Early career

It has been said that, in early 1936, Parker participated in a 'cutting contest' that included Jo Jones on drums, who tossed a cymbal at Parker's feet in impatience with his playing.However, in the numerous interviews throughout his life, Jones made no mention of this incident. At this time Parker began to practice with great diligence and rigor, learning the blues, "Cherokee" and "rhythm changes" in all twelve keys. In this woodshedding period, Parker mastered improvisation and developed some of the ideas of be-bop. In an interview with Paul Desmond, he said he spent 3–4 years practicing up to 15 hours a day. It has been said that he used to play many other tunes in all twelve keys. The story, though undocumented, would help to explain the fact that he often played in unconventional concert pitch key signatures, like E (which transposes to C# for the alto sax).
 
Groups led by Count Basie and Bennie Moten were the leading Kansas City ensembles, and undoubtedly influenced Parker. He continued to play with local bands in jazz clubs around Kansas City, Missouri, where he perfected his technique with the assistance of Buster Smith, whose dynamic transitions to double and triple time certainly influenced Parker's developing style.

In 1938, Parker joined pianist Jay McShann's territory band. The band toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City.Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann's band. It was said at one point in McShann's band that he "sounded like a machine", owing to his highly virtuosic yet nonetheless musical playing.[citation needed]

As a teenager, Parker developed a morphine addiction while in hospital after an automobile accident, and subsequently became addicted to heroin. Heroin would haunt him throughout his life and ultimately contribute to his death.

New York City

In 1939, Parker moved to New York City. There he pursued a career in music, but held several other jobs as well. He worked for $9 a week as a dishwasher at Jimmie's Chicken Shack where pianist Art Tatum performed. Parker's later style in some ways recalled Tatum's, with dazzling, high-speed arpeggios and sophisticated use of harmony.

In 1942, Parker left McShann's band and played with Earl Hines for one year. Also in the band was trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, which is where the soon to be famous duo met for the first time. Unfortunately, this period is virtually undocumented because of the strike of 1942–1943 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which no official recordings were made. Nevertheless, we know that Parker joined a group of young musicians in after-hours clubs in Harlem such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and (to a much lesser extent) Minton's Playhouse. These young iconoclasts included Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, and drummer Kenny Clarke. The beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams: "We wanted a music that they couldn't play" – "they" being the (white) bandleaders who had taken over and profited from swing music. The group played in venues on 52nd Street including the Three Deuces and The Onyx. In his time in New York City, Parker also learned much from notable music teacher Maury Deutsch.

Bebop

According to an interview Parker gave in the 1950s, one night in 1939, he was playing "Cherokee" in a jam session with guitarist William 'Biddy' Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled him to play what he had been hearing in his head for some time, by building on the chords' extended intervals, such as ninths, elevenths, and thirteenths.[citation needed] Still with McShann's orchestra, Parker at this time realized that the twelve tones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing.

Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts with comments like Eddie Condon's putdown: "They flat their fifths, we drink ours." The beboppers, in response, called these traditionalists "moldy figs". However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents.

Because of the 2-year Musicians' Union recording ban on all commercial recordings from 1942 to 1944 (part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians), much of bebop's early development was not captured for posterity. As a result, the new musical concepts only gained limited radio exposure. Bebop musicians had a difficult time gaining widespread recognition. It was not until 1945, when the recording ban was lifted, that Parker's collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell and others had a substantial effect on the jazz world. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was rediscovered and issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Bebop began to grab hold and gain wider appeal among musicians and fans alike.



On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for the Savoy label, marketed as the "greatest Jazz session ever." The tracks recorded during this session include "Ko-Ko" (based on the chords of "Cherokee"), "Now's the Time" (a twelve bar blues incorporating a riff later used in the late 1949 R&B dance hit "The Hucklebuck"), "Billie's Bounce", and "Thriving on a Riff".

