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Early life

Charles Parker Jr. was born at 852 Freeman Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, to Charles Parker Sr. and Adelaide "Addie" Bailey, who was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background. He was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, near Westport Road. His father was often required to travel for work, but provided some musical influence because he was a pianist, dancer and singer on the Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit, later becoming a Pullman waiter or chef on the railways. Parker's mother worked nights at the local Western Union office during the 1920s.

Parker first went to a Catholic school and sang in its choir, but his parents separated in 1930 due to his father's alcoholism and the effects of the Great Depression. By the time he was in high school, Parker, his older half-brother John, and his mother Addie were living near 15th Street and Olive Street and she was working as a cleaner in order to afford housing.

Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 he joined the Lincoln High School band where he studied under bandmaster Alonzo Lewis. His mother purchased a new alto saxophone around the same time. Parker's biggest influence in his early teens was a young trombone player named Robert Simpson, who taught him the basics of improvisation.

Parker withdrew from high school in December 1935, joined the local musicians' union, and decided to pursue his musical career full-time.