Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker
Masters of American Music
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Cast
Charlie Parker
Dizzy Gillespie
Roy Haynes
Jay McShann
Chan Parker
Rebecca Parker Davis
Frank Morgan
Program notes
The flagship release in the Masters of American Music Series, Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker was the first and only authorized documentary about one of the great legends in American music. A virtuoso saxophonist, Parker—nicknamed Bird—created a new style of jazz before his death at 34, and won equal fame as the king of the hipsters. In film clips, photos and interviews with his associates, Parker's life is traced from Kansas City, Kansas, where he was born in 1920 to his ascendancy as a pioneer in the New York jazz scene of the 1950s.
Celebrating Bird is the story of a musical era. It shows how the Swing Era gave way to bebop, and how Parker used the traditions of jazz to fashion a startling and innovative music.
Celebrating Bird is a revealing look at an enigmatic yet endlessly appealing man, who soared to the heights of creative freedom but couldn't beat a lifelong addiction to heroin. It includes his only surviving TV appearance (with Dizzy Gillespie, playing Hot House); rarely seen silent footage by famous Life photographer Gjon Mili; and a treasury of film clips, featuring Billy Eckstine, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Clarke, Lucky Thompson, Lester Young, among others. The exciting soundtrack consists of many of Parker's finest recordings.
Parker's childhood sweetheart and first wife, Rebecca Parker Davis, is interviewed for the first time on camera, along with Jay McShann, the bandleader who brought Parker out of Kansas City; Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he created the new jazz; Chan Parker, his companion during his last years; drummers Roy Haynes and Roy Porter; critic Leonard Feather; and saxophonist Frank Morgan.
Hear Ballade, Yardbird Suite, Relaxin' at Camarillo, Just Friends, Koko (rare 1947 concert recording), Confirmation, Au Privave, Kim, Bloomdido and more.
Writer: Gary Giddins
Program: © Multiprises, LLC
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