Charles Christopher Parker Jr

[Philip]

I'm involved in a dispute over at Wikipedia over Charlie Parker's middle name. I used the "Biographical Dictionary of Jazz" (1999) as confirmation for this, although the one volume Grove (1994) is silent on this detail. Someone querying my addition on the talk page points that Ross Russell in "Bird Lives" (yes I know!) complains about the Christopher addition to his headstone, and I'm aware (from the web) that the Reisner biography (1963) quotes Addie Parker saying that Christopher is indeed false, but the confusion persists.

Incidentally, the Britannica site agrees with Charles Christopher Parker, Jr being his birth name!

Thanks!

Edited March 27, 2006 by Philip

[bichos]

hello philip,

look at this wonderful site http://www.birdlives.co.uk/ you will find a lot of informations!!!

keep boppin´

marcel

[John L]

Unfortunately, even this doesn't help:

[EKE BBB]

From Brian Priestley´s recent book on Charlie Parker.

"Another discrepancy concerns [Charlie's] given name; although there are many references to him as 'Charles Christopher Parker', neither his birth certificate nor his gravestone shows any such middle name"

British edition (Equinox, London, 2005 - p. 10)

[John L]

From Brian Priestley´s recent book on Charlie Parker.

"Another discrepancy concerns [Charlie's] given name; although there are many references to him as 'Charles Christopher Parker', neither his birth certificate nor his gravestone shows any such middle name"

British edition (Equinox, London, 2005 - p. 10)

As shown above, his birth certificate not only shows no middle name. It shows no name at all. Maybe we should start calling him "the Artist Formerly Known as Charlie Parker."

Edited March 28, 2006 by John L

[Guest]

There is no evidence that Charlie had a middle name, although he did attempt 'Englishisms' now and again and perhaps this was just part of it. His grandfather, whom he never meet was called The Reverend Peter C. Parker, and it is possible that Charlie adopted the 'C' for some reason unknown to us.....

[Brad]

The only proper name reference that I've seen is Charles Parker, Jr., which I suppose is not dispositive.

[Aggie87]

There is no evidence that Charlie had a middle name, although he did attempt 'Englishisms' now and again and perhaps this was just part of it. His grandfather, whom he never meet was called The Reverend Peter C. Parker, and it is possible that Charlie adopted the 'C' for some reason unknown to us.....

Peter Parker??

...maybe his nickname shouldn't have been Bird, but Spider.

[Guest]

Rather strange coincidence, but I have just seen an image of a receipt signed, 'Charles Christopher Parker', in Charlie's own handwriting!! So, although it may not have been a 'legal' addition to his name, it was obviously something he actively promoted!

[EKE BBB]

Rather strange coincidence, but I have just seen an image of a receipt signed, 'Charles Christopher Parker', in Charlie's own handwriting!! So, although it may not have been a 'legal' addition to his name, it was obviously something he actively promoted!

... on the other hand...

[EKE BBB]

... and

[EKE BBB]

Look at the Norman Saks gallery and the Ephemera gallery at the Bird Lives website. There are a lot of autographed documents and, unless I´ve missed it, there´s no "Christopher" in any of them.

[birdanddizzy]

I'm involved in a dispute over at Wikipedia over Charlie Parker's middle name.

I removed "Christopher" on the french Wikipedia maybe one month ago with no problem...

[Guest]

EKE BBB - Strange world....I run the Birdlives website, and strangely enough it was an image of a receipt owned by Norman Saks that had the 'Christopher' addition.....in Charlie's own handwriting. It's not on the website....yet.....!

[johnagrandy]

"90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong." -- Yogi Berra

The first sentence is pure conjecture, so I ignored it. I actually have (possibly) figured out what Yogi means by the second sentence. The rest of it ...

Perhaps he knew what he meant. Perhaps not.

[EKE BBB]

EKE BBB - Strange world....I run the Birdlives website, and strangely enough it was an image of a receipt owned by Norman Saks that had the 'Christopher' addition.....in Charlie's own handwriting. It's not on the website....yet.....!

Ooops, I should have kept my mouth closed!

Anyway, congratulations for one of the best websites dedicated to a jazz artist that I´ve ever known (and I can assure you I have more than two hundred jazz related websites on the "Favorites" tool of my internet navigator!)

[Guest]

EKE BBB - Strange world....I run the Birdlives website, and strangely enough it was an image of a receipt owned by Norman Saks that had the 'Christopher' addition.....in Charlie's own handwriting. It's not on the website....yet.....!

Ooops, I should have kept my mouth closed!

Anyway, congratulations for one of the best websites dedicated to a jazz artist that I´ve ever known (and I can assure you I have more than two hundred jazz related websites on the "Favorites" tool of my internet navigator!)

No worries. It's important to question all, so called 'authorities', and I am by no means one with regards Charlie, so feel free... I just found it a coincidence that on the day I read a thread about Charlie's middle name, I met Norman and he has an image of Charlie using this addition in his signature on an offical document!! From what I can gather, it is the only example of Charlie doing so. However, the most interesting detail about this is how the use of 'Christopher' spread and is still being quoted today, even though there is only one, rare example of Charlie actually using it?? How did it become such an acceptable misnomer?? Word of mouth?