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Charlie Parker

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia | Date: 2007

[orig. Charles Christopher Parker, Jr.] (born Aug. 29, 1920, Kansas City, Kan., U.S.—died March 12, 1955, New York, N.Y.) U.S. saxophonist and composer. He played with Jay McShann's big band (1940–42) and those of Earl Hines (1942–44) and Billy Eckstine (1944) before leading his own small groups in New York City. (A nickname acquired in the early 1940s, Yardbird, was shortened to Bird and used throughout his career.) Parker frequently worked with Dizzy Gillespie in the mid-1940s, making a series of small-group recordings that heralded the arrival of bebop as a mature outgrowth of the improvisation of the late swing era. His direct, cutting tone and unprecedented dexterity on the alto saxophone made rapid tempos and fast flurries of notes trademarks of bebop, and his complex, subtle harmonic understanding brought an altogether new sound to the music. Easily the most influential jazz musician of his generation, Parker suffered chronic drug addiction, and his early death contributed to making him a tragic legend.

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