Charlie Parker

1920 - 1955

Since chicken is a "yard bird" and he was quite fond of fried chicken, such began the nickname Charlie "Yardbird" Parker. So goes one version. Or, because he played like a bird and/or lived free as one he was known as Charlie "Bird" Parker. Choose your favorite.

Charles Parker, Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas August 29, 1920. He died a junkie in New York on March 12, 1955.
At age seven Parker came to Kansas City and began studying music, but school was not his thing. He played baritone horn in high school. By age 15 he was serious about the alto sax. A year later, at age 16, Parker married.
In 1937 he was playing here with Jay McShann. That was the same year he became a father, at 17. Two years later he met the legendary Dizzy Gillespie. The year following, at age 20, Parker said goodbye to Kansas City.

In the big time in New York, he went from marriage to marriage, from booze to drugs. Meanwhile he played alto sax with the greats-Earl "Fatha" Hines, Cootie Williams, Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie. Parker was versatile. He played tenor sax, doubled on clarinet and experimented on practically every brass and woodwind known. He had talent, but no self-discipline.
A mental hospital stay of seven months came in 1944. He bounced back, and two years later was leading his own group on the west coast. In New York City, Birdland opened in 1949. That dance hall immortalized his name and his inimitable style. Then a suicide attempt landed him in Bellevue Hospital in 1954. Amazingly, the following year he played again at Birdland. It was his last engagement, however. The next week he was dead.
Charlie Parker died in 1955, completely burned out at 34 ½. His funeral was held in Harlem, but he was brought back to Kansas City for burial in Lincoln Cemetery.

Written by Wilda Sandy