This week, I'm celebrating Charlie Parker's upcoming centenary on August 29 by posting on what I believe are the alto saxophonist's five major contributions to jazz and the culture at large. In Part 1, I posted about Parker's invention, with Dizzy Gillespie, of bebop in 1945. In Part 2, I posted on Parker's popularization of high-speed improvisation. In Part 3, I posted on how Parker turned the blues into a seductive, lyrical form. [Photo above of Charlie Parker by William P. Gottlieb]
Today, I'm posting on how Parker became the first modern jazz musician to unite jazz and pop in an album format—a natural combination that continues to this day.
Before the Dave Pell Octet's songbook series was launched in 1953, before Buddy DeFranco's Gershwin album in 1954, before Ella Fitzgerald's famed songbook series began in 1956—before all of them, there was Charlie Parker and Strings, a 10-inch album produced by Norman Granz for Mercury and recorded in 1949. This album was followed by Charlie Parker With Strings Part 2, recorded in 1950. To understand how big a deal this was, you need to understand how the record industry's three major labels operated in the late 1940s and how pop had become so pervasive.
Up until 1948, records by Columbia, RCA and Decca (along with those produced by smaller labels) were sold in one format—78rpm. The relatively heavy, brittle shellac discs could hold only three minutes and change on each side. For classical and top-selling pop and jazz artists, major record labels issued groups of multiple 78s in packages that looked like photo albums. Hence, the name "album." But that didn't solve the problem of short playing times on each side.
In 1948, Columbia unveiled the 10-inch long-playing album. It met the growing demand by consumers for a format they didn't have to flip over as often. The LP's benefits were immediately clear, not only for classical but also for pop. Starting in the late '40s, the suburbs were developing rapidly as veterans received favorable home loans under the G.I. Bill. Interest in going out to dance slowed, and a wave of newlyweds raising families remained at home. The music that many young suburban adults favored to ease the stress of kids, commuting and cleaning was the blander, more soothing pop.
During this period, pop dominated, and modern jazz was relegated mostly to subsidiary imprints and a surge of independent labels that had emerged in 1944. In 1948, Granz signed a deal with Mercury, an independent label, to promote and distribute his Clef albums, most notably his Jazz at the Philharmonic series and other jazz records. What made Mercury so attractive to Granz was its dominance in the critical jukebox space, especially in Black markets. [Photo above, from left, Buddy Rich, Ray Brown, Charlie Parker, Mitch Miller and two unknown violinists]
Charlie Parker had already signed on with Granz in 1947, and his first strings recording was an accident. As Neal Hefti rehearsed a modern orchestral composition prior to recording for Granz at Carnegie Hall, Parker wandered onto the stage from his own recording session to listen. When he heard Hefti, Parker was moved to accompany the orchestra on his horn. Granz decided to record them together. [Photo above of the same artists mentioned previously, with the inclusion of arranger and conductor Jimmy Carroll]
It's unclear whether the Hefti composition originally was entitled Repetition or that's what they wound up calling it after Hefti had to play it twice—once with just the orchestra and a second time with Parker soloing. Hearing Parker backed by strings gave Granz an idea. [Photo above of Neal Hefti by William P. Gottlieb in 1947, around the time of Repetition's recording]
In 1949 (following the 1948 recording ban), Granz had Parker solo on six songbook standards backed by strings. Several of the singles from the album were jukebox hits. The following July, Parker recorded eight more songbook standards for Granz backed by strings. These popular albums would become the model for thousands of jazz-pop "with strings" albums that followed in the decades ahead.
Here's Charlie Parker soloing on Neal Hefti's Repetition in December 1947. The first run-through is just the orchestra, the second is with Parker...
Here's Parker playing Just Friends on November 30, 1949, arranged and conducted by Jimmy Carroll with Mitch Miller on oboe...
Here's Parker playing April in Paris from the same session...
Here's Parker playing Everything Happens to Me from the same session...
In July 1950, here's Dancing in the Dark, arranged and conducted by Joe Lipman...
Here's Parker playing Laura from the same session...
And here's Parker playing I'm in the Mood for Love from the same session...
Bonus1: The jazz-pop concept Parker pioneered with strings was so popular, he toured with an ensemble playing songs from the albums. Here's Bird playing Laura with strings at Birdland in 1951...
Bonus2: Here's a tribute to Charlie Parker with strings by the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra last year...
