I like The Rehearsal Studio's statement on listening to the jazz of Charlie Parker:
It was from these broadcasts that I formed the personal ethic that the only real way to honor Bird was to give him the same serious listening I had previously committed to the classical music repertoire.
I personally honored Charlie Parker by driving by the old Camarillo State Mental Hospital in Ventura County, California to see where he had been committed during his decline. His six-month stay was presumably difficult. Songfacts says it was after an arrest but Parker's mental stability was always questionable. Still, the location is in fact peaceful (and now the site of a Cal State campus).
I wrote about this before where I made related comments about former Republican governor Peter Wilson and former music talent Don Henley.
While my serious jazz listening now centers around Thelonious Monk, Relaxin' at Camarillo remains an artistic highlight of American music:
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