Charlie Parker

Music · MusicBrainz

Type

Person

Gender

Male

Origin

United States

Active from

1920

Active to

1955

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners

966,371

Total plays

15,526,668

Charles Christopher "Bird" Parker, Jr (29th August 1920 – 12th March 1955) was a U.S. bebop saxophonist and composer. Early in his career Parker was dubbed Yardbird; this was later shortened to "Bird" (or sometimes "Yard") and remained Parker's nickname for the rest of his life, and inspiration for the titles of his works such as "Ornithology and Yardbird suite". Parker is commonly considered the greatest bebop jazz musician. In terms of influence and impact <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/C

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Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

1. A global reference for human genetic variation

   · 2015 · cited 17,405x

2. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

   · 2020 · cited 15,380x

3. Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

   · 2016 · cited 11,439x

4. Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century

   · 2003 · cited 8,994x

5. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary

   · 2000 · cited 8,826x

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Quotes

• “I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.”
• “l'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.”
• “Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.”
• “Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.”
• “Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
• “You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”

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Wikidata facts

Official website

charliebirdparker.com

Image

Portrait of Charlie Parker in 1947.jpg

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