Charlie "Bird" Parker was a highly influential saxophonist that contributed to the growth of the bebop style of jazz music during the demise of the Big-Band era, alongside other notable artists such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Bebop is synonymous with fast improvisation and complicated chord structures.
Parker married for the first time when he was 15, and had a succession of four marriages throughout his short life.
Charlie Parker's nickname "Bird" (also "Yardbird") has many stories associated with it, but two are more convincing than others. One story recounted by Jazz trombonist Clyde Berhardt in his autobiography I Remember (1986) said that "[Charlie] Told me he got the name Yardbird because he was crazy about eating chicken: fried, baked, boiled, stewed, anything. He liked it. Down there in the South, all chickens are called yardbirds."
Another interpretation given by fellow Bebop saxophonist Buddy Collette is that he got the name because used to practice all the time in the local park, since that was the only place far enough from the residential areas to play without being bothered by the police.
Songs reflecting his avian nickname include "Ornithology," "Bird of Paradise," and "Yardbird suite," all of which were composed by Parker, even though he is recorded to have found his nickname extremely annoying.
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