Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was an American alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader, known as Bird or Yardbird. Born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he was one of the main creators of bebop in New York in the 1940s, with a fast and harmonically advanced way of improvising that changed jazz. Charlie Parker joined Jay McShann's band in 1938 and made his first professional recordings with it in 1940. He then formed a small group with Dizzy Gillespie.