Charles Parker, Jr. was born on August 29, 1920, at 852 Freeman St., Kansas City, Kansas.1  His father, Charles Parker, Sr., an African-American, was born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.2  The father of Parker Sr., Peter Parker, was an evangelist preacher.3  Parker Sr. earned his living as a touring entertainer on the vaudeville circuit with skills of singing, dancing, and play the piano.4  He established himself as a local entertainer in Kansas City, where he met Adelaide “Addie” Boxley.5  He married Addie during 1908,6  and later worked for the railroad as a chef.7  Although his excessive consumption of alcohol was problematic and his affairs with other women had led to the instability of the family life, Parker Sr. did contribute to Parker’s earliest exposures to music through his collection of jazz and blues recordings and his leisure pursuits of piano performance and singing.8  Parker’s mother, a descent of Choctaw-African-American, moved with her family from Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Kansas City and married to Parker Sr. when she was seventeen.9  Parker also had an older half-brother John Parker, known as Ikey, who was the son of Parker Sr. from his liaison with an Italian woman.10

The birth year of Parker is debatable, as Parker’s half brother, John Parker, recalled that “Charlie was––as far as he knows––born August 29, 1921,” 11 a statement that was contrary to the date indicated on Parker’s birth certificate.12  Some publications printed Parker’s name as Charles Christopher Parker, Jr. which is debatable, as Parker’s mother stated that “just plain Charles Parker,” citing that Parker was not given a middle name and Christopher was not the name of Parker’s father. 13  In spite of Addie Parker’s insistence, Ross Russell insists that Parker is referred as Charles Christopher Parker, Jr. in the legal document.14

The incapability of Parker Sr. to secure family’s financial condition forced Mrs. Parker to work for long hours and Parker was consequently reared at a Catholic school despite the fact that Mrs. Parker was a Baptist.15  Parker’s participation in the school choir has also been noted.16  In 1929, the couple separated.17  Parker Sr. left and took Parker’s half-brother, John Parker, with him.  The incident further promoted the infrequent associations between Parker and his father.

Parker’s family soon moved to Kansas City, Missouri, providing janitorial service and lived around 35th, 36th and Broadway, before settling down in 1561 Olive Street.18  There have been disputes regarding when Parker’s family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and where Parker attended elementary school.  Parker’s own account indicated that the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, around 1927.  However, this account has been disputed by Rebecca Parker, Parker’s first wife, as she recollected that the move occurred in 1931.19  According to recollections of Parker’s former schoolmate, Parker attended Penn School on 43rd and Spring Avene in an area known as Westpost.20  Arthur Saunders, Parker’s former classmate, provided a recollection of what might be Parker’s first association with saxophone: “We were able to have a person teach music at the school once a week.  And Charlie Parker was there when he picked up his first saxophone.  And he was very excited about it.”21  Parker later may have transferred to and graduated from the Crispus Attucks Public School.22  However, this information has been disputed by Rebecca’s claim that she saw Parker’s diploma from Charles Sumner Elementary School.23  Additionally, Rebecca claimed she was not aware of Parker’s attendance in Crispus Attucks Public School where she herself graduated in 1931.24  The account of Parker’s former classmate, Jeremiah Cameron, is also contradictory as he recalled that Parker “graduated from Seventh Elementary School.”25

In 1932, Parker attended Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri.  In 1933, he was forced to repeat his freshman year due to his poor class attendance.26  He was musically active during this year as he started to play alto horn in the marching band and the symphony band directed by Alonzo Lewis.27  Parker was soon given an opportunity to switch to baritone horn.28  Parker recalled that “I liked the baritone horn.  When my successor graduated, I went right in.”29  Around the same time, Parker was motivated by Rudy Vallee’s saxophone performance and decided to pursue alto saxophone as his main musical interest.  Parker sought financial support from his mother, who spent two hundred dollars to purchase what was possibly Parker’s second alto saxophone.30  Furthermore, he started his association with Lawrence Keyes, a pianist and a sophomore at that time, who was to offer Parker the preliminary knowledge of harmony.31  He also joined as an alto saxophonist in Keyes’s band made up of students called Deans of Swing no later than 1934,32 featuring James Rose on trumpet, Vernon Walk and Franz Bruce on alto saxophones, Freddie Culliver on tenor saxophone, Robert Simpson on trombone,33  Walter Brown on vocal,34 and Ernest Daniels on drum.35  However, Parker did not demonstrate great musical potential at that time, as Gene Ramey commented that Parker “wasn’t doing anything, musically speaking, at the period.  In fact, he was the saddest thing in the band, and the other members gave him something of a hard time.”36

