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Parker, Charlie
5 articles on Parker, Charlie
Parker, Charlie
Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
Word Count: 1702 Includes: Bibliography1920–1955
Masterful African American alto saxophonist, who along with Dizzy Gillespie founded bebop or modern jazz. Together with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker was the primary creator of Bebop. His musical innovations profoundly influenced other alto saxophonists, as is evident in the playing of Cannonball Adderley, Eric Dolphy, Lou Donaldson, Charles McPherson, and Frank Morgan. Indeed, Parker's influence extended well beyond Jazz to popular music and film and television scores. Despite his musical brilliance, however, Parker led a troubled life that included the use of heroin at an early age, an addiction that contributed to his death and was deeply intertwined with his musical mystique.Born Charles Christopher Parker in Kansas City, Kansas, he acquired the nickname “Yardbird”Charles ...
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Source: African American National Biography
(29 Aug. 1920–12 Mar. 1955), jazz alto saxophonist, known as “Bird,” “Yardbird,” or “Yard,” was born Charles Parker Jr. in Kansas City, Kansas. He was the only child of Charles Parker Sr., a chef on the Pullman Line who was a former dancer and singer, and Addie Boxley, a charwoman for Western Union who also cleaned houses, did laundry, and rented to boarders. Parker had an older half brother, John “Ikey,” who was his father's son from a previous relationship. The Parkers, without the often absent Charles Sr., moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1927. Parker attended Penn School in Westport and during that time began to play the alto saxophone. He enrolled at Lincoln High School in 1932and joined the school marching band, where he played the alto horn and later the baritone horn. During this time Parker ...
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Source: American National Biography Online
Word Count: 3566 Includes: Bibliographyalto saxophonist and jazz composer, also nicknamed “Bird” and “Yardbird,” was born Charles Christopher Parker in Kansas City, Kansas. His father, Charles Parker, Sr., toured black theaters as a singer on the TOBA circuit and later was a chef on the Pullman railroad line; his mother, Addie Boxley (surname uncertain), worked as a cleaning woman. Charles Sr. left the family sometime in the late 1920s, and Charlie saw him only a couple of times after that. In 1931, Parker moved with his mother to Kansas City, Missouri. Formerly a quiet, serious student, by the ...
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Source: The Oxford Companion to United States History
Word Count: 317(1920–1955), jazz saxophonist and leader in the “bop” revolution of the 1940s. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Parker grew up across the river in Missouri. At age nineteen he joined the Jay McShann Orchestra and became the band's principal soloist, acquiring the name “Yardbird,” shortened to “Bird.” In 1941, when the McShann Orchestra played at the Savoy Ballroom and the Apollo Theater in New York City, Parker discovered the Harlem clubs that were centers of jazz experimentation. When he left McShann in 1942, he had already acquired the narcotics problem that would ultimately take his life. He played for most of 1943 with the Earl Hines Orchestra, working with the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, another formulator of the “bop” style. When the singer Billy Eckstineleft Hines to form his own1944.His1947 ...
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Source: The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Word Count: 327(1920–1955), also known as Bird or Yardbird, alto saxophonist and major figure in the development of bebop. The new music known as “bebop” was based on experimentation with harmonic structures, but also possessed a strong political edge, which would make it the inspiration of numerous artists, black and white, who were looking for a means of confronting the sterility of Cold War culture. Charlie Parker's musicianship and skill as an improviser were unmatched, yet due to the exigencies of the jazz music business, he struggled to hold his life together. Parker was famous for his wit and thoughtfulness, but continued problems with drugs and failing physical and mental health led to his death in Marcha 1955.Parker's brilliance and irreverance made him as much of a legend as an important historical figure. His death ...
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