CHARLIE PARKER Vol.2

"Bird On The Side" Original Recordings 1941-1947

The single greatest jazz improviser of the post-War era, ‘Bird’ was derided by the purists and traditionalists and idolised by his peers. The prime mover of bebop and a guiding spirit of cool, he changed the overall perception and direction of 20th century popular music and inspired a whole new generation of players and composers. Charles Christopher Parker Jr., the only child of a small-time black vaudeville entertainer, was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on 29th August, 1920, and raised on the other side of the river in Kansas, Missouri. From an early age he was exposed to some of the best of inter-War jazz-making and his doting mother, Addie, encouraging Charlie’s youthful talent for music, at eleven bought him the alto-sax which he began to play seriously in 1933. His youthful idols had ranged from Rudy Vallee (he heard him on the radio) to Count Basie and Lester Young