LOS ANGELES, March 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Throughout his brief but influential life, Charlie "Bird" Parker made an enormous impact on popular music as one of the architects of modern jazz. The jazz titan, inarguably one of the greatest saxophonists of all time, grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and spent much of his adult life in New York. Nonetheless, Los Angeles looms large in his musical life as he spent more time in L.A. than anywhere outside of K.C. and N.Y. From 1945-1954, Parker made half a dozen trips to the City of Angels and recorded many of his greatest musical triumphs there. In December 1945, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie changed music forever by bringing the sound of bebop from the East Coast to the West Coast for a fabled two-month residency at Billy Berg's Supper Club in Hollywood billed as "Bebop Invades the West." Entranced by the city, Parker would end up staying for an extended amount of time in which he gigged all around town, recorded at a Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concert, and made some pivotal recordings for the nascent Dial label. Following a drug-fueled physical and mental collapse at the infamous July 29, 1946 "Lover Man" session, he was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six-month stint for his heroin addiction. Shortly after being released in January 1947, Bird would stick around for a few more months, which included a well-documented two-week engagement at the Hi-De-Ho Club, before heading back to NYC. He would return to L.A. four more times, briefly in November 1948 with JATP, for a three-month stay during the summer of 1952, and for shorter visits in 1953 and 1954.
