Charlie Parker
alto saxophone
Alto saxophonist and leader of bebop, whom Barry heard and sat in with as a young man in Detroit, mostly at dances, and whose disciple he called himself.
- mentions
- 40
- recordings
- 23
- Barry speaking
- 37
What Barry says
Barry sat in with Bird three or four times in Detroit (once he says five or six), mostly at ballroom dances and once at the Crystal Bar. One time at the Graystone Ballroom, Bird’s band was late, so the young local players played the first set with him.
The Spirit of Bebop22:56Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York6:42The last train to Monk: an interview12:49Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶190Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶10Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶209
Bird was kind and gracious to the young players, never anything else. Everyone who played with him sounded good and played over their heads, which Barry puts down to some kind of magnetism he gave off.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York7:498:23Passing It On4:42Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶211
Hearing Bird play with a small string section at the Forest Club, a roller rink turned dance hall, sent a chill from his feet through his whole body. That feeling spoiled him for other players, and he says the whole secret is to make a listener feel it.
The Spirit of Bebop54:05Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert14:03Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶177Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶191Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶200
For his generation Bird was everything: a break from the big bands, heard through records passed along by word of mouth rather than on the radio. Barry calls the time of Bird, Bud, Dizzy and Fats Navarro a renaissance, the most musical period of the music.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle9:04Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award5:35Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶98Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶379
What Bird changed most was rhythm. He knew the six, a feel of three against two running under the four, so players who copied him could pass at fast tempos but were found out on ballads.
Student performances and coaching13:27Believe: a talk to musicians32:22Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶13
Playing with Coleman Hawkins brought Bird down from the pedestal Barry had put him on. Bird, Bud and Dizzy were great, but none of them played it all, and there is still a lot left for students to play.
Music is like math1:123:00Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶13Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶399
In class he shows Bird’s lines, such as the spot on “Indiana” where Bird played a whole D7 against the E flat minor to A flat 7 the piano was playing. The point of learning a Bird solo, he says, is to learn how to solo from it, not to repeat it.
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana0:34Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You0:001:10Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶505
On stage he plays Bird, Bud and Monk rather than his own tunes. If concert halls play Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, he sees no reason a jazz musician should not play Bird.
Barry Harris Live In Rennes40:22Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands35:38Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶456
In his own words
We went up and played with Charlie Parker and he was beautiful to us. That’s one thing about Bird. Everybody [I] ever heard play with him, they sounded good.
The idea is to make somebody feel this feeling that I felt, and that is the secret to the whole thing.
Charlie Parker did not play everything. I do not feel the same about him as I did before...
You could be walking down the street, and the cat over on the other side would holler and say, “They’ve got a new record by Bird!”
When Bird plays sometimes on the radio, it’s like the sun comes out.
Every mention
40 moments in the recordings, 37 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
The Spirit of Bebop
- 22:56
Sat in with Parker at the Graystone Ballroom when his band was late; everyone sounded good with him.
- 54:05
The chill of hearing Bird with strings; the secret is to make someone feel that.
- 14:52
Heard Bird at the Mirror, Graystone and Grand ballrooms; the last time perhaps at a bar.
- 21:53
Someone else
A speaker recalls Dizzy saying Parker showed them how to move from note to note.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
- 6:42
Young players took Bird’s first Graystone set; he may also have sat in when Bird came with Candy Johnson.
- 7:49
Everyone played over their heads with Bird; he was charismatic, with some kind of magnetism.
- 5:02
Played on “Laura” and “April in Paris” with Parker’s strings records for Clint Eastwood’s film.
- 4:29
He and Walter Davis played along with Bird with strings to a click track for the film.
- 5:36
In a dance-band scene for the film, the band had to flub as if Bird had walked in.
- 11:14
Still waiting for a young player to give him the chill Charlie Parker gave him.
- 10:08
“All the Things You Are” meant Parker to him until he heard Coleman Hawkins play it.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert
- 14:03
Bird with a handful of strings at a roller rink; wants players to give him that feeling.
The last train to Monk: an interview
Student performances and coaching
- 13:27
Many imitate Bird, but no one could imitate him on a ballad; think of six.
Believe: a talk to musicians
Music is like math
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana
- 0:34
Shows Bird playing a whole D7 against E flat minor to A flat 7 on “Indiana”.
Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You
- 0:00
The same Bird tritone phrase on “Indiana”; horn players should practise it.
Bird’s tritone line on Embraceable You
- 0:00
A Bird line on “Embraceable You” built on the tritone.
