Charlie Parker Research Paper

Haley Godfrey

Martin Morrison

Section 3

November 29, 2017

Charlie Parker

Early life Charlie was born in Kansas City, Kansas on August 29, 1920. Charlie was the only child and in 1927 his family moved to the other broader line in Kansas City, Missouri when he was 7 years old. When in school in Missouri is where he found his talent while taking lessons at school. During his time at that school he also played in the school band on a baritone horn. By the time he was 15 he was playing the alto saxophone. In 1935 he dropped out of school and started playing fulltime in local jazz bands.

Early musical career Up until the 1939 he played in local jazz and blue bands in the Kansas City area. During that time in 1937 he played in front for Count

When he married in 1936 to Rebecca Ruffin as a teenager he had already started his abusing to the drugs and alcohol. In 1939 they got a divorce after having. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1939. In April of 1943, Parker remarried to Geraldine Scott. Financial stresses created a rift between the couple, and Parker turned to heroin for an escape. He ended up leaving his second wife not long after they were married. In 1946 Parker had to cut his tour short because of a nervous breakdown, which he ended up being committed to a mental hospital for six months and left the hospital in January of 1947. In 1948 the new Parker married Doris Snyder, but the marriage lasted less than a year because Parker started using again. His heroin uses just increased from there after the divorce. In the 1950 Parker had a girlfriend named Chan Richardson, although they never got married Chan took his last name. Together they had two children and Charlie took Chan’s daughter Kim in too. The first child they had was Pree who only lived for two years and died in 1952, and the second born was Baird who was born a year before Charlie died. Darning this time Parker was arrested for heroin possession, which caused him to lose his cabaret card meaning he could no longer play in New York. When he did get his card back his reputation was so damaged that clubs still did not want

While in the hospital he developed cirrhosis. In 1955 Parker made his last performance in his club “Birdland” a week before his death. During his last performance him and Bud Powell got into a fight resulting in harsh wording being said and Parker left the club. A week later while Parker was visiting his friend Baroness Kathleen when he had an ulcer attack in her suite in the Stanhope Hotel and did not go to the hospital because she persuaded him to stay. On March 12, 1955 in Baroness Kathleen’s suite Parker died from lobar pneumonia and long-term substance abuse. He was thirty-four years old, the coroner estimated him to be fifty or sixty because of his health problems. He wanted to be buried in New York, but under his mothers wishes he was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in