1939	Charlie Parker Chronology
	Created by Leif Bo Petersen	Last updated: December 15, 2024.
Date	Event	References/Further Details
January 1	Harlan Leonard's Rockets William Smith (tp); James Ross (tp, voc); Richmond Henderson (?); Charlie Parker (as); Darwin Jones (as, voc); James Keith, Freddie Culliver (ts); Rozell Claxton (p); Effergee Ware (g); Winston Williams (b); Ed Philips (d); Harlan Leonard (dir). Dreamland Hall, Kansas City, MO. Dance. 9–? am.	Ad in Kansas City Call, December 30, 1938, 11.
January 2	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Roseland Ballroom, Kansas City, MO. Dance Sans Souci Charity Club (prod).	“Social Shorts,” Kansas City Call, January 6, 1939, 7.
January 8	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Dreamland Hall, Kansas City, MO.	“Rozell Claxton, Harlan Leonard’s pianist, Rates in ‘Down Beat’ Band Poll,” Kansas City Call, January 20, 1939, 8: Leonard at Dreamland Hall every Sunday.
January 12	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, MO. Dance. Bonne Et Belle Girls Club (prod).	“Bonne Et Belle Girls Hostesses at Formal Party,” Kansas City Call, January 20, 1938, 6.
January 15	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Dreamland Hall, Kansas City, MO.	“Rozell Claxton, Harlan Leonard’s pianist, Rates in ‘Down Beat’ Band Poll,” Kansas City Call, January 20, 1939, 8:
January 22	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Dreamland Hall, Kansas City, MO.	“Rozell Claxton, Harlan Leonard’s pianist, Rates in ‘Down Beat’ Band Poll,” Kansas City Call, January 20, 1939, 8: Charlie Parker mentioned as band member.
January 29	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Dreamland Hall, Kansas City, MO. Dance. 9–? am	Ad in Kansas City Call, January 27, 1938, 7.
January late/ February early	Harlan Leonard's Rockets Charlie Parker is fired from the band because of unreliability.	C. Haddix, Bird -The Life and Music of Charlie Parker (2013), 37. Charlie Parker Local 627 union report can be found here: https://charlieparkerskc.org/map/18th-vine/local-627mutual-musicians-foundation: Leonard returned Parker’s union card to Local 627 on February 11, 1939.
February	Charlie Parker Charlie Parker is thrown out of his mother’s house because of his continuous quarrelling with his mother and his wife, Rebecca. He leaves Kansas City.	Addie Parker in R. G. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 165–166.
March?	Jam session King Kolax (tp); Goon Gardner (as); John Simmons (b); Kansas Fields (d); Billy Eckstine (voc). 65 Club, Chicago, IL. Breakfast dance. Parker pops up here fresh from a freight train. He jams on a borrowed instrument. Goon Gardner lends him a clarinet and provides him with some jobs, but Parker soon pawns the clarinet and continues to New York.	Billy Eckstine in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 84. C. Haddix, Bird -The Life and Music of Charlie Parker (2013), 39–40.
April?	Charlie Parker Charlie Parker arrives in New York and moves in with Buster Smith.	Buster Smith in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 215. C. Haddix, Bird - The Life and Music of Charlie Parker (2013), 40-41: states that it was at the time of opening of the World Fair.
Spring	Jam sessions Monroe’s Uptown House, New York, NY. Charlie Parker jams here April–June 1939 with Dave Riddick, Bobby Moore (tp); Kenny Kersey (p); Ebenezer Paul, Kenny Clarke (d).	Buster Smith in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 215. M. Levin and J. S. Wilson, "No Bop Roots in Jazz," Down Beat, September 9, 1949. Here from reprint in C. Woideck (ed.), The Charlie Parker Companion (1998), 75. Biddy Fleet in I. Gitler, Swing to Bop (1985), 68.
Spring	Charlie Parker When Parker has to leave from Buster Smith’s lodgings, he moves to the Woodside Hotel.	Jerry Lloyd in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 137.
Spring	Charlie Parker Parker gets a dishwasher job at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, which was run by Kirk’s former saxophonist John Williams. Art Tatum played there after hours in this period.	M. Levin and J. S. Wilson, "No Bop Roots in Jazz," Down Beat, September 9, 1949. Here from reprint in C. Woideck (ed.), The Charlie Parker Companion (1998), 75 Little Benny Harris in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1975), 107: Meets Parker for the first time when Parker was dishwashing at Jimmy's Chicken Shack.
Spring	Biddy Fleet Dan Wall's Chili House, New York, NY. Biddy Fleet has a gig here and Charlie Parker comes in for jamming.	M. Levin and J. S. Wilson, "No Bop Roots in Jazz," Down Beat, September 9, 1949. Here from reprint in C. Woideck (ed.), The Charlie Parker Companion (1998), 71. Biddy Fleet in I. Gitler, Swing to Bop (1985), 68–71. C. Haddix, Bird -The Life and Music of Charlie Parker (2013), 41-42.
May?	Charlie Parker Parisian Dance Room, New York, NY. Parker gets a job here.	Jerry Lloyd in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 138. Jerry Lloyd, who knows Parker through Benny Harris, gets him the job at Parisian Dance Room.
June?	Banjo Burney Robinson's Band Including Charlie Parker and Biddy Fleet. Dickie Wells’, 7th Avenue, New York, NY.	Biddy Fleet in I. Gitler, Swing to Bop (1985), 71.
August?	Banjo Burney Robinson's Band and Revue. Including Charlie Parker, and Biddy Fleet. Unidentified hotel, Annapolis. MD.	Joe Wilder interviewed by Phil Schaap (Bird Flight, radio WKCR, December 5, 2014): Wilder met Parker in Annapolis, MD, during the school holidays. Parker was playing with Banjo Burney. Wilder dates 1940/41. M. Levin and J. S. Wilson, "No Bop Roots in Jazz," Down Beat, September 9, 1949. Here from reprint in C. Woideck (ed.), The Charlie Parker Companion (1998), 75.
Autumn?	Charlie Parker Charlie Parker gets the message of his father's death and returns to Kansas City.	Buster Smith in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 215: Parker was in Baltimore, just before he returned to Kansas City to join Jay McShann. Addie Parker in R. Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker (1962), 158: She states that the father was murdered by a woman in a drinking brawl when Charlie Parker was 17. She contacts Charlie in Chicago and gets him home for the funeral. I have never seen contemporary sources for the death or burial of the father. If Parker was 17 when it occurred, it would have been in 1937 or 1938. This is not consistent with other facts concerning Parker’s departure from Kansas City, which all point to early 1939. It is also unlikely that Charlie Parker was in Chicago as she states.