blaKC (3/5)
The Gem Theater opened its doors in 1913 as a silent movie theater for African Americans. Today, thanks to the renovation of 18th & Vine, the Gem Theater has found new life as a performance venue.
Published February 15, 2021
A NOTE FROM THE WRITER: This particular edition of “flashbaKC”, in celebration of Black History Month, is the third chapter of a weekly, five-part series that explores some of the stories of the amazing black men, women, and entities that shaped our city, and overall society. Chapter II can be read HERE. Writers write for a handful of reasons. For the month of February, I have chosen to just tell stories. Whether you are entertained, persuaded, or informed? Well, that’s up to you.
Please, be mindful that due to COVID-19 concerns, some of the places recommended in this article may not be open to the public, or have limited hours and capacity.
Chapter III: 18th & Vine
It is not uncommon to hear someone describe something as being, “As American as apple pie”. While we all know the meaning, it’s not necessarily the best qualifier. Apple pie is not American, is it? It’s British in origin and bounced around most of Europe before it ever made its way to the States. In fact, many of the things that we affiliate with our country (hamburgers, hot dogs, democracy, pizza) did not originate here. We appropriated them from somewhere else.
It doesn’t come as a surprise. We are the great melting pot after all.
Perhaps then, the saying should go, “As American as baseball” or “As American as jazz”. “America’s Pastime” and “America’s Only True Original Art Form”, respectively, are actually unique to our nation.
“When they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will be only three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball, and jazz.”
Remarkably, baseball and jazz are intertwined. They are both undoubtedly American in origin but the exact details of their birth are a heap of hearsay shrouded in mystery with multiple places staking a claim. Both began their meteoric rise to popularity in the same era.
As for the word “jazz” itself? It was born on the baseball diamond. “Jazz” was tossed around the horn before it ever described what came out of one. How the term made the jump from baseball to define a distinctly American genre is still up for debate.
Kansas City is similarly intertwined. One cannot tell the story of Kansas City without discussing jazz and baseball. And, one cannot tell the story of jazz or baseball without discussing Kansas City. Not one of these stories can be told without 18th & Vine.
“At 18th & Vine, you couldn’t toss a baseball without hitting a musician and you couldn’t whistle a tune without having a ballplayer join in. Baseball and jazz, two of the best inventions known to man, walked hand in hand along Vine Street. ”
It was the 1920s and Kansas City was alive! Along the riverfront, Kansas Citians flocked to Boss Tom Pendergast’s speakeasies, burlesques, and casinos. On Kansas City’s Eastside, jazz and baseball had just arrived.
At Muehlebach Stadium, some of the greatest baseball players ever were picking up a bat and glove for the Kansas City Monarchs, and doing things on the diamond that no one had ever seen before. Nearby, at 18th & Vine, some of the greatest musicians of all time were picking up their instrument of choice and finding a sound in cabarets and clubs that nobody had ever heard before.
During the day, thousands packed into Muehlebach. In the evening, they danced and drank the night away. In spite of prohibition, alcohol flowed freely. Raucous music was performed round-the-clock.
This was the reign of Tom Pendergast. This was the dawn of the Negro Leagues. This was the height of the Jazz Age.
This was Kansas City in the Roaring Twenties.
Jazz may have been born in New Orleans, but it grew up at Kansas City’s 18th & Vine District.
That Jam Session Sound
Kansas City Jazz (1920 - Present)
It is widely agreed that jazz was born in Louisiana at the turn of the century. The genre was a blend of European classical music, West African rhythms, and the spirituals of African Americans infused with the harmonic progression of the blues and the syncopation of ragtime. By the 1920s, jazz had become popular in cities across the nation as the lively notes captured the excitement of the era.
The Roaring Twenties were a prosperous time. The economy was booming. World War I was over and the world was, seemingly, at peace. American cities saw their populations surge due to mass urbanization. This growth led to urban development which created a wealth of opportunities.
If there was a downside to this time, it’s that you couldn’t get a drink. Prohibition was the law of the land. A drink was difficult to come by, that is, unless, you were in Kansas City. Under the rule of political boss Tom Pendergast, Prohibition didn’t seem to exist in “The Paris of the Plains”. Gambling and prostitution ran rampant.
In this climate, America’s truest original art form flourished. Hundreds of nightclubs sprang up across this midwestern den of wanton decadence which created ample opportunity for aspiring musicians. New Orleans may have given birth to jazz, and New York may be where it eventually settled down, but it was in Pendergast’s Kansas City that jazz came of age.
“If you want to see some sin, forget Paris and head to Kansas City.”
