The Holiday Blues: Remembering the Bird

The Holiday Blues: Remembering the Bird
Category: Music

Charlie Parker, had he not been eternally frozen in time as a perpetually young man who looked 30 years his senior, would be 86, if he didnot succumb to his various vices, five plus decades ago. 86. Eight-ee-six!! Imagine the sheer magnitude of music he would have composed, played, and improvised in the last 51 years. Would he have gone in the same "reproduce the already innovated and maintain the traditon so far" dirction as Diz?? Gone Off the deep end, say sayonara forever to the ether and musically hurled himself face first into the cosmos, a la Trane? Cynically discover L.Ron Hubbard's side bet at a sci fi convention and consequently make the "artistic" decisons to subserviently accompany a Fender Rhodes, fuzz guitar, Marshall stacks, and a minimoog, all within the constraints of a basketball stadia, amidst scantily clad groupies eagerly awaiting backstage access?

In all seriousness: could such a "artistic" direction such as the final option be even remotely possible for someone who, despite acquainted with the aforementioned personal tragedies of life, nonetheless was on a first name basis with the essense of the bookended twins of beauty and joy; a musican without and beyond comparison who once said "first you master your instrument; then you master the music; finally, you forget the 1st two steps and just play"--to what extent would he need to modify this equation?? Indeed, he would have to forego the first two steps en masse and at once, forcibly sever and decapicate them piece by piece, limb by limb, and dehardwire them from his soul. Where would that leave him? Then the Bird would not have been the Bird. Rather, he would become directly comparable and easily categorizable, able to readily make do in the vast barren wilderness of commerce, product and commodities.

What indeed wold the Bird make of these days, as 2006 gives way???