Charlie Parker's Sax Up For Auction

A saxophone that once belonged to Charlie Parker is coming up for auction on June 8th at Michaan's Auctions in Alameda California.

The sax had been in the possession of musician Bill Hood and was passed down to his daughter Jennifer upon his death. The Parker connection had always been attached to the instrument but was unverifiable.

Jennifer, interested in uncovering the true history of the sax, enlisted the help of jazz historian Bob Dietsche who was able to get to the truth.

The story goes that, at a gig in Portland, Parker showed up without his instrument. When Hood asked him where it was, Parker said that he had pawned it. Hood was amazed that Parker would pawn his instrument, prompting Parker to say that if it was so important to him he could have it and proceeded to give Hood the pawn ticket.

During Dietsche's investigations he found that all of the parts of the story fit and he managed to find the owner of Portland's oldest pawnshop who confirmed that Parker had pawned his instrument at the shop a few times, all but verifying the story.

The sax is part of a larger auction of modern and fine furniture and decorations and has been given a pre-auction estimate of between 30,000 and 35,000 dollars.