Chan Parker

Chan Woods (born Beverly Dolores Berg, also known as Chan Richardson; 29 June 1925 – 9 September 1999[2]), well known as Chan Parker, was a common-law wife of jazz musician Charlie Parker; she later married musician Phil Woods.

Chan Woods
BornBeverly Dolores Berg[1]
29 June 1925
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died9 September 1999 (aged 74)
Étampes, France
SpouseCharlie Parker; Phil Woods

She was born in New York City. She was a dancer and jazz enthusiast who in the 1940s and early 1950s was romantically connected with jazz musicians Johnny Bothwell and later Don Lanphere.[3]

She met Parker in the 1940s, but their friendship did not become romantic until years later. As it developed, their relationship had to surmount several obstacles, including Charlie's drug and alcohol abuse as well as the interracial nature of their relationship at a time when American society was still largely segregated.

Later years and death

Their relationship was dealt a severe blow with the death of their daughter, Pree, a year and a week before Charlie Parker's own death.[4] Two years after Parker's death in 1955, Chan married saxophonist Phil Woods and moved to France, where she spent much of the rest of her life. From this marriage, they had a daughter, Aimée Francesca Woods (1961-1993). In her later years, she wrote the memoir My Life in E-Flat,[5] which discusses her life with Charlie Parker. It was published in 1999, the year of her death from cancer, aged 74, which occurred in Étampes, France.[6]

Just before her death, Chan was interviewed by Ken Burns, and she was seen posthumously in Burns' 2001 documentary Jazz.

She is the mother of jazz vocalist Kim Parker.[7]

References
  1. Chan Parker Archived 10 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Index record for Chan Woods Social Security Death Index". fold3 by Ancestry. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  3. Siders, Harvey. "Don Lanphere" Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, JazzTimes, March 2002; accessed 4 June 2015.
  4. A PBS interview of Parker for the documentary Jazz
  5. Parker, Chan. My Life in E-flat, University of South Carolina Press, 1999. ISBN 1-57003-245-9
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/nyregion/chan-parker-74-known-as-jazzman-s-wife.html
  7. Kim Parker: Biography by Scott Yanow
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