Join us as we celebrate the life,
the music, and the iconic legacy
of Kansas City’s own:
Charlie “Yardbird” Parker!
Please keep checking back for More Events for 2024! *Artists and Venues subject to change at any time. Please confirm with Venue directly.
OJT builds on the classic organ jazz trio by mixing old school Kansas City jazz with blues and a modern funky groove. Ken Lovern on Hammond organ, Kenny Watson Jr. on drums, and Brian Baggett on guitar play equal parts in balanced arrangements with outstanding improvisations. OJT has been a band for more than 20 years and it shows. Kenny Watson Jr has been with the group for just over a year and he brings a fresh energy to the old school organ jazz jams.
OJT is:
Ken Lovern: Hammond Organ
Brian Baggett: Guitar
Kenny Watson Jr.: Drums
Join us Friday night at Lonnie’s Reno Club for an upscale dinner show experience featuring Lonnie McFadden and his band! The club is an authentic KC jazz club with ties to the history of Midwest music. With a simple delectable menu and prohibition era cocktails, music lovers and foodies will enjoy an unforgettable dining experience.
We are proud to announce:August 25 will be the first day of our “Charlie Parker Celebration” at Lonnie’s Reno Club! Thanks to “KC Jazz Alive” Tia Fuller will stop by and play a couple of songs with us that night 😃👍🏽
Doors open at 6:30pm, show starts at 7pm. There is an intermission halfway through, and the show ends at 9:30pm.
The 1909 Club is Libations & Company’s vibrant music hall. Come and enjoy this beautiful space dedicated to live music. This intimate setting is cozy and unique, creating an experience that moves both musicians and the audience. Celebrating all styles of music including authentic Kansas City music, blues, jazz, funk, and soul, the 1909 Club offers a space to sip cocktails, listen to live music, and comfortably converse with other guests. Lounge voices are required, and the best manners are expected. It’s the most vibrant live music scene in Lee’s Summit, the 1909 Club.
Logan Richardson’s playing is beyond lyrical—his alto sax often functioning more as a lead vocalist than a virtuoso solo instrument.
Known for his adventurous, genre-bending jazz, Logan Richardson is an American-born, Paris-based alto saxophonist. He has been a professional musician since he was 16, and came to wider recognition after moving to New York and issuing his 2007 debut, the post-bop-influenced Cerebral Flow. He has performed with a variety of jazz musicians including Joe Chambers, Billy Hart, Butch Morris, Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, the World Saxophone Quartet, Arthur Blythe, and Jason Moran. He is also a member of the Next Collective.
While he is well versed in the jazz tradition, he has proven to be an eclectic, forward-thinking artist whose albums like 2015’s Shift (which featured guitarist Pat Metheny) and 2018’s Blues People showcase his love of mixing jazz with searing rock fusion, hip-hop, electronic rhythms, and Americana.
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From his beginnings as one of Chicago’s most thrilling young trumpeters, to his current status as an internationally renowned musician, composer and bandleader, Marquis Hill has worked tirelessly to break down the barriers that divide musical genres. Contemporary and classic jazz, hip-hop, R&B, Chicago house, neo-soul—to Hill, they’re all essential elements of the profound African-American creative heritage he’s a part of. “It all comes from the same tree,” he says. “They simply blossomed from different branches.”
Friday, 8/25 – Logan Richardson & Blues People featuring Marquis Hill
PHOTOS – 2023 Spotlight: Charlie Parker Artist In Residence, Tia Fuller was invited to sit in by Logan Richardson & Marquis Hill. Photos by Greg Carroll.
Named after the famed 1930s Street Hotel club in the Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District, The Blue Room simultaneously honors the past and showcases the present names in jazz. A multifaceted exhibit highlighting the countless musicians who crafted “Kansas City jazz,” a sound known all over the world, The Blue Room also provides a distinctive platform to present dynamic performances from the best local and national jazz talent in an intimate setting. At the Blue Room, upcoming bands, seasoned veterans of the local jazz scene, national talent and internationally renowned jazz artists share the spotlight.
Dr. Brian Ward, D.M.A., is a keyboardist, recording artist, composer, arranger, and educator from the Pacific Northwest. Ward has performed with Bobby Watson, Will Matthews, Leroy Vinnegar, Bobby Torres, Shirley Nanette, Dee Daniels, Curtis Salgado, Obo Addy, The Oregon Symphony, The Spokane Jazz Orchestra, and many others. Brian helped create the arrangement for “City of Roses” by Esperanza Spalding, which won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for Vocal Performance. Brian currently lives in Kansas City, Kansas, where he is active on the K.C. jazz scene performing jazz and blues.
Get your tickets TODAY for a walking tour of one of Kansas City’s most historic neighborhoods; 18th & Vine Jazz District! Celebrate Charlie Parker’s birthday by touring Bird’s old stomping grounds and feel his tunes run through you!
Chuck Haddix – Director of UMKC Marr Sound Archives, host of KCUR 89.3 “Fish Fry” on Friday and Saturday nights, author of “Bird – The Life and Music of Charlie Parker” and “Kansas City Jazz – From Ragtime to Bebop”.
