Join the UMKC Libraries for a release party celebrating “Charlie Parker: Bird in Kansas City” from Verve Records! The event will is a listening session, talk with the Curator, and reception Saturday, November 16, 2024 from 4:00-6:00 pm in the Miller Nichols Learning Center.
RSVP for the party!This event celebrates the special relationship that UMKC Libraries has with Charlie “Bird” Parker: saxophonist, composer, pioneer of the Bebop revolution in Jazz, and Kansas City native. The new record stars rare recordings from our Marr Sound Archives of Parker playing with the Jay McShann Band in Kansas City, and never-before-heard private sessions. The album cover reveals the only known image of Parker playing his alto saxophone in Kansas City, part of a collage of photos snapped at a UMKC student hangout called the Jelly Joint, from our University Archives.
On November 16th, join us from 4-5pm to view the exhibit Saxophone Supreme: The Life & Music of Charlie Parker and enjoy a reception with guest performer Bobby Watson, then stay from 5-6pm for a program and listening session with Chuck Haddix, Curator of the Marr Sound Archives and preeminent Parker historian, in partnership with the Center for Recorded Music.
Saxophone Supreme is a richly detailed exhibit curated by Haddix, author of Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker, and the American Jazz Museum. In addition to materials from many partners, the exhibition draws on the collecting and preservation work of the UMKC Libraries Special Collections and Archives teams. The Marr Sound Archives holds rare and important Parker recordings, LaBudde Special Collections stewards unique original photographs and Parker memorabilia, and UMKC Digital Collections makes digitized images of Parker available to viewers everywhere. The November 16th program is an opportunity to hear Haddix spin tales – of the newly discovered recordings, the origins of Bird’s name, or perhaps even the backstory of the Jelly Joint – that connect Parker, Kansas City, UMKC, and the wider world of Jazz.
This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the parking lot north of the library. The Miller Nichols Learning Center is located at 800 E. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO 64110. View the location on Google Maps.
