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Charlie Parker

Christmas Eve, 1948, and the band arrived early. According to Miles Davis, it was Charlie “Yardbird” Parker's opening night at the Argyle Club and the band members came by El, carrying their instruments down the long flight of stairs from the elevated tracks to the street while the icy whip of Chicago's notorious winter lashed at their coats, which, of course, were too cool for this city's brand of winter frigidity.

Cool as in cool jazz.   Cool as in the Miles Davis definition of cool.

These dudes were always short on bread but long on style, and they cursed the glacial sting of the Chicago wind that roared down from Canada across Lake Michigan as it reminded them that just because clothes looked hip didn't make them warm. There were four of them, drummer Max Roach, Tommy Potter on bass, Duke Jordan on piano and Miles Davis on trumpet.  Inside the club, the customers kept tumbling in until the place was packed.  Just look at this crowd that had come out to hear Bird on a Christmas Eve!

Charles Christopher "Bird" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955) was an American jazzsaxophonist and composer. Early in his career Parker was dubbed Yardbird; this was later shortened to 'Bird' and remained Parker's nickname for the rest of his life and inspiration for the titles of his works e.g. Yardbird Suite.

Parker is commonly considered one of the greatest jazz musicians. In terms of influence and impact, his contribution to jazz was so great that Charles Mingus commented that if Bird were alive today, he would think he was living in a hall of mirrors.

Parker became an icon for the Beat generation, and was a pivotal figure in the evolving conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than just a popular entertainer. At various times, Parker fused jazz with other musical styles, from classical to Latin music, blazing paths followed later by others.

Sources: Wikipedia, and a story as told by Miles Davis to anonymous writer