Indianapolis Opera: Placing Bird, alive or dead, while genius flies free

 "Charlie Parker's Yardbird" has moved around the country since its premiere in 2015 in Philadelphia. Last night it was time for the opera to make a one-night stand in Indianapolis, the hometown of star soprano Angela Brown, who has made a specialty of the role of Addie, the musician's mother.

The Indianapolis Opera performance was placed at the architectural crown jewel of the historic center of Indianapolis night entertainment and black social life, Madam Walker Theatre. And among the visiting stars who used to play in the clubs in and around Indiana Avenue was Charlie Parker, one of the founding fathers of bebop.

Charlie Parker sings of his devotion to his sax. 

Parker's life featured moments of triumph and recognition by fellow musicians who saw that bebop swept the cobwebs away from the Swing Era, while at the same time narrowing jazz's public approval by removing the genre from its crucial link to social dancing. Harmonies were thrust away from their base and rhythms unsettled. But Parker's achievement was restricted by ill health occasioned by drug and alcohol addiction, and his death at 34 boosted his "Yardbird" nickname, usually shortened, to the graffiti declaration "Bird Lives!"

That suggestion of immortality prevails in Bridgette Wimberley's libretto, in which Parker appears in ghostly form, revisiting the New York jazz club named for him, Birdland. His youthful development and ambition in his hometown of Kansas City are recalled in action that's carried forward to just before and just after his death in 1955. A screen as backdrop provides surtitles, which are so prominent they're hard to get used to, as well as slide projections of newspaper clippings, gig advertisements, and historic photos of the main characters. Jessica Burton provided the fluid production coordination, with the cast seated as Birdland patrons until they are called upon to sing, and projections design.

The opera has a dramatic scene that climaxes in a cymbal thrown at the teen saxophonist's feet. It's brief but significant, in that it showed the fledgling musician the work he had to do for acceptance in the jazz community. The drummer Jo Jones in fact loosened a cymbal and tossed it to the floor near Parker to express disdain for the saxophonist's getting lost while soloing. In the years to come, Parker was to fashion whole new ways of playing solos in jazz, making them both original and cohesive.

The libretto focuses much more on the eventual musical successes, including the approval he gets from his domineering mother. On Saturday, in a couple of solos, Brown made the most of both Addie's pride in her son and her pervasive worry about his demons. It was rewarding to hear and see this notable diva helping to put across "Charlie Parker's Yardbird" with such commitment.

Addie expresses concern for son, with Chan in background

Female worries about Charlie take on a huge musical and dramatic role in the opera. We heard from several sopranos, individually and collectively, with the sort of high-register impact one gets from the operas of Richard Strauss. In addition to Brown, they were Victoria Korovljev and Courtney Porter as two of Parker's early wives, and Ashley Fabian as his New York common-law wife Chan. Tension over the musician's final resting place and estate settlement is strongly recalled.

Brilliant singing also came from mezzo-soprano Liz Culpepper as the musician's aristocratic friend and patron, Nica. The supporting male role of Dizzy Gillespie got the trumpeter's right impish pep and affectionate strength of character from baritone Jorell Williams.

The main vocal burden rested upon Martin Bakari in the title role. The part is demanding and almost unrelieved in intensity, and Bakari's tenor had ringing authority and pathos throughout. He folded in jazz vocalism when required and, toward the end, lifted his voice smoothly into falsetto range. He encapsulated both the fantasy and the real-life aspects of the role as Wimberly conceived it.

It was disappointing not to find any information about composer Daniel Schnyder in the program booklet. His score shows familiarity with jazz while it rests upon classical modernism, with complex, restless harmonies. The onstage ensemble provided zesty, atmospheric accompaniment under the direction of Clinton Smith. Sometimes the music sounded cluttered, but clear ways through always emerged.

The score captures the exploratory nature of Parker's musicianship. The libretto spins into fantasy, perhaps, in putting so much anxiety into the hero's psyche about creating a full score that would garner universal respect. Parker's contribution of spontaneous composing in improvisational form was actually something he never tired of: scholars have identified 32 chord schemes on which he built 108 pieces; the inventiveness continued up to the end of his life. 

Probably the opera's creators wanted to emphasize that "Bird Lives!" can also mean that if he'd conquered his demons and survived just a few more decades, he would have set down on paper completely notated works of great scope and durability. Yet what he came up with on the bandstand and in the studio during his short, turbulent life was enough to establish Bird as a pioneer of continuing influence. Among his younger colleagues, Miles Davis once offered the most succinct essential history of jazz, consisting of just two names: Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker. 

[Photos by Denis Ryan Kelly Jr.]