In was around this time, in his early adolescence, that the lack of supervision by Addie Parker because of her late night working hours in Western Union as a charwoman led to Parker’s active participation in late night jam sessions centered around 12th Street.37  Ernest Daniels, the drummer in Lawrence Keyes’s Deans of Swing, recalled that Parker “used to come by my window at twelve or one in the morning, throw a pebble against the window, and we’d go to jam sessions and play. I’m not positive about the years, but I’d say it was around 1934-35 that we were with Keyes.”38

During that period, the entertainment circle in Kansas City was stimulated indirectly by the corruption by Thomas J. Pendergast and his political machine.  Pendergast dominated the politics of Kansas City from 1900 to the 1950s and exercised a “nearly absolute power in both the city and the state of Missouri from 1926 through 1936.”39  During Prohibition, despite the fact that alcoholic beverages were served in nightclubs, there were “no felony convictions for Prohibition violations in Kansas City during the entire period of that law.”40  During The Great Depression, Kansas City become a destination for unemployed jazz musicians from the Southwest, as the burgeoning entertainment circle offered plenty of job opportunities.41  Even though Pendergast and his political machine did not directly invest in the development of jazz music, “the economic vitality that his reign helped to stimulate and flourishing vice that he permitted are critical elements that led to Kansas City’s becoming an extraordinary musical center in the 1930s, instead of just another Depression-ridden Midwestern city.”42  The corruption was reflected in incidents such as the Union Station massacre,43  and Pendergast’s power was further expanded by distributing local federal jobs during the New Deal.44  He maintained control of the city until he was indicted in 1938 for income tax fraud.  Despite the conclusive answer to the impact of Pendergast’s corruption requires further research, “the perception among most Kansas Citians of all races was that the policies of the Pendergast machine lessened the impact of the Great Depression in their city,”45  and further flourished significant jazz bands led by Bennie Moten, Andy Kirk, Count Basie, Jay McShann, and Harlan Leonard.  Parker spent most of his apprenticeship in this unique and musically stimulating environment that played a significant role in his musical development.

