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Shiloh Wallace
Music and Culture
Final Project
Charlie Parker
In the early decades of the 19th century many great musicians were making their name
known and setting bars. Jazz became bigger and popular genre during this time with great voices,
but when in the end its always what the band sounds like. But one drop out of high school, alto
and tenor saxophone player made his presences known in Jazz world.
This musician was born in 1920 and his interest in music began at a very young age,
when he was only 11 he started playing the saxophone and practice diligently every day. When
he was 14 and became more and more interested in the jazz culture, so got onto his school band
where he played the baritone horn, and they rented a school bus to go on performances. Soon
after his interest in the jazz culture, he became more interested in alto saxophone and the rest is
history. Son of African American father and Native American mother, Charlie Yardbird Parker
Jr. played with local jazz and blues bands during 1935, from these bands he began to gain more
knowledge about jazz music to craft his style and went on to perform his own type music. Soon
after that he dropped out in his first year of high school to go on and pursue his music career.
In Kansas City, Missouri jazz, blues, and gospel music were becoming very popular and
was just going to get bigger. From where he grew up the scene gave him more influence to
pursue his career in music. In 1939 Charlie Parker went to New York City for the first time and
from the atmosphere there his interested heightened in the jazz world.

Parker was part of many bands in his years of being a musician his first band was with a
pianist named Jay McShann and both of them performed around the southwest of Chicago and
New York. From there his music career took to another stage to become a regular performer at a
local club in New York City. So he then moved out to New York City and when he first started
out in the big city he didnt perform for awhile, he ended up getting a job at a local restaurant.
From working there his luck changed and he met a guitarist named Biddy Feet who became a big
influence on him, he taught Charlie Parker instrumental harmony and influenced his music style
even more.
Throughout his time as a musicians he when threw some bad times as well, after he drop
out of high to follow his career, he became hooked on heroin which made a bad outlook on his
playing and then later on became the reason of his death.
From performing with many bands over the years his craft of music grew, enabling to be
one of founding members to discover Bebop. Along with his many achievements in his music
career, he has three Grammy awards, and one Grammy. Until his death in 1955 he will be
remembered as the greatest soloist in jazz history.