Shortly afterwards, the Parker/Gillespie band traveled to an unsuccessful engagement at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles. Most of the group returned to New York, but Parker remained in California, cashing in his return ticket to buy heroin. He experienced great hardship in California, eventually being committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six month period.



Addiction

Parker's addiction to heroin, which began in his late teens, caused him to miss gigs and to be fired for being high. To satisfy his habit, he frequently resorted to busking on the streets for drug money, receiving loans from fellow musicians/admirers, pawning his own horn and borrowing other sax players' instruments as a result. Parker's situation was typical of the strong connection between drug abuse and jazz at the time.

Although he produced many brilliant recordings during this period, Parker's behavior became increasingly erratic due to his habit. Heroin was difficult to obtain after he moved to California for a short time where the drug was less abundant, and Parker began to drink heavily to compensate for this. A recording for the Dial label from July 29, 1946, provides evidence of his condition. Prior to this session, Parker drank about a quart of whiskey. According to the liner notes of Charlie Parker on Dial Volume 1, Parker missed most of the first two bars of his first chorus on the track, "Max Making Wax." When he finally did come in, he swayed wildly and once spun all the way around, going badly off mic. On the next tune, "Lover Man", producer Ross Russell physically supported Parker in front of the microphone. On "Bebop" (the final track Parker recorded that evening) he begins a solo with a solid first eight bars. On his second eight bars, however, Parker begins to struggle, and a desperate Howard McGhee, the trumpeter on this session, shouts, "Blow!" at Parker. McGhee's bellow is audible on the recording. Charles Mingus considered this version of "Lover Man" to be among Parker's greatest recordings despite its flaws. Nevertheless, Parker hated the recording and never forgave Ross Russell for releasing the sub-par performance (and re-recorded the tune in 1951 for Verve, this time in stellar form, but perhaps lacking some of the passionate emotion in the earlier, problematic attempt).

During the night following the "Lover Man" session, Parker was drinking in his hotel room. He entered the hotel lobby stark naked on several occasions and asked to use the phone, but was refused on each attempt. The hotel manager eventually locked him in his room. At some point during the night, he set fire to his mattress with a cigarette, then ran through the hotel lobby wearing only his socks. He was arrested and committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where he remained for six months.

Coming out of the hospital, Parker was initially clean and healthy, and proceeded to do some of the best playing and recording of his career. Before leaving California, he recorded "Relaxin' at Camarillo", in reference to his hospital stay. He returned to New York – and his addiction – and recorded dozens of sides for the Savoy and Dial labels that remain some of the high points of his recorded output. Many of these were with his so-called "classic quintet" including trumpeter Miles Davis and drummer Max Roach. The highlights of these sessions include a series of slower-tempo performances of American popular songs including "Embraceable You" and "Bird of Paradise" (based on "All the Things You Are").






Charlie Parker with strings

A longstanding desire of Parker's was to perform with a string section. He was a keen student of classical music, and contemporaries reported he was most interested in the music and formal innovations of Igor Stravinsky, and longed to engage in a project akin to what later became known as 'Third Stream Music', a new kind of music, incorporating both jazz and classical elements as opposed to merely incorporating a string section into performance of jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians.Six master takes from this session comprised the album Bird With Strings: "Just Friends", "Everything Happens to Me", "April in Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "If I Should Lose You". The sound of these recordings is rare in Parker's catalog. Parker's improvisations are, in comparison to his usual work, more distilled and economical. His tone is darker and softer than on his small-group recordings, and the majority of his lines are beautiful embellishments on the original melodies rather than harmonically based improvisations. These are among the few recordings Parker made during a brief period when he was able to control his heroin habit, and his sobriety and clarity of mind are evident in his playing. Parker stated that, of his own records, Bird With Strings was his favorite. Although using classical music instrumentation with jazz musicians was not entirely original, this was the first major work where a composer of bebop was matched with a string orchestra.

