{"id":2734,"date":"2020-08-27T17:08:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T17:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2020-10-29T15:58:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T15:58:27","slug":"our-100-year-inheritance-from-charlie-parker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneseymour.com\/?p=2734","title":{"rendered":"Our 100 Year Inheritance from Charlie Parker"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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Jimmy Cannon used the phrase \u201can American heirloom\u201d to describe Babe Ruth. I like to think the same could be said for Charlie Parker, even if most Americans, know relatively little about him when compared with the \u201cSultan of Swat.\u201d Both seemed supernatural phenomena who seemingly came out of nowhere, capable of leaving witnesses spellbound in the very different ways their profound sense of swing reshaped the air around them. Both had massive, seemingly insatiable appetites, living fast, playing hard, dying too soon, making indelible history in their respective art forms.<\/p>\r\n

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With the Bird, I think the legacy is even subtler than what you find on his recordings, which still can astound new listeners on first contact.<\/p>\r\n

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The tone is what shocks you before the tempest of invention all but overpowers your resistance. It is a bright, hard tone, shiny and serrated like sheet metal edgy enough to scratch any surface, supple enough to shape into any form, whether terrifyingly new<\/a> or dreamily familiar.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

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