyses, Parker's life and his compositional style, and the application of using functional harmony theory in analyzing Parker's compositions are offered. Parker's 37 compositions are categorized into four groups based upon the use of the chord frame, including 19 themes based upon twelve-bar blues form, eight themes based upon the chord progression of I Got Rhythm, four themes based upon the chord progressions of jazz standards, and six original compositions, providing in-depth systematic analyses. Transcriptions of Parker’s themes, provided for C instruments, are taken from Jamey Aebersold and Ken Slone’s Charlie Parker Omnibook.
Engelhardt, Kent J. “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.
Engelhardt’s dissertation, one of the most comprehensive studies of Parker’s life and music during his formative period, offers discussions of the Kansas City music and cultural environment, biographical information and musical background of Parker, and analytical analyses of Parker’s use of melodic figures in improvisations recorded during 1940-42. The influences of Lester Young, Buster Smith, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Efferge Ware, Carrie Powell, and Tommy Douglas upon Parker are also addressed. Transcriptions of Parker’s sixteen improvisations are provided, including I Found A New Baby, Body And Soul, Moten Swing, Coquette, Oh, Lady Be Good, and Honeysuckle Rose, all dated 30 November 1940, Swingmatism and Hootie Blues, both dated 30 April 1941, Lonely Boy Blues, The Jumpin’ Blues, and Sepian Bounce, all dated 2 July 1942, fragment of I Got Rhythm, dated early August 1940, St. Louis Mood, I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, Hootie Blues, and Swingmatism, all dated 13 February 1942. Eighty-seven melodic figures from studio recordings and fourty-two melodic figures from live recordings are presented for easy access. Transcriptions of interviews with Myra Brown, Eddie Baker, Jeremiah Cameron, and Arthur Saunders are also included. Transcriptions of Parker’s improvisations are provided for both C instruments and E-flat instruments.
Martin, Henry. Charlie Parker and Thematic Improvisation. Studies In Jazz, ed. Dan Morgenstern and Edward Berger, no. 24. London: The Scarecrow Press, 2001; The Scarecrow Press, 1996.
Martin's work, with forewords by Lewis Porter and James Patrick, offers arguments as to the thematic relationships in Parker's improvisations by using Schenkerian analysis to demonstrate the background thematic materials. Discussions as to the strophic form, the harmonic prolongation, the voice-leading models, the thematic patterns, motives, and formulas and their uses in jazz improvisations are presented by Schenkerian graphic analyses. In the main portion of the work, Martin attempts to provide theoretical evidence to demonstrate the thematic relationships of Parker's music, which are categorized into three groups. In group one, compositions that are based upon the chord frame of I Got Rhythm are addressed, including Red Cross, Shaw 'Nuff, Thrivin' on a Riff, Crazeology, Wee, and Lester Leaps In. In group two, compositions that are based upon the chord frames of jazz standards are addressed, including Embraceable You, Just Friend, Ko Ko, and Star Eyes. In group three, compositions that are based upon the twelve-bar blues form are addressed, including Cool Blues, Perhaps, Au Privave, Blues for Alice, Bongo Bop, Now's the Time, Cheryl, and Parker's Mood. Further discussions of Parker's improvisational style include Parker's technique of quotation, thematic reference, and formula, along with the presentations of Parker's impact and other topics. A bibliography and a discography are also included. Transcriptions are provided for C instruments.
Review by Steve Larson in Music Theory Spectrum 21 (Spring 1999): 110-121.
*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”.
- Eric Porter, "Dizzy Atmosphere: The Challenge of Bebop," American Music 17, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 422-423. ↩
- Lawrence W. Levine, "Jazz and American Culture," The Journal of American Folklore 102, no. 403 (January-March 1989): 6. Levine's remark indubitably draws attention to some promising topics concerning the sociological aspect of jazz music, and more specifically, the social acceptance of Parker's music. However, the sociologically related discussion falls well beyond the scope of this study as the prime objective of this study is to analytically scrutinize Parker's improvisation technique. ↩
- Leroy Ostransky, Understanding Jazz (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1977), 23. ↩
- It is noted that Owens adopts the term "motive" in his study to denote the precomposed melodic fragments used to assimilate the improvisation. Because of the confusion created when jointly discussing motivic and formulaic improvisation, other researchers appear to prefer the term "formula" and use the term "motive" in a more discriminate manner. ↩
- Thomas Owens, "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1974), 269. ↩
- It is often referred to as "centonization." ↩
- James Patrick, "Parker, Charlie," in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, ed. Barry Kernfeld (London: Macmillan, 1991), vol. 2, 288. ↩
- This version is the master take recorded during the KoKo session at WOR Studios on November 26, 1945. ↩
- Barry Kernfeld, What to Listen for in Jazz (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 138. ↩
- George E. Lewis, AImprovised Music after 1950: "frological and Eurological Perspectives," Black Music Research Journal 16, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 94. ↩
- Henry Martin, Charlie Parker and Thematic Improvisation, Studies in Jazz (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1996), 118. ↩
