Priestley/Chasin' the Bird, Introduction

Like the great majority of people who will read this book, I first became aware of Charlie Parker after his death. In my case, it was through his death that I gained my first awareness of his name. As a comparative novice, I had no idea of the connotations of either word in the title Cool Blues. But the sound of the record on the radio, and the surprising information that its creator had died at the age of thirty-four, made enough of an impact to outweigh my lack of understanding. Naturally, although the memory of that first hearing is still strong, any such encounter depends on the listener’s previous listening (and reading), and it was an awfully long time before I was really able to appreciate Parker’s importance as one of the most significant jazzmen ever.