Some fans thought this record was a sell out and a pandering to popular tastes. It is now seen to have been artistically as well as commercially successful. While Charlie Parker with Strings sold better than his other releases, Parker's version of "Just Friends" is regarded[by whom?] as one of his best performances. In an interview, Parker said he considered it to be his best recording to that date.[citation needed]

By 1950, much of the jazz world had fallen under Parker's spell. Many musicians transcribed and copied his solos. Legions of saxophonists imitated his playing note-for-note. In response to these pretenders, Parker's admirer, the bass player Charles Mingus, titled a tune "Gunslinging Bird" (meaning "If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there would be a whole lot of dead copycats") featured on the album Mingus Dynasty. In this regard, he is perhaps only comparable to Louis Armstrong: both men set the standard for their instruments for decades, and few escaped their influence.

In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Bud Powell and Max Roach. Unfortunately, the concert clashed with a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott and as a result was poorly attended. Thankfully, Mingus recorded the concert, and the album Jazz at Massey Hall is often cited[by whom?] as one of the finest recordings of a live jazz performance, with the saxophonist credited as "Charlie Chan" for contractual reasons.

At this concert, he played a plastic Grafton saxophone (serial number 10265);[unreliable source?] later, saxophonist Ornette Colemanused this brand of plastic sax in his early career. There is a story that says Parker had sold his alto saxophone to buy drugs, and at the last minute, he, Dizzy Gillespie and other members of Charlie's entourage went running around Toronto trying to find Parker a saxophone. After scouring all the downtown pawnshops open at the time, they were only able to find a Grafton, which Parker proceeded to use at the concert that night. This account however is totally untrue. Parker in fact owned two of the Grafton plastic horns. At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and new materials. Parker himself explains the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9th of 1953 broadcast from Birdland and does so again in subsequent May 1953 broadcast.

Parker was known for often showing up to performances without an instrument, necessitating a loan at the last moment. There are various photos that show him playing a Conn 6M saxophone, a high quality instrument that was noted for having a very fast action[unreliable source?]and a unique "underslung" octave key.[unreliable source?]



Some of the photographs showing Parker with a Conn 6M were taken on separate occasions. [unreliable source?] because Parker can be seen wearing different clothing and there are different backgrounds. However, other photos exist that show Parker holding alto saxophones with a more conventional octave key arrangement, i.e. mounted above the crook of the saxophone[unreliable source?] e.g. the Martin Handicraft [unreliable source?] and Selmer Model 22[unreliable source?] saxophones, among others. Parker is also known to have performed with a King 'Super 20' saxophone, with a semi-underslung octave key that bears some resemblance to those fitted on modern Yanagisawa instruments. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.

Parker died in the suite of his friend and patron Nica de Koenigswarter at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City while watching The Dorsey Brothers'Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer but Parker also had an advanced case of cirrhosisof the liver and had had a heart attack. Any one of the four ailments could have killed him.The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker's 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age.

It was well known that Parker never wanted to return to Kansas City, even in death.[citation needed] Parker had told his common-law wife, Chan, that he did not want to be buried in the city of his birth; that New York was his home and he didn’t want any fuss or memorials when he died. At the time of his death, though, he had not divorced his previous wife Doris, nor had he officially married Chan, which left Parker in the awkward post-mortem situation of having two widows. This complicated the settling of Parker's inheritance and would ultimately serve to frustrate his wish to be quietly interred in his adopted hometown. Dizzy Gillespie was able to take charge of the funeral arrangements that Chan had been putting together and organised a ‘lying-in-state’, a Harlem procession officiated by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and a memorial concert before Parker's body was flown back to Missouri to be buried there in accordance with his mother's wishes. Parker was buried at Lincoln Cemetery, 8604 E. Truman Road, Kansas City, Missouri.

Charlie Parker was survived by both his legal wife, Doris Parker (née Doris June Snyder, August 16, 1922 – January 17, 2000), and his partner, Chan; a step daughter, Kim Parker, who is also a musician; and a son, Baird Parker; their later lives are chronicled in Chan Parker's autobiography, My Life in E Flat.

