Timeline Charlie Parker: Bird

Charlie Parker: Bird 14

• 1920 Charlie Parker born in Kansas City, Kansas Raised in Kansas City, Missouri Grows up in the jazz-rich Kansas City of the 1930s.
• 1936 Charlie Parker humiliated at a Reno Club jam session Cymbal thrown Drummer Jo Jones throws a cymbal at his feet — he practises for months.
• 1938 Charlie Parker joins Jay McShann's band Kansas City swing His first major band.
• 1939 Charlie Parker's breakthrough on Cherokee New York Finds his new harmonic approach while jamming on Cherokee.
• 1942 Charlie Parker at Minton's Playhouse Harlem jam sessions After-hours sessions with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk give birth to bebop.
• 1945 Charlie Parker records with Dizzy Gillespie Salt Peanuts Recordings that announce bebop.
• 1945 Charlie Parker records Ko-Ko Savoy session His first session as a leader, with a young Miles Davis.
• 1946 Charlie Parker records Ornithology Dial Records Recorded in Los Angeles for Dial.
• 1946 – 1947 Charlie Parker in Camarillo State Hospital Breakdown Six months in hospital — he writes Relaxin' at Camarillo.
• 1949 Charlie Parker records Charlie Parker with Strings His favourite records His bestselling recordings in his lifetime.
• 1949 Birdland opens in New York Named after him A jazz club named after Bird.
• 1953 Charlie Parker plays Jazz at Massey Hall Toronto With Gillespie, Powell, Mingus and Roach — the greatest jazz concert ever, it is said.
• 1955 Charlie Parker dies in New York Aged 34 The doctor guesses his age at 50 to 60.
• 1988 Charlie Parker biopic Bird released Clint Eastwood With Forest Whitaker as Parker.