It was in the Pendergast Era that Bennie Moten came into his own. Born and raised in Kansas City, it would be difficult to find anyone who better personified the dawn of jazz in KC, more than Bennie Moten. As a child, he learned to play the piano and developed a passion for ragtime. As a teenager, he dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music. By most accounts, Moten was an average pianist. What set Bennie apart as a musician though, was his ability to organize a band.
Count Basie played with Walter Page and Bennie Moten before he became the most prominent jazz bandleader in America.
Bennie Moten had an eye for top talent and a warm personality that made the best musicians want to play with him. By the early 1920s, his six-man band, Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, was a regular act in the lounge of the black-owned Street’s Hotel at 18th and Paseo. In 1923, Moten’s Orchestra accompanied blues singer Ada Brown and recorded the first track in Kansas City history, “Evil Mama Blues”.
While initially, Moten’s band played in the style of New Orleans jazz musicians, they later became known for the added notes and blues melodies they incorporated into their songs. The Kansas City Orchestra popularized riffing, which, along with their trademark backbeats, became the foundation of the Kansas City style. Today, both are staples of modern jazz.
Throughout the decade, Moten’s band continued to expand. Among the jazz legends that played in Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra were Thamon Hayes, Harlan Leonard, Oran “Hot Lips” Page, and, most notably, William “Count” Basie.
Originally from New Jersey, Basie excelled at the piano from a young age. As a teenager, he was already touring on some of the most major jazz circuits. In 1927, a cancelled tour left Basie stranded in Kansas City. Recognizing the opportunities that existed in The Pendergast Era, Basie decided to stay and signed on with Walter Page and the Blue Devils. Two years later, he had been sniped by Page’s rival, Bennie Moten. It was while a member of Moten’s orchestra that, due to his tendency to sneak off during practice sessions, Moten gave Basie his nickname.
“Where’s that no ‘count rascal [Basie]?”
After the unexpected death of Bennie Moten in 1935, Count Basie formed his own band and many of the members of the Kansas City Orchestra, and Walter Page, found their way there.
The Count Basie Orchestra became a mainstay at The Reno Club at 12th and Cherry. During this time, jazz was played all night long in Kansas City. Even when club-goers would call it a night, rival musicians would get together and jam into the daylight hours. These musicians constantly drove one another to push the envelope of the art form in these sessions, unrestrained by the limitations of the stage.
“Kansas City was different from all other places because we’d be jamming all night. And [if] you come up here ... playing the wrong thing, we’d straighten you out.”
Having the luxury of a permanent slot, Basie and his band incorporated elements of those sessions into their act. Since many of the performances at The Reno Club were broadcast nationally, Count Basie and his band rose to prominence for bringing the sounds of the Kansas City jam session to the rest of the country, thus ushering in The Swing Era.
In 1929, at the same time that Basie was joining Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, Andy Kirk, and his band The Clouds of Joy, came to Kansas City. An accomplished tubist and bass saxophonist from Denver, Kirk began his career bouncing around the Southwest. After hearing Kirk and his band play in Tulsa, a bandleader recommended Kirk to the owner of the Pla-Mor Ballroom in Kansas City.
The Jazz District of 18th & Vine was once bathed in neon by the hundreds of nightclubs and cabarets in Pendergast’s Kansas City.
Similar to Count Basie, Kirk’s band became known for their swing sound. Similar to Moten, Kirk found that his best skill was not in playing, but in putting together a band. Most notably, it was Andy Kirk who recognized the genius of Mary Lou Williams.
Mary Lou Williams had moved to Kansas City with her husband John Williams when The Clouds of Joy accepted the Pla-Mor Ballroom job. Though she was an accomplished pianist, Williams was not initially a member of the band. Within a year however, Williams had not only earned herself a spot in Kirk’s band, she was their most popular soloist.
Kirk placed her in charge of composition for the band and her arrangements helped The Clouds of Joy compete with the likes of Basie’s Orchestra. Known as “The First Lady of the Keyboard”, Williams is remembered for being one of the first women to be successful in jazz. The legendary pianist had a distinguished solo career and was a mentor to future jazz stalwarts Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonius Monk.
Another contemporary of Basie, Kirk, and Williams, Jay “Hootie” McShann was one of many musicians drawn to the jazz mecca of Kansas City. A purveyor of the Kansas City swing sound, it was McShann’s band that first featured a young saxophonist by the name of Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker made his recording debut with Hootie’s band; but more on that later.
