Charlie Parker
Created | Updated Mar 8, 2002
Charlie Parker was the god of the alto saxophone, and his musical innovations, while coupled with those of colleague and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, gave birth to a new style of music known as be-bop and a whole new outlook on the possibilities inherent in jazz music.
Charlie Parker, commonly called bird or yardbird (either for his love of fried chicken or his ability to "fly" across the range of his horn), never recieved a formal music lesson. After beginning to play in his early teens, he climbed the mountain of music to its peak, virtuosity. After moving from his native Kansas City to New York, who's 52nd street clubs were the jazz capital of the world, he began jamming with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, and the combined geniouses soon invented be-bop. This new, fast-paced music, rife with complicated chord changes, took the jazz community by storm. It was welcomed by fresh, up and coming talents, and scorned by those who could not grasp its majesty.
Besides revolutionizing the shape of jazz music, Bird helped shape another image, that of the jazz musician drug addict. Bird probably consumed more junk than the American middle class. His vein-swelling antics caused many a young talent to pick up the needle when they put down the horn, Miles Davis among them.
In summation, Charlie Parker was an inspirational musical genius, despite his leisure-time shortcomings. His revolutionary musical ideas have lived on to influence every generation of jazz talent after him, and that is why he is the "god of the alto saxophone."
Charlie Parker, commonly called bird or yardbird (either for his love of fried chicken or his ability to "fly" across the range of his horn), never recieved a formal music lesson. After beginning to play in his early teens, he climbed the mountain of music to its peak, virtuosity. After moving from his native Kansas City to New York, who's 52nd street clubs were the jazz capital of the world, he began jamming with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk, and the combined geniouses soon invented be-bop. This new, fast-paced music, rife with complicated chord changes, took the jazz community by storm. It was welcomed by fresh, up and coming talents, and scorned by those who could not grasp its majesty.
Besides revolutionizing the shape of jazz music, Bird helped shape another image, that of the jazz musician drug addict. Bird probably consumed more junk than the American middle class. His vein-swelling antics caused many a young talent to pick up the needle when they put down the horn, Miles Davis among them.
In summation, Charlie Parker was an inspirational musical genius, despite his leisure-time shortcomings. His revolutionary musical ideas have lived on to influence every generation of jazz talent after him, and that is why he is the "god of the alto saxophone."
