This month marks the centennial birthday year of my mother Violet Lorraine Jackson Burnett (1924-2012).
That’s mom standing on the right in the Polaroid of us on our porch in the series of pictures that were taken by Terri’s parents at our home in Missouri in the spring of 1989.
Mom is 68 years old in this photo but looked at least twenty years younger relative to other people the same age of her generation.
We were still an active duty military family when she came to live with us after her retirement from a very successful 25-year career as an alcohol and drug abuse counselor.
This past Monday was my father-in-law Dave’s birthday and he would have been 91 years old.
Terri Anderson Burnett still greatly misses her father and I miss him too.
It has become our tradition to honor ancestors of our time.
We acknowledge and celebrate Dave’s birthday quietly in our home between the two of us.
Terri found this Polaroid photo of him while organizing and labeling the pictures within a box of her parents’ snapshots.
I first met Dave in 1980 when he and T’s mom Sintha came to Germany. They took the opportunity to tour Europe and visit us there before we transferred to the First US Army Band that was based out of Fort Meade in the Military District of Washington back then.
Dave passed in 2010 surrounded by his loving family after a courageous battle with cancer, at age 77. He attended Waite High School, married Sintha in 1954, and also served in the US Army.
When I met Dave, he was still working at the AMC/ Chrysler/ Jeep automotive manufacturing company in Toledo as a plant electrician. He ultimately worked there for 40 years, retiring in 1991.
Dave helped me select my first real home handyman tool box along with the tools that I needed to go in it.
Dave was a knowledgeable fan of the big bands and knew all of the major bandleaders as well as numerous others that I had never known existed.
He had a pristine collection of vinyl records by numerous of his favorites among these bands.
We would listen to music during our visits over the years. Vinyl and cassettes mostly at first.
And our last listening sessions were using the digital music service called Rhapsody, a precursor to Amazon, Apple Music and Spotify.
We still love and miss Dave tremendously but the pain of knowing he is not in Ohio with Sintha to go visit isn’t as searing as it was for so many years.
And it’s also comforting for us to know that they’re together again and this time for the ages.
The technical subtleties and refined essence of any highly sophisticated art form like jazz music are most genuinely perpetuated by master artists directly passing along their knowledge to the following generations of artists.
Kansas City Area Youth Jazz actually realizes that artist industry mentoring paradigm while also teaching the business craftsmanship and techniques of arts entrepreneurship that builds living wage infrastructure for artists while bringing jazz music to broader audiences and also to underserved communities.
It’s been said that most new businesses take five years or more to become viable entities.
Kansas City Area Youth Jazz went from being a “great idea” supported exclusively by volunteers, to a formal nonprofit public charity organization that is in its second year of fundraising.
Terri Anderson Burnett and I would like to thank all of you who have supported this project and we hope that you continue to support it going forward. You are vital to this program!
And we want to personally thank these specific people and entities:
Bill Crain
Will Crain
Rev WM Thornton
Houston Smith
Dr. Mary Burnett
Erica Lindsay
Sumi Tonooka
Greg Carroll
Dr. Doris Carroll
Dr. Adrianna Marshall
David Cunningham
Bobby Watson
Leon Brady
Patrick Cornelius
Victoria Alaadeen
Clarence Smith
Toni Gates
Kelsey Vetter
Dr. Todd Wilkinson
Joel Gordon
Jim Mair
Dr. Dan Thomas
Duane Hallock
Mike Gerken
Debra Gerken
Bill Mullin
Jon McGraw
Marcus Hampton, Jr.
Artists Recording Collective (Record Label)
BRC Audio Productions
Kansas City Public Schools
The Tune Shop
Conn-Selmer Inc.
All of the albums recorded during each season of the Kansas City Area Youth Jazz are made available worldwide at all of the major music services and the albums from the last three seasons will complete postproduction on December 15, 2023.
This program is a truly unique resource and great opportunity for our next generation jazz artists.
ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY
2023 FELLOWS (ARC-3459) (pending)
2022 FELLOWS (ARC-8715) (pending)
2021 FELLOWS (ARC-3671) (pending)
2020 FELLOWS (ARC-2277) (released)
2019 FELLOWS (ARC-2994) (released)
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Kansas City Area Youth Jazz is a spring and summer only program.
We don’t encourage students with known potential conflicts to audition due to the musical rigors and scope of the KCAYJ program.
Each awarded Fellowship is vital to each ensemble.
KCAYJ Fellows prepare professional level literature for recording, perform in a next generation summer showcase concert festival, some play paid gigs in the community, and Fellows work with a variety of renowned teaching artists as clinicians each season.