Among the other notable performers who made their way through Kansas City during the Jazz Age were George E. Lee, Buck Clayton, Buster Smith, Julia Lee, Earl “Jock” Caruthers, Coleman Hawkins, Big Joe Turner, Claude Williams, Myra Taylor, Pete Johnson, Lester Young, and a host of other legendary musicians.
“You’d hear some cat play, and somebody would say, ‘This cat, he sounds like he is from Kansas City.’ It was Kansas City Style. They knew it on the East Coast. They knew it on the West Coast. They knew it up North and they knew it down South. ”
For nearly twenty-five years, Kansas City was the epicenter of jazz. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. The conviction and arrest of Boss Tom Pendergast at the end of the 1930s resulted in local authorities cracking down on the nightclub scene. While corruption was purged from the city, the environment that had allowed Kansas City’s sound to blossom went away along with it.
As the United States entered World War II, jazz musicians were either drafted or had to resort to traveling to draw crowds. Eventually, the best artists settled in markets like New York and Chicago which displaced Kansas City in jazz stature.
Even so, Kansas City had forever transformed the genre. This city’s sound influenced entire generations of jazz musicians to come. While improvisation would continue to linger in the shadows of the Eastside, it would be decades before Kansas City’s local jazz scene was revitalized. It never again reached the heights of the 1930s.
The Golden Age of Jazz was over.
So, What Do I Do Now? In more normal times, there are dozens of Kansas City nightclubs that regularly feature live jazz performances. Go back where it all began in the 18th & Vine Historic District and check out The Blue Room on a Friday or Saturday night! You will be transported to another time in this club that pays homage to the history of the craft. Among the other jazz spots I would personally recommend, are The Green Lady Lounge and The Phoenix.
At 17th and Paseo, this bust of Charlie “Bird” Parker’s head, with the inscription “Bird Lives”, stands as a monument to “The Father of Bebop” and one of Kansas City’s most prominent sons.
The Birth of Bebop
Charlie “Bird” Parker (1920 - 1955)
CLANG! Charlie Parker jumped as the metal disc crashed at his feet.
This was supposed to be his night. It was 1937, and the sixteen year old was playing at the famed Reno Club with The Count Basie Orchestra’s drummer, Jo Johnson, accompanying. It had started off so well. Yet, somewhere along the way, Parker had lost the beat. He now stood frozen on stage. Johnson, long known for his short fuse, quickly became annoyed with the pause and threw his cymbal at the young saxophonist to usher him off the stage. The echo of the cymbal was soon drowned out by the jeers of the crowd as Parker exited.
Disappointed, but not disheartened, Charlie Parker swore to himself in that moment that he would make it back to that stage. He would do whatever it took to be better.
“You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker.”
As jazz was arriving across the border, Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1920. As Bennie Moten’s band was hitting their stride in the late twenties, Parker’s family was settling into an apartment near the 18th & Vine District. The move exposed Parker to jazz at a young age and fostered within him, a love for music. While his mother worked late into the night, Parker would hang out in Jazz District alleys listening to the soulful songs of Kansas City.
Enamored with the big band sound of greats like Moten and Page, Parker yearned to play. When Charlie was in the fifth grade, and his school established a music program, his mother spent forty dollars on a second-hand alto saxophone from a pawn shop. When he was fourteen, Parker played in the band at Lincoln High School before dropping out a year later to pursue a career in music.
Parker spent the next couple of years playing with local bands to earn a living. When he wasn’t performing, he was jamming with other musicians and learning the art of improvisation that would eventually exemplify his style. In one such session, Parker forgot the melody and a frustrated Jo Johnson hurled a cymbal at his feet. Undeterred, Parker would spend the next few years practicing a minimum of twelve hours a day to perfect his sound and ensure that he would never again find himself without a note to play.
“You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”
Wall graffiti on Brooklyn Avenue pays homage to Jay “Hootie” McShann, who gave Charlie Parker his big break.
In 1938, Charlie Parker joined the band of up-and-coming pianist Jay McShann. This was the band where Parker would make his recording debut. It was also while traveling with McShann and his band that Charlie Parker would earn the nickname “Yardbird”, or more commonly, “Bird”. After the band’s bus ran over a chicken, Parker scooped it up off the road refusing to let the yardbird’s meat go to waste. The name stuck.
Recognizing Parker as the prodigy he was, McShann unleashed The Yardbird. He provided an environment in which Parker was free to improvise. He gave him solos so that Bird could showcase his impeccable riffs. Parker’s style was characterized by an uptempo series of complicated chord sequences and sudden changes in key that merged conflicting melodies into a harmonious, pure sound. Years before the style would have a name, Bird had given birth to bebop.
