Charlie Parker - The Most Fascinating Facts Anywhere

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1. He was born in Kansas

Charles Parker Jr. was born in 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised across the river in Missouri. He grew up in a musical city.

2. The nickname Yardbird has a chicken story

Bandmates said the name came after a car hit a chicken on tour and Parker asked to have it cooked. It was shortened to Bird.

3. A drummer threw a cymbal at him

In a jam session at the Reno Club, Jo Jones threw a cymbal at his feet to show he was not ready. Parker was humiliated.

4. He practised obsessively afterwards

Parker reportedly spent months practising many hours a day. He returned as a transformed player.

5. He helped create bebop

With Dizzy Gillespie and others he developed the style in New York in the early 1940s. Minton's Playhouse was central to the scene.

6. Ko-Ko was a landmark recording

The 1945 session paired Parker with Gillespie. It was a showpiece of bebop speed.

7. He recorded with strings

Charlie Parker with Strings in 1949 paired him with a string section. He loved the project.

8. He had a breakdown in 1946

After a chaotic recording session he was placed in a California state hospital for months. He later recorded Relaxin' at Camarillo.

9. Birdland was named after him

The New York club opened in 1949. Parker played there often.

10. He used a plastic saxophone at Massey Hall

In 1953 in Toronto he played a borrowed Grafton plastic alto sax. The concert paired him with Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach.

11. He died aged 34

Parker died in 1955 at the New York apartment of the jazz patron Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter. A coroner reportedly guessed he was much older.

12. Clint Eastwood made a film about him

Bird, released in 1988, told his story. It won an Oscar for sound.

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