Introduction
For this task, I have chosen to analyze the famous American musician, composer, and jazz saxophonist, Wayne Shorter, and the legendary American alto saxophonist, and composer, Charlie Parker. These two performers have numerous similarities concerning their music to their own lives and characteristics. The two performers had comparable cravings and desires as youngsters, thus achieving undeniable degrees of progress in their professions. They have explored different avenues regarding music and have become known for their one-of-a-kind melodic styles. Wayne Shorter and Charles Christopher Parker were both jazz artists and composers; they were highly inspired by their countries’ popular and folk music.
Comparison Analysis
Saxophonist and author Wayne was born on August 25, 1933, in Newark, New Jersey. Like Charlie Parker, he was raised in a family that had a passion for music. Alan, his elder brother, played alto saxophone in high school before changing to trumpet. His dad urged Wayne to choose the clarinet as a young person. He started his melodic profession on the clarinet at Newark Art High School and changed to saxophone before selection at New York College in 1952 (Meehan 42). Wayne performed with the Nat Phipps Band in Newark while still in high school. After graduating from New York School with a degree in music teaching in 1956, he served in the United States Army for two years, during which time he played with Horace Silver (Meehan 46). Furthermore, Wayne also played with Maynard Ferguson after his release.
Charlie Parker, the incredible jazz performer, was born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City. He was also raised in a household of musicians; Charles Parker, his father, was an African American theatre performer. Parker, being one kid, moved to Kansas City, Missouri, with his folks at the age of seven (DeVeaux 209). Jazz, blues, and gospel were all popular in the city, a thriving hub for African-American music. Parker discovered his musical talent while attending public school music lessons. He was a member of the school band playing the baritone horn. Parker began playing the alto saxophone when he was fifteen years old. Parker started playing with groups in the nearby club scene while still in high school (DeVeaux 210). He was so captivated with playing the sax that he exited school in 1935 to seek a full-time melodic vocation.
Parker and Shorter also have similar character traits; both have influential personalities and great potential for success. Parker played in the school band during his teenage years, but critics frequently credit his distinctive style to the long, hard practice program he set for himself while still a very young musician. Parker began playing the saxophone at the age of ten, using a borrowed instrument from school, and was so committed to the new skill that when he turned eleven, his mother scraped together $45 and purchased him his saxophone, an ancient, dilapidated horn that was difficult to blow (DeVeaux 211). However, the young musician was unfazed by the poor quality of his instruments.
Soon Parker starts performing in nightclubs, having no musical education. In part, his arrogance saved him; this was determined by the fact that the performer’s skills were still relatively low. His fingers could not keep up with the rapid ideas that were being born in his head, so Charlie could lose the rhythm or stop altogether in the middle of the piece (Crouch 144). All this led to the fact that the musician was often subjected to ridicule from the audience. For example, in 1937, in the middle of a jam session at the Reno Club, Parker lost his sense of harmony and stopped playing, frozen in confusion, for which he was ridiculed by the audience and kicked out of the hall in disgrace (Crouch 145). Crouch (147) mentions that he “was being laughed off the bandstand at the Reno Club. But Charlie wasn’t crying now. There was a new feeling of confidence”. All this leads to motivation to prove his superiority, so Charlie begins to study for 15 hours a day, not feeling sorry for himself (Crouch 150). He joins the group “Buster Smith” and adopts many of their techniques of the game.
Similarly, Shorter was well-aware of his abilities, and his creative work was considered meticulous and tightly controlled. He was also renowned for being confident about his visible skills. Wayne Shorter, a self-described perfectionist, was notorious for being harsh on himself. He has characterized himself as his own worst critic, constantly pushing to achieve greater heights and more success (Meehan 48). When it comes to his musical compositions and the image, he wants to create of himself and those around him, he is extremely cautious. In contrasting the two artists, it is evident that they set their goals high and wanted to provoke themselves to remain far above others. This characteristic probably prompted their arrival to undeniable degrees of progress.
Shorter and Parker are well-known for inventing their musical styles and genres. The turning point for Parker was 1938 when he joined Jay McShann’s big band (Crouch 14). Crouch (14) states that “Parker had been overwhelmed by the wild living he’d experienced in New York, but now he had more self-control and got back into the fold”. To earn money for food, the musician has to earn extra money, at the same time participating in jam sessions in nightclubs. On one of them, Parker suddenly realizes that when using the top notes of complex chords as a melodic line, it becomes possible to modulate into any key without limiting himself to anything (Crouch 15). This discovery allowed the musician to finally express what he could not convey with the help of ordinary music. Parker’s aural vision was to expose to the quarter-note beat of swing. Charlie looked for interruptions from this anticipated presentation shown by off-beat accents, syncopations, and rhythms against the metric grain (Crouch 169). Simultaneously, he likewise considered the tunes of the principal performers played in his period rather old-fashioned.
Wayne Shorter, in this case, is quite comparable to Parker for his non-standard approach to music. This was reflected in many aspects and partly in a nonconformist approach to performance. All such actions lead to new forms being distributed, which create experimental movements in music. Consequently, many alternative ideas are born, which unites these performers. It is strange even to think that, according to Shorter, he was playing random instruments at that time, some of which fell apart in his hands (Mercer 243). In the last months of working for Art Blakey, he played a Bundy saxophone, which was strapped with many pharmacy rubbers bands so that vital parts would not fall off it (Mercer 254). Thus, the influence of these factors makes them very similar musicians.
Conclusion
The influence of these musicians is quite considerable, which is reflected in the many awards they have received. However, an important aspect is exactly what has served as the engine of all these changes and transformations. First of all, it is precisely the desire to prove its superiority over the usual standards to the audience. Thus, the unusual biography of both Shorter and Parker shows their desire not to compromise with outdated ideas about what music should be.
Works Cited
Crouch, Stanley. Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker. Harper Perennial, 2014.
DeVeaux, Scott. “Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch, and: Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker by Chuck Haddix.” Journal of Southern History, vol 83, no. 1, 2017, pp. 209-212. Project Muse, doi.org/10.1353/soh.2017.0055.
Meehan, Norman. Wayne Shorter: Work in Progress. Jazz Perspectives, vol 10, no. 1, 2017, pp. 41-61. Informa U.K. Limited, doi.org/10.1080/17494060.2017.1340005.
Mercer, Michelle. Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter. Tarcher Perigee, 2007.