Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

A tribute, celebration and memorial to one of the great luminaries of Jazz, this hour long documentary by the American Masters series based on the book of the same title is a chronological account on Charlie Parker's rise and tragic descent from his origins in the fertile Jazz scene of his home town in Kansas City to a pitiful and surreal death on a hotel suite watching television. The Jazzumentary features historical images and footage including interviews with living figures who were central in Parker's life like Dizzy Gillespie, Jay McShann and Chan Parker who relate their memories on the complex and fascinating man. And of course, glorious music, where Parker's life-affirming saxophone ornaments the screen with its pulse and verve-infused energetic array of pinpoint accurate lyrical effusions and dazzling blitzkrieg-like displays unleashed in skillfully controlled assaults.

I first saw this memorable documentary decades ago and there are some scenes I never forgot: Chan Parker stating Bird was irreligious; Frank Morgan confessing that on the day he found out Parker died he and his friends celebrated in the way that brought Parker to his untimely end - shooting junk themselves. Too brief to do justice to an important and monumental figure like Parker, "Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker" is nonetheless an essential view for fans of Parker and Jazz, music and culture.

While much of the interview footage of this hour-length doc on legendary Jazz player Charlie (Bird) Parker is of the known (including Parker's widow), it still holds interest to the real meat of the piece. It is known among Parker fans that he only made one television appearance in his lifetime (taken away at 34, he left the Earth right when TV was bringing Jazz people like Louis Armstrong into homes all over America) with Dizzy Gillespie, playing "Hot House. This performance is included in the doc, and it's a blissful reminder of what he and Gillespie could do with seemingly simplistic chords, building on improvisations with gusto and inventiveness. Aside from that, the doc is fairly typical, with information that's likely to be found in better biographies, or even in Clint Eastwood's bio-pic on the film. It's worth a look though for the jazz fan if found in the local library or other.

The 80s were the Charlie 'Bird' Parker rediscovery decade. In 1988 Clint Eastwood made Bird - a celebrated and Oscar-crowned biography of Parker with Forest Whitaker in the main role. It was actually one year after Gary Giddins brought to the TV screen the documentary Celebrating Bird inspired by his own book about Parker. I do not know what the relation between the two exactly is, but the documentary certainly is of great interest for jazz fans, and in perspective the two films - documentary and feature - are worth to be watched together.

The strong side of the documentary which I recently watched on the French music channel Mezzo are the interviews. During the 80s many of his colleagues in the generation that invented be-bop and constituted the backbone of the New York jazz scene in 40s and 50s were still around. Catching Dizzy Gillespie talk about the music and collaboration with Parker, or the two women in his life giving direct testimony about his private life are unique opportunities which were possible then. The interviews are combined with many fine musical pieces, all in perfect conditions which allow us see and listen to Charlie Parker playing with such artists as Louis Armstrong or Gillespie.

A musical roads opener through his style, and a poignant and impressive personality in life, Parker's image was amplified by his early and tragical death which cut short his career. Here he seems to have anticipated the fate of many rock musicians in the 60s and 70s - Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison - which all have lived short and intense lives, and died consumed by their art and by their addiction.It is by the music they made that they survive and this documentary makes Parker a good service recording first hand details of his life and career.