Wax On #9 Charlie Parker

About this event

WAX ON is both a listening party, placing the needle in the groove of a collection of favourite jazz albums, as well as an intimate space for story-telling and reflections.

The 7th WAX ON event will focus on the life and music of saxophonist CHARLIE PARKER!

Charlie Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of Bebop. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso, and he introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions.

Charlie discovered his talent for music at a very early age. As a teen, he played the baritone horn in the school band, before changing to alto saxophone. He was so enamored of playing the sax that he decided to drop out of school in pursuit of a full-time musical career when he was only 14. By age 16, when he first joined Jay McShann's Orchestra, he was already a long way toward becoming a major player.

One of a handful of musicians who can be said to have permanently changed jazz, but Charlie Parker is one of them. He could play remarkably fast lines that, if slowed down to half speed, would reveal that every note made sense. "Bird," along with his contemporaries Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell, is considered a founder of bebop. Rather than basing his improvisations closely on the melody as was done in swing, he was a master of chordal improvisation, creating new melodies that were based on the structure of a song.

Parker's remarkable technique, fairly original sound, and ability to come up with harmonically advanced phrases that could be both logical and whimsical were highly influential. By 1950, it was impossible to play "modern jazz" with credibility without closely studying Charlie Parker.

Moderated by Irish Times music critic Cormac Larkin, with a panel of jazz aficionados, Wax On brings the audience on an intimate journey through the life and recordings of some of the most influential and important artists of the jazz genre.