"If you have never heard Charlie Parker, the experience could permanently change the way you think about music. That is precisely what it did for a generation of jazz musicians. No more than two other instrumentalists--Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane--have had that powerful an impact. Parker influenced players on every instrument. He unveiled a seemingly endless flow of melodic ideas, using the higher intervals of the scale and passing chords which enriched commonplace harmonic structures. He also broke down a major psychological barrier, proving it was possible to improvise lyrically and swing furiously at tempos his predecessors had never even attempted. . . . Despite Parker's short life, he has achieved as much as any jazz musician a kind of immortality through his music." -Len Lyons

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