Quote

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

Charlie Parker

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Charlie Parker
Age: 34 †
Born: 1920
Born: August 29
Died: 1955
Died: March 12
Composer
Jazz Musician
Musician
Saxophonist
Kansas City
Kansas
Yardbird
Bird
Charles Parker Jr.
Charlie Parker Jr.
Charles Christopher Parker
Jr.
Came
Harmony
Backing
Getting
Using
Chord
Found
Jazz
Intervals
Used
Changes
Chords
Play
Line
Melody
Thing
Higher
Bored
Stereotyped
Time
Lines
Related
Harmonies
Alive
Hearing
Appropriately

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Don't be afraid, just play the music.
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I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.
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Man, there's no boundary line to art!
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I look at melody as rhythm.
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Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.
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They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
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If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.
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It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.
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I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.
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Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.
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Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.
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I can play all I know in eight bars.
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You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.
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Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'
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Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.
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You've got to learn your instrument.
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When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.
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Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
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