[Dixielandjazz] Bird and Books

[Dan Augustine]

Bird fans--
     Bill Crow in his _Jazz Anecdotes_ says the same as Len regarding 
how Charlie Parker got the nickname 'Bird'.  And it wasn't, "Charlie 
Parker would squeak a lot, and that's why they called him Bird, 
because his reed would chirp." (as Kenny G. said).

        "The Jay McShann band was on its way to play a job at the
      University of Nebraska.  As they passed a farm, the car Charlie
      Parker was riding in hit a chicken that ran across the road.
      McShann said: 'Charlie told the driver, "Man, go back, you hit
      that yardbird." They went back, and Charlie jumped out and got
      the chicken.  When they got to Lincoln, he asked the lady who
      ran the boarding house where we were staying to cook it for
      dinner.'"

Marvelous book, great stories, not all of them funny, but just slices 
of musicians' lives.
     Another fun book that i just received today is called _This Is 
Ragtime_ by Terry Waldo.  I had written Leon Oakley asking if he knew 
of any articles on Lu Watters, and he replied (in part), "I've just 
been looking in my collection for a book on Ragtime that Terry Waldo 
wrote that quoted Lou verbatim, including all the "f" words, but 
can't find at the moment." I searched for it at Amazon.com, and they 
got it for me via a company called 'alibris'.  The book was first 
published in 1976 and was reprinted by Da Capo Press in 1991, and 
it's very interesting and informative, with an extensive discography 
and bibliography.  And it does have about five pages of what i take 
to be a taped interview with Lu Watters, and he does sprinkle his 
conversation with certain obscenities, but they're minor spices on 
his thoughts on the kind of music he wanted to play. Good book; i 
recommend it.

     Dan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Len Nielsen <lennielsen@telus.net>
>Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 18:39:56 -0800
>
>According to Jay McShann whose comments were made in a video interview.
>The band including Charlie Parker were travelling to various gigs on a
>road trip when Parker made them stop to snatch a farmers chicken which
>he took to their overnight boarding location and had cooked for supper.
>His nickname immediately became "Yard Bird" which became shortened over
>the years to "Bird". This interview was made during the filming of a
>documentary on the Kansas City years. Charlie Parker was apparently very
>young at the time.
>
>Len Nielsen

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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu  **
**    "I don't jog.  If I die I want to be sick."  --  Abe Lemons     **
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