Editing Charlie Parker (section)

==Artistry==
Parker's style of composition involved [[Interpolation (popular music)|interpolation]] of original melodies over existing jazz forms and standards, a practice known as [[contrafact]] and still common in jazz today. Examples include "[[Ornithology (composition)|Ornithology]]" (which borrows the chord progression of jazz standard "[[How High the Moon]]" and is said to be co-written with trumpet player Little Benny Harris), and "[[Moose the Mooche|Moose The Mooche]]" (one of many Parker compositions based on the chord progression of "[[I Got Rhythm]]"). The practice was not uncommon prior to bebop, but it became a signature of the movement as artists began to move away from arranging popular standards and toward composing their own material. Perhaps Parker's most well-known contrafact is "Koko", which is based on the chord changes of the popular bebop tune "Cherokee", written by Ray Noble.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2000/08/27/1081208/-i-ko-ko-i|title = The Story of Charlie Parker's 'Ko Ko'|website = NPR.org}}</ref>

While tunes such as "Now's The Time", "[[Billie's Bounce]]", "[[Au Privave]]", [[Barbados (composition)|"Barbados"]], "Relaxin' at Camarillo", "[[Bloomdido]]", and "Cool Blues" were based on conventional [[12-bar blues]] changes, Parker also created a unique version of the 12-bar blues for tunes such as "[[Blues for Alice]]", "Laird Baird", and "Si Si." These unique chords are known popularly as "[[Bird Changes]]". Like his solos, some of his compositions are characterized by long, complex melodic lines and a minimum of repetition, although he did employ the use of repetition in some tunes, most notably [[Now's the Time (composition)|"Now's The Time".]]{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Parker contributed greatly to the [[Bebop|modern jazz]] solo, one in which [[Tuplet|triplets]] and [[Anacrusis#Music|pick-up notes]] were used in unorthodox ways to lead into chord tones, affording the soloist more freedom to use [[passing tone]]s, which soloists previously avoided. His recordings were used for a book of solo transcriptions, the posthumously published ''[[Charlie Parker Omnibook]]''.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Other well-known Parker compositions include "[[Ah-Leu-Cha]]", [[Anthropology (composition)|"Anthropology"]] (co-written with Gillespie), [[Confirmation (composition)|"Confirmation"]], [[Constellation (composition)|"Constellation"]], "[[Moose the Mooche]]", "[[Scrapple from the Apple]]" and "[[Yardbird Suite]]", the vocal version of which is called "What Price Love", with lyrics by Parker.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

[[Miles Davis]] once said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: [[Louis Armstrong]]. Charlie Parker".<ref>{{cite book |title=Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever |url=https://archive.org/details/clawingatlimitso00grif |url-access=registration |first2=Salim |last2=Washington |first1=Farah Jasmine |last1=Griffin |year=2008 |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/clawingatlimitso00grif/page/237 237] |isbn=9780312327859 }}</ref>