| Director | Clint Eastwood |
|---|---|
| Budget | $9 million |
| Box office | $2 million |
In 1939, Kansas City, Missouri, young alto saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker performs at the Reno Club. However, his rapid and sporadic playing gets him jeered offstage. Moving to New York City, Charlie begins performing at different jazz venues on 52nd Street and meets trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. While Charlie performs with Dizzy, their specific style of jazz develops a following and is known as "bebop."
One evening, Charlie meets Chan Parker, a dancer and jazz lover. Attracted to Chan, Charlie continually asks her out, but she refuses his advances and moves to Chicago, Illinois. Later, Chan returns from Chicago and confesses she is pregnant with another man's child. Upset, Charlie leaves for Los Angeles, California, to perform with Dizzy. One evening, Red Rodney, a Jewish trumpet player, approaches Charlie and tells him he is a fan. Later, Charlie and Dizzy's engagement is cancelled due to a lack of interest in bebop. Charlie stays in Los Angeles, but his addiction to drugs and alcohol worsen, and he is hospitalized for eight months.
After Charlie gets clean and is released, Chan obtains a booking at a New York club for him. When he thanks Chan for her help, she introduces him to her daughter, Kim. Later, Charlie learns that his friend, Brewster, is opening a new club and naming it Birdland after Charlie. In need of work and money, Charlie travels to Paris, France, and finds an audience for jazz and bebop. However, he returns to New York and performs at Birdland.
Charlie later meets with Red and, while waiting for Birdland to open, offers a job touring with him in the South. Although Red is hesitant about how an interracial band might be received, Charlie assures him no harm will come to them. Arriving at their first engagement, Red sees Charlie has advertised him as being a blues singer named "Albino Red." During the tour, Charlie learns that Red is addicted to heroin and insists that he stop using drugs.
Returning to New York, Charlie and Red perform together for Birdland's grand opening. Afterward, authorities pick up Red for drug possession. Charlie continues to perform at Birdland and other New York clubs. Chan and Kim move in with Charlie, and he and Chan have two children of their own: son Baird, and daughter Pree.
Some time later, Charlie is arrested for drug possession and put on probation. He loses his cabaret card, leaving him unable to perform in New York, and moves to Los Angeles in order to find work. He reconnects with Dizzy, who sees that he is using drugs again. Charlie later learns that Pree has died from an illness and returns home for her funeral. Depressed by Pree's death and his faltering career, Charlie tries to kill himself by drinking iodine, but survives. After Chan has him committed to a hospital psychiatric ward, she is advised to send Charlie to a state facility for shock treatments. She worries that such treatments might rob him of his creative abilities. After Charlie is released, Chan convinces him to move their family to upstate New York.
Charlie later returns to the city for an audition set up by Brewster, but becomes distracted seeing all the former jazz clubs on 52nd Street have been turned into strip clubs. Missing the audition and embarrassed to tell Chan, Charlie goes to the apartment of Baroness Nica, a wealthy jazz music patron, and soon passes out. A doctor arrives and advises Charlie to go to the hospital, but he refuses. Later as he watches television with the Baroness, Charlie suffers a heart attack and dies at the age of 34.