"Yardbird", or "Bird". Alto saxophonist, co-"founder" of
bebop; patron saint of jazz. Helped revolutionize chromaticism
in jazz, incorporating distant chords and scales (also a tactic in later
avant-gardes) into his mercurial melodic lines. A Picasso-like figure, on and off the "canvas". He was also heroin-addicted for much of his adult life; the resultant wear shortened that life - he died in his mid-thirties, resembling (in the autopsy) an old man.