Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 10th May 2022

Charlie Parker is this week's Phantom Dancer feature artist. Charlie Parker was an influential alto sax soloist and key in the development of bebop. He said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day in the mid-1930s. And it was while practicing and experimenting on his alto sax in 1939 that he created his unique sound. The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. LISTEN to this week's Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 10 May) and two years of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/ [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlsnuKyJEA[/embed]

TAKING THE KNOCKS

Parker said that he spent three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day in the mid 1930s Bands led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten certainly influenced Parker. He played with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique, with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time influenced Parker's developing style. In late spring 1936, Parker played at a jam session at the Reno Club in Kansas City. His attempt to improvise failed when he lost track of the chord changes. This prompted Jo Jones, the drummer for Count Basie's Orchestra, to contemptuously take a cymbal off of his drum set and throw it at his feet as a signal to leave the stage. Rather than discouraging Parker, the incident caused him to vow to practice harder, and turned out to be a seminal moment in the young musician's career. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrIHEdKa0x0[/embed]

BEBOP

One night in 1939, Charlie Parker was playing "Cherokee" in a practice session with guitarist William "Biddy" Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled one of his main musical innovations. He realized that the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing. He recalled: "I was jamming in a chili house on Seventh Avenue between 139th and 140th. It was December 1939. Now I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it ... Well, that night I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, 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." [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_QO3EHh6D0[/embed]

STYLE

Parker's style of composition involved interpolation of original melodies over existing jazz forms and standards, a practice known as contrafact and still common in jazz today. Examples include "Ornithology" (which borrows the chord progression of jazz standard "How High the Moon" and is said to be co-written with trumpet player Little Benny Harris), and "Moose The Mooche" (one of many Parker compositions based on the chord progression of "I Got Rhythm"). The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop, but it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and toward composing their own material. Perhaps Parker's most well-known contrafact is "Koko," which is based on the chord changes of the popular bebop tune "Cherokee," written by Ray Noble. While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "Billie's Bounce", "Au Privave", "Barbados", "Relaxin' at Camarillo", "Bloomdido", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional 12-bar blues changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for tunes such as "Blues for Alice", "Laird Baird", and "Si Si." These unique chords are known popularly as "Bird Changes". Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition, although he did employ the use of repetition in some tunes, most notably "Now's The Time". Parker contributed greatly to the modern jazz solo, one in which triplets and pick-up notes were used in unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist more freedom to use passing tones, which soloists previously avoided. Parker was admired for his unique style of phrasing and innovative use of rhythm. Other well-known Parker compositions include "Ah-Leu-Cha", "Anthropology", co-written with Gillespie, "Confirmation", "Constellation", "Moose the Mooche", "Scrapple from the Apple" and "Yardbird Suite", the vocal version of which is called "What Price Love", with lyrics by Parker. Miles Davis once said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker". [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpeIL7LHY3o[/embed]

10 MAY PLAY LIST

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINECommunity Radio Network Show CRN #544
107.3 2SER Tuesday 10 May 2022 12:04 - 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) and Saturdays 5 - 5:55pm National Program 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 - 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 - 4am 4NAG Keppel FM Monday 3 - 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 - 4am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Monday 3 - 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 - 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 - 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 - 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 6 -7pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Tuesday 12am - 1am 2SEA Eden Tuesday 6 - 7pm 2MCE Bathurst Wednesday 9 - 10am 1ART ArtsoundFM Canberra Friday 10 - 11am 2ARM Armidale Friday 12 - 1pm 5LCM Lofty FM Adelaide Friday 1 - 2pm Denmark FM (West Australia) Saturdays 10 – 11am Repeat: Wednesdays 10 – 11pm 7LTN Launceston Sunday 5 - 6am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 5 - 6am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 - 6pm
Set 1	1930s Swing Radio
Sugar Foot Stomp	Benny Goodman Orchestra	Madhattan Room Pennsylvania Hotel WOR Mutual NYC 21 Oct 1937
They Say	Artie Shaw Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 1 Dec 1938
Study in Blue	Larry Clinton Orchestra	Coconut Grove Hotel Park Central WEAF NBC Red NY 7 Jul 1939
Shine on Harvest Moon	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NYC 1 Dec 1938
Set 2	Ted Fio Rito
Theme + The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers	Vincent Valsanti aka Ted Fio Rito Orchestra	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1934
Blue Danube Waltz	Vincent Valsanti aka Ted Fio Rito Orchestra	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1934
Your Head on My Shoulders	Vincent Valsanti aka Ted Fio Rito Orchestra (voc) Jack Howard	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1934
Carioca + Theme	Vincent Valsanti aka Ted Fio Rito Orchestra	Cocoanut Grove Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1934
Set 3	1935-41 Paris Radio
Radio Cite ID + Open + C'est Gentil	Ray Ventura et ses Collegiens	Poste Parisien 1935
Swing Festival '41	Django Reinhardt, Aime Barelli, Alix Combelle and more	Radio Paris 26 Dec 1940
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes + All I Do The Whole Day Through Is Dream of You + Close	Guy Berry + Charlotte Duvier & Charles Trenet	'Le Enfante Terrible' Poste Parisien 1935
Set 4	Charlie Parker
Cool Blues	Charlie Parker	'Symphony Sid Show' WCOP Boston 1954
Interview	Charlie Parker	'Symphony Sid Show' Hi Hat Club WCOP Boston 1954
Scrapple From the Apple	Charlie Parker	'Symphony Sid Show' WCOP Boston 1954
Interview + Out of Nowhere + Jumpin' with Symphony Sid	Charlie Parker	'Symphony Sid Show' Hi Hat Club WCOP Boston 1954
Set 5	1950s Swing
Open + Opus #1	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Statler Hotel WRCA NBC NYC Dec 1955
Moonlight in Vermont	Claude Thornhill Orchestra (voc) Patty Ryan	'One Night Stand' Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ AFRS Re-broadcast 19 Jun 1955
Jackpot	Harry James Orchestra	Aragon Ballroom WMAQ NBC Chicago 20 Jun 1954
Four Brothers	Woody Herman Octet	Blue Room Hotel Roosevelt WWL CBS New Orleans 10 Dec 1951
Set 6	1939 -1943 Radio Transcriptions
History of Music	Horace Heidt Orchestra (voc) Horace Heidt	Radio Transcription 1943
It's a Hundred to One	Johnny Messner Orchestra (voc) Jeanne D'arcy and Trio	Radio Transcription 1939
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?	Horace Heidt Orchestra (voc) Horace Heidt	Radio Transcription 1943
Day In, Day Out + Can't We Be Friends (theme)	Johnny Messner Orchestra	Radio Transcription 1939
Set 7	1929 Radio
Blue Melody Blues	Tiny Praham Orchestra	Comm Rec Chicago 1 Feb 1929
Am I Blue + Liza	Dixie Two-Steppers	Radio Transcription 1929
Harvey	Hoagy Carmichael and The Hotsy Totsy Gang	'Brunswick Brevities' Radio Transcription Oct 1929
Royal Garden Blues + Close	Ray Miller Orchestra	'Sunny Meadows' Radio Transcription Chicago Jan 1929
Set 8	1950s-60s Jazz radio
High Falutin'	Gene Krupa Trio	London House WBBM CBS Chicago 13 Mar 1959
Seventh Heaven	Oscar Pettiford	Birdland WABC ABC NYC 26 May 1957
I Want a Little Girl + Bernie's Tune	Charlie Shavers	London House WBBM CBS Chicago May 1962