def parallel_coordinates(X, y, ax=None, features=None, classes=None,
                         normalize=None, sample=1.0, color=None, colormap=None,
                         alpha=None, fast=False, vlines=True, vlines_kwds=None,
                         **kwargs):
    """Displays each feature as a vertical axis and each instance as a line.

    This helper function is a quick wrapper to utilize the ParallelCoordinates
    Visualizer (Transformer) for one-off analysis.

    Parameters
    ----------

    X : ndarray or DataFrame of shape n x m
        A matrix of n instances with m features

    y : ndarray or Series of length n
        An array or series of target or class values

    ax : matplotlib Axes, default: None
        The axis to plot the figure on. If None is passed in the current axes
        will be used (or generated if required).

    features : list, default: None
        a list of feature names to use
        If a DataFrame is passed to fit and features is None, feature
        names are selected as the columns of the DataFrame.

    classes : list, default: None
        a list of class names for the legend
        If classes is None and a y value is passed to fit then the classes
        are selected from the target vector.

    normalize : string or None, default: None
        specifies which normalization method to use, if any
        Current supported options are 'minmax', 'maxabs', 'standard', 'l1',
        and 'l2'.

    sample : float or int, default: 1.0
        specifies how many examples to display from the data
        If int, specifies the maximum number of samples to display.
        If float, specifies a fraction between 0 and 1 to display.

    color : list or tuple, default: None
        optional list or tuple of colors to colorize lines
        Use either color to colorize the lines on a per class basis or
        colormap to color them on a continuous scale.

    colormap : string or cmap, default: None
        optional string or matplotlib cmap to colorize lines
        Use either color to colorize the lines on a per class basis or
        colormap to color them on a continuous scale.

    alpha : float, default: None
        Specify a transparency where 1 is completely opaque and 0 is completely
        transparent. This property makes densely clustered lines more visible.
        If None, the alpha is set to 0.5 in "fast" mode and 0.25 otherwise.

    fast : bool, default: False
        Fast mode improves the performance of the drawing time of parallel
        coordinates but produces an image that does not show the overlap of
        instances in the same class. Fast mode should be used when drawing all
        instances is too burdensome and sampling is not an option.

    vlines : boolean, default: True
        flag to determine vertical line display

    vlines_kwds : dict, default: None
        options to style or display the vertical lines, default: None

    kwargs : dict
        Keyword arguments that are passed to the base class and may influence
        the visualization as defined in other Visualizers.

    Returns
    -------
    ax : matplotlib axes
        Returns the axes that the parallel coordinates were drawn on.
    """
    # Instantiate the visualizer
    visualizer = ParallelCoordinates(
        ax, features, classes, normalize, sample, color, colormap, alpha,
        fast, vlines, vlines_kwds, **kwargs
    )

    # Fit and transform the visualizer (calls draw)
    visualizer.fit(X, y, **kwargs)
    visualizer.transform(X)

    # Return the axes object on the visualizer
    return visualizer.ax