Creemedia
The Tragedy and Triumph of Charlie Parker
Ross Russell has written the definitive biography of Charles Parker. It is a well-researched, inspired and ultimately unpleasant book. It is a modern tragedy, the story of the destruction of an innovative artist, and implicitly, the destruction of those artists who emulated his life style as well as his art.
The Tragedy and Triump of Charlie Parker
BOOKS
BIRD LIVES!
The Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker by Ross Russell (Charterhouse)
Ross Russell has written the definitive biography of Charles Parker. It is a well-researched, inspired and ultimately unpleasant book. It is a modern tragedy, the story of the destruction of an innovative artist, and implicitly, the destruction of those artists who emulated his life style as well as his art.
This is almost as much a book about heroin as it is about jazz and what it means to be a black musical genius in a country which has no use for such a thing. It tells the true Bird story: addicted to heroin for 19 years, creating a new music out of an older one, praised, damned, lionized, worshiped (as well as, on occasion, appreciated). And finally, young, gifted and dead at 34.