Star Eyes

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz standard called "Star Eyes." This song was made for a film that was released in 1943, but it was made popular among musicians when Charlie Parker recorded it several years later. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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Crazeology

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz song called "Crazeology," which was composed by Benny Harris, but first recorded by Charlie Parker. Maybe there was a crazy idea that inspired this song, but we can't really know that now. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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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.

Billie's Bounce

What? You don't know this song? If we were in the 1940s, this song would be so popular that even the birds would be singing it.

"WRONG."

Huh? What's wrong with the statement I just made? There were birds, um, "singing" this song in the 1940s.

"You're not talking about real birds. You're talking about Charlie Parker, a famous jazz saxophonist known for the rhythmic variety in his playing. Just because people called him "Bird" doesn't mean he really is a bird."

Of course you would say that, Blue Text. Thanks for shutting down my Billie's Bounce advertising campaign! Hopefully my visitor still wants to listen to the song here:

You could have actually used logical arguments, Liya.

If I were to grab my time machine - where is it? Oh, here it is.

 

Go anywhere in time - as long as you aren't in time. Image from pixabay.com

If I were to transport myself back to 1945, I could hear Charlie Parker performing his composition for the first time, but I don't think it was especially popular, except in the small but avid jazz community which began playing it almost immediately. 

You have to protect yourself from the danger of misleading information. It can persuade you to buy products you wouldn't choose otherwise, sign up for lower quality programs, or believe that an investment is worth buying into when it will actually waste thousands. It can even make you feel like you're bad at something you're actually good at.

Misleading information is everywhere now, but it takes a sharp eye, or ear, to find it. If there had been an advertisement on this page, some of it could be right in front of you. All it takes is observing the world more carefully, and you can discover new things that will make your life better.

While you're using those ears, don't forget to keep filling your teacup with music!

~Liya