Charlie Parker

The Bird.

Founded

August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Missouri

Full Name

Charles Parker, Jr.

Date of Birth

August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Missouri

Still Alive

Date of Death

March 12, 1955 in New York, New York

Influenced By

Count Basie, Bennie Moten, Buster Smith, Ben Webster, Lester Young

Later Influenced

John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Stan Getz, Branford Marsalis

Charlie Parker and his band, Tommy Potter (bass), Miles Davis (trumpet), Duke Jordan (piano) at the Three Deuces, New York, NY circa August 1947

About The artist

"What (Orson) Welles did for film direction and (Jackson) Pollock did for painting, Parker, in particular, did for jazz, by representing the unrepresentable. Parker’s art is one of sonic images that give form to ideas that were hiding in plain sight or off the map of American mainstream culture."
Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Did you know...

Charlie Parker's was referred to as Yardbird or simply Bird. This nickname inspired his composition , such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise."