men & Birdsongs was a jazz festival recorded in January 1990 at the Palais des Festivals located in Cannes France. The highlighted jazz bands were the Phil Woods Quartet and the John Hendricks Group. One song in particular performed by the John Hendricks Group called Parker's Mood was one of the best representations of the bebop style with improvisations of wide melodic range on different instruments including piano, drums and bass. Also Parker's Mood showcased one of the best displays of scat singing by John Hendricks and his daughter Michelle Hendricks. It was a very good concert that encompassed all of the positive aspects of YardBird's career.Charlie "Yardbird" Parker is a very important member of the jazz community for he uncovered new horizons with his speed, creativity, and skill in the instrument of the alto sax. By the age of 15 he quit school to fully immerse himself in his sax. In Parker's 20's he made the key discovery to the bebop sound. Parker found that using higher intervals in cords greatly increased the music's melodic range, improvisations, and originality. Sadly, like many jazz musicians Parker had a substance abuse problem and this marriage to heroine eventually killed him. He lost his cabaret license due to his drug problem and died on March 12, 1955. Parker had reinvented jazz and gave back to the its community musical ideas that are considered gospel by many of his contemporaries. Jazz, the only true American music, is difficult to master and wonderful to hear. So what is jazz? Jazz is a lone musician's constant improvisation over an original melody creating brand new melodies where there were none before accompanied by a trio, or greater, of instruments connected in rhythm and harmony. Jazz, like most American pastimes, has a worldly following not because it is authentic American but because it is authentically origin....
