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Title: Bird Lives!: The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker by Ross Russell ISBN: 0-306-80679-7 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Forget the movie...
Comment: Ross Russell was the president of Dial records when Parker was in California. He recorded several sides while there, but Mr Russell, an obvious fan of Parker, makes a huge effort to desribe Parker's whole spectacular and at the same time tragic life and career. When I read this book, I literally could not put it down.
Parker was a great clown and entertainer, something which Clint Eastwood's disappointing movie "Bird" never portrayed, instead sticking to the sad and seedy sections of the great Parker's life. I read this book years before the film came out, and I was shocked because I knew Eastwood to be a big jazz fan.
Anyhow, every major event in Parker's short life is chronicled, giving an excellent narrative of an extraordinary career.
Miled Davis in his autobiography said that Bird was a con, a cheat, and that Ross Russell exploited him. Nonetheless, this book presents many facets to describe Parker's life, in vivid detail. I'd call this essential for any true jazz fan to understand the man, his music, and the truly monumental and unsurpassed contribution Parker made to all music. Also revealed are all the main players of the time and their relation to the music and the man.
Also, there are three books I recommend (in this order) to anyone who really wants the inside scoop on the jazz life: Bird Lives, Miles Davis' in-your-face-autobiography, and Albert Goldman's biography of Lenny Bruce. All three books can be read as companion pieces and give a realistic portrait of 3 of the most influential people of the 20th century and the world that created them. At the same time all three books provide an excellent reality check to anyone contemplating a heroin habit!
Rating: 4
Summary: Accessible, well-written
Comment: I found this book pretty hard to put down. It reads like a fun, well-written novel, the main character of which is a fascinating and charming--but insulting and heroin-shooting--musical genius. This leads to the question: Is everything in this book "true"? I have no idea, not being an authority on Parker, but, at least for now, I don't care all that much. Ross Russell does a decent job of painting a portrait of Bird, at least in broad strokes, and the reader gains the sense that the book is more or less true, generally speaking. Russell did, after all, know Parker (even if he had a not-so-great relationship with him), and much of what is covered in the book is documented elsewhere. The book does, though, have its share of nitpicking critics.
I appreciate Russell's knowledge of Parker's main contributions to jazz. Given my limited knowledge of Parker, Russell has a good sense of the artist at his prime; he knows, for example, that Parker was at his best in the late forties and around 1950, and he discusses why this and that record ("Koko," "Lover Man," etc.) is particualrly important. Though Russell admires Parker tremendously (he insinuates and says outright that Bird is the greatest practitioner of jazz ever), he isn't afraid to show his ugly sides as a person--his tendency to put on airs, be crude and irresponsible, etc.
Above all, Russell gives us a good idea why Parker is (I would say, after Armstrong and Ellington) the greatest figure in jazz of the 20th century. He brings the reader into the solos themselves, as much as a writer can without splitting hairs. I recommend this book to anyone even remotely inteserested in jazz, Parker, bebop, or culture of the U.S., mid-20th-century.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very Powerful
Comment: THis is a Powerful Book On The Great Genius Of Charlie Bird' Parker.All OF The Highs&Lows.He Had His Issues but at the same Time Race&Society at Large Wasn't Friendly.He Overcame alot.He is One Of The FOunding Fathers Of Music as We Know it.Very Powerful Book.
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Title: John Coltrane: His Life and Music (The Michigan American Music Series) by Lewis Porter ISBN: 047208643X Publisher: University of Michigan Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker by Gary Giddins ISBN: 0306808927 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker by Robert G. Reisner ISBN: 0306800691 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: May, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Charlie Parker: His Music & Life by Carl Woideck ISBN: 0472085557 Publisher: University of Michigan Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Louis Armstrong by Laurence Bergreen ISBN: 0767901568 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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