Chan Parker

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Chan Parker (as Beverly Dolores Berg * 29. June 1925 in New York ; † 9. September 1999 in Etampes, France ) was the widow of US jazz - saxophonist Charlie Parker and Phil Woods and writer .

Live and act

Chan Parker (who called herself Chan Richardson before she married ) had Jewish ancestors and grew up in a musical community. Her father was the producer of vaudeville shows ; her mother was a dancer in Florence Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic -Revue and a cloakroom lady in the Cotton Club . Later she had a pension where many bop musicians lived. At the age of 18, Chan Parker was a big jazz fan and met the 23-year-old Charlie "Bird" Parker, who was at the height of his career. Chan brought a daughter, Kim, into the marriage, after whom Parker would later name a composition. They had two children together, son Baird and daughter Pree, who was born in 1951 and died early in 1954, which was a tragedy for Parker and which led to the fact that they both grew apart. The marriage was not official, even though Charlie Parker considered her his wife. He was still a third marriage to Doris, which led to problems with Parker's death (her intentions at Parker's funeral were overruled, even if she sat in the front row at the funeral services as a common-law wife ) and also in the later inheritance dispute. When Parker died, she was penniless. The collection at the funeral concert was for the two children, but Gerry Mulligan's wife Arlene also collected for Chan after the funeral concert.

After Charlie Parker's death in 1955, she later married the - heavily influenced by Parker - saxophonist Phil Woods . From 1959 the two lived mainly in France. Chan Parker's memory books are of great importance for jazz culture; In her books To Bird with Love (1981, with Francis Paudras ) and her autobiography My Life in E Flat (1999), she describes a. a. their struggle against her husband's self-destruction from drug and alcohol addiction and the racial prejudice the couple faced. In the Belgian documentary Bird Now , which appeared in 1987, she has her say in interviews. Chan Parker also worked with Clint Eastwood in preparation for the 1988 film Bird. Her role in the film is played by Diane Venora .

literature

  • Chan Parker with Francis Paudras To Bird with Love , Wizlov 1981 (distributed in France by subscription)
  • Chan Parker My Life in E-Flat , University of South Carolina Press, 1999, ISBN 1570032459
  • Ross Russell Charlie Parker , Knaur Verlag (first English 1973)

Web links / sources

Remarks

  1. ↑ named after Parker's nickname "Bird" or Lester Young "Pres"
  2. ^ Brian Priestley, Chasin the Bird, 2005, p. 126
personal data
SURNAME Parker, Chan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berg, Beverly Dolores
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1999
Place of death Etampes, France