User:CParkerFam/sandbox/Charlie Parker

Charles "Charlie" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Early Years
From 1935 to 1939 played the nightclub scene in Kansas City, Missouri, with bands like Buster Professor Smith’s band and Jay McShann’s band. Moved to New York permanently in 1939, meeting guitarist Biddy Fleet, and working on a new innovative style In 1940, joined McShann’s band in NYC, made his first recording and stuck with them for 4 years

Inventing Bebop
In 1942 Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk saw Parker perform in McShann’s band and were impressed. Performed with Earl Hines for 8 months and then joined the Billy Eckstine band in 1944. 1945 was a huge year for Parker, leading his own group and performing with Gillespie on the side. At the end of the year the two of them did a six-week nightclub tour in Hollywood, inventing the new Bebop style of jazz

Later years
Parker signed with many labels and played a variety of events between 1947 and 1951, signing with Dial, Savoy Records, and Mercury. Paris International Jazz Festival in 1949 was Parker’s European debut, went on to Scandinavia in 1950. In March of 1955 Parker made a last performance at Birdland, a club named in his honor, a week before his death.

Childhood and Early Career
Charles Christopher Parker was the only son of Charles and Addie Parker, born August 29, 1920. When he was 7 years old, their family moved from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri which was a center for jazz, blues and gospel. This early exposure to music allowed him to discover his own talent as a musician, and by 15 he had chosen the alto saxophone as his instrument of choice. Parker eventually dropped out of high school to pursue his musical career.

Marriages and Personal Relationships
In 1936, at just fifteen years old, Parker married Rebecca Ruffin and they had two children before separating in 1939. In 1942, Parker married his second wife Geraldine Scott, which also proved a short marriage, in part to blame from his struggle with drugs. After his stint in the Camarillo Mental Health Hospital and during a brief period of sobriety, Parker and Doris Snyder married in 1948. This marriage also fell apart due to a relapse in drug use. Chan Richardson and Parker dated in the 1950s and although the two never married, Chan took his last name and gave him two more children, a daughter named Pree who died at age two, and a son named Baird.

Drug Use and Death
Parker formed an addiction to heroin early on in life which would be a reoccurring concern, principally in his time spent in Harlem and the New York area. During his time in Los Angeles, heroin was not as easily accessible and Parker substituted with alcohol. Drug use greatly affected his performances and is discernible in quite a few recordings, though many feel his delivery still possessed much talent. Mental instability and varying deteriorating relationships as a result of his addiction led to two failed suicide attempts by iodine consumption. In March of 1955, Parker suffered an ulcer attack and died in his friend Baroness Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter's apartment. The ultimate cause of death was determined to be pneumonia and the result of long-term substance abuse.

Nickname
Charlie Parker was often called by the nickname "Bird" or "Yardbird". The name was a result of two possibilities; either because he was known to be free as a bird or because he had hit a chicken while on tour.

Awards
Parker received all of his awards posthumously

Grammys
Best Improvised Jazz Solo- First Recordings! (1974)

Lifetime Achievement Award (1984)

5-Time Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee
Billie’s Bounce- Charlie Parker and his Re-Boppers

Charlie Parker with Strings- Charlie Parker

Jazz at Massey Hall- Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Charles Mingus

Ornithology- Charlie Parker Sextet

Yardbird Suite- Charlie Parker Septet

Tributes
Since 2014, KC Jazz Alive has held an annual Charlie Parker Celebration (CPC). CPC is a 10-day event that includes live music, a meet and greet with jazz musicians, a jazz history tour and more. The celebration's goal is to "explore and recognize the legacy of one the most influential saxophonists and jazz icons to ever perform."

The city of Kansas City, Missouri, commissioned a memorial for Charlie Parker. On March 27, 1999, the memorial was dedicated. The consists of a bronze head atop a stand which reads "Bird Lives" a reference to the graffiti in New York City that emerged shortly after Parker's death. The memorial stands 18 feet tall (8 feet tall base and 10 feet tall head). The memorial is located at E 18th St & Vine St Kansas City, MO 64108.

The film Whiplash has a plot point that revolves around Charlie Parker. When Parker was first starting out he went to Kansas City's Reno Club to show off his talent to Jo Jones, a drummer for Count Basie's orchestra. Initially, Parker started off well showcasing his talent and new improvisational sound. However, he soon got lost in the beat. Jones stopped and threw a cymbal at Parker's feet. This led to Parker practicing for hours and hours to master the saxophone. In Whiplash, Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) throws a chair at Andrew (Miles Teller) after he messes up several times. Throughout the movie when Fletcher and Miles discuss the cymbal incident they say that Jones threw the cymbal at Parker's head when in reality the cymbal was thrown at Parker's feet. Andrew's situation is paralleled to Parker's with Fletcher replacing Jones as the motivation to become great.

Influence and Lasting Impact
Parker's death in 1995 may have left the world without it's yardbird but his legacy lived on beyond his death to influence generations to come. In terms of solo improvisation, Charlie Parker (along with Dizzy Gillespie) literally changed the game and defined the bop idiom.

Although he held immense technical prowess, what really set him apart from his predecessors were his intensity and drive in expression and the use of the following improvisational strategies:

Playing different chord arpeggiations than what is being played in the rhythm section (ex: Playing the notes of a D major 7 chord while the piano is playing a D7         chord. D major 7 has a C# while D7 has a C natural)
 * Use of higher end voices and intervals of the given backing chords (ex: 9th, 11th, etc.)
 * syncopation
 * Unorthodox triplet and pickup notes leading into chordal shifts
 * Chord Re-harmonization

The use of these musical traits blew the minds of his contemporaries and inspired the minds of those who followed him. Three of the biggest artists who grew in his immediate shadow include Julian "Cannonball" Adderly who held his technical styles and flair, Phil Woods, and Jackie McLean who drew on Bird's drive and raw emotional expression. But Bird's expression doesn't just end with those artists in those places. Bird's influence can be found in major artists across the united states. Here a just a few:
 * West Coast: Art Pepper, Sonny Criss, Bud Shank
 * Tenor Sax: Teddy Edwards, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins
 * Baritone Sax: Cecil Payne and Leo Parker

As Ted Gioia stated in his book "The History of Jazz", "Parker and his contemporaries remained either an explicit source of inspiration or at minimum, a reference point for virtually all postbop jazz styles during the next half century".