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  1. Some publications note Parker’s middle name as Christopher, as recounted by Parker’s artist friend Harvey Cropper in Robert G. Reisner, ed., Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975), 159.  Ted Joans, a surrealist artist, provides a similar recollection see Bird (117).  Harry A. Reed also cites Christopher as Parker’s middle name in Harry A. Reed, “The Black Bar in the Making of a Jazz Musician: Bird, Mingus, and Stan Hope,” Journal of Jazz Studies 5, no. 2 (Spring/Summer 1979): 85.  However, Parker’s mother, Addie Parker dismissed the claim see Bird (167). ↩
  2. Gary Giddins, Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987), 24. ↩
  3. Reisner, Bird, 124. ↩
  4. Giddins states that Charles Parker, Sr. “drifted to Kansas while touring as a dancer and singer on the T.O.B.A. circuit, a substandard chain of theaters organized in 1911" in Celebrating Bird (24-25).  This information is questionable as Sherman H. Dudley established S. H. Dudley Theatrical Enterprises in 1911 with only four theaters in Virginia and Washington, D.C.  Dudley then expanded the scope of the organization and established the T.O.B.A., Theater Owners’ Booking Association, in 1920. ↩
  5. The dispute regarding Addie Parker’s maiden name was researched and concluded as Boxley shown in Kent J. Engelhart, “Musical and Cultural Factors in the Musical Development of Young Charlie Parker as Demonstrated Through Transcription and Analysis of the Improvised Solos of Young Charlie Parker with the Jay McShann Orchestra” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2000), 23-24.  Engelhart interviewed Myra Brown, Parker’s cousin, who was Addie Parker’s legal guardian before she passed away, to confirm the information. ↩
  6. The author conducted a field trip to Parker and his mother’s graves, located in the Lincoln Cemetery, Missouri, on August 14, 2004.  Addie Parker’s gravestone inscribed August 21, 1891, as her date of birth.  Additionally, Addie Parker reportedly married to Parker Sr. when she was seventeen. ↩
  7. Addie Parker commented on his ex-husband that “he could cook anything” in Bird (159), supporting the likelihood of this occupation. ↩
  8. Ron Frankl, Charlie Parker, Black American of Achievement (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1993), 24. ↩
  9. Carl Woideck, Charlie Parker: His Music and Life, The Michigan American Music Series (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998), 3. ↩
  10. Ken Vail, Bird’s Diary: The Life of Charlie Parker 1945‑1955 (Chessington: Castle Communications plc, 1996), 4.  Cary Giddins cited John Parker as the son of Parker Sr. from his “previous liaison” in Celebrating Bird (26).  It seems to suggest the liaison of Parker Sr. with an Italian woman occurred before the marriage of Parker Sr. and Addie Parker.   However, Parker Sr. and Addie Parker was reportedly married in 1908 and John Parker was reportedly only two years older than Parker, who was born in 1920 or 1921.  Thus, the data suggests the liaison occurred after Parker Sr. and Addie Parker were married. ↩
  11. Nathan T. Davis, "Charlie Parker's Kansas City Environment and Its Effect On His Later Life" (Ph.D. diss., Wesleyan University, 1974), 104. ↩
  12. According to Addie Parker’s account in Bird (158), Parker’s half brother John Parker was only two-year-old when Parker was born.  Although John Parker’s account cannot be discredited based upon this datum alone, it should be taken into consideration when reading John Parker’s recollection.  Furthermore, this conflict of data has been demonstrated among published articles as Carl Woideck pointed out that Parker was paraphrased as stating his year birth year as 1921 in a Down Beat article, while a direct quotation marked his birthday as August 29, 1920 in an article published in Metronome in Charlie Parker (243).  The latter account was supported by Parker’s own remark as he cited 1920 as his birth year documented in a 1950 interview transcribed in Carl Woideck, ed., The Charlie Parker Companion: Six Decades of Commentary (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 101.  It is also noted that Parker’s birth certificate was certified in 1958 in Celebrating Bird (26), the credibility of which has been lessened as it was certified three year after Parker’s death.  Mrs. Parker’s account recalling Parker’s birthday as 28th instead of 29th further disputed the issue in Bird (167).  Harold Baker’s recollection, although questionable, also disputes the issue by stating that “I was born May 26, 1913, and Charlie was older than me” in Bird (34). ↩
  13. Reisner, Bird, 167. ↩
  14. Ross Russell, Bird Lives: The High Life and hard times of Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker (London: Quartet Books, 1976), 368. ↩
  15. Ibid., 162. ↩
  16. Brian Priestley, Charlie Parker, Jazz Master Series (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1984), 11.  Julie MacDonald, a sculptor, also recalled that Parker “mentioned once that he had been a choir boy” (Reisner, Bird, 139). ↩
  17. Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker, rev. ed. (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999), 8. ↩
  18. The account was provided by Dr. Jeremiah Cameron, Parker’s former classmate in “Development of Young Charlie” (25, 371). ↩
