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Today, Verve Records/Universal Music Canada shares Bird in Kansas City, an album featuring a new set of rare recordings dating from between 1941-1951, from the modern jazz pioneer Charlie Parker. Bird in Kansas City is available on blue colored vinyl exclusively on the Verve and Charlie Parker webstores, and standard black vinyl, CD, and digitally available HERE. Much of this collection has never been heard before and some recordings have never even been known to exist — Bird in Kansas City chronicles Charlie Parker’s evolution from a blossoming soloist with the Jay McShann Band into a brilliant improviser who changed the genre forever.

Chuck Haddix, scholar and author of Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker who also co-produced and wrote liner notes for this album, says that Bird in Kansas City, "reveals his transformation as a musician," and notes that these recordings capture, "Charlie happily soloing at the top of his game."

In addition to two unreleased 78s with the McShann band, Bird in Kansas City offers two sets of private recordings — at the home of Parker’s friend Phil Baxter and at Vic Damon’s studio— made with local musicians and a very relaxed-sounding Parker who has the room to stretch out and show us the shape of jazz that was to come in his wake.

Central to these recordings is Parker’s relationship to his hometown of Kansas City, a place in which he never lived again once he left in 1941 but that remained deeply important to him; his mixed emotions owed to the city’s history of racial segregation and to his strong ties to his family and friends there. Though he never returned permanently, he frequently came home during breaks in his travels, and it is during those times that these recordings were made.

On November 16, 2024, there will be a presentation and reception in Kansas City, MO, to celebrate Bird in Kansas City. This will be hosted at the UMKC’s Miller Nichols Learning Center and the physical exhibit “Saxophone Supreme: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker” will be up in the atrium for viewing. Check out more information here.

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