Charlie Parker
Birdland, the celebrated New York nightclub, was named after him. Charlie 'Bird' Parker played the alto saxophone with dazzling speed and invention, tearing through complex chord changes in long, darting lines that helped create bebop.
With Dizzy Gillespie he turned jazz from dance music into an art for listening, on records such as 'Ko-Ko', 'Salt Peanuts' and 'Now's the Time'. 'Just Friends', from Charlie Parker with Strings, was his own favourite, and Jazz at Massey Hall captured him in 1953 with Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach.
He died in 1955, aged 34, leaving behind a vocabulary every improvising soloist since has had to learn.
If you like Charlie Parker you should check out: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Charlie Mingus, Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Stan Getz
