Charlie Parker

At times it was difficult to separate Charlie Parker from the alto saxophone he played. The instrument and the man became as one when the jazz music in his soul took control. Parker's musical innovations changed the Kansas City jazz he played to a form now called "bebop."

Charles Christopher Parker Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1920. Just as the Harlem Renaissance was coming of age and native Kansan Langston Hughes was making his mark in literature, Parker found a place in Kansas City jazz. Most called him "Yardbird" or just "Bird." Others called him genius. In his short yet turbulent thirty-five years, Parker became recognized as one of the most creative musicians in the history of jazz.

Early musical training for Parker came from the streets of Kansas City, Missouri. Parker's mother raised him alone; his father left early in Charlie's life. In school, Parker discovered band; but was discouraged when the teacher assigned him to play the tuba. His mother scraped together enough money to purchase a used alto saxophone; and Charlie taught himself to play. From an early age; he was drawn to the music he heard in the alleyways from jam sessions in the Kansas City "joints."

Parker's head resounded with a different tune from the popular jazz of the day. Although he played basic chords and harmonies with the other musicians, Parker began to experiment with higher intervals of chords to produce the tunes that filled his imagination. This sound, known as "bebop," or simply "bop," took form in Harlem jazz clubs in the 1940s and became the trademark that separated African American musicians from other swing bands. With bebop, the musician became the artist and the music his canvas.

"Bird" Parker lived his life on the edge. He married Rebecca Ruffin when he was only fifteen and played in Kansas City entertainment clubs while his friends studied in school. Parker began taking heroin following an auto accident, a habit that eventually cost him his life. Parker's musical genius drove him to live life on the edge. When he died at age thirty-five, the coroner estimated his age to be closer to fifty-five.

From his childhood in Kansas City, Parker became a legend in the world of jazz. Without the Kansas City jazz scene, "Bird" might never have brought to life the tunes that lived in his head.

Charlie "Bird" Parker is one of several Kansans to leave a trademark sound in contemporary music. Coleman Hawkins, known as the "father of the tenor saxophone" spent many of his early years in Kansas City and Topeka. "Hawk" was playing in the Topeka High School band at the time of Charlie Parker's birth. Hawkins recorded the classic version of "Body and Soul" that became a standard for jazz improvisation in ballads.

Other notable jazz musicians who have Kansas roots include Jesse Stone, born in Atchison in 1901. He was the leader of the Blue Serenaders and is considered one of the most influential composers and arrangers of Midwestern jazz from the 1920s through 1940s. Wilbur "Buck" Clayton of Parsons was born in 1911. He took his classic trumpet style on tour with his band to China as well as to many famous New York clubs. Clayton came from a musical family that supported and encouraged him.