The Bird....man :) "Bird" is short for "Yardbird", which was a name given to him because he preferred chicken. Legendary Jazz saxophonist of the middle 20th Century. Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City and was exposed to the Kansas City Sound of the 1930s. He came to New York with the Jay McShann Orchestra as part of the Big Band/Swing era. In the early 40s he and John Birks Gillespie (DizzyGillespie) created BeBop. Parker suffered with Heroin addiction for much of his adult life and died in his mid-30s. ---- CategoryPerson