Charlie Parker Quotes

6 Sourced Quotes

L'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it.... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

Charlie Parker

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Charlie Parker

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Charlie Parker

Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas.... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

Charlie Parker

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Charlie Parker

It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

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Born: August 29, 1920

Died: March 12, 1955 (aged 34)

Bio: Charles "Charlie" Parker, Jr., also known as "Yardbird" and "Bird", was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Known for:

Bird and Diz (1952)
Charlie Parker With Strings
Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve
One Night In Birdland (1950)
Charlie Parker & Miles Davis

Charlie Parker on Wikipedia

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