CELEBRATING THE 101ST BIRTHDAY OF CHARLIE PARKER & KANSAS CITY JAZZ
August 29th marks the 101st birthday of KC jazz legend, Charlie Parker. Celebrate his legacy a day early with a tour of the Jazz District.
Kansas City will celebrate Charlie “Bird” Parker’s birthday with Spotlight 2021: Charlie Parker, a citywide celebration of his life and music in August 2021. KC Jazz Alive, University of Missouri Kansas City, the American Jazz Museum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mutual Musicians Foundation, Bruce Watkins Cultural Center and numerous other cultural and civic organizations will host jam sessions, tours, lectures, exhibits, panel discussions, poetry slams, workshops and concerts celebrating Charlie Parker—Kansas City’s native son.
August 29th marks the 101st birthday of KC jazz legend, Charlie Parker. Celebrate his legacy a day early with a tour of the Jazz District.
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.
KC Jazz ALIVE is proud to provide expanded promotion with an international reach for Charlie Parker’s 101st birthday celebration.
See official Charlie Parker website at CharlieParkerMusic.com
https://spotlightcharlieparker.org/