Musician, Composer, Educator . First Sergeant (Ret), US Army . “Soldier For Life” Army Music 🇺🇸
(ARTICLE) MUSINGS IN Cb: “Youth Jazz Updates”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Growing up during my early formative years in a United States Air Force 🇺🇸 family that traveled, I lived in at least five sibling homes in three different states and also overseas in France 🇫🇷 before I was 10 years old.
When my sibling family finally settled not far from my paternal hometown of the city of Olathe, in my maternal hometown of Paola, Kansas after my father’s military service, I was conditioned to moving and starting over.
Most military kids who have moved around and lived in different places are generally pretty resilient. The most resilient among them “grow where they are planted.”
Our own military service involved lots of moving too.
We’ve lived in our current city longer than we have lived anywhere including our paternal hometowns where we grew up with our respective sibling families.
We’ve adopted this community (and it’s adopted us) as our forever home.
But everywhere we have lived together has become our home where we “grew where we were planted.”
We have come to realize that the mindset of making a home and doing our best to serve our community wherever we are is one of the keys to our resilience.
The other is understanding the fact that “together” the two of us are always home.
Family. Life has taught us that our family is just the two of us and then expands to include our offspring, blood relatives, and our “life” family members.
In 2024 our family will celebrate our being a home and together for 45 years.
We both will also celebrate continuing to learn from our ancestral family trees despite being displaced from most of them individually by generations.
We’re validating our research as musicians and artists again by releasing the recording of our newest album inspired by family on the date of our anniversary too.
If you’re reading this and made it to the end, you are likely “family.” Thank you for growing with us.
(ARTICLE) MUSINGS IN Cb: “She’s my family.”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Featured artists on this album are Roger Wilder on piano; Gerald Spaits on bass; Morgan Rogers on drums with special musical guests Terri Anderson Burnett and Freda Proctor on flutes; WM Thornton on tenor saxophone; Greg Carroll on vibraphone; Will Matthews on guitar. LINER NOTES are finished for the album we’re recording in December at BRC Audio Productions in Kansas City. We’ll add the individual track duration times during postproduction. Avalon Video Services from Lawrence is also documenting this project.
RECORDING DAY 1
ALWAYS
INFINITY
LATER
CbQ PERSONNEL
C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums
ENGINEER AND PRODUCER
William Crain, BRC Audio Productions
VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN
Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services
RECORDING DAY 2
FINALLY
MAYBE
CbQ PERSONNEL+:
C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums with Terri Anderson Burnett and Freda Proctor, flutes; Greg Carroll, vibraphone
ENGINEER AND PRODUCER
William Crain, BRC Audio Productions
VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN
Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services
YESTERYEARS
CbQ PERSONNEL+:
C. Burnett, alto saxophone; R. Wilder, piano; G. Spaits, bass; M. Rogers, drums with Willie Meyers Thornton, tenor saxophone; Will Matthews, guitar
ENGINEER AND PRODUCER
William Crain, BRC Audio Productions
VIDEOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARIAN
Gordon Brown, Avalon Video Services
ALBUM: “ORIGINALS” (ARC-3442) by Christopher Burnett (BMI)
The music will be released on the Artists Recording Collective + ARC Recording Label and available worldwide. I’m very excited about this work and all six pieces of music that make up “ORIGINALS.” Looking forward to sharing this music with you!
MUSIC DEMOS + SHEET MUSIC
MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 1 “FINALLY”
VIDEO CLIP of Track 2 “ALWAYS”
MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 3 “MAYBE”
VIDEO CLIP of Track 4 “INFINITY”
MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 5 “LATER”
MOCKUP AUDIO of Track 6 “YESTERYEARS”
REHEARSAL GALLERY
PHOTO GALLERY: Piano and Drums rehearsing with the Flutes
We have everything for our new album “ORIGINALS” (ARC-3442) set up in advance for distribution and the release date is set for our 45th anniversary, 03/23/2024
REFERENCES + MEDIA QUOTE
“Saxophonist, educator, and military band veteran Christopher L. Burnett is known for his warm and lyrical jazz sound. Following a 20-plus year military career, during which he taught and performed, Burnett embarked on fruitful university teaching, as well as a performance career. He continued to perform in his native Kansas, releasing albums like 2013’s Time Stamps, 2014’s Firebird, and 2021’s The Standards Vol. 1.”
