Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by Charlie Parker

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Charlie Parker.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Charles Parker Jr., nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. Parker was an extremely fast virtuoso and introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Primarily a player of the alto saxophone, Parker's tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. He was known for the very clear, sweet and articulate notes he could produce from the saxophone.

American - Musician | August 29, 1920 - March 12, 1955

Source: Wikipedia

Ever since I've ever heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise - as clean as possible, anyway, and more or less tuned to people. Something they could understand, something that was beautiful, you know?

Charlie Parker

I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it. I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing.

Charlie Parker

If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

Charlie Parker

Every time I hear a recording I've made, I hear all kinds of things I could improve or things I should have done. There's always so much more to be done in music. It's so vast.

Charlie Parker

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Charlie Parker

I put quite a bit of study into the horn, that's true. In fact, the neighbors threatened to ask my mother to move once, you know.

Charlie Parker

Definitely, study is absolutely necessary in all forms - it's just like any talent that's born within somebody. It's just like a good pair of shoes when you put a shine on it, you know? Like, schooling brings out the polish of any talent. It happens anywhere in the world.

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

One time, when I was in my teens, jamming in a Kansas City club, I was doing all right until I tried doing double tempo on 'Body and Soul.' Everybody fell out laughing. I went home and cried and didn't want to play again for three months.

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

I became bitter, hard, cold. I was always on a panic - couldn't buy clothes or a good place to live.

Charlie Parker

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Charlie Parker

Music is basically melody, harmony, and rhythm. But people can do much more with music than that. It can be very descriptive in all kinds of ways, all walks of life.

Charlie Parker

If you come on a band tense, you're going to play tense. If you come a little bit foolish, act just a little bit foolish, and let yourself go, better ideas will come.

Charlie Parker

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

Charlie Parker

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. 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

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

Charlie Parker

I can play all I know in eight bars.

Charlie Parker

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

Charlie Parker

Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

Charlie Parker

It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.

Charlie Parker

Man, there's no boundary line to art!

Charlie Parker

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

Charlie Parker

I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

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

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

Charlie Parker

I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

Charlie Parker

I look at melody as rhythm.

Charlie Parker

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

Charlie Parker

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

Charlie Parker

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

Charlie Parker

You've got to learn your instrument.

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

Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by Charlie Parker

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