A Love Supreme

It's a relatively well-known tale that the medical examiner who first saw Charlie Parker's body after his death thought he was a 60-year-old man and not a man of 34 years of age. Bird was also known for often showing up to performances without a sax and borrowing someone else's at the last moment. On one particular occasion before a concert in Toronto, Bird and Diz frantically searched the city trying to find a saxophone. After scouring all the pawnshops open at the time, they were only able to find a plastic Grafton sax, which Parker proceeded to use at the concert that night. This concert is documented on the album "The Quintet, Live at Massey Hall". Bird, loaded and playing a plastic toy sax, was still pure magic. The album is now considered the greatest live jazz recording.

In the late 1950s, musicians would travel to Birdland in New York, spending their last dime, hitchhiking, hawking all their worldly possessions to catch a glimpse of Charlie Parker playing the solos that Louis Armstrong, the originator of the modern jazz solo, described as "Chinese music." Legend had it that Bird, Diz, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk, played fast and outside so that it would be impossible for white musicians to steal their licks.

Sometime later, a man named John Coltrane added his signature to the jazz pantheon. Later in life, Coltrane strived to accent the spiritual and avoided the pitfalls that claimed the lives of greats like Charlie Parker. There is even a Church of John Coltrane believe it or not. Coltrane took innovation to the edge, although some of his searching left the audience behind. This clip is really watchable. Here's some nice footage of drummer Elvin Jones, who was the driving force behind much of Coltrane's brilliance. You be the judge.