Musical approach

Parker's style of composition involved interpolation of original melodies over pre-existing jazz forms and standards, a practice still common in jazz today. Examples include "Ornithology" ("How High The Moon") and "Yardbird Suite" ("What Price Love"). The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop; however, it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and began to compose their own material.
While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "Billie's Bounce", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional 12-bar blues changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for his tune "Blues for Alice". These unique chords are known popularly as "Bird Changes".[citation needed] Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition although he did employ the use of repetitive (yet relatively rhythmically complex) motifs in many other tunes as well, most notably "Now's The Time".

Parker also contributed a vast rhythmic vocabulary to the modern jazz solo, one in which triplets and pick-up notes were used in (then) unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist with more freedom to use passing tones, which soloists would have previously avoided. Within this context, Parker was admired for his unique style of phrasing and innovative use of rhythm. Via his recordings and the popularity of the posthumously published Charlie Parker Omnibook, Parker's uniquely identifiable vocabulary of "licks" and "riffs" dominated jazz for many years to come. Today his ideas are routinely analyzed by jazz students and are part of any player's basic jazz vocabulary.


1944
The Immortal Charlie Parker
Bird: Master Takes
Encores

1945
Dizzy Gillespie - Groovin' High
The Genius Of Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker Story
Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 2

1947
Charlie Parker Memorial, Vol. 1

1948
Bird At The Roost, Vol. 1
Newly Discovered Sides By Charlie Parker
The 'Bird' Returns

1949
Bird At The Roost, Vol. 2
Bird At The Roost

1950
An Evening At Home With Charlie Parker Sextet
Dial Records

1945
Red Norvo's Fabulous Jam Session

1946
Alternate Masters, Vol. 2

1947
The Bird Blows The Blues
Cool Blues c/w Bird's Nest
Alternate Masters, Vol. 1
Crazeology c/w Crazeology, II: 3 Ways Of Playing A Chorus
Charlie Parker, Vol. 4
Verve Records

1946
Jazz At The Philharmonic, Vol. 2
Jazz At The Philharmonic, Vol. 4

1948
Various Artists - Potpourri Of Jazz
The Charlie Parker Story, #1

1949
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #7 - Jazz Perennial
Jazz At The Philharmonic, Vol. 7
Jazz At The Philharmonic - The Ella Fitzgerald Set
The Complete Charlie Parker On Verve - Bird

1950
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #4 - Bird And Diz
The Charlie Parker Story, #3

1951
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #8 - Swedish Schnapps
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #6 - Fiesta

1952
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #3 - Now's The Time

1953
The Quartet Of Charlie Parker

1954
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #5 - Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter
Other Studio Recordings

1940
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 1 (Philology)
Charlie Parker With Jay McShann And His Orchestra - Early Bird (Stash)
Jay McShann Orchestra Featuring Charlie Parker - Early Bird (Spotlight)

1941
Jay McShann - The Early Bird Charlie Parker, 1941-1943: Jazz Heritage Series (MCA)
The Complete Birth Of The Bebop (Stash)

1943
Birth Of The Bebop: Bird On Tenor 1943 (Stash)

1945
Every Bit Of It 1945 (Spotlight)
Charlie Parker, Vol. 3 Young Bird 1945 (Masters of Jazz)
Dizzy Gillespie - In The Beginning (Prestige)
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 17 (Philology)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 5 (Spotlight)
Red Norvo's Fabulous Jam Session (Spotlight)
Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker - Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945 (Uptown)
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 4 (Philology)
Yardbird In Lotus Land (Spotlight)

1946
Rappin' With Bird (Meexa)
Jazz At The Philharmonic - How High The Moon (Mercury)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 1 (Spotlight)

1947
The Legendary Dial Masters, Vol. 2 (Stash)
Various Artists - Lullaby In Rhythm (Spotlight)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 2 (Spotlight)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 3 (Spotlight)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 4 (Spotlight)
Various Artists - Anthropology (Spotlight)
Allen Eager - In The Land Of Oo-Bla-Dee 1947-1953 (Uptown)
Charlie Parker On Dial, Vol. 6 (Spotlight)
Various Artists - The Jazz Scene (Clef)

