Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker (born August 29, 1920, Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.—died March 12, 1955, New York City, New York) was an American alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. Parker was the principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known as bebop, and—together with Louis Armstrong and Ornette Coleman—he was one of the three great revolutionary geniuses in jazz. Parker grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, during...