Charlie Parker played the alto saxophone faster and with denser harmonic imagination than anyone had thought possible, and in doing so invented bebop more or less on the bandstand. His volcanic improvisations on "Ko-Ko" and "Billie's Bounce" rewired what a jazz solo could be, turning standard chord changes into launchpads for pure invention. He was dead at thirty-four, and jazz has been absorbing the shock of his innovations ever since.

the sound in question

1945

Billie's BounceCharlie Parker