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Say Happy Birthday To The Yardbird!!!


catesta

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Happy B-D, Bird!

...excerpted from the famous Barnes & Noble interview :w

Kenny G:  I don't say this to be disrespectful, but when you listen to Charlie Parker, on pretty much any record he's going to sound the same. He's going to be unbelievable. He'll be playing the fastest lines in that style. He was the fastest. Nobody played faster and more cleanly than him. Except that there was another saxophone player named Sonny Stitt. He was actually an almost exact duplicate of Charlie Parker, except he played it even cleaner. Charlie Parker would squeak a lot, and that's why they called him Bird, because his reed would chirp.

B&N.com: You think that's why they called him Bird? That's interesting.

KG: That is why they called him Bird. That was the deal. He played so fast, and his reed would chirp because it...I don't know, it just couldn't take the speed of his fingers. But Sonny Stitt used to do it without the chirping thing, and played beautiful. But I don't think he ever got the same accolades that Charlie Parker did, mainly because Charlie Parker was the first one. Anyway, I know a lot about that kind of music, and I admire those players.

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Got one of him in that wrinkled white suit,looking all puffy? Those are the ones that I hate to look at, but do, because otherwise it would be too easy to be infatuated with the genius without realizing what the man went through.

Like somebody said, "As serious as your life!"

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I hope you all don't mind another picture.

0129p19b.jpg

Why look over there on the right - it's little Johnny Coltrane!

Damn, you think about what a spectrum of music Trane covered in actual professional experience and it boggles the mind almost as much - sometimes as much or more - than Bird.

Jesus, this stuff is DEEP!

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