Charlie Parker Residence — 151 Avenue B, New York

Charlie Parker — 'Bird' — lived at 151 Avenue B in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighbourhood from 1950 until his death in 1955, and the building is now a New York City landmark. Parker was the co-inventor of bebop and arguably the most influential saxophonist in jazz history. During his time at Avenue B he continued to perform and record despite severe heroin addiction and declining health. He died on March 12, 1955, in the suite of jazz patron Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter at the Hotel Stanhope on Fifth Avenue, reportedly while watching television and laughing at a juggling act.

Parker grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and honed his revolutionary approach to the alto saxophone in the competitive jam sessions of that city's jazz scene before moving to New York. His partnership with Dizzy Gillespie in the mid-1940s, and his recordings for Savoy and Verve, established the bebop vocabulary that every jazz musician since has had to reckon with. His average working week on 52nd Street during bebop's peak years was an astonishing creative output delivered under the weight of addiction.

The building at 151 Avenue B is designated a New York City landmark with a plaque acknowledging Parker's residence. It is a private apartment building but the exterior is freely viewable. Alphabet City — now part of the gentrified East Village — was a working-class neighbourhood in Parker's day. His Kansas City childhood home is also preserved as a museum in Missouri.