Charlie Parker-Charlie Parker With Strings (1955)

Charlie Parker is one of the ten greatest artists in the history of jazz, on par with geniuses like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis. Known as "Bird", he is one of the finest alto saxophonists, a self-taught musician with serious self-destructive tendencies. Born in Kansas City in 1920, he played in countless jam sessions during his short career before officially recording with Jay McShann's band in 1941. His eloquent playing attracted considerable attention in the seedy bars frequented by the mob and in the jazz clubs of Kansas City. Influenced by saxophonists like Lester Young and Ben Webster, he was already an accomplished musician by the age of 17. But in addition to his talent, he struggled with persistent problems stemming from his addictions to drugs and alcohol. His music featured innovative melodic lines, with a sound radically different from anything established, and his style evolved with the use of dissonant upper intervals beyond the octave. Along with Dizzy Gillespie, he was a driving force behind the bebop movement, a sound that would radically transform the way jazz was heard, characterized by a faster tempo, harmonic refinement, and great virtuosity. In the late 1940s, the impresario and manager Norman Granz, who at the time represented Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson, among others, redirected Parker's career, which from then on would gain him considerable renown. From those years come the recordings that were included in the legendary "Charlie Parker With Strings", which was released in 1955. But his addictions were becoming increasingly urgent and on March 12, 1955, he died in New York at the age of 34, as a result of severe hemorrhage and a bleeding ulcer due to the advanced cirrhosis he suffered from.