Songs from 1945 to 1951
Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker played alto saxophone, and this page follows nine songs he wrote or shares credit for, from Anthropology, Billie's Bounce and Now's the Time in 1945 to Blues for Alice in 1951. Some are built on older songs: Ornithology on How High the Moon, and Donna Lee on Indiana, which the Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded in 1917. Credits are not always simple. Anthropology carries Dizzy Gillespie's name although Parker said in 1949 that Gillespie had no part in writing it, and Miles Davis said he wrote Donna Lee.
Through the years
- 1910s
The story starts with a song written before the first Parker record. The Original Dixieland Jass Band records Indiana for Columbia on May 31, 1917, one of the earliest jazz records, and Donna Lee later runs on its .
- 1940s
Eight of the nine songs are written between 1945 and 1947, and Charlie Parker's groups make the first record of seven, often with Miles Davis on trumpet: Anthropology, Billie's Bounce and Now's the Time in 1945, Yardbird Suite and Ornithology in 1946, Donna Lee and Scrapple from the Apple in 1947. Dizzy Gillespie's sextet records Confirmation without him, and Bud Powell plays Ornithology as a piano trio in 1949.
Charlie Parker's Reboppers Anthropology · 1945Charlie Parker's Re-Boppers Billie's Bounce · 1945Charlie Parker's Re-Boppers Now's the Time · 1945Dizzy Gillespie Anthropology · 1946Charlie Parker Quintet Billie's Bounce · 1946Dizzy Gillespie Jazzmen Confirmation · 1946Charlie Parker Septet Ornithology · 1946Charlie Parker Septet Yardbird Suite · 1946 - 1950s
Parker records Blues for Alice in 1951, and in 1953 makes his only studio recording of Confirmation and a studio Now's the Time. Art Blakey's quintet plays Now's the Time for nine minutes at Birdland in 1954. Bud Powell, Jackie McLean, Red Garland with John Coltrane, and Max Roach with a quartet that has no piano all record the songs, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross sing Now's the Time in 1959.
Charlie Parker Quintet Scrapple from the Apple · 1950Dizzy Gillespie - Charlie Parker Quintet Anthropology · 1951Charlie Parker Quintet Blues for Alice · 1951Charlie Parker, Chet Baker and Sonny Criss Donna Lee · 1952Charlie Parker Quartet Confirmation · 1953Charlie Parker Quartet Now's the Time · 1953Chet Baker and Stan Getz Yardbird Suite · 1953Art Blakey Quintet Now's the Time · 195416 more
Bud Powell Trio Confirmation · 1955Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh Donna Lee · 1955Carmen McRae Yardbird Suite · 1955Jackie McLean Sextet Confirmation · 1956Bud Powell Trio Billie's Bounce · 1957Wes Montgomery Billie's Bounce · 1957The Red Garland Quintet Billie's Bounce · 1957Clark Terry Quintet Donna Lee · 1957Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker Ornithology · 1957Phil Woods with Red Garland Scrapple from the Apple · 1957Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan Scrapple from the Apple · 1957Bud Powell Trio Yardbird Suite · 1957The Max Roach 4 Yardbird Suite · 1957Hampton Hawes Yardbird Suite · 1958Lambert, Hendricks & Ross with Zoot Sims Now's the Time · 1959Sonny Stitt with the Oscar Peterson Trio Scrapple from the Apple · 1959 - 1960s
Singers join in. Eddie Jefferson records his words to Billie's Bounce in 1962, Now's the Time in 1968 and Yardbird Suite in 1969, and Les Double Six sing the solos from Scrapple from the Apple. Roland Kirk's quartet plays Blues for Alice in 1961, and Sonny Stitt opens a 1963 tribute album to Parker with Ornithology.
Ella Fitzgerald with the Paul Smith Quartet Ornithology · 1960Barry Harris Quintet Anthropology · 1961Roland Kirk Quartet Blues for Alice · 1961Eddie Jefferson Billie's Bounce · 1962Oscar Peterson Trio Now's the Time · 1962Dizzy Gillespie and Les Double Six Anthropology · 1963Sonny Stitt Confirmation · 1963Sonny Stitt Ornithology · 1963 - 1970s
Players take the songs into new settings. Jaco Pastorius opens his debut album with Donna Lee on electric bass, Joe Pass plays Now's the Time alone on acoustic guitar, and Jim Hall plays Scrapple from the Apple live in Toronto in 1975 with a bassist and a drummer and no piano. Dexter Gordon gives Billie's Bounce eight minutes in Copenhagen, and Art Pepper plays clarinet on Anthropology in 1979.
- 1980s
Jaco Pastorius plays Donna Lee live at Avery Fisher Hall in New York in 1982 with his Word of Mouth Big Band, for 13 minutes. Archie Shepp and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen play Blues for Alice as a duet in 1980, and Red Rodney, the trumpeter on Parker's 1951 record, plays it live in 1988. Keith Jarrett's trio plays Billie's Bounce in Munich in 1986, and Frank Morgan opens a Parker tribute album with Yardbird Suite in 1988.
- 1990s
Dizzy Gillespie, who played piano on the 1945 Billie's Bounce, plays trumpet on it at the Blue Note in New York in 1992, and leads a live Ornithology there that January. Lee Konitz plays Anthropology at Birdland in 1991, and Karrin Allyson scats Donna Lee joined to Indiana on Daydream in 1997. Mark Whitfield leads a quartet through Blues for Alice in 1994.
- 2000s
Roy Haynes, who played drums with Parker in 1949 and 1950, leads a quintet with Kenny Garrett and Roy Hargrove on a 2001 tribute that includes Now's the Time and Yardbird Suite. Keith Jarrett's trio plays Scrapple from the Apple again in 2002. Anthony Braxton's quartet plays Blues for Alice for 13 minutes at Nevers in 2003, and in 2004 Phil Woods plays Anthropology with the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra.
- 2010s
Joe Lovano's Us Five closes the album Bird Songs in 2010 with a twelve-minute Yardbird Suite. Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau play Ornithology as a duo live in Madrid in 2011, and Nonesuch releases it in 2016. Ethan Iverson records Confirmation in Brooklyn in 2016 with Ron Carter on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums.
- 2020s
A big band takes on Donna Lee: John Beasley's MONK'estra plays Beasley's arrangement in 2020, and it wins the 2021 Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. In 2022 Massimo Colombo's trio records Blues for Alice among other Parker pieces, with Fender Rhodes, bass and drums.
The tunes
- AnthropologyCharlie Parker / Dizzy Gillespie, 1945
- Billie's BounceCharlie Parker, 1945
- Now's the TimeCharlie Parker, 1945
- ConfirmationCharlie Parker, 1946
- OrnithologyCharlie Parker / Benny Harris, 1946
- Yardbird SuiteCharlie Parker, 1946
- Donna LeeCharlie Parker (credited), 1947
- Scrapple from the AppleCharlie Parker, 1947
- Blues for AliceCharlie Parker, 1951