Jams with Parker and Beiderbecke

The music of a lot of modern-jazz titans -- including Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk -- have had a presence in contemporary pop music through samples and artistic influence. But Charlie Parker, the prime mover of bebop, has been largely absent.

Now Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Dr. John, Meshell Ndegeocello and hot hip-hop producers and DJs El-P, Dan the Automator and the X-Ecutioners are among those participating in “Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project.”

Album producer Matthew Backer stresses, though, that this is not merely a remix album with the artists tweaking original tracks. Rather, the contributors have used the original material as the basis for their own experimentations in the spirit of Parker, a troubled soul who died in 1955 at age 34.

“We’re trying to start a revolution with this and pay homage to the revolutionary Charlie Parker,” he says. “The people we targeted to be on the album were targets because they carry on the legacy of free thinkers.”

Tankian’s revising of “Bird of Paradise,” reconstructed with lyrics and vocals by the rocker, is typical of the project, Backer says.

“Serj built the track from the ground up, just turned the material inside out,” he says. “It’s amazingly thrilling, like an adventure ride.”

Dr. John teamed with the Kronos Quartet for a version of “Salt Peanuts” co-produced by Hal Willner (who oversaw tribute albums to composer Kurt Weill and jazzman Monk, among others) and electronica figure Mocean Worker. The pair are also producing a track with vocals by Reed and Anderson that is just now being finished.

The album is due Oct. 21 from Savoy Records, the label for which Parker recorded in the ‘40s and whose archives provided the original material for this project.

Another innovative tribute to a jazz pioneer who died young is scheduled to arrive Sept. 30 with the release of “Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke.” The album celebrating the centenary of the influential cornetist and composer who died in 1931 at 28 is primarily the work of veteran folk musician Geoff Muldaur, who has written chamber orchestrations of Beiderbecke’s piano compositions.

He also has arranged seven songs from the period, sung by fellow folkie Loudon Wainwright III, Wainwright’s daughter Martha, the Harmony Boys and Muldaur himself. Among the musicians who play Muldaur’s treatments are Metropolitan Opera principal trumpeter Mark Gould, in-demand saxophonist-arranger Ted Nash and pianist Butch Thompson.

Dispute threatens recording studio

A prominent Los Angeles recording studio that has hosted hit sessions by artists from Frank Sinatra to Motley Crue to Snoop Dogg may be in peril because of a dispute involving a key piece of equipment.

Cherokee Studios, a Fairfax district facility where more than 270 platinum albums have been made, has been sued by recording equipment manufacturer Solid State Logic and by Wells Fargo Bank for nonpayment on a huge mixing console valued at about $300,000.

The studio’s owners say that the console never worked properly and that requests to have it repaired were fruitless. SSL chief operating officer James Cox says that the company’s responsibility for the equipment, which was made in 1991, is limited, and that in fact SSL has helped with repairs and offered to do more.

Cherokee co-owner Bruce Robb says that a judgment against the studio could force it to close due to new expenses and lost business.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Robb, who founded Cherokee nearly 30 years ago with his brothers, Joe and Dee, and their father, Dave. “I know we can’t sustain. It’s not like just one room has been out of use because of this. We make package deals for projects and if I can’t offer mixing as well as recording, clients go to other studios that can make them package deals.”

Small faces

* The Flaming Lips, one of the most prolific acts around in terms of bonus material and B-sides, is releasing a collector’s edition of last year’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” album, with such extras as both a Japanese version and an acoustic performance of the title song and several other rare or unavailable tracks. There also will be a DVD disc that includes two videos of the song “Do You Realize,” one directed by Mark Pellington, the other by lead Lip Wayne Coyne, plus some animated segments, the audio of “Phoebe Battles the Pink Robots” (recorded for a “Friends” episode but never used) and a trailer for the band’s still-unfinished film “Christmas on Mars.” It’s due Sept. 2.

* Flaming Lips members also backed Steve Burns, former star of the kids’ series “Blue’s Clues,” on his upcoming “adult” album debut, “Songs for Dustmites,” due Aug. 12 from PIAS Records. The Lips’ fellow Oklahoma band Starlight Mints will accompany Burns on tour, including an Aug. 23 date at the Troubadour.