Geri Sanders – Independent historical consultant, specializing in the community at the 18th and Vine Historic District and other diverse projects such being a part of the design team for the reopening of the Kansas City Museum as well as the Community Remembrance Project through the Legacy Museum, founded by Bryan Stevenson in Alabama.
Attendees will meet on the sidewalk outside of The Blue Room (1600 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108) at 9:45am to check in for the walking tour. Bottled water will be provided. Please bring your tickets with you.
About the Tour:
During the days of public segregation, Kansas City’s 18th and Vine area developed into a self-contained community. The intersection of 18th and Vine served as the hub of a bustling business and entertainment district–the heart and soul of an African-American community, bounded by Independence Avenue on the north, Troost Avenue on the west, 27th Street on the south and Benton Boulevard to the east.
Just after the turn of the 19th century, an African-American preacher and his wife, the Reverend and Mrs. Sweeney, operated a truck farm in the 18th and Vine area. By the late 1800s, thousands of African-Americans settled in the area, then known as the “Bowery.” In November 1909, the first moving picture show for African-Americans, the Star, opened in a wood-frame building at the northeast corner of 18th and Vine, forming the cornerstone of the new business district.
The area grew quickly and by 1915 dry goods stores, laundries, fish shops, bakeries, barbers, cobblers, tailors, restaurants, nightclubs and all the businesses and services denied the community downtown packed 18th Street east of Paseo Boulevard. Apartments and headquarters for social clubs perched on the second floor above the bustle of commerce below. The fragrant aroma of hickory smoke from Henry Perry’s Barbeque pit at 19th and Highland wafted over the community. Street cars rattled down the center of 18th Street connecting the community to the rest of the city and jobs in packing plants, the railroads and homes of the wealthy. Once established, the community grew swiftly and prospered.
Young Charlie Parker came of age as a man and musician in the 18th and Vine area. After Charlie’s parents separated in 1930, he and his mother Addie moved to a two-story brick house at 1516 Olive Street just blocks away from 18th and Vine. Addie worked nights and after she left for work, Charlie began his nightly rounds of the night clubs dotting 12th and 18th streets. While on tour later in his career, Charlie often stopped off in Kansas City to visit Addie, play gigs in the clubs on 18th street and renew old acquaintances
PHOTOS BY BJ JANSEN
In The Yard: Annual Outdoor Music Celebration
Celebrate Charlie Parker’s Birthday weekend during our annual outdoor concert event in our backyard!
🎷 Kansas City Jazz ALIVE is proud to present 2023 Spotlight: Charlie Parker – shining a bright light on the musical genius of Kansas City’s own Charlie “Yardbird” Parker!
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Featuring Vocalists:
Millie Edwards
Lisa Henry
Pam Watson, Accompanist
Kansas City Girl’s Choir
Choir Director, Mia Edwards
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Suffragist History:
Dr. Carmaletta Williams
Lisa White Hardwick
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No charge, Seating is limited, RSVP: inthekitchenak@gmail.com
Sponsored by: Black Archives of Mid America, KC Black Women Suffragist Committee, Women’s Equality Coalition
Discover the Kansas City Jazz Sound. Join us for a discussion of the impact of the Kansas City Jazz Sound: What is it? Why is it important to KC Culture? How did KC shape it?
For this session we will have the following panelists: (Panelists subject to change)
- Clint Ashlock – Artistic Director the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra
- Chuck Haddix – Author, Historian and Director of the Marr Sound Archives of UMKC
- Steve Kraske – Moderator and Host of KCUR’s Up-To-Date
Join us at 6:30pm (Doors: 6pm) at the Westport Coffeehouse Theater for this exciting panel discussion. Bring your thoughts and questions with you! We are planning for an interactive and engaging discussion.
Thank you to our sponsors: Kansas City’s Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund, Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Performing Arts, Commerce Bank, Trustee
Green Lady Lounge
$10 cover charge cash or credit at door. Always open seating. No reservations. 21 & over.
Green Lady Lounge features Kansas City Jazz musicians and only their original compositions in the rich Kansas City tradition. Free of televisions you can focus on music, atmosphere and conversation.
Live Kansas City Jazz 365 days a year.
Hours:
Sunday & Monday 5pm to 3am
Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 3am
Millie Edwards is known in Kansas City for her big voice and wide vocal range. She has been a regular on the Kansas City jazz and blues circuit, performing at the best clubs and in radio and television spots. Music critics have praised her as revealing “a confident, full-range voice that has no doubt been heard in church on many a Sunday.”
Green Lady Lounge
$10 cover charge cash or credit at door. Always open seating. No reservations. 21 & over.
Green Lady Lounge features Kansas City Jazz musicians and only their original compositions in the rich Kansas City tradition. Free of televisions you can focus on music, atmosphere and conversation.
Live Kansas City Jazz 365 days a year.
Hours:
Sunday & Monday 5pm to 3am
Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 3am
Green Lady Lounge
$10 cover charge cash or credit at door. Always open seating. No reservations. 21 & over.
Green Lady Lounge features Kansas City Jazz musicians and only their original compositions in the rich Kansas City tradition. Free of televisions you can focus on music, atmosphere and conversation.
Live Kansas City Jazz 365 days a year.
Hours:
Sunday & Monday 5pm to 3am
Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 3am