A NEVER heard audio interview with Charlie Parker!!

For my first post, I offer an audio interview with Charlie Parker from 1954 that has NEVER been heard before. At almost 14 minutes, it’s one of the longest recorded interviews with Bird. (This is Not to be circulated among non-subscribers nor posted on Youtube, etc.) In the future, audio, video, etc. will be for paid subscribers only, but I want to share this with ALL subscribers!

Here’s the back story:

Bob Bachelder (1925-2015) was a pianist, drummer, arranger, and the leader of the Totem Pole Orchestra, a fifteen-piece big band and house band of the Totem Pole Ballroom in Newton, Massachusetts during the 1950s and early 60s. Bob also worked part-time as a DJ for radio station WCAP in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he interviewed Charlie Parker on reel-to-reel tape for that show.

The recording has been in Bob’s family all these years, and I’m sharing it with you courtesy of Bob’s widow Elaine Bachelder and her son, my friend Craig Hall. Craig grew up learning about music from his stepfather Bob and is a die-hard jazz fan. He is the director of Lexington Community Education in Massachusetts where he often promotes jazz education and performances (including—full disclosure—a series of events with myself as performer and teacher).

Bachelder, like all interviewers, had his own agenda--for example about who swings and who doesn't--but Bird cannot be pushed into talking badly about anyone. In this, as in another interview, Bird praises Chet Baker. Parker and Paul Desmond were previously interviewed together on WHDH in Boston, as Bob notes. Bird also mentions Brubeck, Konitz, Hodges and others. It's funny that Bob wonders if some of his questions are too "personal" for Bird to answer. He doesn't ask anything personal, by our standards. But many interviewers worry about that.

NOTE: There is now a rough transcription of this interview on the definitive Parker reference site.

My judgement is that the interview comes from possibly around June 10,1954. Bird says he'll be in Philadelphia on Monday, and he did have a gig that started in Philly on Monday June 14. But he mentions Cape Cod, and according to some research Bird didn't stay on the Cape until July. On the other hand, there may have been other Philadelphia gigs that haven't been researched yet. Compare what Bird says at the end of the interview with the online chronology, especially the page for 1954, but remember that this list is helpful but Not complete.

This dub is not perfect—Bob is hard to hear for the first few seconds, and the recording audibly slows down as it goes along. At some point we hope to make a better transfer. In the meantime, please thank Elaine and Craig for their generosity in sharing this with us. If you have any messages for them, or if you knew Bob, let me know and I’ll forward your words to them. And please do respect their generosity by not posting this elsewhere online.

Charlie Parker interview Audio file!

All the best,
Lewis