Ashley Kahn & Brice Winston | The Big Bang of Bebop: Why Charlie Parker Still Matters
($15-$40 tickets | 5pm Presentation / 7pm & 9pm Shows) Welcome Ashley Kahn back to the Century Room all the way from NYC joined by a live band! Ashley’s multimedia presentation begins at 5pm, followed by two sets of music by the Brice Winston Quintet at 7pm & 9pm.
Brice Winston (alto sax) Liam Connor (trumpet) Angelo Versace (piano) Scott Black (bass) Arthur Vint (drums)
**Charlie Parker**
Charlie “Bird” Parker *is* modern jazz—and that is not an overstatement. The innovations and freedoms he brought forth in an astonishingly brief period of time—from 1945 to ’54, less than ten years—were labeled “bebop” at the time, and it still serves as the dividing line between jazz being regarded as a popular, dance-focused music, and being revered as a form of serious self-expression. But how and why did he do this? Does it all stand the test of time?
The continuing stature of Bird and bebop should in fact be questioned, if only to reconfirm the weight of the burden he carried in his lifetime. Parker was challenged by that responsibility, and by other personal demons—leading to his demise at the age of 34. He died an exemplar of the African American propensity for creating new musical languages that have maximum impact with limited resources—think spirituals and blues, and even hip hop. 103 years after his birth, with video and music examples, we will ask why Charlie Parker still means so much to our musical tradition.
**Ashley Kahn**
Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, author, professor and producer. He teaches at New York University’, co-wrote Carlos Santana’s award-winning autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown, 2014), and is a producer of Carlos (2023), the documentary on Carlos Santana. He has written books on two legendary recordings: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and one on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. He also edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.
Kahn, who was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jazz Journalists Association, broke into the music business as a tour manager and music festival producer, has held a variety of positions in radio, television, and online businesses. As a journalist, his byline has appeared in many publications and websites, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Statesman, and others, and his writing has garnered four ASCAP/Deems Taylor awards, and three Grammy nominations. In 2015, he was awarded a Grammy for his album notes to the John Coltrane release Offering: Live at Temple University, and in 2017, he received the Robert Palmer-Helen Oakley Dance Award for Excellence in Writing from the Jazz Journalists Association.