Charlie Parker | Artist
Charles Parker Jr. aka Yardbird aka Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer born 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas. Born the only child of Charles Parker and Adelaide "Addie" Bailey, who was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background, Charlie began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 he joined his high school band. In the mid-1930s, Parker began to practice diligently. During this period he mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas that led to the later development of Bebop. Parker became a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop. A blazingly fast virtuoso, Parker introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Parker collaborated with other Jazz mavericks of the day such as Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. Tragically, he died at age 34 after bouts of mental illness and long term heroin addiction. He was one of the greatest bebop jazz players of his era and was the subject of the 1988 Clint Eastwood directed film "Bird" with Forest Whitaker in the lead role. As a recording artist, Parker laid down studio tracks between the years 1944-1957 primarily recorded for three labels: Savoy, Dial and Verve. His work with these labels has been meticulously chronicled in respective box sets, plus there are hundreds of compilations available. Outstanding recordings include Bird Blows the Blues (1949), Charlie Parker With Strings (1951), Charlie Parker Sextet (1952), Charlie Parker (1954), Swedish Schnapps (1957) and the live recordings with Dizzy Gillespie Town Hall New York City June 22 1945 (2005) and Jazz at Massey Hall (1956). There have also been many great archival compilations such as and Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Charlie Parker Collection. Charlie Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. In recognition of Parker's importance to jazz music, the great Miles Davis once said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker." One evening when Parker was playing at Birdland, the renowned composer Igor Stravinsky was present in the audience. The band was playing “KoKo,” at breakneck tempo - over three hundred beats per minute - Parker who had been alerted to the famous composer's presence spontaneously interpolated the opening of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite as though it had always been there, a perfect fit, and then sailed on with the rest of the number. Stravinsky roared with delight, pounding his glass on the table.
Artist Website: charliebirdparker.com
Featured Albums: Charlie Parker
Related Artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis
Collections: Music Visionaries