As Kansas City’s Jazz Age reached its twilight at the end of the thirties, McShann and Parker followed the lead of many musicians and headed east to New York. Bird and McShann would play together for a couple more years until Parker went out on his own.
“When I heard Charlie Parker, I knew that was going to be the new wave, the new way to play jazz. From that point on, I was sold with ... the idea of bebop.”
In Kansas City, jazz had manifested itself in big bands with songs made for dancing. In Harlem, Charlie Parker found that the organized chaos of bebop was meant to be performed by small groups. He formed a duo with legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Over the next decade, Bird collaborated with the likes of Max Roach, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell. His duets, trios, quartets, and quintets brought Bebop to the forefront and turned “traditional jazz” on its ear. As the fifties arrived, Yardbird was revered internationally and considered the best saxophonist in the world.
While traveling to a show in the Ozarks in his teenage years, Charlie Parker had been in a car accident south of Eldon, Missouri that cracked his ribs and killed the band’s leader. In his recovery, he developed a taste for morphine that became the gateway to a lifelong dependence on heroin and alcohol. When Parker succumbed to a heart attack in 1955, he was only thirty-five years old. However, his body was so ravaged by his addictions that the coroner mistakenly estimated his age between fifty-five and sixty.
Charlie Parker is buried in Kansas City’s Lincoln Cemetery, next to his mother Addie. A notable error, there is a tenor saxophone on his tombstone even though Parker played the alto.
Around the world, people mourned the death of the Father of Bebop. In his adopted home of New York, the walls of Harlem were graffitied with the phrase “BIRD LIVES”. Unfortunately, in the city that Parker had put on the map, The Kansas City Star did not even publish an obituary. Emblematic of the city’s attitudes, Kansas City’s paper failed to report on their most prominent son’s death much like they failed to report on his life. It would be years until Parker would, posthumously, become celebrated as one of Kansas City’s favorite icons.
Still regarded by many as the greatest alto saxophone player of all time, Parker’s pure sound, sense of rhythm, and knack for improvisation influenced a generation of musicians to come. From John Coltrane, to Albert Ayler, to Kansas City’s own Bobby Watson in the present day, Parker’s fingerprints are all over the musical stylings of scores of saxophone players, and other musicians, of the past seventy-five years.
Charlie Parker’s contributions to jazz, bebop, and music overall, cannot be quantified. Today, in jazz clubs across the city and around the world, in every riff, and every rapid chord change, BIRD LIVES.
So, What Do I Do Now? Visit the American Jazz Museum and immerse yourself in the history of America’s one true artform. The plastic saxophone that Parker played in his famed performance at Massey Hall is on display at the museum. Erected in the museum’s courtyard, is a beautiful monument to Charlie Parker. A 15 minute drive away, you can visit Parker’s grave and pay your respects to Yardbird. He is interred at Lincoln Cemetery. Parker is laid to rest on the main road, about 400 feet from the Blue Ridge Boulevard entrance.
Today, there are only two saxophones in existence that are, without a doubt, known to have belonged to Charlie “Bird” Parker. One of them, this Grafton plastic alto saxophone, was played by Parker at Massey Hall in what many consider “the greatest jazz performance of all time”. It is on display at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City.
This is where I must make a confession. Originally, this series was supposed to be two-parts, then three, and finally, I settled on four parts. Then in the eleventh hour, it became five. I had every intention of writing about Kansas City jazz, bebop, jam sessions, the Kansas City Monarchs, and Negro League baseball, all within one chapter. However, once written, it became clear that for a few reasons, length among them, that these stories should be presented separately. America’s Pastime and America’s Artform are so, unbelievably, intertwined. Especially in this city, where they came of age during the Pendergast Era. There is a reason that the American Jazz Museum and the Negro League Baseball Museum share a building. There is a reason that that building is at 18th & Vine. Chapters III and IV are intended to be read together. A week from now, I hope you will see that.
But, alas, this is my “Inception” moment. Instead of a ‘dream within a dream”, I now present a “two-part essay within a five-part essay”. And, instead of a proper ending to this chapter that neatly wraps everything up, we just get that blasted top. You remember. The way it kept spinning, and spinning, and spin-
<FADE TO BLACK>
Join me next week, as we continue our exploration of Kansas City’s history through the stories of influential black men, women, and entities. Subscribe at the bottom of disKCovery’s home page to be the first to know when Chapter IV drops.
Have a favorite story? Have one you want to hear? Let me hear it in the comments!
Many thanks to my mother, Janell Dignan, for proofreading and editing these stories. I could not have done this without you!
