Plastic Sax

While the Phoenix has long served up jazz-ish brunches, Green Lady Lounge recently resumed offering performances of undiluted jazz on Saturday mornings. Saturday appearances by vibraphonist Dawson Jones currently run from 11:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.

With no televisions, bright lights or rambunctious children to interfere with recovery from Friday night revelries, Green Lady Lounge is an ideal place to ease into Saturday. The heavenly sound of vibraphone provides a comforting soundtrack for indulging in the hair of the dog or merely sipping coffee.

Dawson’s conception differs from the approaches taken by the prominent Kansas City vibraphonists Mike Dillon, Isaiah Petrie and Peter Schlamb. Accompanied by bassist Andrew Voggesser on March 8 and saxophonist Pete Fucinaro on March 15, Dawson’s sublime sound is reminiscent of Gary Burton.

Voggessor’s aggressiveness waylaid any opportunity for tweeness on material including an imaginative contrafact of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation.” A week later, Fucinaro tackled a contrafact of “How Deep is the Ocean” as if his life depended on it.

The performances merited rousing ovations. Yet only a pair of diehards showed up to the opening sets. Not only were the regulars present for an experience unique to Kansas City, they knew that the good times were just getting started. The room gradually fills up before the final notes are played at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

During a pledge break on the broadcast premiere of Bird: Not Out of Nowhere, the Kansas City musician Lonnie McFadden lauded Louis Armstrong’s colossal status in New Orleans and cited Memphis’ ongoing embrace of Elvis Presley. McFadden wistfully acknowledged Charlie Parker remains relatively unknown in his hometown of Kansas City. The ongoing cold shoulder Kansas City gives Parker added an ironic twist to the public television station KCPT’s use of the documentary as a fund-raising vehicle.

In a separate pledge break, Brad Austin, the producer, director, editor and photographer of Bird: Not Out of Nowhere, explained “the film is based on Chuck (Haddix)’s book and his knowledge of Charlie Parker.” Haddix, the author of Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker, is one of four Parker experts narrating the documentary. McFadden and his fellow musicians Logan Richardson and Bobby Watson also contribute to the film designed to provide “a new look on how (Parker’s) upbringing in Kansas City led to worldwide fame.”

The stories told by Haddix, McFadden and Watson are so familiar to dedicated members of Kansas City’s jazz community that some viewers of Bird: Not Out of Nowhere have their routines memorized. Still, it’s good to have their patter preserved for posterity. And the visuals- a refreshed version of the effects used by the famed documentarian Ken Burns- are worthy of their subject. The misspelling of the word “saxophonist” as “saxaphonist” is one of the few blemishes in the polished film.

Not surprisingly, the scenes featuring music are best. Excerpts of a quartet led by Watson playing “Wheel Within a Wheel,” “I’m Glad There Is You” and “Confirmation” are compelling. Watson’s demonstration of the stylistic difference between swing and bop is similarly excellent. McFadden’s rendering of “Parker’s Mood” over habitual background chatter at The Phoenix is also valuable.

Richardson provides a candid assessment of Kansas City’s appalling erasure of Parker’s legacy near the end of the film. He contrasts the majesty of Frédéric Chopin’s grave in Paris with the scruffy resting place of Parker in Lincoln Cemetery. Speaking for all of Kansas City, he sighs “we could be better.” While Bird: Not Out of Nowhere can’t rectify past injustices, it’s an encouraging step toward a more honorable future.