Relaxin' at Camarillo

by

Charlie Parker

Album: Diz 'N Bird at Carnegie Hall      Released: 1947

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Parker wrote this about the time he spent at Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County, California. He was sent there after spending 10 days in jail, charged with indecent exposure, resisting arrest, and suspected arson.

Parker's arrest was for an incident on July 29, 1946 where he fell asleep while smoking and set his hotel bed on fire after wandering through the hotel lobby wearing nothing but socks.

While in Camarillo, Parker played saxophone in the hospital band on Saturday nights. He also passed time there by tending a lettuce patch. He wound up spending six months there. His third wife, Doris Sydnor, moved to California so that she could visit him three times a week. She had to take a job as a waitress to support herself.

This was the first version released. It was arranged by jazz theorist George Russell.

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie played together frequently, and are generally considered the creators of the bebop subgenre of jazz.

Camarillo State Hospital closed in July 1997. The campus of California State University, Channel Islands now occupies the site. (thanks, Victor - San Diego, CA)

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Comments:

Man I absolutey dig Charlie Parker. I used to get stoned and just listen to him all night when I was a freshman in college.
- Joel, Columbia, SC

The Bird Charlie Parker got his nick name, because in highschool, he would practice for housr at a local park, because his neighbors would complain. so the cops would allow him to play and practice as long as it was far enough away from the residential area. people heard his alto so often in the park that he got the nick name the bird. if you read a new history of jazz by alyn shipton on page 452, there is a direct quote.
- rev. ryan, camarillo, CA

..and im a student at csuci. lol.. its an awesome school.. i highly recomend it. 8)
- rev. ryan, camarillo, CA

Every jazz musician should know two things about Charlie Parker blues: the key it is in - no transposing allowed, e.g. Cool Blues is in C concert, not B flat, so take your old real book and put in through the paper shredder! The other thing is to play them by memory; if you have to have a chart, you are training yourself to have bad ears. Relaxin' at Camarillo is one of the essentials, and Parker called it "Past Due" so learn it NOW!! The more familiar title was given by Dial founder Ross Russell, an adept engineer but totally unreliable historian. While we're on the subject of Bird, yet another thing that Charlie Parker had in common with Mozart is that neither of them ever achieved one moment of triumph in their entire lives, so if anyone uses an expression like "the triumph of Charlie Parker," by definition they must mean after he died.You can't rewrite history just to sell more books and hope that nobody will notice. Matthew, Portland OR
- Matthew, Portland, OR

This song is wonderful!
- kika, nyc, NY

Charlie Parker (alto sax), Howard McGhee (trumpet), Wardell Gray (tenor), Dodo Marmarosa (piano), Barney Kessel (guitar), George 'Red' Callender (bass), Don Lamond (drums). Hollywood February 1947 The ingenious piano intro devised by pianist Dodo Marmarosa is a reminder what a loss his disappearance from the jazz scene was to the music. Wardell Gray, who takes the second solo here, was another majestic musician who suffered a tragic early demise. A deceptively tricky blues tune written in the cab on the way to session, the Camarillo of the title is the name of the mental institution from where Parker had recently emerged, refreshed and healthy, as his playing here conveys.
- Ted, Loveland, CO

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