Welcome to our family website. We are musicians and live in the northwest Kansas City metropolitan area. We are life-long members of the creative class and have remained professionally active performing, teaching, and recording for decades.
Our experiences include many successful endeavors and many learning experiences. We are empty nesters who believe in the importance of family and community service. We believe in entrepreneurialism and optimism.
Firebird is titled after the fine art painting by the artist, Sintha Anderson. The mythological bird also inspires both. My composition tells of the healing and regenerative power of always choosing love, hope, and faith while in the pursuit of doing mostly constructive things.
Performed by Christopher Burnett Ensemble: Christopher Burnett – alto saxophone, composition; Roger Wilder – piano; Jeff Harshbarger – bass; Clarence Smith – drums; with Terri Anderson Burnett and Freda Proctor – flutes. Commercial studio recording. Audio Engineer: Craig Rettmer, C.R. Sound, Kansas City.
Our line of the Burnett Family was established in 1979.
We met while living in Europe as adults.
Both of us are professional musicians.
We dated a couple of years and got married overseas while both of us were still working with the Army band in Germany.
BURNETT FAMILY CREST
Our immediate family is made up of our adult children and grandchildren.
Our extended family includes many very talented people – our siblings and all relatives of many surnames whom we each grew up with while living the first couple of decades of our lives in our parents’ homes.
We love all of them very much.
LONDON – POLICEMAN (“PEELER” OR “BOBBY”)
I’m a black American with the Burnett surname and I’m from the Kansas City area. I have many Burnett cousins. The inherent demographics of our surname are interesting and show us as a relatively small population.
KANSAS CITY – McKINLEY BURNETT FAMILY REUNION
And, I met several of my actual relations from the McKinley Burnett line of the family (see above photo) for the first time a few years ago when I worked as the marketing director at the jazz museum in Kansas City. It was cool.
At this point, we have lived most of our individual lives together and as our own family. And, we have also made life-long friends who have known us most of our lives and become “part of our family” indeed.
LONDON – PARLIAMENT (AND BIG BEN KIDS)
This is not a genealogy site. We have had people on both sides of our families who have done decades of family history research. We are not undertaking that task. This is simply our family’s website and blog.
Burnett is an English surname. It is derived from a nickname from the Old French burnete, brunette, which is a diminutive of brun meaning “brown”, “dark brown”. Another proposed origin of the name is from burnete, a high quality wool cloth originally dyed to a dark brown colour.
A former colleague of ours from our days in Germany in the late 1970s sent these recordings of our Army band back then performing in several contexts. This colleague, Bruce Shockley is a fantastic musician and still performs professionally. The included photographs in this post that are not taken by me or T are primarily from …
The little guy at the piano in the featured image of this post is our youngest grandson. Like all of our children and grandchildren, he’s very “musical.” But, there’s something special about him that makes me think he’s our next musician among our progeny and could likely help carry music into future generations. He sings …
Jay McShann Tribute Big Band ?? another True Story … The main photograph of this post is of the Jay McShann tribute big band saxophone section which included (left to right): Gerald Dunn, Christopher Burnett (yes, with the large Afro hairstyle), Dennis Winslett, Bobby Watson, Ahmed Alaadeen and Kerry Strayer (not shown). I had actually …
BurnettFamilyUS.org is a place for our family adventures.
The blog contains historical anecdotes and musings from our individual and collective perspectives.
KANSAS CITY – DOWNTOWN KC
You are also likely to find everything from our favorite recipes to a review of a favorite book.
We will also post some family photographs too.
Our main portal BurnettMusic.com has all of our musical activities.
Contact
With the advent of social media and email, most of our family and friends already have our contact information. We usually stay in touch a few times a week at a minimum as well. But, if you are not otherwise connected with us online and want to get in touch, click the envelope to send email.
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