/* ======================== SCRIPTS DEVELOPED BY: PAUL GARDNER codemonkey@backpacker.com ======================== */ button_num="&button_num=3" button_text1="&button_text1=CPRKR" button_text2="&button_text2=Crown" button_text3="&button_text3=Stanhope" popup_num="&popup_num=11" popup_text1="&popup_text1=ADDTITLE1:
Basquiat used the letters CPRKR to represent the jazz musician Charlie Parker. A musician himself, Basquiat made several paintings in homage to Parker." popup_text2="&popup_text2=Listen to Charlie Parker's Ornithology (1946). Courtesy Savoy Jazz Records/SLG." popup_text3="&popup_text3=Charlie ''Bird'' Parker (1920-1955) was one of the greatest jazz saxophonists. He helped create bebop, which redefined jazz at a time when radio stations were playing mostly swing music. Although Parker's career was brief, his innovative sound and amazing technique influenced many musicians. Like Basquiat, Parker borrowed, modernized, and improvised--in his case by taking old tunes and creating vibrant new melodies." popup_text4="&popup_text4=ADDTITLE2:
The crown is Basquiat's trademark image, appearing in many of his paintings. He often includes it as a sign of respect for his heroes, marking them as members of a royal family. He also proclaims Parker a kind of monarch by giving him the royal title Charles the First." popup_text5="&popup_text5=ADDTITLE3:
Parker died at the Stanhope Hotel, in New York, on March 2, 1955. The day included in the painting--April 2, one month later--was the date of a memorial concert for Parker held at Carnegie Hall. Perhaps Basquiat meant this whole painting to look like a memorial or tombstone." popup_text6="&popup_text6=In the late 1970s, a true hip-hop culture was emerging from the music, dancing, and graffiti of young artists. Basquiat was both a musician and a visual artist and part of the New York music scene that gave rise to hip-hop." popup_text7="&popup_text7=Basquiat and the ''noise music'' band Gray, which explored jazz, punk, and synth-pop" popup_text8="&popup_text8= $\"The$
The band Gray: Vincent Gallo, Justin Thyme, Nick Taylor, Michael Holman, and (on floor) Basquiat, 1980." popup_text9="&popup_text9=Read and hear the poem ''Charlie Chan on Horn'' by Kevin Young" popup_text10="&popup_text10=Charlie Chan on Horn" popup_text11="&popup_text11=For Prestige

Bird records
a few sides
(for contract

reasons) as Mr. Charlie
Chan--no matter
the name of his blues

sound the same,
same alto blaring
ALCHEMY.

licks exotic
as Charlie Chan
in Black Magic--

Chan's dark sidekick
Bormingham Brown
(a.k.a. Man-

tan Moreland)
seeing ghosts,
fleeing. Feets

do yo stuff--
THRIVING ON A RIFF,
Bird on a run

(in one place)
eyes bugged out
blowing

like Gabriel.
Solos snorted--
in one nose

| out the other.
Gone. Number one
son--don't they know

Charlie Chan
is a white man?
Fu Manchu too.

(Bless you.)
Parker play
your horn, not

no coon
no coolie in a white
suit. Bird's shot

his way to the top--
made a fist, tied off
| caught

the first vein
out of town.
Laying tracks--

NOW'S THE TIME
NOW'S THE TIME
BIRD GETS THE WORM--

Now dig
this--Basquiat
lit, lidded, does

a gravestone--
CPRKR
in the Stan-

hope Hotel,
the one Bird bit
the dust in (ON AIR)

high. TEETH.
HALOES.
FIFTY NINE CENT.

Who knew how well
Basquiat would follow--
feet (six deep) first.

--Kevin Young" image_num="&image_num=1" image_title1="&image_title1=CPRKR " image_caption1="&image_caption1=1982. Acrylic, oil paintstick and paper collage on canvas mounted on tied wood supports. Collection of Donald Baechler, New York " image_url1="&image_url1=cprkr.jpg" image_width1="&image_width1=425" image_height1="&image_height1=720" what_think="&what_think=What do you think?" popup_info="&popup_info=Pop-up text" popup_on="&popup_on=ON" popup_off="&popup_off=OFF" more_paintings="&more_paintings=More Paintings in
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