interesting all the same. ..

>> i won't give away the ending of the trial or the book itself, but it's remarkable book as well. so far, those are the four books i have presently juggle around. >> let us know what you are reading this summer. tweet us @booktv, post on facebook, or e-mail us at booktv@cspan.org. >> who was charlie parker? >> well, charlie parker was one of the finist american musicians, and he was what is often called a genius or the word geniuses use, but if usually doesn't describe the person. it's just an advertising term now. what charlie parker was was what the word "genius" means, but he not only was a remarkable technician of his instrument, but he embodied what the power of jazz really is, which is the

ability to be able to play and to hear, and much of his early life was learning how to hear these -- so that he -- because he has -- because a jazz musician actually has to hear the entire context in which he or she is improvising, and make and reagent as digital speeds to the sound that's going on around them, so charlie parker became one of the most massive exponents of that ability. it's not magic, but people don't usually know that that's what a person has to do, you know? >> all jazz improvised? >> no, but the majority of it is. now, there's some people who wrote what they call composed pieces in which every note you hear has been previously written, and that the players

are actually performing a written compensation. now, that doesn't mean that arts are not used because every concert musician actually does that. they don't make anything up. they just -- they just color it with different nuances, and so the artistry of the cop -- concert music is like that of an actor. if you play hamlet, you are going to face, "to be or not to be"; right? it's the way that you say it that makes it artistic statement or not. a jazz musician is like an actor who in reaction to other actors makes up his own part.

he has to immediately make it make sense so the way to see jazz itself that was proven by armstrong is that human beings can actually respond that quickly to each other and create order and creating chaos is not a problem. we can get a group of little kids and just start playing a bunch of noise; right? when you get a baseline that sounds good, the drum part sounds good, the piano part sounds good, the horn part that sounds good, that's remarkable. people actually learn how to do that, and charlie parker, genius he was, he to to learn how to do it like everybody else in jazz does. >> where was he from, and when did he live? >> from 1920 to 1955. >> 35 years? >> no, he didn't get to 35.

he batted 34, because he died six months or so before his birthday, so he was -- he grew up in the kansas city that was actually a 20th century extension of the wild west because he grew up in a totally corrupt town in which the mayor was no good unless corruption is considered an achievement, if that's what people think, then the mayor of kansas city when charlie was there, he was a successful mayor. he was a complete crook, and the mafia was there, and one of the guys that i quote in the book says, well, in kansas city, people didn't have locks on

their doors of their places, and they stay audiotape -- open all the time. they never closed. whatever you wanted, you could get it at any time. if you wanted sex, you could get it. if you wanted liquor, you could get it. whatever you wanted, legal or illegal, it was always available. he grew up in that world, and part of what he learned when he was a kid was that whatever happened in life, there's also the opposite version of it, and when he was a kid, he had so many things come to him so fast that he learned that people live one way during the day, live another way after dark, and so one of his jobs when he was 15

years old, was to -- he's sitting there on the bandstand, and he's seeing women dance around, sit on tables, remove money, and they would sit and there's money, and stand up, and the money would be gone. they would see women have sex with other women, men have sex with other men, and he was sitting there playing the sax phone while this was going on, so he didn't dwre up in the world that was innocent. he may have been innocent when he ended, but he was not when he left. it's startling to realize in our era there were people who lived even more extreme thanked modern

american people do. there's no place necessarily that you and i can immediately go and see a sex film. it was not dpsh if we lived in kansas city in 1935, we could have done it, and so that's part of what the story is, and all of that stuff created beautiful music in the middle of that all that. that's the history of jazz, that there's still something human beings respond to that has nothing to do with a contest that vowndz them, but may be completely corrupt because one of charlie parker's big influences, it works out in the club called the reno club in

kansas city, and they would tell each other, i like him, i like that sax phone that he played, and, you know, to me, that's like, we're talking about people who live disreputable lives, but there was something beautiful and young playing that they could hear, you know, and they might have been -- lived under garbage most of the time, but some kind of wave, there was -- there were something that allowed them to still respond to something beautiful. >> how segregated was kansas city at the time charlie parker grew up? >> well, it was fairly segregate ed. >> was that an issue? >> it was not really an issue after dark because the musicians

tell you that, well, you could actually live in an integrated world when it was early in the morning, after hours, and that was true in louisiana and in new orleans. that was true in a lot of places. in fact, the local government often were very resistant to a jazz world because jazz actually encouraged people to deal with each other as just individuals. it didn't say, oh, well you're white, and you didn't know him, or you're jewish, you shouldn't know him. that was all second base stuff in the jazz world. if you could play, you could play, and if you couldn't play,

you couldn't play. if you couldn't play, being black didn't make it easier for you. if you could play, then it was not your liability. that was all secretary stuff. >> stanley crouch, new book "kansas city lightning: rise and times of charlie parker," and the author of the all-american skin game, and columnist in the new york daily news. what do you write about? >> well, american life as i understand it. it's -- this country is of constantly remarkable human occasion because no matter how bad things get in america, there's always something good that happens. there's a good response. it may not be the one you want immediately, but it gains ground over time, you know, like if you

you -- women's liberation, segregation, racism, anti-semitism, all of these things might have been stronger at a certain time, but the opposition continues to grow and basically overwhelming the problem. the problem is never completely overwhelmed, but even a se gagessist lost ground over the years. that's what i'm sad about most, is how americans continually find out a way to like them or not going to like them, but it means you are better off to deal

with a human being as a human being than the person is a variation on stereotypes because i was arguing with my daughter once, she was about 15 then, she's 36 now, but, dad, you're not giving us an opportunity -- you don't understand me. i said, well, look, i haven't mistaken you for a mammal only. i know who you are. i don't think you really know because people -- we feel different now. i said, well, if you do, then you are different; right? because people have always felt the same way. you know? because they've always known what being human is, and that's what is always, it's everything

you and i are excited by or liked, there's some version of it that people long before we were born actually felt about it. when we end counter it, then we feel that we've been spoken for previously, you know? i think that's the major hope of the country. the country is a symbol. >> why did charlie parker die at the age of 34? >> well, he lived a very self-destructive life because he became a drug addict at 17. he had such incredible will he was able to continue to master

the saxaphone and hearing and play jazz, and from there he was able to find his own way to go that was so powerful he influenced a lot of other people. >> we've talked with the columnist from the new york daily news and author of this book coming out in september of 2013, "kansas city light ning: rise and times of charlie parker," this is booktv on c-span2. >> up next, six students from university of montana who found absolutepoker.com, and shows early success with revenues of over $1 # million a day, and the eventual scrutiny received from the department of justice which shut it down in 2011. this program is about 40 n