Looking At: Jazz - Jazz Innovators: From Bebop, to Hard Bop, to Cool and More November 28, 2006

Williamsburg Regional Library will host a free six-part film viewing, reading and discussion series called Looking At: Jazz, Americas Art Form. The series includes viewing of specially curated films on the history and styles of jazz in America.

Tonight's program features:
Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

n this film Parker receives his due as one of the most influential improvising soloists in jazz. A central figure in the development of bop in the 1940s, he inspired a generation of jazz performers and composers. Through interviews and film clips, Parker contemporaries Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk celebrate the life and times of this brilliant saxophonist, whose life was cut short at 34 through heroin use. The narrative of his life opens up with the memories of those who were close to him: Chan Parker, his common law wife, and Rebecca Davis Parker, his first wife, as well as Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes, Jay McShann, Frank Morgan and Roy Porter. Profiles of those who influenced him-- Chu Berry, Jimmy Dorsey, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster and Lester Young --appear in vintage footage, stills and music.

Discussion to follow will be led by Harris Simon, instructor of music at the College of William and Mary and a noted local pianist and harmonica player.

Event submitted by Eventful.com on behalf of programs.