S:CP AUGUST 19 – AUGUST 26, 2023
GRAMMY NOMINATED SAXOPHONIST, TIA FULLER IS OUR 2023 ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
SPOTLIGHTCHARLIEPARKER.ORG (August 19 through August 26, 2023) is in its 10th year of celebrating the iconic musical legacy of the world renowned Charlie Parker, who was born in Kansas City, Kansas 103 years ago and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.
We’re gathering the details of the numerous related events that are being produced by KC area artists, organizations, and venues celebrating “BIRD” during that week on the Spotlight Charlie Parker website and promoting them to the public.
I’m currently the Vice President of KC Jazz ALIVE and chairman of the MARCOM Committee that’s tasked with helping articulate what’s going on. We are unpaid volunteers who love the music and the KC community. We love Charlie Parker’s music and believe that his contributions to the continuum are vital to modern developments in improvised music.
If you play or enjoy improvised music you can’t escape “Bird.” Even music that doesn’t sound like his descends from his lineage or is a response to it.
Charlie Parker’s influence on the music still impacts its melody, rhythm, and harmony 75 years later. His innovative approach of adding secondary dominant cycles to the standard jazz blues harmony is still a standard competency for musicians to attain.
Think about Miles Davis and all of his sidemen. And think about Art Blakey and all of his sidemen. This is only to highlight the subsequent impact of just two of Bird’s most influential sidemen.
Now it’s logical to consider that all of the subsequent generations of improvising artists in this continuum are inherently the musical descendants in a significant way of Kansas City’s own original, Charlie Parker. That’s cool.
I’m updating the websites all this week. So bookmark this link. Check out and subscribe to the events calendar so you can get any updates. Look for our promotional messages in various media.
BIRD LIVES
ARTICLE BY
Christopher Burnett (Link)
Musician, Composer, Educator
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Vice President, KC Jazz ALIVE
“Raising the Tides that Lift ALL Jazz Boats”