Bird Feathers
- 0:36
On a Bird solo: think of the rhythm of the phrases rather than the notes, and learn to sing it.
Rhythm before notes
- 4:47
Think about the rhythm of Bird tunes, even walking down the street.
Feeling the ‘and’
- 1:12
They went to dance halls to hear Charlie Parker; that is how he learned jazz.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
Interview: Detroit and after
Passing It On
- 4:42
Bird let the young players sit in when his band had not arrived; most gracious person.
Falling in love with Charlie Parker
- 0:07
Fell in love with Charlie Parker; something happened to him when he heard him.
Ep.1 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harris
- 0:06
Parker and Gillespie were the greatest musicians; he believes only in Bird.
Barry Harris Live In Rennes
- 40:22
In concert he plays Bud, Bird and Monk, as he thinks a jazz musician should.
Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands
- 35:38
Announces a Bird tune; if concert halls play Bach, he can play Bird.
Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
- 7:54
Someone else
Charles McPherson met Barry around the same time he met Parker in Detroit.
In the interviews and notes
Barry describes himself as more of a Charlie Parker disciple, though Bud Powell matters to him too, and says Bird has grown even more important to him over the years.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶68Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶10
As teenagers they heard Bird at dances, not in clubs: the Mirror, Graystone and Grand ballrooms. Barry began with Bud Powell records but ended up with Bird, and says Parker spoiled him early.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶175Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶177
Asked about reports that Parker could be unkind, Barry says he was kind to all of them and never acted any way but beautiful when the young players sat in.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶209Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶210Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶211
Asked whether Bird had a big sound in person, Barry recalls a night at the Crystal when Bird, standing at the back of the room near the kitchen, just started playing from there with a great big sound.
Bird’s music was a breakaway from the big bands that allowed more creativity. It was rarely on the radio; young musicians passed news of each new Bird record along the street.
Bird was the leader of bebop and changed its rhythm, even changing drumming. Playing with Coleman Hawkins later showed Barry that great playing was not limited to Bird.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶13
Barry thinks Bud Powell, with Cootie Williams, and Bird, with Jay McShann, were heading separately towards the same summit; he doubts either influenced the other much, and suspects they were not the most compatible pair.
Bird and his peers played correct movements and ran melodically from one place to the next. Studying a Parker solo should teach you to improvise your own solos, not to reproduce his.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶100Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶104Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶505
Many musicians of his age took drugs thinking it might help them play like Bird. Barry says he never believed that, and smoked cigarettes only to keep himself away from the rest.
When teenage Charles McPherson showed an average report card, Barry told him his heroes such as Parker were anything but average and that Bird was brilliant on an intellectual level. McPherson says this turned his schoolwork around.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶225Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶227Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶228
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- Barry Harris Quintet Live at Jazzclub Ostertor, Bremen, Germany - 1976 (audio only)2026, 39 min YouTube
- North Sea Jazz | Bird Session 2005 | Joe Zawinul’s tribute to Charlie Parker2022, 19 min YouTube
- Barry Harris, Red Rodney, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley - 1992-08-29, Riverside ParkNew York City, 1992, 35 min YouTube
- Barry Harris - RepetitionThe Hague, 1989–98, 18 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Live In Rennes2021, 77 min YouTube
- Ep.1 | Everything no one has ever told you about jazz | Barry Harrisn.d., 8 min YouTube
- Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Charles McPherson, Red Rodney Live in NYC 1992 [BOOTLEG]2017, 44 min YouTube
- April In Paris2017, 3 min YouTube
- Parker’s Mood2017, 3 min YouTube
- Kenny Dorham & Barry Harris - 1964 - New York - 04 - ‘Round Midnight2016, 8 min YouTube
- Kenny Dorham & Barry Harris - 1964 - New York - 02 - Confirmation2016, 7 min YouTube
- “Bird Feathers” - Charles McPherson2016, 5 min YouTube
- Barry Harris - Passport (Ch.Parker) Rome 2016Rome, 2010–19, 14 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Spanish TVMadrid, 1988, 47 min YouTube
- Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - PerformanceNew York City, 2004, 39 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.
- 15.4The lineage15
- 14.3Learn from the masters by ear; study the small things9
- 6.9Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)9
- 11.5Touch8
- 1.4Triplets and thinking in six5
- 11.2Keep the left hand low and make it interesting4
- 11.4Play from the body and the arm, not the fingers4
- 15.3Music is like math; finding your own voice; the teacher’s job4