Customer Reviews

Bird: The Legend Of Charlie Parker (Da Capo Paperback)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is less acclaimed than Ross Russell's book, but is far better than the latter. Reisner knew Bird well and he interviewed most of his associates. It's Bird in the words of those who knew him. A great piece of work!

This book shows the life of Parker through the eyes of many of his collegues, friends, and family. Robert Riesner should be commmended for his work on this material because it's informitive and gives views of Parker through people that were in his life. This book is a must read for all "true" Bird fans.

This is the only book that I have read about Parker. So I can't compare it to other works. BUT it is a very enjoyable read. As the cover states there are extensive interviews with people who knew him best, including various ex-wives. Various incidents that are in the movie are described here, so I assume Eastwood, or whoever wrote the script, probably consulted this book. But, what is interesting is that the Book states that Chan and 'Bird' were never legally married. Don't think that fact was in the Movie.

In my opinion this is the best biography of Bird yet produced. It is not so much a biography as a compilation of reminiscences by people who knew Bird: mostly fellow musicians, but some non-musicians as well. I think this is the best way to get a true idea of what Bird was like because it focuses on what Bird actually did rather than attempting the impossible task of synthesizing one consistent portrait which can account for the wide spectrum of impressions he made. Unlike many subjects of biographies, one of Bird's striking characteristics was his ability to project different personalities to different people as the situation seemed to warrant, or as his whims and needs dictated. He was both a hipster and a family man, an amoral drug addict and a loving husband and father, a great genius and an ordinary guy, sometimes all in the same day.

As an example, one can contrast the recollections of Bird the con artist taking advantage of young fans' gullibility to steal their money, versus Bird the father figure to aspiring young musicians who waited for him at subway stops so they could carry his instrument case.

Although Bird's heroin addiction, which stayed with him from the time he was 17 until his death, undoubtedly played a major role in creating this phenomenon, he was also probably spoiled as the only child of a doting mother and an absent father. Being allowed to make his own rules from early in life, he became used to living by his own code, often to the detriment of those around him. (Jay McShann laughingly recalls another bandleader who asked him to release Bird so he could join his band, only to return several weeks later begging to take him back.) It is this side of Bird's personality which led his first biographer, Ross Russell, to label him a "classic sociopath", a label I reject. But this is only one aspect of this complex and fascinating man.

If after reading this book you are interested in additional personal recollections of Bird, read his last wife Chan Parker's autobiography, "My Life in E-Flat", which gives an excellent insight into how difficult Bird could be, but also what an amazing musician he was.

this book was about an epic struggle of a jazz musician in a New York city life.Im 16 and i play a lot of jazz and parker was a geat influence on me and my playin i worship him as a mucican and a jazz ico