“To say that Charlie “Yardbird” Parker was one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived is a bit like saying the Mona Lisa is a well-known painting” (J. D. Cosidine, DownBeat).
Parker was just 34 when he died in 1955 of a heart attack in the suite of his friend and patron Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City while watching The Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show on television. The establishment took little notice of his passing, so an army of jazz lovers plastered every available wall in New York with the phrase “Bird Lives.” And he still does.
As an overconfident teenaged alto player, Parker was laughed off the stage at his first professional gig for his less-than-professional time. Undaunted, he set out to practice 15 hours a day for the next 4 years. He mastered his instrument but, sadly, simultaneously developed a drug habit that led to his untimely death and an unresolvable argument about whether his playing was extraordinary because of drugs or in spite of them. Still, thanks to an abundance of teaching tools based on transcriptions of his work, students today have a firm handle on bebop, the genre he virtually invented. Now urged to really listen to this master, contemporary players have caused the music to evolve through Parker and beyond. Parker himself once told DownBeat Magazine,
“They teach you there’s a boundary line to music, but, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”
THE BAND
KRIS ALLEN, ALTO SAX: Saxophonist Kris Allen plays at major jazz venues throughout the US and worldwide. Besides leading his own groups, he has had a long career as a sideman with Illinois Jacquet, Gerald Wilson, Andy Gonzales, the Mingus Dynasty, and many others. Kris is the Lyell B. Clay Artist-In-Residence in Jazz at Williams College has been a Teaching Artist for Litchfield Jazz Camp since 2001. He is a Vandoren Artist and records on the Truth Revolution Collective label.
BRUCE HARRIS, TRUMPET: Inspired by Spike Lee’s “Mo Better Blues,” Bruce Harris became enamored with the trumpet at age 13. Heavily influenced by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie, Harris went on to study at Purchase College. His professional chops were honed in New York’s premier jazz clubs and, later, on Broadway. His TV credits include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. His long list of collaborators includes Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Billy Taylor, The Count Basie Orchestra, Michael Feinstein, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, and Tony Bennett. On Broadway, he appeared in Midnight (2013) and Shuffle Along (2016) with Patti Labelle, KD Lang, Tony Braxton, and Audra McDonald. Other more eclectic collaborators include Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Seth MacFarland and Harry Connick Jr.
JEN ALLEN, PIANO: Jen Allen performs regularly in New York, the Northeast and venues around the world as a leader and sideman. She has appeared at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Cambridge Festival of the Arts, Greater Hartford Monday Night Jazz Series, Wexford Performing Arts Centre (Ireland) and at Litchfield Jazz Festival. She has performed with Don Braden, Jimmy Greene, Kendrick Oliver, Freddie Hendrix, Nat Reeves, Kris Allen, Ike Sturm and Antoinette Montague among others. She composes for big bands, studio orchestras, and smaller ensembles. In 2017, she was commissioned to direct and arrange 10 pieces for Litchfield Jazz Festival Orchestra. She has degrees from The Hartt School and UMASS Amherst. Currently Assistant Professor at Trinity College, she is also Visiting Faculty at Bennington College. Jen has been a teaching artist at Litchfield Jazz Camp since 2010.
Lindsey Victoria Photography
ZWE BELL LE PERE, BASS: With a Masters degree from New England Conservatory of Music under his belt, Zwe is now one of the busiest and best liked bassists in New York. He has performed and recorded with Christian Scott, Dave Holland, Randy Weston, Dave Liebman and Jason Moran, and at the Monterey, Charlie Parker, Panama, Osaka and Joy of Jazz Festivals and MoMA’s Summergarden series. He received the 2011 Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Fellowship and is a teaching artist at Litchfield Jazz Camp and the New England Conservatory Jazz Lab. He lives in New York where he continues private study with Ron Carter.
JOHNATHAN BARBER, DRUMS: Johnathan Barber, a Hartford, CT native, began playing drums at age 5 where he grew up musically under the influence of his father and his family church. Now based in NYC, Barber was named 2018 #1 Up-and-Coming Drummer by Modern Drummer magazine. A first-call sideman, he has recorded and toured worldwide with Pat Metheny, Nicholas Payton, Buster Williams, and many more. Of late, he has stepped up as composer and leader with his band Vision Ahead. In 2019, Barber completed his first solo drum tour to Latin America, appearing in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina.
