Charlie Parker Biography

Charlie Parker, known to jazz lovers as Yardbird or simply Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer, born in Kansas City to a musician father and a charwoman mother. Interested in music from a young age, he started playing baritone horn while still in his junior class. But when at the age of eleven, he received his first saxophone, it became his favorite instrument. By that time, his father had abandoned them, and soon taking advantage of his mother’s night duties, the boy started frequenting clubs. At fifteen, he not only abandoned school and joined the professional musical circuit, but also started taking drugs. He never had any formal lessons in music but learned from listening to others play, which was accompanied by intense practice and at the same time, a will to experiment. Soon, he became well-known in jazz circuits and working with others, invented ‘bebop’ style of jazz. Unfortunately, years of substance abuse had its affect and Charlie died broken and pennyless at the age of thirty-four. Today, he is remembered as one of the twentieth century’s great musical innovators and father of bebop.