Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed “Bird” and “Yardbird,” was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso and introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Primarily a player of the alto saxophone, Parker’s tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber.

Parker acquired the nickname “Yardbird” early in his career on the road with Jay McShann. This, and the shortened form “Bird,” continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as “Yardbird Suite,” “Ornithology,” “Bird Gets the Worm,” and “Bird of Paradise.” Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer.

Charlie Parker Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas, at 852 Freeman Avenue, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, near Westport and later – in high school – near 15th and Olive Street. He was the only child of Charles Parker and Adelaide “Addie” Bailey, who was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background. He attended Lincoln High School  in September 1934, but withdrew in December 1935, just before joining the local musicians’ union and choosing to pursue his musical career full-time.  His childhood sweetheart and future wife, Rebecca Ruffin, graduated from Lincoln High School in June 1935. Parker died on March 12, 1955, in the suite of his friend and patron Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City, while watching The Dorsey Brothers‘ Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker’s 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.