"Relaxin' at Camarillo" is a composition by jazz saxophonist

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 ...

. It is inspired by his six-month stay in

Camarillo State Hospital Camarillo State Mental Hospital, also known as Camarillo State Hospital, was a public psychiatric hospital for patients with both developmental disabilities and mental illness in Camarillo, California. The hospital was in operation from 1936 to 1 ...

Ventura County, California Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxn ...

, after serving a prison term for arson and resisting arrest. The tune is a blues in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

and has become a jazz standard.

Background

The title "Relaxin' at Camarillo" was a reference to Parker's stay in

, a mental health

inpatient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ca ...

facility. He had been sent there to recuperate from alcohol and drug addiction after he was briefly jailed for setting fire to his Los Angeles hotel room bed sheets and running naked through the hotel lobby while intoxicated. According to musicologist and Parker scholar Henry Martin, Parker wanted to call the tune "Past Due", and was not happy with the title assigned by Dial Records that referenced the difficult episode in his life:

Recordings

After release, Bird was able to record it along with three originals by trumpeter

Howard McGhee Howard McGhee (March 6, 1918 – July 17, 1987) was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger beb ...

: "Cheers", "Stupendous" and "Carvin the Bird". Parker recorded the tune with McGhee on trumpet,

Dodo Marmarosa Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (December 12, 1925 – September 17, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Originating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marmarosa became a professional musician in his mid-teens, and toured with several ...

on piano,

Wardell Gray Wardell Gray (February 13, 1921 – May 25, 1955) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods. Biography Early years Gray was born in Oklahoma City, the youngest of four children. He spent his early chi ...

on tenor,

Barney Kessell Barney Kessel (October 17, 1923 – May 6, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups as ...

on guitar,

Red Callender George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Cre ...

on bass and

Don Lamond Donald Douglas Lamond Jr. (August 18, 1920 – December 23, 2003) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Born in Oklahoma City, Lamond attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in the early 1940s, and played with Sonny Dunham and Boyd Ra ...

on drums. The tune was originally recorded in C major, and has become a jazz standard.

Ted Gioia Ted Gioia (born October 21, 1957) is an American jazz critic and music historian. He is author of eleven books, including ''Music: A Subversive History'', '' The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire'', ''The History of Jazz'' and ''Delta Blu ...

, commenting in ''West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960'', has referred to the original recording as a "sinuous blues", a 12-bar blues that is a "further testimony to the subtlety of Parker's rhythmic phrasing". Gioia considers it to have been one of the finest recordings Parker made in California.

Roy Porter Roy Sydney Porter, FBA (31 December 1946 – 3 March 2002) was a British historian known for his work on the history of medicine. He retired in 2001 from the director of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine at University College L ...

and David Keller consider "Relaxin' at Camarillo" to be a "great bop classic". Guitarist

Joe Pass Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Pass is well known for his work stemming from numerous collaborations with pianist Oscar Peterson and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, an ...

recorded it in 1964 for his album ''

Joy Spring "Joy Spring" is a 1954 jazz composition by Clifford Brown that became his signature work. The title was his pet name for his wife Larue. Early history Brown first recorded "Joy Spring" in a studio session led by him on August 6, 1954, at Ca ...

''. Saxophonist

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent l ...

released an album of the same name, featuring the recording, in 1979. It was later recorded by pianist

Cedar Walton Cedar Anthony Walton Jr. (January 17, 1934 – August 19, 2013) was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band, The Jazz Messengers, before establishing a long career as a bandleader and com ...

. ''

Jazz Journal International ''Jazz Journal'' is a British jazz magazine established in 1946 by Sinclair Traill (1904–1981). It was first published in London under the title ''Pick Up'', which Traill founded as a locus for serious jazz criticism in Britain.Roberta Freund Sc ...

'' stated in 2009 that Walton "provides a stimulating introduction to Parker's ''Relaxin' At Camarillo''. Cedar's solo here is one of his best on a disc that is chock full of glowing solos."

References

{{Authority control 1946 songs 1940s jazz standards Charlie Parker Compositions by Charlie Parker Jazz compositions in C major