When alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker died at the age of thirty-four from the effects of drug and alcohol addiction and hard living, graffiti appeared on walls and sidewalks all over New York City proclaiming "Bird Lives!" The grief-stricken graffiti artists were more prescient than they could have imagined. One of the premier jazz artists in history, Parker made a contribution to American music that continues to be strongly felt decades after his own life was cut short. First reckoned as a major influence in jazz when he helped develop the "bebop" style while playing in Harlem clubs in the 1940s, his style is still widely imitated not only by saxophone players, but by jazz musicians on every instrument and even by scat singers. A master improvisationist whose command of theme and counterpoint has been compared by some critics to Bach, Parker was not...