It's hard to describe exactly, he contributed so many different elements. A lotta guys played fast. Rapid! I mean in one, these cats. But they didn't play the notes Charlie Parker played. His modus operandi was different, the way he attacked and how he swung...Charlie Parker played very syncopated and sanctified. There was nobody playing like that in our style...but Charlie Parker, when he came onto the scene, had it down to a T personified. Charlie Parker's contribution to our music was mostly melody, accents and bluesy interpretation. And the notes! "Bird" has some notes in his melodies, the lines that he wrote, that are deep, deep notes, as deep as anything Beethoven ever wrote.
-Dizzy Gillespie on his co-revolutionary, Charlie Parker
Happy birthday Bird!
