Charlie Parker (Jack Kerouac)

Charlie Parker looked like Buddha
Charlie Parker, who recently died
Laughing at a juggler on the TV
After weeks of strain and sickness,
Was called the Perfect Musician.
And his expression on his face
Was as calm, beautiful, and profound
As the image of the Buddha
Represented in the East, the lidded eyes
The expression that says "All Is Well"
This was what Charlie Parker
Said when he played, All is Well.
You had the feeling of early-in-the-morning
Like a hermit's joy, or
Like the perfect cry of some wild gang
At a jam session,
"Wail, Wop"
Charlie burst his lungs to reach the speed
Of what the speedsters wanted
And what they wanted
Was his eternal Slowdown.

Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker died fifty-four years ago this month (March 12, 1955 at age 34). I came to his music through the writings of Kerouac. Not long ago I bought Parker’s CD “Charlie Parker With Strings.” Some have considered this among the least successful of Parker’s recordings, but I wanted to hear it for myself. While it does not rank with his early Savoy sessions, I found the recordings intriguing nonetheless.

Anyway, as I opened the CD, I could not help but notice a picture of Charlie Parker with some of the other musicians on the CD – among those was Mitch Miller. Mitch Miller and Charlie Parker! Charlie Parker is considered one of the seminal figures in jazz music, innovative be-bop pioneer (a link to a live version of “Ko Ko” can be found down the page – I prefer the original Savoy studio version). Mitch Miller, on the other hand, is often viewed in much less favorable light – as a panderer to the most schmaltzy tastes in the listening public. Miller was a producer, an A and R person for Columbia Records, a host of a television show in the 1960s – “Sing Along With Mitch,” as well as a musician. He has been criticized for his “relentlessly cheery arrangements” (Wikapedia), and music historian Will Friedwald wrote of him “Miller exemplified the worst in American pop.” I have shadowy childhood memories of the “Sing Along With Mitch” television show, with its bouncing ball inviting viewers to sing along to orchestral versions of popular songs. Not exactly revolutionary stuff.

So here are Charlie Parker and Mitch Miller together, and the thought strikes me that there is something wise in this picture. The thought occurs to me that we might want to live in the balance between a Charlie Parker – creative, innovative, seeking change, and a Mitch Miller – appreciating what is and celebrating it. Either extreme is usually unhealthy – Parker died at 34 after abusing his body with heroin; Miller could be schmaltzy. Yet to appreciate what is, to try and bring a little joy and music into the lives of many seems worthwhile. So, too, the effort to challenge the status quo, to take life beyond what it has been, to be creative, to push at boundaries.

As a clergy person, I am in more of a Mitch Miller occupation, trying to keep listening to my inner Charlie Parker.

Where would I get the idea that both these life-stances have something to commend them? Maybe from a Jesus who on one occasion could say “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17); and on another occasion could say, “the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath,” just after he plucked grain on the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

With Faith and With Feathers,

David


Charlie Parker, "Ko Ko"