Remembering Bird 2008

Talk about your hall of mirrors. In the photo above TNLD captures the indefatigable blogger Plastic in Bag capturing this video of this year's Charlie Parker memorial, held last weekend at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Summit, MO. (The celebration has become a annual event over the last few years, usually taking place on the Sunday before Bird's birthday which is actually today August 29. Happy birthday, Mr Parker!)

Here's the Kansas City Star's coverage of the event, which includes pictures that are much more professional than anything I took. (I was standing nearby as reporter Brian Burnes and his pen tried to keep up with saxophonist Loren Pickford, who didn't so much talk as radiate phrases that rose, fell and darted bebop style. Burnes probably had to soak his wrist that evening.)

Despite ideal (damn near miraculous, really) late-August weather, the attendance was down from last year's event in almost every category: fewer horns around the grave, fewer folks gawking the musicians, fewer Parker family members, and few members of the Dirty Force Street Band closing things out. There were also fewer revelers at the Mutual Musicians Foundation jam session afterward. The number of bigpipers held steady at one.

This could be taken as yet another reason for hand wringing about the state of jazz in old Kaycee and by extension elsewhere else. I see it more as a matter of logistics and chance.

• Logistics: Two months before, Dean Hampton, the events longtime organizer and a longtime local jazz agitator was forced by illness to hand the event over to a group of volunteers including Fanny Dunfee and Bill Doty and some stalwarts from JAM. And for their first time out, they did a very capable job.
• Chance: You can never tell how many folks, especially jazz fans are going to be able to make it anywhere on a Sunday afternoon. This year's event also faced competition from high-flying birds of another sort at the Kansas City Air Show, as well as other festivals and fair in other places.

That said, in the long run, the event will need some youthifying if it's going to stay fresh. Maybe get some of the kids from the jazz program at the UMKC Conservatory to jump in.

One particularly notable moment from the jam session: The band had played through several of Bird's tunes and wound up with about 10 guys on the stand for Billie's Bounce. They went around the band soloing, first longer solos and then back around trading tighter four-bar solos. As often happens, one guy was on fire and that afternoon it was trumpeter Lonnie McFadden. He really tore it up, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, prompted hollering from the crowd, and when the song ended and the crowd was cheering, the musicians around him reached out, seemingly involuntarily, to touch him, as though they were hoping some of that fire might pass to them. That's the magic of art, that's the beauty of jazz.

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Listen up: My radio piece from last year's event.

Slow Blues

Video: Oscar Peterson and Count Basie, back in the day (although not that far back).

Work in other sectors of my life has been hectic enough of late that posting in this space has slowed to a crawl. So I'm posting the slice of nice above as a way of saying that I shall indeed post again, soon.

Still to come:

• Overdue reviews/reflections on recent releases by Bobby Watson and Erin Bode, among others
  
• A brief meditation on Marilyn Maye
• Scenes from the Greenmill

And it looks like I may be able to make this year's graveside Bird memorial after all. (Here's my recap from last year.)

Another Helping of Bird

If you missed the annual Charlie Parker graveside remembrance, fear not. Documentations of the event continue to arrive.

Steve Paul, the Kansas City Star's writer for all seasons, has put together a collection of images (including the one above) from the event. View a slideshow here or click the image above.

My audio feature aired on KC Currents Sunday (and repeated Monday). You can listen to it here.

Bird persists!

Parker's Birthday

Today would have been Charlie Parker's 87th birthday. Happy birthday, Bird, wherever you are.

Of course in Kansas City, and elsewhere, the celebration got started last Sunday. Every year on the Sunday closest to Parker's birthday, local jazz folks gather at his grave in Blue Summit's Lincoln Cemetery to play his music and remember. After failed attempts in 2005 and 2006, I made it to the event this year, fancy recording device in tow. I'm editing a piece about the event that should run on KCUR's KC Currents this Sunday at 5 (with a repeat on Monday at 8).

