Join KC Jazz ALIVE for the kickoff of the tenth celebration of Kansas City’s own Charlie”Yardbird” Parker. This Opening Panel discussion features panelists Deborah Brown, Carolyn Glenn Brewer and Tia Fuller, and will be moderated by Lisa Hittle, for a conversation about Women in Jazz: Charlie Parker’s influence. More information on our featured speakers on the website, www.spotlightcharlieparker.org.
Kansas City Jazz ALIVE is proud to present 2023 Spotlight: Charlie Parker – shining a bright light on the musical genius of Kansas City’s own Charlie “Yardbird” Parker!
Now in its 10th year, the festivities will include more than 25 jazz showcase performances, educational events, a “Bird” musical salute, and jazz history tours. The week will culminate with this exciting “Bird” Tribute Concert featuring Grammy-nominee Tia Fuller with Kansas City jazz all-stars plus a special partnership with Youth Symphony of Kansas City selected string students performing an exclusive reimagining of the famed “Bird” With Strings recording!
PARTICIPANTS
Lisa Hittle, moderator
Lisa Hittle served as the Director of Jazz Programs at Wichita’s Friends University for 30 years, where she developed and led one of the most outstanding college jazz programs in the Midwest. She is also an accomplished jazz saxophonist, and an alumnus of the Stan Kenton Orchestra and a well-known local musician. She has a degree in Music Performance from Kansas State University, a degree in Music Education from Wichita State University, and a master’s degree in music performance from Wichita State University. She has performed with artists such as Clark Terry, Bob Hope, The Four Freshmen, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers and many others. She has brought an incredible array of jazz artists to Wichita, including The Count Basie Orchestra, The New York Voices, The Big Phat Band, The Four Freshmen, Monty Alexander, Matt Wilson, Cyrus Chestnut, Carmen Bradford and many others.
Joining Friends University in 1989, Hittle mentored and educated hundreds of young aspiring jazz musicians (many of whom are also now Wichita favorites), stoking their appreciation and passion for jazz. Lisa was awarded the Wichita Art Council’s Art Educator of the Year in 2006, and the Homer Orborne Award for Outstanding Jazz Educator in 2012. Under Hittle’s direction, her groups were invited to perform at major jazz festivals in Italy and France and was the only US group invited to perform at the 2013 Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba. Her groups have won many college jazz festivals and been selected through taped auditions to perform four times at the prestigious Jazz Education International Conference, and 14 times at the Kansas Music Educators Conference. Lisa is now a Professor Emeritus, and plays with jazz duos, trios and quartets in the Wichita area on a weekly basis.
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Deborah Brown, panelist
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Deborah’s musical talents have propelled her from coast to coast in the USA, eventually leading her to Europe via Japan and Indonesia culminating in a 12-year residency in Europe.
Performing in nightclubs, concerts, jazz festivals, on television and radio soundstages, Deborah has made a name for herself with appearances in more than 50 countries around the world. Deborah Brown has 16 recordings as a leader and is featured on many others as a special guest artist.
Deborah has enjoyed participating in and creating many unique musical situations….among these (in no particular order) are….A quintet recording with trombonist Slide Hampton. A concert tour in duo with Roger Kelloway. Another highlight, a duo performance and recording with guitarist Joe Beck. Also, with pianist Dorthy Donegan at a festival in Holland. A performance with trumpetist, Clark Terry. A studio recording of the cd “A Lover’s Question” with author James Baldwin. Tours with her quartet “Jazz 4 Jazz”, that featured pianist Horace Parlan, Red Mitchell or Hein Van De Geijn on acoustic bass and legendary drummer Ed Thigpen. Concert appearances with Johnny Griffin, Benny Bailey, Billy Mitchell, Michelle Le Grand, “Toots” Thielemans, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Bobby Shew, Kenny Drew, Roy Hargrove, Eric Reeds Trio, The Doky Brothers and so many more jazz greats. Her latest CD was recorded with the fine saxophonist, Bobby Watson on “All Too Soon”. A concert performance and a future recording with Lee Konitz.
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Tia Fuller, 2023 Spotlight: Charlie Parker Artist-in-Residence
Kansas City Jazz ALIVE is proud to present 2023 Spotlight: Charlie Parker – shining a bright light on the musical genius of Kansas City’s own Charlie “Yardbird” Parker!
Now in its 10th year, the festivities will include more than 25 jazz showcase performances, educational events, a “Bird” musical salute, and jazz history tours. The week will culminate with this exciting “Bird” Tribute Concert featuring Grammy-nominee Tia Fuller with Kansas City jazz all-stars plus a special partnership with Youth Symphony of Kansas City selected string students performing an exclusive reimagining of the famed “Bird” With Strings recording!
When Grammy-nominated Mack Avenue recording artist, composer, and bandleader Tia Fuller picks up her saxophone, something amazing happens. As a force to be reckoned with, Fuller balances the worlds of performance and education, fulfilling a demanding schedule as both a busy touring and recording artist and a full-time professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
As a leading jazz musician, Fuller has toured with Grammy-winning pop star Beyoncé and appeared on a number of major television shows, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, BET Awards, American Music Awards, Grammy Awards and as a featured soloist with Beyoncé for President Obama at the White House.
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Carolyn Glenn Brewer
Author Carolyn Glenn Brewer is a longtime music educator who has spent a career promoting — through writing, playing, and teaching — the importance of instrumental education. Besides being a grade school and middle school band director, she has played clarinet in bands, chamber groups, orchestras, and musical theaters in the Kansas City area.
A social historian as well, her highly acclaimed books Caught in the Path and Caught Ever After, about the Ruskin Heights tornado, have been featured on radio and television, and adapted to the stage. In 2012 Caught Ever After was named a Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award finalist.
Her jazz books chronicle a happier aspect of Kansas City history. Changing the Tune, the Kansas City Women’s Jazz Festival, tells the story of this ground-breaking event through firsthand accounts and archival documents. Downbeat called it, “a fitting tribute to the Kansas City Women’s Jazz Festival’s achievement and influence, as well as a valuable record of the ongoing struggle of talented female musicians to gain their rightful place in the jazz world.”
Pat Metheny’s teenage years in the Kansas City area, and the first steps of his stellar career as an internationally beloved guitarist are documented in Beneath Missouri Skies. This book was selected as one of the best jazz books of the year (2021) by the New York City Jazz Record.
Carolyn is currently working on a biography of Kansas City native valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer. Carolyn lives in Kansas City with her husband, bassist and composer Tim Brewer, and their Bernese Mountain Dog Herbie.
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