Does anyone know ???????

[simon_andrews]

Does anyone know what type of saxophones and setups charlie parker favoured throughout his career.
your responce will be much appreciated.

 

[jambo]

I think he some times used a Grafton (see page for of the fist topic on the Saxophon section for a pic of petes)

And on sax.co.uk it says he used a Brilhart 3 mouthpiece

 

[Jules]

A brilhart tonalin mouthpiece (no longer available but the Beechler tonalex is a direct copy) and various horns- a grafton, a conn (think it was a 6M... ?) and some sort of Martin

 

[Bobby G]

Also, at times, I think he played whatever he could borrow on the night. I bet whatever he played on he ended up sounding like himself.

Cheers, Bob

 

[monsieursax]

He pawned his horn on many occasions to buy heroin, then stole from his friends to get it back.

 

[oliver_bentley]

what are friends for eh? :erm:

 

[spike]

Obviously his lifestyle meant that he did play many different models without question - however - On a lot of photo's you'll see bird playing a super 20, I'm not sure if he didn't have some kind of endorsement contract with them, (I would doubt it). The super 20 is easy to spot with the unique octave mechanism. I also got not as many pictures of him playing a Conn. He played a Grafton on his last trip to europe, not sure if it was given to him as part of another endorsing deal or not. He did record once thereafter with the grafton in the states and my memory fails me as to where and when that was. Mouthpiecewise and again I can only speak from observations from photo material, mostly (as already mentioned above) a white Brilhart - there are also many pics of him playing a metal piece but I couldn't hazard a guess as to any identity.
gruss - spike

 

[Pete Thomas]

spike wrote:
He played a Grafton on his last trip to europe, not sure if it was given to him as part of another endorsing deal or not. He did record once thereafter with the grafton in the states and my memory fails me as to where and when that was.

I think might be the Massey Hall concert. Although I believe that's in Canada.

 

[spike]

If twas in Canada it would explain why he could use it, cos i've come across a couple of mentions of an endorsement agreement that applied to US venues.

here's an interesting quote:

One rather strange note about the King saxophone was hidden in the addendum to the catalogue. Having traced the serial number of the instrument, they were able to ascertain that it was made 'expressly' for Parker in 1947, yet the photographic evidence of Parker using it, only begins in 1949? So where was it for those two years? The saxophone survived in his possession for the rest of his life then into Chan's possession? So, in the end, Chan had two of his saxophones that were never 'lost', as the press seemed to suggest. However, that fact that the King survived intact and in Parker's possession (for the most part) until his death, does not seem to sit well with the accepted belief of someone who habitually pawned his (and other's) instruments on a regular basis and who used other's saxophones because his was continually in the pawn shop?

from www.birdlives.co.uk

 

[greg_strange]

According to Ross Russell's biography of Charlie Parker he purchased a brand new Selmer Paris alto (probably a Balanced Action) after receiving insurance money from a motor vehicle accident Parker was involved in as a passenger in a car. Various photographs show him playing a Conn 6M, using a white Brilhart mouthpiece (Tonalin?) Parker playing the Grafton plastic sax and towards the end of his life/career a King Super 20 with a Otto Link mouthpiece (I think Jazzwise magazine a couple of years ago had this photo on the cover).

Happy New Year,
What do you know, get back to work and God pushes the 'Summer' button.

Greg Strange,
From Downunder.

 

[martin_br]

Never understood all that Selmer thing in Bird Lives.
King Super 20 was the one...

 

[greg_strange]

I agree Martin - the way it was written you would think Ross Russell was a shareholder in Selmer Paris or a sales rep at least.
A interesting interview with Cuban sax player Paquito D'riveria (sic?) a few years ago he said his father was the Selmer Paris rep in Havana before Castro took over the country - his father didn't like Selmer Paris horns all that much but preferred a Martin tenor sax which he performed classical music on.
I wonder if Selmer Paris knew that?

Greg Strange,
Having sax fun in sunny New Zealand - hey it's summer (at last).