  19. Giddins, Celebrating Bird, 26. ↩
  20. Engelhart, “Development of Young Charlie,” 25. ↩
  21. Ibid. ↩
  22. This account is supported by Mrs. Addie Parker who stated that Parker “graduated Crispus Attucks Public School at eleven years old and always got fine grades” in Bird (158), and Lawrence Keys also recalled that “Bird went to Crispus Attucks Public School” in Bird (129). ↩
  23. Giddins, Celebrating Bird, 26. ↩
  24. Ibid., 28. ↩
  25. Engelhart, “Development of Young Charlie,” 371. ↩
  26. Giddins, Celebrating Bird, 28. ↩
  27. Lincoln High School’s music department was established by Major N. Clark Smith, a retired United States Army bandmaster, based upon J.P. Sousa model, and has enjoyed good reputation in Bird Lives (37). ↩
  28. Most authors in the associated references cite the importance of baritone horn in Parker’s early association with music.  However, André Francis questionably stated that “after having studied the baritone saxophone, he chose the alto” in André Francis, Jazz. Martin Williams (New York: Da Capo Press, 1976), 110. ↩
  29. Charlie Parker, “Interview: Charlie Parker, Marshall Stearns, John Maher, and Chan Parker,” interview by John Maher and Marshall Stearns (New York, 1 May 1950), Charlie Parker: Six Decades of Commentary, ed. Carl Woideck (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998), 100.  It is noted that some writers have cited contradictorily that it was Alonzo Lewis, the band director, who “persuaded him to try the baritone horn” in Yardbird Suite (8). ↩
  30. Most writers cited Addie Parker spent forty-five dollars to purchase a secondhand alto saxophone after Parker attended Lincoln High School.  For example, Engelhart stated “when Parker was thirteen, he heard Rudy Vallee’s saxophone on the radio, and his over-obliging mother bought him a used saxophone for fort-five dollars” in “Development of Young Charlie” (28).  However, Addie Parker recalled that “when Charles got put here at Lincoln. . . . after a while he asked me to get him a horn and I did. . . . I finished paying for it, was some two hundreds odd dollars. . . . the first horn I got him only cost me forty-five dollars at Mitchell’s down on Main Street. . . . but that other horn was just beautiful” in Bird (166).  Parker’s own recollection further supported author’s proposition as Parker stated that “I didn’t get interested in a horn until I got interested in baritone horn when I was in high school. But I’d had the saxophone for a few years” in “Interview: Marshall Stearns” (94). ↩
  31. Lawrence cited that Parker was “fascinated with the piano, and he used to borther me to show him chords” in Bird (129).  It is noted that Lawrence Keyes played xylophone and cymbals in the school bands directed by Alonzo Lewis in Celebrating Bird (38), but he formed his own band and played piano and his association with Parker continued even after both of them moved to New York to pursue their own careers in Bird (130). ↩
  32. Gene Ramey’s recalled that he first met Parker “in 1934. . . . Charlie was in a group from K.C, Missouri. . . . The leader of Bird’s band was a pianist and singer named Lawrence Keyes” in Bird (185). ↩
  33. According to Lawrence Keyes, Parker was very closed to Robert Simpson who died when he was only twenty-one years old in Bird (129).  It is noted that Addie Parker’s recollection contradicts to Keyes’s account as Mrs. Parker recalled that “Robert Simpson, his friend who played the trombone who dies of an operation at nineteen, was his inseparable friend” in Bird (162).  Parker later spoke to Ahmed Basheer regarding Robert Simpson that “once in Kansas City I had a friend who I like very much, and a sorrowful thing happened. . . . He died” in Bird (41), the incident evidently led to Parker’s propensity to avoid close relationship as he stated that “I don’t let anyone get too close to me” in Bird (41). ↩
  34. Walter Brown and Parker later also became members of Jay McShann Orchestra. ↩
  35. The recent research indicates that Keyes’ group was first called the Ten Chords of Rhythm.  Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix cites that “in July 1953, Parker joined the Ten Chords of Rhythm, a dance band led by pianist Lawrence Keyes.  A large burly youth with talent to match cockiness, Keyes took Parker under his wing at Lincoln High inrank Driggs and Chuck Haddix, Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop—A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 164. ↩
  36. Reisner, Bird, 185. ↩
  37. Jeremiah Cameron in a telephone interview with Kent J. Engelhart reaffirmed that “Parker’s hangout was 12th Street” in “Development of Young Charlie” (29). ↩
  38. Reisner, Bird, 75. ↩
  39. Nathan W. Pearson, Jr., Goin’ to Kansas City (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 83. ↩
  40. Ibid., 85. ↩
  41. Ross Russell, Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), 9. ↩
  42. Pearson, Goin’ to Kansas City, 83. ↩
  43. Lyle W. Dorsett, The Pendergast Machine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 127. ↩
  44. David R. Colburn and George E. Pozzetta, ”Bosses and Machines: Changing Interpretations in American History,” The History Teacher 9, no. 3 (May 1976): 459. ↩
  45. Lawrence H. Larsen and Nancy J. Hulston, Pendergast! (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 181. ↩
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