*
Apropos of something, here are The Hawk and Bird from a 1950 studio session. This is part 1 of 2 of the session available on YouTube. Part 2 doesn't feature Hawkins or Parker, though.Apropos of what, one might wonder? The juvenile Cooper's hawk perched on my woodpecker feeder Wednesday morning, that's what. With the exception of a few stray birds --- I guess you could call them Yardbirds --- the avians have been very scarce around the homestead for several days. Likewise, the squirrels have been less visible.
Anyway, this is a rare look at some giants. It's a shame we can't see what Bird's fingers are doing --- just hard to comprehend how they can move so fast and clean in sync with the tonguing. You will hear some "clams" by Bird in this set. He's past his prime here, but there are certainly lots of reedmen out there who might give their right thumb to duplicate what he's doing on this clip. But, then, it would be difficult to do that without a right thumb.
Incidentally, as a bonus, take note that our hero Buddy Rich is the guy banging the tubs in this set. Presumably he didn't lecture Parker about the "clams" after the film stopped rolling.
Finally, apropos of nothing, Parker's nickname originated not with this definition, but is most popularly thought to be linked with this one (first on the page). Myself, I favor the last two that are discussed in this short informative essay on the topic.
Ballad and Celebrity, Coleman Hawkins [ts], Charlie Parker [as], Hank Jones [p], Ray Brown [b], and Buddy Rich [d] (1950, film of studio session, provenance unknown to RubberCrutch), via YouTube.
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