Chan Woods (born Beverly Delores Berg, also known as Chan Richardson; 29 June 1925 – 9 September 1999), was a common-law wife of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

musician

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

. She later married musician

Phil Woods Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...

. She was born in New York City to an inter-religious couple; her father, a producer of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

shows, was Jewish, while her mother, a dancer in Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, was not. Adopting the name "Chan Richardson," Parker became a nightclub dancer. An early jazz enthusiast, she was romantically connected in the 1940s and early 1950s with jazz musicians

Johnny Bothwell Johnny Bothwell (May 23, 1919 – September 12, 1995) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader. Career Bothwell played in Chicago in 1940 and then moved to New York City, playing with Woody Herman (1943) and Sonny Dunham (1944&nda ...

and later

Don Lanphere Donald Gale Lanphere (June 26, 1928 – October 9, 2003) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, known for his 1940s and 1950s work, and recordings with Fats Navarro (in 1948), Woody Herman (1949), Claude Thornhill, Sonny Dunham, Bil ...

.Siders, Harvey
"Don Lanphere"
, ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growt ...

'', March 2002; accessed 4 June 2015. Chan met Charlie Parker in the 1940s, but their friendship did not become romantic until around 1950. Chan and Charlie lived together in a common law relationship on

New York's Lower East Side The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street on the north and Houston Street on the south. The East Villag ...

for the last five years of Charlie's life, from 1950 to 1955, although Charlie had not formally terminated a prior marriage. Chan already had one child, her daughter Kim, at the time they established their household; together, Chan and Charlie had had two more children, Baird and Pree. Although they never legally wed, Chan took Charlie's surname, as did all the children. Their relationship was dealt a severe blow with the 1953 death of their 2-1/2 year old daughter, Pree, from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

related to a congenital heart defect.

Later years and death

Charlie Parker died just a year and a week after their daughter, in 1955, not long before he would have turned 35. Two years after Parker's death, Chan married saxophonist Phil Woods and moved to France, where she spent much of the rest of her life. From this marriage, she had another daughter, Aimée Francesca Woods (1961-1993). In 1981, Chan helped write and edit a book of photographs of Charlie Parker entitled ''To Bird with Love'' and later authored an autobiographical memoir, ''My Life in E-Flat''. The second book was published in 1999, the year of her death from cancer, aged 74, in

Étampes Étampes () is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southwest from the center of Paris (as the crow flies). Étampes is a sub-prefecture of the Essonne department. Étampes, together with the neighboring ...

, France. Just before her death, Chan was interviewed by Ken Burns, and she is seen posthumously in Episode 8 of Burns' 2001 documentary ''

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

''. Chan Parker was the mother of jazz vocalist Kim Parker (b 1947). Chan and Charlie's son Baird lived until 2014.Charles Baird Parker 61 Son of Jazz Great
'' Philly.com''. Retrieved June 29, 2016.

References

External links

"Bird Lives" website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Chan 1925 births 1999 deaths American expatriates in France Charlie Parker