Chasin’ The Bird — Charlie Parker in California (Review)

The way I find new books to read has changed drastically in the past year. Someone posts great-looking artwork, I follow them on Twitter and eventually just fall in love with whatever they’re doing. The best example of this is with Dave Chisholm. He wrote and illustrated “Chasin’ The Bird: Charlie Parker in California”

The legend of Charlie Parker continues to be a case of “broken telephone”. His character is described in dramatically different ways depending on who he interacts with. Rather than pulling the threads that seem most logical, Dave has each chapter follow a specific perspective. With each chapter, we are given a new art direction for that story to follow. The artwork on display is directly inspired by the events that unfold within each chapter.

You can see copious amounts of research into each person and story. One chapter is based on a single sentence he read from past novels detailing Charlie’s life. (See Dave’s behind the scene videos he’s posted about the book.)

While at first my initial interest in the book came from just having it be a biography of sorts based on a musician, I continued to become more interested with every video that Dave detailed about his creative process. No piece of the page is wasted and every panel has a specific design purpose. Whether inspired by the music or emotion that is being evoked in that scene — it’s something I’ve never quite seen before. This is one of the many reasons that this book is in my Top 5 Graphic Novels of all time.

Rather than portray Charlie in a preferred light, we are shown the good and the bad. From a creative genius to a man struggling with his drug addictions to someone never feeling that his best is good enough. None of us in this world are one-note, that is why it’s so important that we are presented with these stories that show who he was.

The artwork on display is equally as important as the words written here. Aside from Dave’s work, colors for some of the chapters were provided by Peter Markowski. Their combined efforts help bring the vibe of each story to life in remarkable ways. You’ll see specific colors used to describe moods and shades to inform you of a setting. It’s all necessary to tell the story.

Dave’s coloring work on the latter half is no slouch either. From his detailed videos on the process I’ve seen how important color is to his writing. As a musician, Dave is able to convey the gut feeling of jazz through words and colors with resounding success

The book is rounded out by a multi-page spread that flips orientations, while Charlie starts his first song of the set that was teased in the intro. These pages are a euphoric experience after going through these chapters. If you don’t have a soundtrack playing along to your reading then your mind will quickly fill in that void with an unpredictable combination of notes. It’s a feeling that was well earned based on everything I’ve read throughout this graphic novel.

I’ve never had such a hard time putting a book down. Dave’s approach for this book is so impressive. The amount of research he put into Charlie Parker, the amount of depth that went into the design of every single piece of art is astonishing. Even if you are not a fan of jazz this book is a must-read. I didn’t even know who Charlie Parker was before this but now I want to hear & learn more!

Writer: Dave Chisholm
Artist: Dave Chisholm
Colorists: Dave Chisholm, Peter Markowski
Letterer: Dave Chisholm
Editors: Joseph Frankel and Sridhar Reddy
Publisher: Z2 Comics