Two festivals took place simultaneously in Kansas City's jazz district on August 29. Exciting, right? Not exactly.
Neither event had any online presence, but much of the coverage of they received are compiled in the September 1 post at Plastic Sax. Here are my impressions.
About 200 people attended the modest Bird Lives Festival on Highland Avenue outside the Mutual Musicians Foundation. The street fair vibe felt like an outdoor extension of the genial, relaxed atmosphere associated with the Foundation's late-night jam sessions. Good times. (Photo above.)
Just a couple hundred yards away, an unrelated event behind the American Jazz Museum had an entirely different tone. Less than 25 jazz fans fruitlessly waited for something interesting to happen at the desultory First Annual Kansas City Yardbird Jazz & Film Festival. Bad times. (Photo below.)
(Original images by Plastic Sax.)
Perhaps these two events will grow into something that replaces Rhythm and Ribs as a jazz festival (?)...
ReplyDeleteI had hoped to get there in time on Saturday for the musician picture in front of the Foundation. But, alas, only Stan Kessler and Jason Goudeau from the Kansas City Youth Jazz faculty made it over in time once we finished teaching. As Mr. and Mrs. Brady pulled into the Jazz District carrying a car load of us with them, we just happened upon Clarence Smith and Greg Richter (fellow KCYJ faculty members) who let us know it was over and they had missed it too. Hope they do another musician photo next year...
And then, the grave site service (sax salute) in Blue Summit is just held at a time (12:30) that I can't make on Sundays.
Nonetheless, I am sincerely glad that something is happening for Charlie Parker in Kansas City!
As a personal tribute, we took my visiting nephew (also a saxophonist) over to the 12th and Vine exhibit and took some pictures that he could post on his facebook and take back home.
Peace, Cb
That's a bummer about the picture, Cb. And you're right- it is, I suppose, a start.
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