Update: Listen to "Jazz Fans Gather to Celebrate 'Bird'"




By most accounts, this year's turnout was good. The KC Star's Rich Montgomery put it at around 150 and I'm no good at those kinds of estimations so I'll go along. (For one local Casandra, it was cause for more yet more grousing about the dwindling audience for jazz. More flies with honey, Mr. Bag...)

The weather was good, as in not life threateningly hot, and spirits were generally high.

A nice moment came after the event was starting to break up. Local sax man and educator, Ahmad Alaadeen was showing off an alto sax he'd brought with him. He said it belonged to John Jackson, who played in the Jay McShann band with Parker. Since Parker was notorious for either losing or pawning his horns for drug money, Jackson often loaned this particular horn to Bird for gigs.

Bobby Watson, Gerald Dunn, Dennis Winslett and several other local sax players were standing around. Alaadeen handed the horn to Watson, who fingered the keys and declared to it to be "like butter." He blew a single note and handed it back to Alaadeen, then immediately made a show of rubbing his hands on his horn, as if trying to transferring the Parker mojo.

Can you blame him?

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Photo above from talented flickr user yngrich used under a Creative Commons license.

KC Alert: SNUFF, Bird and AJM at 10

Upcoming KC Jazz haps in to note:

Jazz and Beyond series presents SNUFF and Bells - August 25
God (or Whomever) bless those crazy Unitarians. All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City presents the latest in its adventurous Jazz & Beyond series and "An Evening of SNUFF JAZZ" sounds like it could be the most adventurous yet. SNUFF regulars Mark Southerland (aka Shark Motherland), Bill McKemy, Arny Young are promising two sets regular SNUFF. They'll be joined by Jeffrey Ruckma (whom I label a genius), Alonzo Conway and -- get this -- the All Souls Handbell Choir. As a former high school hand bell player, I'm mighty interested.

The show starts at 7:30. No ticket price is listed on the church's site, but previous shows have been $10.

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Bird's B-Day - August 26
This nostalgic ramble by former Kansas Citian William B. Smith ran yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. It should serve to remind the greater world that Charlie Parker's birthday (8/29/20) is fast approaching and with it the annual commemorations thereof. Events are planned in New York (both in Harlem and the East Village) and, of course, at Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Summit where Bird's bod is interred. This year's graveside 21-sax salute takes place on Sunday, August 26th at 1 PM. A jam at the Mutual Musicians Foundation follows that evening at 8 PM. A handy map to the cemetery is at webjazz.net.

I just received word today that a new -- and possibly competing -- event is being added to the commemorative mix this year. At 2 PM that same day, a memorial exhibit opens at the Town House Gallery, 7th and State in Kansas City, Kansas, Parker's birthplace. It's being organized by local historian Sonny Gibson. Esteemed local jazz elders Ben Kinard, Frank Patterson and Pearl Thuston will speak. Lee Brown and the Smooth Groove will play.

YouTube bonus: Here's Parker playing with another big name around KC at one time, Coleman Hawkins:



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Turning X on the Vine piles on
The American Jazz Museum is adding more events to the roster for it's upcoming 1oth anniversary shindig. The "extravaganza" now starts on September 13 with a symposium on Jazz and Baseball. That same night Bobby Watson hosts KC's first VandoJam National at the Blue Room (that's basically a jam session sponsored by reedmaker Vandoren).

September 14 is a fundraiser concert at the Gem headlined by Patti LaBelle and the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band featuring Jimmy Heath and Slide Hampton. Vocalist Roberta Gambarini is also in the bill. She was recently named a rising star vocalist in Downbeat's annual critics poll. AJM will present a Lifetime Achievement Award to pianist Ellis Marsalis (the father of all those Marsalises you've heard so much bout recently). Tickets for the fundraiser are around $200, so please wave at us peons on your way in.

September 15 is a free day-long street fare with music and food and artists and craftspeople, marching bands, African drummers, two-steppers, fire eaters, jugglers and sacrificial mimes (OK, I made that last one up but a guy can hope).

More info on Turning X on the Vine can be found at the AJM website.