Charlie Parker article in today's Wall St Journal

[mjzee]

K.C.'s Pendergast and Parker

By WILLIAM H. SMITH

I was among the now-dwindling group of jazz buffs on the scene in the fall of 1938 when Charlie Parker (1920-55) started on his oft-bumpy road to jazz immortality. The venue: Martin's-on-the-Plaza, a posh Kansas City, Mo., club on the famed Country Club Plaza, where legendary jazz pianist, blues singer and band leader Jay McShann gave the alto saxophonist his first steady gig. Little did I realize back then that this was to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, as the 17-year-old Parker went on to be known as arguably the greatest sax player of all time.

To understand how Kansas City, this Missouri cow town, became a magnet for jazz musicians, one must learn about Boss Tom Pendergast, who fell heir to the business interests and political machine established by his big brother, Jim.

The baseball legend Buck O'Neil, who gained fame with the Kansas City Monarchs, described the Pendergast era in one sentence: "The sky was the limit; anything you were big enough to do and could afford, you did it." Others observed that policemen gambled alongside civilians in the many establishments dispensing booze.

The vice and corruption afforded a fertile ground for jazz to flourish. During the 1930s, musicians from all over the country started Goin' to Kansas City. There was Lester "Pres" Young, who had come from Minneapolis, and drummer Jesse Price, who had arrived from Memphis, Tenn. On a stopover en route to Omaha, Neb., McShann had gotten off the bus and walked several blocks to the Reno Club, where Count Basie held court, and been persuaded by a bassist friend to stay. Charlie Parker -- who was born in Kansas City, Kan. -- had only needed to take a nickel bus ride across the Kaw River to Missouri, where he found a place to live near Vine Street. Charlie never returned home, except to visit his mother, Adele.

As related in "Kansas City Jazz From Ragtime to Bebop," by Frank Driggs and Chuck Haddix (Oxford University Press, 2005), McShann recalled that the clubs along Vine Street didn't close: "About 7:00 in the morning the cleanup man would come and all the guys at the bar would move out of the way . . . the bartender would serve them at a table while the place got cleaned up . . . the clubs went 24 hours a day." It was at Bar Lu Duc that McShann found the young man playing alto sax whom he had been looking for and wanted for his Martin's Plaza gig.

Recovering from a 1936 car accident, Parker became addicted to heroin. As a result, his unreliability was notorious -- many times he'd show up for a gig sans saxophone and unable to perform. McShann told me that when he employed Parker, he was contacted by Earl "Fatha" Hines, who warned that he wanted the saxophonist -- and swore that "I've got the money and I'm taking him." And so he did. He kept him for about six months -- until Hines called McShann. "Hootie, come get this guy," Hines begged. "I can't handle him." Jay took Charlie back -- but paid a sideman a stipend to keep an eye on him. Parker's other well-known addiction -- fried chicken, or "yardbird" to Charlie -- accounts for Parker becoming universally recognized simply as "Bird."

When Missouri Gov. Lloyd Stark was elected in 1936 and turned against Pendergast, it became clear that an end to the corruption and vice in Kansas City was in the cards. In 1938, Westbrook Pegler called the nation's attention to the Pendergast machine in his syndicated columns. In 1939, Tom Pendergast was imprisoned in Leavenworth for income-tax evasion; by the time of his death in 1945, the golden age of Kansas City jazz was over. With the curtailment of nightlife, musicians and bands looked for greener pastures in New York. Parker was among them.

After Parker set the world of jazz afire with his blazing, revolutionary improvisations, his tragic life ended, March 12, 1955, at the Fifth Avenue residence of his friend, and benefactor of jazz, the Baroness de Koenigswarter. When he became deathly ill, Charlie was watching the Dorsey Brothers' TV program, "Stage Show." Parker liked the sound of Jimmy Dorsey's alto sax. Although the coroner estimated his age as between 55 and 60, Parker was only 34.

Parker's birthday was Aug. 29. A few days early, The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, sponsored by the New York City Parks Foundation, celebrates the occasion on Aug. 25 at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and on Aug. 26 at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Both events are from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Charlie Parker is buried at Lincoln Cemetery, on the outskirts of Kansas City, Mo. -- where the Charlie Parker story began. According to Dean Hampton, a K.C. jazz impresario, the 2007 Celebrating Bird events will begin at the grave site on Aug. 26 at 1 p.m., with a sax salute, a New Orleans style marching band, and many other Kansas City-based jazz musicians. The celebrations will continue through Parker's birthday at the famed Mutual Musician's Foundation, which during Parker's day was the home of local 627, the largest black local union in the country. Here there will be a jam session, as well as displays of Charlie's memorabilia. Further details and directions are provided at webjazz.net.

Bird Lives!

[Eric]

Thanks for posting!

Twas how it was!

Sadly the Pendergast backlash can still be felt today, although 18th & Vine is making steady progress.