Scrapple from the Apple

Scrapple from the Apple is a famous jazz standard composed by Charlie Parker. Tea with Liya's topical tale this Thursday at twelve o'clock is a piano cover of Scrapple from the Apple. (Like the alliteration? Let me know in the comments if you can make it better!) 

Yes, that's right. It's yet another jazz song composed by Charlie Parker! If you haven't seen my other posts pertaining to his songs, you might want to know that he was an influential jazz saxophonist in the 1950's and 60's. He was known for playing rhythmic solos at fast speeds, a skill he probably acquired through his solid practicing habits. (Perhaps he would be considered one of the "jazz greats," or arguably the greatest jazz saxophonist of all time.)

By solid practicing habits, I mean over 10 hours a day. Seems like a lot, but perhaps not a lot if you're a professional musician. If, on a particular day, you have no performances, no work-in-progress songs, and no one visiting or coming for lessons, you will probably spend most of the day practicing.

I once heard that Charlie Parker used a plastic saxophone to practice. Considering the amount of time it was used, I'm sure it eventually fell apart. Image by Christoph Schütz from Pixabay

Other songs I've played, such as Billie's Bounce, Now's the Time and Ornithology, were also composed by Charlie Parker. These songs will often be played at jazz performances and thus are expected to be a part of the average musician's repertoire.

The chord progressions for this song were based on two other jazz standards that Parker had known for years, one of which is the famous I've Got Rhythm. The number of songs based on that one is unbelievable, but each new composition gains a reputation of its own.






Speaking of reputations, you remember when I said that Charlie Parker was the greatest jazz saxophonist of all time? If I went to some sort of jazz forum and said that, it would probably escalate into a debate culminating in utter confusion.

Those kinds of things, in the future, would then cause divisions among the community, and new people interested in the music would see these debates and be turned off from even joining a group in the first place.

And, of course, a disagreement about the "goodness" or "badness" of jazz musicians isn't the only case where this happens. For example, this is blue.

An excellent wave image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

I'm sure some of you probably disagree with me, and would say it's green. While the color of the wave doesn't affect our lives in the long term (by the way, it'll be gone and replaced by a new wave in a few seconds), we might still argue about it while it's there.

The point is, there's a fine line between these things, and the point where it falls is very subjective. Pointless arguments can come out of something that doesn't really matter. Let's change that.

Little scrapples shouldn't destroy the whole apple. Instead of discouraging others from working with us, it's better to "agree to disagree."

"Okay, maybe that wave is blue, and maybe it's green. Turns out there's a word for that - turquoise. So I suppose that's what color the wave is! ..... Interesting how the sun reflects off those windows, isn't it?"

"Hmm. I'm actually not sure who the better jazz musician is. They were both extremely talented, anyhow. Which reminds me, I was going to listen to Waltz for Debby the other day..."

Rather than being argumentative, let's try to work together. If any of you are thinking of playing jazz music, working together is a big part of that. Maybe your saxophone can play those awesome lines, but who's going to keep beat for you? Who's going to play the chords? Unless you play an instrument like piano or guitar, which can play melody and harmony at the same time, making music by yourself is going to be hard. 

Let's keep working together... and filling our teacups with music!

~Liya