After Louis Armstrong, he was the next instrumental voice to change the sound of Jazz. It was a huge awakening for me to have come out of the '70's Rock era and start to spend some time with "Bird." I played a club date with an old bass player in the mid-eighties who told me Charlie had still owed him ten bucks.

Wikipedia: Parker is commonly considered one of the greatest jazz musicians. In terms of influence and impact, his contribution to jazz was so great that Charles Mingus commented, "If Bird were alive today, he would think he was living in a hall of mirrors."...read on