Charlie Parker?

[Jonathan C.]

Did Charlie Parker play a Martin Handcraft?
I recently recieved a picture today, and it looked like Charlie Parker was playing a Martin Handcraft? Could this be possable? And if so what model handcraft could he have played?

[saxymanzach]

Well, he played a lot of horns, but his main horn was a King Zephyr.

[jacobeid]

Didn't he also play a 6m for awhile too? Or am I mistaken? I know that king was his main horn, but he also notoriously played that grafton. I have never heard that he played a martin.

[Jonathan C.]

Right, however the Zyphers didn't come out until the late 30's early 40's though, right?

[saxymanzach]

Because of his drug habits, he often would pawn his horns for money to get his next fix, and ended up borrowing a lot of guys horns (I've heard of at least one case where he pawned the borrowed horn, too!). So, I'm not sure you can really name every horn that he played, probably hundreds. Phil Woods is now in possesion of Parker's King and his wife, haha go Phil!

[coolsax2k7]

As Jacobeid said, he even played a plastic Grafton alto. There is a live cd I think it's from Massey Hall and he's with Diz and he's playing a Grafton. I can hear the difference in his sound, too.

[saxymanzach]

He even played a plastic Grafton alto. There is a live cd I think it's from Massey Hall and he's with Diz and playing his Grafton. I could hear the difference in the sound.
Yeah, greatest live album ever recorded, IMO. It mentions the horn in the liner notes, I think.

[Agent27]

Bird played a lot of horns. As mention, he often hocked them (and other players horns as well) to get money for heroin. He played 6M's, Super 20's, Selmers, and even the infamous Grafton plastic also which he used on the famous Massey Hall recording. If you named a horn that was available in the 40's or 50's, I wouldn't be surprised if Bird played on it at some point.

Phil Woods owns (through his late wife) Bird's Super 20. They sold the Grafton to a museum in Kansas City a while back. Phil tells a story of pawning his horn to buy groceries for his wife and Bird's kids. He got called for a gig but his horn was in the pawn shop so he used Bird's Super 20. Charles Mingus walked into the club, saw the horn with Bird's name engraved on it, and gave Phil a dirty look. At the break, Phil got an advance for the gig and went and got his horn out of hock.

[SearjeantSax]

he played cigar cutters aswell,
it is possible that he did play one and quite likely,
he played many horns

[saxymanzach]

Phil Woods owns (through his late wife) Bird's Super 20. They sold the Grafton to a museum in Kansas City a while back. Phil tells a story of pawning his horn to buy groceries for his wife and Bird's kids. He got called for a gig but his horn was in the pawn shop so he used Bird's Super 20. Charles Mingus walked into the club, saw the horn with Bird's name engraved on it, and gave Phil a dirty look. At the break, Phil got an advance for the gig and went and got his horn out of hock.
Yeah, you can hear that story on his concert on Yamaha's Podcasts, its pretty funny.

[Agent27]

Yeah, you can hear that story on his concert on Yamaha's Podcasts, its pretty funny.

Yeah, that's where I got it from. I can't remember how much they sold the Grafton for, but I'm thinking in the neighborhood of $200,000. So when anyone asks him if he has Bird's horn he says "Yes, but I only have a few left." :D

[saxymanzach]

Yeah, that's where I got it from. I can't remember how much they sold the Grafton for, but I'm thinking in the neighborhood of $200,000. So when anyone asks him if he has Bird's horn he says "Yes, but I only have a few left." :D
HAHAHA! Yeah, I rolled on the floor when I first heard that.

[spiderjames]

Handcraft?

[coolsax2k7]

Handcraft?



Famous photo. But I never realized it was a Martin.

I seem to remember this pic from the liner notes of my Savoy set. He does some stuff with Miles on it. I guess he may be playing the Martin on those tracks?

[turtle]

I don't know what the Grafton went for in its auction in London, but Bird's Super 20 was sold in 2005 at a New York auction for $286,000.

See http://www.guernseys.com/Auctions/PastEvents/Jazz/About.html and look at lot 39 in the prices realized PDF.

[hakukani]

Conn:




Selmer 'cigar cutter' :

[coolsax2k7]

[spiderjames]

I wonder how many of these horns were his and how many were borrowed?

[coolsax2k7]

nm

[Jonathan C.]

I wonder if my Martin could be one that he played? That would be really cool

[coolsax2k7]

I wonder if my Martin could be one that he played? That would be really cool

Yes, probably there is a statistical chance that some vintage horns around today were played by Bird, even if just for 5 minutes. :D

But I think the important point is, we have recordings of him playing Martins, Conns, Kings, and Selmers and it always sounds like Bird. I guess he stayed with the Tonalin mouthpiece a lot, though.

[Agent27]

I guess he stayed with the Tonalin mouthpiece a lot, though.

Or the Runyon.

[Swingtone]

Yes, probably there is a statistical chance that some vintage horns around today were played by Bird, even if just for 5 minutes. :D

But I think the important point is, we have recordings of him playing Martins, Conns, Kings, and Selmers and it always sounds like Bird. I guess he stayed with the Tonalin mouthpiece a lot, though.

Or the metal Link that he used with his Super 20 (personally saw it on display and attached to the horn a year ago).

[Martinman]

I read that what he did was keep his mouthpiece in his pocket so he wouldn't sell it in a drug crazy haze.

[coolsax2k7]

I read that what he did was keep his mouthpiece in his pocket so he wouldn't sell it in a drug crazy haze.

Interesting... I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I decide to mainline heroin, on a regular basis. :shock:

[spiderjames]

The story I heard was something like this. He was in the habit of pawning his horns for cash for heroin and he would leave the mouthpiece in the case. Santy got tired of him bumming mouthpieces off of him and told him no more. After that he would drop the piece in his pocket before pawning his horn.

The white mouthpiece you see in most of the pictures is a runyon 22 not a tonalin although he did play a tonalin as I have seen pics of this also.