They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
Charlie ParkerMaster your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.
Charlie ParkerI kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.
Charlie ParkerIt's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.
Charlie ParkerI realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.
Charlie ParkerI'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.
Charlie ParkerWhen I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.
Charlie ParkerYou've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.
Charlie ParkerI don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.
Charlie Parker