The saga of Charlie Parker is well known and told in many places, including Wikipedia and Ken Burns’ Jazz documentary. Genius, drugs, alcohol and early death.
Bebop is a lot like advanced physics: It is hard for lay people to even understand what practitioners are trying to do. It’s demanding and not to everyone’s taste because it doesn’t use melody in the way with which most of us are familiar. This page comes reasonably close to explaining by presenting quotes by and about Parker. Two point how the technical and emotional merged for Parker:
l’d been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn’t play it. … I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I’d been hearing. I came alive.
and
You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.
The middle of the twentieth century was a confusing and depressing time. The chaos and dislocation of a world that had experienced nothing but death and dying for 50 years is reflected in the art that was produced, including bebop. That is not to say that bebop is inherently depressing or depressed. It means that it reflected a world in which pretty melodies existed, but weren’t the whole ballgame.
Here are “Hot House” (with Dizzy Gillepsie), “Celebrity” and “52nd Street Theme” (with great old photos of New York City) Below is the incredible “Yardbird Suite,” which is three minutes of pure genius.
