Talking Bird, Kansas City and Beyond with Lonnie McFadden

Despite traveling the world playing jazz for more than 50 years, Kansas Citian Lonnie McFadden always seems to end up back home. Raised in the 18th & Vine Jazz District, he has been surrounded by music his entire life. His father, Jimmy “Pops” McFadden, performed with national jazz orchestras, and Lonnie and his brother, Ronald, grew up in the rich KC music scene.

His 2018 record, Lonnie McFadden Live at Green Lady Lounge, is a mixture of original songs and classics. On Saturday, August 23, McFadden is headlining a Charlie Parker birthday celebration highlighting his music—backed by the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra—at the Folly Theater. 

How did Charlie Parker influence your growth as a jazz musician when you were growing up? All of us that came after him were affected. Whether you’re playing rock or jazz or funk, it doesn’t matter. The innovations he made are so profound, it just changed the way music—American music—is played. What did I learn from Charlie Parker? I’m still learning. You could gauge jazz as before Bird and after Bird. He changed the way that the chord changes were being played, the rhythm of bebop, the speed, everything. It’s hard for me to put in words how much respect and admiration I have for what he did and what he is to music. 

Can you talk a little bit more on how that changed? Parker could do one of the standards like “Honeysuckle Rose” and crank up the tempo. You’re taking the same chords, but you’re adding more notes to it to give it more richness and complexity while still feeling natural and just as lyrical. What Charlie Parker did was totally organic. It has a way of relating to the common man. Very few artists have been able to do that. Parker died at 34. I’m almost 70, and I’m still trying to figure out some of the things he did. 

Your father was a big part of the Kansas City jazz scene. What was that like for you as a kid? I started tap dancing before we took piano lessons. Ronald and I wanted to play horns, and he wanted to play trumpet. Ronald’s version of it is that I was the oldest and the biggest, so I got to play trumpet. My father didn’t want us to play the same instrument, so Ronald played alto saxophone. So from the time we picked up horns, my dad had me listening to Louis Armstrong and had Ronald listening to Charlie Parker. And of course, you know, by us being brothers and learning the same things, Ronald was listening to a lot of Louis and I was listening to a lot of Charlie Parker.

What was it like growing up in Kansas City, the epicenter of American jazz? I didn’t know it. I had no idea. I learned all this stuff just because of the way it sounds and the way it feels. Someone once told me, “You learned jazz like a kid growing up in Mexico learns Spanish.” I said, “Yes, that’s exactly it.” Since I was hearing Charlie Parker at such an early age, by the time I started out, you know, learning the mathematics of it, it was all there. Very few places on this planet will you find people that have the natural swing that the people here in Kansas City do. 

Was it amazing to have a brother learning music with you at that same time? Were you just playing every day? God, I can’t even tell you how much I miss that. Before I lost Ron, I used to hear Wynton Marsalis talk about Duke Ellington’s quote at Billy Strayhorn’s service: “My right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.” I had that with Ronald. My dad took us to the Foundation, and there were all these guys that used to play with Basie and Bird, in this room filled with cigar smoke, and we were kids. Ronald played “Alfie” in front of all those great musicians, and they passed the hat and gave him all this money, and that put it into focus for me that I needed to really, really start taking the things that my father knows seriously. That was the night that did it, when Ronald played “Alfie” at the Foundation. 

I’d love to hear you talk about the relationship between tap dancing and jazz. I just realized this about 10 years ago. I am one of the torchbearers for two unique art forms that came out of the African American slavery experience. Tap dancing and jazz grew up together. Tap dancing evolved after they took away the drums because they realized that the slaves were communicating through them. That’s when they started using rhythms on their bodies. It evolved in a way that became uniquely American after the Emancipation Proclamation. So jazz and tap dancing grew and evolved together.

Can you give me three jazz songs that feel the most “Kansas City” to you? “Parker’s Mood” by Charlie Parker, “Lester Leaps In” by Count Basie & The Kansas City Seven, and Snooky Young’s solo on “Who, Me?”

How do you see the future of jazz in Kansas City? Wow, the future is in good hands. We have such a great representation from younger musicians. There are so many. When I say younger, I mean, obviously everybody’s younger than me now. I hear so many wonderful, innovative things that are going on. I would encourage people right now to get out and listen.  

GO: Spotlight: Charlie Parker featuring Lonnie McFadden. August 23, 7 pm. Folly Theater (300 W. 12th St., KCMO).

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