I found a couple of anecdotes about jazz jamming with Charlie Parker, from Aebersold's jazz handbook:
First, one from Charlie himself:
"I knew how to play two tunes in a certain key, the key of D for saxophone
(alto sax), F concert. I learned how to play the first eight bars of Lazy River and I
knew the complete tune to Honeysuckle Rose. I never stopped to think about there being
other keys or nothin' like that. So I took my horn out to this joint where a bunch of fellows
I'd seen around were, and the first thing they started playing was Body and Soul, longmeter,
you know. So, I go to playing my Honeysuckle Rose and there ain't no form of
conglomeration, you know, so ... they laughed me off the bandstand ... they laughed at me
so hard ....... I was about 16 or 17 at the time. I never thought about there being any more
keys, you know."
Another one from John Welch (friend of Jamey Aebersold):
"I was eighteen years old and very naive. I had studied arranging with Bill
Russo. I went out to South Dakota to the University there to study music and found myself
really unhappy with the situation. I wrote back and forth to Bill Russo and he got me in with
Lennie Tristano in New York City for lessons. So, I took the bus to New York and my first
weekend in New York I went down to the Village with my horn (trombone) to a club called
the Open Door. There was a big sign on the window saying "Jam Session - Sunday Afternoon".
This was Sunday afternoon so I went in with my horn and a group was playing a
Blues in F. So I thought, well great, I enjoy playing Blues in F. I put my case on the table,
took my trombone out and just walked right up and started to sit in with them. My playing
at that point in my life was influenced by George Brunies, a Dixieland trombonist, so I
started playing tailgate trombone with this group. They immediately brought Blues in F to
a screeching halt and the piano player said, 'Cherokee in E' and took it at a tempo you
wouldn't believe. I thought, well that's cool. I don't know Cherokee and I don't play very
well in that key and I sure can't play that fast on trombone, so I'll sit this one out. So, I went
back to the table and laid the horn in the case on the table and sat there. Everyone was
looking at me as though cancer had arrived. Finally a guy in the audience came over and
started unscrewing my horn, taking it apart and putting it away in the case. And he just
looked down at me and said, 'Kid, you're obnoxious.'
"The band that day at the Open Door was Bud Powell, Max Roach., Charles Mingus,
Miles Davis and none other than Charlie Parker himself!
"George Wallington was the fellow who came over to my table and dismantled my
horn. And after he said that, I got the message!
"I realized I had really done something terrible. So they broke the set and Bird
came over, came right straight over to my table. I remember him turning the chair around
so he was leaning on the back as he faced me. Then he started talking to me. He said,
'Look kid, what you were doing didn't really fit in with this group, but you were doing it well.
You really were laying it down. That's great! And you just keep going.'
"Bird was so compassionate in that moment with me when everyone else was
ready to kill me. And this struck me very much. As a matter of fact, when I think of Charlie
Parker, I would have to say he affected me much more as a human being in my reaction to
other human beings at that moment than musically."