1948
Gene Roland Band Featuring Charlie Parker - The Band That Never Was (Spotlight)
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 6 (Philology)
Bird On 52nd St. (Jazz Workshop)
Charlie Parker (Prestige)
Charlie Parker - Live Performances (ESP)
Charlie Parker On The Air, Vol. 1 (Everest)

1949
Charlie Parker - Broadcast Performances, Vol. 2 (ESP)
The Metronome All Stars - From Swing To Be-Bop (RCA Camden)
Jazz At The Philharmonic - J.A.T.P. At Carnegie Hall 1949 (Pablo)
Rara Avis Avis, Rare Bird (Stash)
Various Artists - Alto Saxes (Norgran)
Bird On The Road (Jazz Showcase)
Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie - Bird And Diz (Universal (Japan))
Charlie Parker - Bird In Paris (Bird in Paris)
Charlie Parker In France 1949 (Jazz O.P. (France))
Charlie Parker - Bird Box, Vol. 2 (Jazz Up (Italy))
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 5 (Philology)
Charlie Parker With Strings (Clef)
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 2 (Philology)
Bird's Eyes, Vol. 3 (Philology)
Dance Of The Infidels (S.C.A.M.)

1950
Charlie Parker Live Birdland 1950 (EPM Musique (F) FDC 5710)
Charlie Parker - Bird At St. Nick's (Jazz Workshop JWS 500)
Charlie Parker At The Apollo Theater And St. Nick's Arena (Zim ZM 1007)
Charlie Parker - Bird's Eyes, Vol. 15 (Philology (It) W 845-2)
Charlie Parker - Fats Navarro - Bud Powell (Ozone 4)
Charlie Parker - One Night In Birdland (Columbia JG 34808)
Charlie Parker - Bud Powell - Fats Navarro (Ozone 9)
Charlie Parker - Just Friends (S.C.A.M. JPG 4)
Charlie Parker - Apartment Jam Sessions (Zim ZM 1006)
V.A. - Our Best (Clef MGC 639)
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #4 - Bird And Diz (Verve MGV 8006)
The Persuasively Coherent Miles Davis (Alto AL 701)
Charlie Parker - Ultimate Bird 1949-50 (Grotto 495)
Charlie Parker - Ballads And Birdland (Klacto (E) MG 101)
Charlie Parker Big Band (Mercury MGC 609)
Charlie Parker - Parker Plus Strings (Charlie Parker PLP 513)
Charlie Parker - Bird With Strings Live At The Apollo, Carnegie Hall And Birdland (Columbia JC 34832)
Charlie Parker - The Bird You Never Heard (Stash STCD 10)
Norman Granz Jazz Concert (Norgran MGN 3501-2)
Charlie Parker At The Pershing Ballroom Chicago 1950 (Zim ZM 1003)
The Charlie Parker Story, #3 (Verve MGV 8002)
Charlie Parker - Bird In Sweden (Spotlite (E) SPJ 124/25)
Charlie Parker - More Unissued, Vol. 2
(Royal Jazz (D) RJD 506)
Machito - Afro-Cuban Jazz (Clef MGC 689)
An Evening At Home With Charlie Parker Sextet (Savoy MG 12152)

1951
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #8 - Swedish Schnapps (Verve MGV 8010)
The Magnificent Charlie Parker (Clef MGC 646)
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #6 - Fiesta (Verve MGV 8008)
Charlie Parker - Summit Meeting At Birdland (Columbia JC 34831)
Charlie Parker - Bird Meets Birks (Klacto (E) MG 102)
Charlie Parker - The Happy "Bird" (Charlie Parker PLP 404)
Charlie Parker Live Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn 1951 (EPM Musique (F) FDC 5711)
Charlie Parker - Bird With The Herd 1951 (Alamac QSR 2442)
Charlie Parker - More Unissued, Vol. 1 (Royal Jazz (D) RJD 505)

