Charlie Parker Funky Blues August 20th, 1953

On August 20th, 1953, Charlie Parker (Bird) sent a Western Union Money Order to his wife Chan from St Louis, Missouri, with the following message: HOLD ON TIGHT AND BE GOOD AND CALL ME There is a chain of such telegrams stretching from June, 1952, to October, 1954, and they form a narrative of sorts, snapshots of time, place, andto the extent that its reasonable to inferthe state of Birds marriage. All these messages accompanied money orders that Bird sent Chan from the road to support their family. Bird was making an attempt at financial responsibility, a concept foreign to him in every way, the idea being to send Chan a portion of his income immediately, before the rest vanished into thin air. To say money burned a hole through Birds pocket is inaccurate, because it never made it as far as his pocket in the first place. Biographers assume the majority of it went to drugs, but this certainly isnt a documented fact. The day he sent the first money order, Bird made an extraor