Kansas City Lightning (43 page)

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Authors: Stanley Crouch

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saxophone, 61–62

Schaap, Phil, 310–11

Schmeling, Max, 95, 96, 102–4

Schultz, Dutch, 293

segregation, 76, 80, 129, 196

Sign of Four, The
(Doyle), 214–16

Simpson, Robert, 88–89, 94, 107, 147, 150, 163

        death of, 147–48

slavery, 38, 124, 127, 129, 130, 133

        Underground Railroad and, 262, 264

Smith, Bessie, 138

Smith, Buster, 60, 62, 141, 145, 149, 150, 155, 156, 186–93, 195–206, 209–13, 216–17, 219–21, 223–28, 240–43, 245, 249–52, 255, 256, 267, 274, 313, 332

        move to New York, 250–52, 270

        in New York, 286–87, 289–91, 295–96, 301, 307

Smith, Carl “Tatti,” 149

Smith, Jabbo, 182

Smith, N. Clark, 85–86, 140, 241

Smith, Tab, 228–29

Smith, Willie “The Lion,” 89, 185, 311
smokers, 218–19

Sousa, John Philip, 132

Southern, Eileen, 123

Southwest, 41–42 spook breakfasts, 218, 257

Stearns, Marshall, 87

Stewart, Dee, 223

Stewart, Rex, 24

Stomping the Blues
(Murray), 311

Story of Philosophy, The
(Durant), 278

Sulieman, Idrees, 316

Swing Rendezvous, 304

T

Tatum, Art, 38, 155, 184–85, 309–13

They All Played Ragtime
(Blesh and Janis), 130, 131

Thompson, Big Bill, 118

Thompson, J. R., 234–35, 321

Tin Pan Alley, 289, 311, 323

“To a Dark Girl” (Bennett), 79–80

Todd, Oliver, 27, 88, 89, 94, 107, 115, 143–44, 146–47, 206–7, 209

Towles, Nat, 6

trains, 43, 129, 261–65

        riding on boxcars, 201, 255–56, 269–70

Trent, Alphonso, 149, 190

Trumbauer, Frankie, 156, 157, 160, 211

Tumino, John, 22, 25, 26, 60

Turf Club, 292–93

Turner, Joe, 60, 61, 223

U

Underground Railroad, 262,
264

Unforgivable Blackness
(Ward), 104

V

Valentino, Rudolph, 222

Victoria, Queen, 125

W

Waller, Fats, 109, 185, 200, 251, 311

Wallis, Michael, 63

Ward, Geoffrey, 104

Ware, Efferge, 223

Washington, Booker T., 85

Washington, Jack, 27, 62, 149, 150, 241

Webb, Walter Prescott, 40

Webster, Ben, 27, 62, 158, 305, 310

Wess, Frank, 161, 299–300, 315–16

West, Wild, 37–38, 42, 43, 126, 161

        Parker and, 70–72

Wheatley, Phillis, 78

White, Voddie, 189

Wilder, Joe, 313–16

Wilkerson, George, 164

Wilkins, Barron, 293–94

Willard, Jess, 103

Williams, Bert, 119

Williams, Cootie, 35, 118

Williams, Fess, 100

Williams, Junior, 243–45, 270, 290

Williams, Mary Lou, 152

Williams, “Red” Rudy, 301, 302

Wilson, Dick, 62, 158

Wilson, Teddy, 310

Woideck, Carl, 330

Woodruff, Georgia, 309–10

Woodside Hotel, 12, 14–16, 18–20, 250–51, 290, 291, 307–8, 310

World War I, 275

World War II, 8, 283

Y

Young, Lester, 16, 27, 30, 62, 145, 149–50, 155–61, 179, 181, 185, 186, 193, 195, 198, 200, 202, 205, 211, 241, 242, 245–46, 248, 252, 253, 255, 270, 291, 296, 310, 312, 313, 327, 332

Young, Willis, 157

Z

Zephyr (neighborhood girl), 56–57, 92

Photo Insert

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

“A clean little Bird”: Kansas City, Kansas, early 1920s.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Charlie Parker, the young lord of Kansas City.

Courtesy Llew Walker at the Bird Lives website, www.birdlives.co.uk

Charlie's mother, Addie Parker, who spoiled and protected him—even after he married, when he and his first wife continued to live under her roof.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Charlie with his half brother, John “Ikey” Parker.

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Charlie with a neighbor, before the move across the river to Missouri.

Courtesy Llew Walker at the Bird Lives website, www.birdlives.co.uk

Rebecca Ruffin, who moved into the Parker house in 1934. When she first laid eyes on Charlie, she said, “I knew there was going to be trouble. I knew I was in love with him.”

Courtesy Llew Walker at the Bird Lives website, www.birdlives.co.uk

Lincoln High School, where Charlie played several instruments in the orchestra before taking up the saxophone. “Charlie was looking for what he wanted to play,” Rebecca remembered. “He needed a feeling of what he had to do.”

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Bennie Moten (above right, and inset) and his Kansas City Orchestra in the summer of 1929, including vocalist Jimmy Rushing (left), pianist Bill Basie (fourth from left), and saxophonist Harlan Leonard (fourth from right).

Courtesy of the Frank Driggs Collection at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

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