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

SIGN OF THE MONTH - September 1, 2015

Works for me. Republicans have the rape and breeder slavery of women in their party platform. Republicans have contempt for women.

Trump: “Excuse me, you DROPPED to your knees?”
Brande: “Yes."
Trump: "It must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees."

"Rand Paul in Kentucky...wants the government to intervene if a woman gets pregnant because of rape or incest...to force a woman or a girl in that situation to give birth to the rapist's baby or to their relative's baby, no matter what she or the girl or woman's doctor wants."

Last week, Paul Ryan gave an interview in which, defending his position that there should be no excuses for abortion, he referred to rape as a "method of conception."

DUMP TRUMP the Fecal Lump - #RegisterOnlinePA

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VOTE! Get the Republicans out of the Pennsylvania State House. Help Tom Wolf pass a real budget. 

Art by Hanksy in New York City. 

Feel the Bern!

Magnificent Bernie has magnificent friends. Vote! Vote in every election from dogcatcher to POTUS. Your life and the life of your country is in your hands. Vote!