[JPL] Charlie Parker and the food of Jazz

[Paul Combs]

Jay McShann told the firsthand story in an interview on a CD released 
about 8-10 years ago, that I think was produced by Duke Robillard. If my 
memory serves me correctly, McShann is officially co-composer of 
"Yardbird Suite."

Ciao,

Paul

Lloyd Townsend, Jr. wrote:
> The story I've heard most often comes from his early touring days, 
> probably after a gig where they'd gotten shorted -- the group was in a 
> car, on the way out of town, when they passed a place where some 
> chickens were out pecking around; Parker told the driver to pull over 
> so he could jump out and grab one of the "yardbirds" for their dinner 
> a few miles on down the road.
>
> Lloyd Townsend
> Prop., Imaginary Records
>
>
>
> On Dec 14, 2008, at 11:27 AM, Jon Burr wrote:
>
>> Re: Bird
>>
>> Where did his nickname come from? There are diverging accounts out 
>> there.
>>
>> "Bird" is a contraction of his actual nickname, which was "Yardbird." 
>> One account (I don't recall the source) said that it was bestowed 
>> upon him by members of Basie's band, who would spot him as a 
>> youngster hanging out in the yard outside the Kansas City club where 
>> they were in residence, listening to the band as an underage wannabe. 
>> This is the most reliable, in my opinion. I'll try to dig out the 
>> source.
>>
>> Here's a published reference to his "full nickname" -
>> http://www.cmgww.com/music/parker/about/biography.html
>>
>> Hold the fried chicken!
>>
>> Jon
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Well Charlie Parker's nickname throughout his life was 'Bird'. There 
>>> are a number of accounts as to why. One is that it described the way 
>>> he played - he was able to control the saxophone with such fluency 
>>> that he sounded like a bird. But another says that he developed this 
>>> nickname because he had a profound love for deep-fried chicken. In 
>>> relation to this, i watched 'Rockwiz' the other night and a random 
>>> bit of trivia that came out was that the great jazz singer Ella 
>>> Fitzgerald once sung for a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial (in my 
>>> opinion Fitzgerald is the second-best jazz vocalist ever - next to 
>>> Billie Holiday).
>>>
>>> So it seems that the food of Jazz is deep-fried chicken. I am just 
>>> so unsatisfied with this! Jazz is very cool, and well deep-fried 
>>> chicken...just sucks. But then again, Jazz /is/ American music so it 
>>> has to have American food. The New Orleans Cafe 
>>> <http://www.neworleanscafe.com.au/> in Crows Nest Sydney interpret 
>>> Jazz food as basically southern food - Cajun and Jambalaya (and they 
>>> do make a good Jambalaya). Maybe this is historically accurate, but 
>>> i think we should develop a new food for Jazz, something cool, 
>>> swave, colourful and a little radical.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> -
>> (Jon Burr)
>> jon at jonburr.com
>> http://jonburr.com
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpOeae-JB2o
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>> http://myspace.com/jonburrband
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>> -- 
>>
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