Charlie Parker

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Alto saxophone, jazz, bebop, Dizzy Gillespie, “Yardbird,” Lincoln Cemetery

Illustration by Jimmy Grist www.jimmygrist.net
Illustration by Jimmy Grist
www.jimmygrist.net

 Charlie Parker: Known as “Yardbird,” or simply “Bird,” Charlie Parker (1920-1955) paved the way for a new kind of music to hit the town. Born and raised in Kansas City, Parker started to play the saxophone at 11 years old and never put it down. He soon developed a new kind of jazz called bebop, a combination of fast, skilled and improvised music, and took the world by storm. Parker became one of the first “hipsters” of the jazz world who claimed that the music wasn’t just for entertainment, but for art and intellectual growth. He later became the inspiration for the ‘Beat Generation.’ He rests in Lincoln Cemetery, in Kansas City.