Biography
Charlie Parker was a legendary Grammy Award–winning jazz saxophonist. Charlie
Parker was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City, Kansas. He died on March 12,
1955. He died at the age of 34 Manhattan, New York City, NY. Charlie Parker played the alto saxophone and tenor saxophone. Throughout Charlie’s adult life he was struggling with a heroin addiction, alcoholism,and mental illness caused turbulence in his career and personal relationships. By the time Parker married Rebecca Ruffin in
1936, he started abusing alcohol and drugs. Charlie and Rebecca Ruffin had two children before divorcing in 1939. In 1942, Parker re married Geraldine Scott. His nicknames were bird and yardbird because he was free like a bird. People also called him Charlie Chan, Yardbird, Sparrow, Bird. Influence on music Charlie Parker’s big influence on jazz is that with Dizzy Gillespie they both invented the musical style called bop or bebop. He developed a new style of jazz called bebop. It was different from the dance, or swing, style that was popular for years. Performers of bebop left the traditional musical melody and played a song freely, with the music and rhythm that was felt at the time. Charlie Parker said: "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it
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He had the idea of starting a small jazz group. In New York, he joined Dizzy Gillespie. Their work together was among the greatest in American music history. They enjoyed the support of younger musicians. Yet, they had to fight the criticism of those opposed to any new development in jazz. Charlie Parker was given a permit to play in New York again two years later. Jobs, though, were difficult to find. He finally got a chance to play for two nights in March, nineteen fifty-five. It was at Birdland, the most famous jazz nightclub in New York City. Birdland had opened in nineteen forty-nine. It was named after "Bird," as Charlie Parker's followers called
The person whom invented Jazz was born in uptown New Orleans on September 6, 1877 to Alice and Westmore Bolden. Charles “Buddy” Bolden grew up in one of the most musically rich cities in all of the United States during the time, and it would have great influence in his life. As a young man, Buddy made money as a barber, however his heart was truly in his music. The cornet was his instrument, and he could play like nobody else. He was famously known as “The King” because of how well he played the cornet, as well as his public demand and popularity.
In New York, Parker worked as a dishwasher in a Manhattan restaurant where Tatum performed. Parker would listen and wish that he could play like “Tatum’s right hand.” All in all, Tatum’s virtuosity inspired many jazz
Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the “first real genius of jazz”(Shipton 26). He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. Louis was the illegitimate son of William Armstrong and Mary Est “Mayann” Albert. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. Then, at the age of five, he was returned to the care of his mother, who at the time worked as a laundress. Together with his mom, they moved to a better area of New Orleans. This is where Armstrong first fell in love with music; he would listen to people playing any chance that he would get(Tirro). He would attend parades, funerals, churches and go to cheap cabarets to be able to hear some of the greats play
in Kansas City and became one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time. He led us
Who was Miles Davis and why was he such an important element in the music of Jazz? Miles Davis, as we would know him, was born Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois on the 25th of May 1926 to a middle-class black family.. A couple of years later, Miles went on to St. Louis where he grew up. Since he was a youngster, Miles' hobby was to collect records and play them over without getting tired of them. Since his family knew Miles was so interested in the music of his time, primarily Jazz, for his thirteenth birthday Miles received his first trumpet, although he had been playing since the age of nine. With this Miles began to practice and play his trumpet along with his records. Who would have known that just three years later, at the
Charlie Parker was a co-leader and then leader of a quintet and he became famous by mocking and perfecting the styles of others he observed while working in New York. He was not initially famous and had to work his way up to stardom, and he also suffered a drug and alcohol addiction that caused him to decline as a musician in his later years. Dizzy Gillespie started off in a good place in the music industry, playing in New York and becoming one of the fist soloists in the Cab Calloway Orchestra. Eventually, he got fired from his trumpeting position and started working with Parker and would have jam sessions in his home with many musicians discussing chord progressions and bebop in general. Later in life, he focused on big band and added cuban
Music changed through the Renaissance as well, picking up a new flavor from the black community. Jazz originated in New Orleans and traveled north to Harlem. Black musicians enjoyed the sounds of jazz and its sorrows. Musicians capitalized on the sound, adding in personal stories of struggle, love, and faith. These musicians took their talents to the night clubs of Harlem; some places became famous like the Cotton Club. White musicians joined black jazz bands, and for the first-time multiracial bands were formed (Carney). One of the most famous musicians to come out of the Renaissance was a trumpet by the name of Louis Armstrong. “Having come from a poor family in New Orleans, Armstrong began to perform with bands in small clubs and play at funerals and parades around town in New Orleans” (Burns). Due to the mixing of races, race relations got better and people came together to appreciate the talents of others, race didn’t matter!