1952
Charlie Parker - New Bird, Vol. 2 (Phoenix LP 12)
Charlie Parker/Sonny Criss/Chet Baker - Inglewood Jam 6-16-'52 (Jazz Chronicles JCS 102)
Norman Granz' Jam Session, #1 (Mercury MGC 601)
Norman Granz' Jam Session, #2 (Mercury MGC 602)
Charlie Parker Live At Rockland Palace (Charlie Parker PLP 502)
Charlie Parker - Cheers (S.C.A.M. JPG 2)
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #3 - Now's The Time (Verve MGV 8005)

1953
Miles Davis - Collector's Items (Prestige PRLP 7044)
Charlie Parker - Montreal 1953 (Uptown UP 27.36)
Charlie Parker/Miles Davis/Dizzy Gillespie - Bird With Miles And Dizzy (Queen Disc (It) Q-002)
Charlie Parker - One Night In Washington (Elektra/Musician E1 60019)
Charlie Parker - Yardbird-DC-53 (VGM 0009)
Charlie Parker At Storyville (Blue Note BT 85108)
Charlie Parker - Star Eyes (Klacto (E) MG 100)
Charles Mingus - The Complete Debut Recordings The Complete Candid Charles Mingus(Debut 12DCD 4402-2)
The Quintet - Jazz At Massey Hall, Vol. 1 (Debut DLP 2)
The Quintet - Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut DEB 124)
Charlie Parker - Bird Meets Birks (Mark Gardner (E) MG 102)
Bud Powell - Summer Broadcasts 1953 (ESP-Disk' ESP 3023)
Charlie Parker - New Bird: Hi Hat Broadcasts 1953 (Phoenix LP 10)
The Quartet Of Charlie Parker (Verve 825 671-2)

1954
Hi-Hat All Stars, Guest Artists, Charlie Parker (Fresh Sound (Sp) FSR 303)
Charlie Parker - Kenton And Bird (Jazz Supreme JS 703)
The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #5 - Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter (Verve MGV 8007)
Charlie Parker - Miles Davis - Lee Konitz (Ozone 2)
V.A. - Echoes Of An Era: The Birdland All Stars Live At Carnegie Hall (Roulette RE 127)
Live Recordings
Live at Townhall w. Dizzy (1945)
Yardbird in Lotus Land (1945)
Bird and Pres (1946) (Verve)
Jazz at the Philharmonic (1946) (Polygram)
Rapping with Bird (1946-1951)
Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall (1947) (Blue Note)
The Complete Savoy Live Performances (1947–1950)
Bird on 52nd Street (1948)
The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings (1948–1951) (7 cds)
Jazz at the Philharmonic (1949) (Verve)
Charlie Parker and the Stars of Modern Jazz at Carnegie Hall (1949) (Jass)
Bird in Paris (1949)
Bird in France (1949)
Charlie Parker All Stars Live at the Royal Roost (1949)
One Night in Birdland (1950) (Columbia)
Bird at St. Nick's (1950)
Bird at the Apollo Theatre and St. Nicklas Arena (1950)
Apartment Jam Sessions (1950)
Charlie Parker at the Pershing Ballroom Chicago 1950 (1950)
Bird in Sweden (1950) (Storyville)
Happy Bird (1951)
Summit Meeting at Birdland (1951) (Columbia)
Live at Rockland Palace (1952)
Jam Session (1952) (Polygram)
At Jirayr Zorthian's Ranch, July 14, 1952 (1952) (Rare Live Recordings)
The Complete Legendary Rockland Palace Concert (1952)
Charlie Parker: Montreal 1953 (1953)
One Night in Washington (1953) (VGM)
Bird at the High Hat (1953) (Blue Note)
Charlie Parker at Storyville (1953)
Jazz at Massey Hall aka.The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever (1953)

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/