Happy Belated Birthday, Charlie Parker - Bede's Beat

Editor's Note: Bede was lost and now he's found. Huzzah!

It's a musical cliche to say that Charlie Parker changed the way we listen to music forever. It is also true.

In honor of his birthday, August 29, Bede's Beat presents a comparative listening set comprised of three of Parker's recordings of the same song -- Ray Noble's Cherokee -- which vividly illustrates the impact which Parker had upon the way we hear music and understand rhythm and harmonics today.

from 1941 with The Jay McShann Orchestra, the big band that first brought Parker to national attention:

from 1943, an home-recorded take on Cherokee -- This is bop at its birth:

from the famous Massey Hall Concert in Toronto in 1953, along with Dizzy Gillispie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach:

As a final point of comparison, here is the original recording of Cherokee by the composer's own band, The Ray Noble Orchestra, from 1938