Louis Armstrong’s sound had a large influence on Henderson’s band and that basically transformed the sound of Jazz in New York City. Louis Armstrong taught everyone how to swing New Orleans style and added the rhythm of New Orleans to New York Jazz. Armstrong added Blues elements that didn't exist prior to New York City sounds. Armstrong increased the appreciation of the New York Jazz harmonic language and lengthened the solo passages. “Armstrong’s authority and originality, his profound feeling for the blues, and his irresistible, heart- pounding rhythmic drive affected everyone who heard
Louis was born in New Orleans where he grew up and learned to play the trumpet. He also learned to sing. Because of his long improvised solos, he inspired jazz so that long solos became an important part of jazz pieces and performances. (Cayton, 462) Armstrong was the king of jazz trumpet players. The new style that he created gave a voice-like quality to his horn. (Hakim, 58) Although Jazz was very popular itself, a majority of the fans and listeners were younger people. Flappers were commonly known during this time. They danced to the jazz music with a whole new style.
Nps.gov states that some of the greatest musician in America History has come from the jazz side of the world. Artist such as Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Jelly “Roll” Morton, pave the way for jazz to reach its height as it did in the early 20’s with the upbeat tempo and smooth classical sound. These artist brung a unique sound to jazz that was not there. Louis Armstrong contribute to jazz is so remarkable, he played the trumpet like no other. His sound was so soothing to the ears. When you think about jazz, Louis Armstrong is one of the first names most people relate to jazz. Jelly “Roll” Morton was probably the most influence artist there is. An innovative piano stylist and composer, began his odyssey outside of New Orleans as early as 1907. He continue his work throughout the 1920’s and was mainly consider the reason of the swing era.
Mile Davis said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker" (Griffin) Charlie Parker, one of the most imperative jazz soloists, composer and saxophonist, was born in Kansas city, Kansas. He was one of the representative figures of Bebop jazz style. Bebop style appeared as a crucial jazz style in the jazz history. Owning distinctive characteristic, Bebop style jazz left a tremendous impact on the following music pieces.
Charlie Parker was one of the most influential and important soloists in Jazz history and was important to the development of the Bebop style. Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas on August 29, 1920. In 1927 Charlie Parker’s family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, an influential center for African American jazz music in the 20th century. The rich musical culture in Kansas City fostered the development of the young Charlie Parker who began playing alto saxophone in 1933. After Parker left school in 1935 he pursued a career as a professional musician in Kansas City and played among various blues and jazz groups. In 1939 Parker visited New York, the national center for the music business at the time, for a year and participated in jam sessions with other musicians. Parker’s time spent in New York left him bored with the clichés of the popular Swing style still very common in America. He envisioned a new style of music, contrary to Swing jazz, that emphasized a new set of techniques. This new style of music which became Bebop would finally reach maturity in the mid 1940’s led by Charlie Parker (Patrick).
In the world of Jazz there are known to be only two time periods in jazz: before Charlie Parker and after Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker has become an American icon and extremely important to the world of jazz. He had many successes throughout his life, but I want to find; how did Charlie Parker’s fast pace improvisation solo style effect the creation of bebop? Carlie Parker’s complex harmony and rhythms he integrated into his improvisation solo style laid the groundwork for the creation of a new jazz style known today as bebop.
Louis Armstrong was the greatest of all Jazz musicians. Armstrong defined what it was to play Jazz. His amazing technical abilities, the joy and spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day. Only Charlie Parker comes close to having as much influence on the history of Jazz as Louis Armstrong did. Like almost all early Jazz musicians, Louis was from New Orleans. He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve. At the school he learned to play cornet. After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart. He didn't own an instrument at this time,
The second generations of Jazz musicians were some like Joe “King” Oliver, Kid Ory, and Jelly Roll Morton. These people formed a small band and started to reshape the way the original Jazz music was played. They have made it into a different style with more complications and twists and turns. And so it became known as “Hot Jazz”. King Oliver found a young artist by the name of Louis Armstrong. He soon grew to become the greatest Jazz musician anyone has known. He is still a big star in the world today. By the 20th Century, African-American musical styles became the dominant force.