You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Parker joined a group of young musicians and played in after-hours clubs in Harlem such as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and Minton's Playhouse. On November 30 1949 Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians. The tracks recorded during this session include "Ko-Ko" "Billie's Bounce" and "Now's the Time".

Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than an entertainer. "
Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos virtuosic technique and improvisation. Parker introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords new variants of altered chords and chord substitutions.