Alexander Fleming vs Charlie Parker
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Fleming | Charlie Parker | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Musician | Jazz |
| Born | 1881 | 1920 |
| Died | 1955 | 1955 |
| Country of birth | SCT | United States |
| Star sign | Leo | Virgo |
Who they are
Alexander Fleming
In September 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist returned from his summer holiday to a cluttered laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, and noticed something unusual on a petri dish he had left behind. A mould had contaminated one of his cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria — and around the mould, the bacteria were dead. Alexander Fleming did not immediately grasp that he had just made the most important medical discovery of the twentieth century. But he was curious enough to look more carefully, and careful enough not to throw the dish away. That decision would eventually…
Full biography of Alexander Fleming →
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. was born on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas, and grew up across the river in Kansas City, Missouri, in a city that pulsed with jazz at every hour of the day and night. The Kansas City of Parker's youth was a wide-open town, operating under the corrupt but musically fertile patronage of political boss Tom Pendergast, and the music that thrived there — hard-swinging, blues-drenched, built for all-night cutting sessions — formed the soil in which Parker's genius took root. He began playing alto saxophone at age eleven and joined…
Full biography of Charlie Parker →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: SCT and United States.
- 39 years separate their births (1881 and 1920).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Fleming or Charlie Parker?
- Alexander Fleming. Alexander Fleming was born in 1881, Charlie Parker in 1920.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Fleming is filed under Music (Musician). Charlie Parker is filed under Music (Jazz).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.