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CHARLIE “BIRD” PARKER: 1920-1955

By the age of 15, Charlie "Bird" Parker was a working musician, bringing innovative ideas to jazz and later, helping to create bebop. In 1946, "Bird" was arrested in Los Angeles for drug possession and incarcerated in Camarillo psychiatric institution. He narrowly escaped being given electroshock after a medical doctor said, "It could permanently impair Parker’s reflexes, reduce him to a…very average musician." Instead, however, he was prescribed powerful psychotropic drugs. On March 12, 1955, "Bird" died of a heart attack caused by a drug and alcohol related condition.


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