Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

Description

Within days of Charlie "Bird" Parker's death at the age of thirty-four, a scrawled legend began appearing on walls around New York City: "Bird Lives." Gone was one of the most outstanding jazz musicians of any era, the troubled genius who brought modernism to jazz and became a defining cultural force for musicians, writers, and artists of every stripe. Arguably the most significant musician in the country at the time of his death, Parker set the standard many musicians strove to reach--though he never enjoyed the same popular success that greeted many of his imitators. Today, the power of Parker's inventions resonates undiminished; and his influence continues to expand.

Gary Giddins is one of the world's foremost jazz critics. His books include Visions of Jazz, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, Satchmo, Weather Bird, Natural Selection, Jazz, and Warning Shadows, and his many recognitions include a National Book Critics Circle Award, the Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement Award, a Guggenheim, a Grammy, and six ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for Excellence in Music Criticism. He is executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

"Giddins writes with something like Bird's bravado. . . . [Parker] can practically be heard ripping through 'Cherokee' and stewing over 'Koko' straight off the pages of this book." -L. A. Weekly "As penetrating a character study of Bird as any yet written." -New York Times "Since his death in 1955, myth-makers have sounded the bebop battle cry-Bird Lives!-but Giddins is the first biographer to make it sound true." -Village Voice "A major contribution to jazz biography . . . has the verve and adrenaline of its subject matter." -Ishmael Reed "A tribute . . . to Parker's gift and grief. Giddins gives the man his due." -Los Angeles Times