Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1946
Relaxin' at Camarillo
Buy Relaxin' at Camarillo now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Relaxin' at Camarillo'" is a composition by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. It is inspired by his six-month stay in Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County, California, after serving a prison term for arson and resisting arrest. The tune is a blues in C major and has become a jazz standard.
Background
The title "Relaxin' at Camarillo" was a reference to Parker's stay in Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County, California, a mental health inpatient facility. He had been sent there to recuperate from alcohol and drug addiction after he was briefly jailed for setting fire to his Los Angeles hotel room bed sheets and running naked through the hotel lobby while intoxicated. According to musicologist and Parker scholar Henry Martin, Parker wanted to call the tune "Past Due", and was not happy with the title assigned by Dial Records that referenced the difficult episode in his life:
Recordings
After release, Bird was able to record it along with three originals by trumpeter Howard McGhee: "Cheers", "Stupendous" and "Carvin the Bird". Parker recorded the tune with McGhee on trumpet, Dodo Marmarosa on piano, Wardell Gray on tenor, Barney Kessell on guitar, Red Callender on bass and Don Lamond on drums. The tune was originally recorded in C major, and has become a jazz standard. Ted Gioia, commenting in 'West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960', has referred to the original recording as a "sinuous blues", a 12-bar blues that is a "further testimony to the subtlety of Parker's rhythmic phrasing". Gioia considers it to have been one of the finest recordings Parker made in California.
Roy Porter and David Keller consider "Relaxin' at Camarillo" to be a "great bop classic".
Guitarist Joe Pass recorded it in 1964 for his album 'Joy Spring'. Saxophonist Joe Henderson released an album of the same name, featuring the recording, in 1979.
It was later recorded by pianist Cedar Walton. 'Jazz Journal International' stated in 2009 that Walton "provides a stimulating introduction to Parker's 'Relaxin' At Camarillo'. Cedar's solo here is one of his best on a disc that is chock full of glowing solos."
References
Category:1946 songs
Category:1940s jazz standards
Category:Charlie Parker
Category:Compositions by Charlie Parker
Category:Jazz compositions in C major
Buy Relaxin' at Camarillo now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1946