No.182: Bird + Miles, Three Deuces Club, 1947

"BIRD + MILES, THREE DEUCES CLUB, 1947" by Tom Wills, December 2012

3 Deuces, 72 W. 52nd St., NYC.
Gone now. But in the 1930s, '40s and early 1950s, 52nd Street clubs hosted jazz legends Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, shown together above, and dozens more.
These guys and their cronies were pioneers of live performance, looking sharp and playing something new called bebop. 
Fast tempo, improvisation, instrumental virtuosity.  This style of jazz ultimately became synonymous with modern jazz.
I dig it. It's my favorite jazz period.

The period frame fits the piece.

 

I play these old records and I can smell the smoke, the perfume, the liquor. I hear the plates and glasses clanking, feet moving, people talking.

I have of late been on a Charlie Parker kick, acquiring all sorts of mono wax on great old labels such as Savoy, Verve, Columbia, Dial and even Parker's own imprint. The sound quality ranges from rough to very good. You have to remember that much of this stuff came from radio broadcasts, recorded at home by amateurs on primitive equipment.  Even the studio recordings are quick, down and dirty.

It really doesn't matter; I can still hear the bird sing.

Parker acquired the nickname "Bird" or "Yardbird" early in his career, reflected in the titles of his tunes, such as "Yardbird Suite" and "Ornithology" (um, study of birds).

I played a lot of Bird and Miles as I drew "Three Deuces Club, 1947." The drawing depicts Miles as a sideman, which he was to Parker at the time, on those early recordings. There's a suggestion of a piano behind Miles, upon which rests his hand. I felt that drawing the piano in detail would have taken away from the foreground image, so I just roughed it in.  Check out his baggy pants! Cool!

MILES DAVIS by Tom Wills, September 2010

Some of the high points of Parker's recorded output were with his so-called "classic quintet" including Davis and drummer Max Roach. The albums above are Davis as a leader; the drawing of Miles is from September 2010 and among my favorites. Miles watched from the wall as I drew his friend.

Parker died at 34. Heroin, alcohol, ulcers. There are discographies that describe him scoring before a session and either blowing the room apart with his horn, or being barely able to stand.
Miles had a similar demon but quit it in 1954, performing as a headliner up to his death in 1991.

There's rarely an agenda when I draw, unless it's a commissioned work or a special gift. In this case, however, I drew specifically to create an entry for an art show in 2013.  We'll see how that goes.
Here's how I put Bird and Miles together again: