The life of Charlie (“Bird”) Parker, bebop’s greatest genius, reads like a modern-day version of a persistent Romantic myth — the myth of the artist who is driven by the demon of his creativity, finding fulfillment only in his art. Parker was on drugs from the age of fifteen, and in later years could not control his immoderate drinking and eating. A legend in his own lifetime, Parker died at the age of thirty-four after a suicide attempt and a period of hospitalization in a California mental institution.

“Out of Nowhere” is one of the many popular standards of the 1930s that were used as the basis for swing and bebop. Our version of the number was recorded live in a New York nightclub, so it can give us an idea of what an improvised bebop number actually sounded like. Notice the informal opening — no arranged introduction as in Ellington’s “Conga Brava.” Parker plays the attractive song fairly “straight” to begin with, but he inserts a sudden skittering passage just before the A′ section (the song is in A A′ form). This is a preview of things to come.

The trumpet solo by Miles Davis has the characteristic tense, bright bebop sound, some very rapid passage work, and one or two piercing high notes. Then Parker’s improvisation shows his impressive powers of melodic development. He builds a whole series of phrases of different lengths, increasingly elaborate, that seem to leave the song in the dust — except that now and then he recalls ever so clearly a melodic turn from it (especially in A′). This is a Parker trademark: Again and again his solos strike this balance between fantastic elaboration and return to a more modest starting point.

The irregular, almost discontinuous-sounding rests between Parker’s phrases have their own special fascination. You may recognize an Irish jig, which seems to have popped into Parker’s head right in the middle of the solo, as the outgrowth of a short melody figure he had come to. He plays the jig at a dizzying rate for just a moment, before inventing something else; amazingly, it fits right in.

At the end of his solo the nightclub audience applauds, and the pianist plays his own improvised solo on the tune’s A section. The number ends with the A′ section of “Out of Nowhere” played once again quite simply, except for new trumpet breaks and a new, comical ending.