Charlie Parker

thumb|right|335 pxCharles Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as "Yardbird" and "Bird", was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.
Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and improvisation. Parker introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Many Parker recordings inserted his virtuoso playing style and complex melodic lines, sometimes combining jazz with other musical genres, including blues, Latin and classical.
Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career; this and its shortened form, "Bird", which continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspired the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise". Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer.
== Tossup Questions ==
# This musician led a 1946 septet that included a young Miles Davis and recorded this musician's namesake "Suite." This composer based three of his works on the chords from "Honeysuckle Rose," "How High the Moon," and "Cherokee." He played alongside Bud Powell and Dizzie Gillespie as a member of "The Quintet" at Massey Hall in 1953, and he also recorded "Billie's Bounce" and "Ko-Ko" with Gillespie in 1945. He recorded standards like "Just Friends" and "Summertime" on an album "With Strings." His compositions include "Scrapple from the Apple" and "Ornithology." For 10 points, name this pioneer of bebop, an alto saxophonist nicknamed 'Bird.'
# This musician collaborated with Duke Jordan and Tommy Potter on several recordings for Dial Records which include the songs "Dewey Square" and "Drifting on a Reed." This musician quoted a notoriously difficult clarinet solo from "High Society" in a song based on Ray Noble's "Cherokee." This musician lends his name to a Manhattan jazz club which in turn lends its name to a jazz standard written by Joe Zawinul for the album (*) Heavy Weather. This musician collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Max Roach during a famous Savoy session which produced the tunes "Billie's Bounce," "Now's the Time," and "Ko-Ko." Dizzy Gillespie and this man are often credited as the co-inventors of bebop. For 10 points, name this jazz saxophonist who composed "Ornithology" and "Bird of Paradise," who was also known as "Yardbird".
# Renditions of "Everything Happens to Me" and "Just Friends" appear on an unusual album by this artist in which he was backed by a string section. One of his tunes mixes the main progression from "Honeysuckle Rose" with the middle eight from "I Got Rhythm". A progression named for this musician fits chains of II-V ["two-five"] sequences into a twelve-bar blues, and was used by him in his "Blues for Alice". This composer of "Scrapple from the Apple" is credited with creating a new jazz style with his recording of "Cherokee". He wrote a song for Billie Shaw titled "Billie's Bounce" and used "How High the Moon" as the basis for his "Ornithology". For 10 points, identify this musician who pioneered bebop with Dizzy Gillespie, a jazz saxophonist nicknamed "the Bird."
# Howard McGhee yells the word "Blow!" as this musician begins to weaken during a recording of "Lover Man". "Au Privave" is a tune on his album, Swedish Schnapps, which also features a piece that employs his namesake modification of the blues as a chain of II-V ["two-five"] progressions, "Blues for Alice". From 1949 to 1965, 1678 Broadway was the site of a jazz (*) club on 52nd Street named for this musician. With Benny Harris, he wrote a tune that is a contrafact of "How High the Moon". The Ray Noble song "Cherokee" was the basis for his composition of "Ko-Ko". He is often co-credited with Dizzy Gillespie for creating the bebop style of jazz. For 10 points, name this alto saxophonist who wrote "Ornithology" and was nicknamed "Bird".
# This man used the chord progression from "Honeysuckle Rose" in his song "Scrapple from the Apple". In a recording session with Max Roach and Curley Russell, this composer performed "Billie's Bounce" as well as a song inspired by Ray Noble's "Cherokee", "Ko-Ko". On the album Jazz at Massey Hall, he collaborated in a quintet with Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he helped develop bebop. For 10 points, name this jazz composer of "Ornithology" and "Yardbird Suite" whose alto saxophone playing earned him the nickname "Bird".
Category:Fine Arts
Category:Jazz