— Matt Collar / AllMusic, TIVO (ALLMUSIC.COM)
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING ENTITIES FOR YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
(ARTICLE) Musings In Cb: “WE ARE CONSTANTLY WORKS IN PROGRESS”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Yes, I’m a country boy from Paola, Kansas but my country boy game is now admittedly pretty weak.
I left Paola to strike out on my own almost 50 years ago and have subsequently lived in a wide variety of large cities and small towns in the United States and also some countries in Europe over those decades.
I have lost my country boy edge.
You would think that I could still tell the difference between squirrel scat and that from a rat or mouse.
I thought we had a rat or field mouse visiting us at night. Even had our exterminator company leave a humane trap to catch and relocate whichever.
Not so. Mystery solved.
I just caught the culprit (a cute bushy tailed squirrel) on his noontime pooping rounds today.
I am having to clean up after this dude a couple times a week.
Thanks to my sister Dr. Mary Jane Burnett for a solution: “Purchase some Repel All and sprinkle it where the poop was and you won’t have that problem. I buy mine from Home Depot.”
She further suggested: “I mix the granules with my grass seed when I overseed to keep the birds from eating them.”
Besides being smarter than me, my sister has maintained her connection to such things from our childhood.
Our neighbor’s uncle Marwood Lindsey used to take all of us as kids out hiking in the woods and along the nearby Bull Creek. We learned about nature on all levels from him. It was cool.
(ARTICLE) Musings In Cb: “SQUIRREL 1 – ME 0”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
As both an artist and educator with decades of successful professional experience in both aspects of practicing music as a career, it seems a healthy degree of stoicism is needed to grow into your own creative craftsmanship.
The best informed compliment someone can pay an aspiring jazz artist is to say that nobody sounds like them.
Meaning? You can hear their understanding of the lineage of the music in their playing, but simultaneously you can predominantly hear their own ideas and understanding of dealing with harmony and melodies in context as well.
I say “aspiring” because we all are perpetually and continuously aspiring artists and teachers.
Therefore, a primary goal in transcribing solos and practicing the imitation of great musicians is not to remain stuck playing “like” the master artist you’re studying at the time.
That practice isn’t genuine in jazz culture anyway. This is because our thesis is not the same as a musician learning classical repertory interpretations regardless of how thin that line is in our times. Jazz is a cultural phenomenon and expression as much as it is an art form.
When I hear any person seemingly playing beyond their genuine depth of life experience I appreciate the dues they are paying toward establishing their own voice.
My only advice would be to not get stuck copying people. It typically happens to all of us at some point during our development. I know people who stay in this zone and are fine doing it forever. But most jazz artists go on developing to realize their own thing.
Imitation is only a means to finding your own voice or leaf on a branch of the “jazz tree.” It’s like taking a master class or highly specific course or imitation of a native speaker while learning a language.
I still try to always remember the entirety of this often referenced quote:
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery … that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”- Oscar Wilde.
Be brave enough to be yourself in all things, but especially in the arts. Be brave enough to be the most excellent you that is possible. Nobody else can ever do that. That’s the spirit of jazz…
(ARTICLE) Musings In Cb: “IMITATION IS ALWAYS A REFERENCE IN JAZZ”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
A bit over forty years ago my Army band barracks roommate began taking me to jam sessions in Munich, Germany on weekends as a way of helping me gain experience playing jazz.
Marcus Hampton (1941-2021) was a great jazz improviser, music arranger, and also a nephew of the great Locksley Hampton (Slide Hampton). The Hamptons are another royal family in the music from Indianapolis.
Hamp’ knew both of us in 1977 as military musicians before we were married. And he remained among our closest family friends over the decades spanning into our current life as musicians here in KC.
During that period I was listening and transcribing lots of jazz music. I hadn’t a clue how to functionally apply my knowledge of harmony in a jazz improvisational context though. I relied heavily upon my ear. And I was still not very experienced in actually playing the music in typical small combo situations.
As was the case with Hamp’ and me, many mentors often don’t realize the value, significance, and importance of their role until much later. Taking advantage of that opportunity and participating in those jam sessions helped my jazz playing tremendously. I eventually became competent enough to teach others.
This album is an original from our vinyl collection. And when Terri Anderson Burnett and I became a family, we catalogued all of our music. This album is number 002 and remains a favorite.
Anyway, I was once listening to this same album when I roomed with Hamp’ and just marveled over Cannonball’s soloing throughout.
Hamp’ stated the common phrase of inquiry to me that I had already heard other older experienced musicians often ask younger inexperienced jazz improvisers like I was back then, “You can’t hear that, man?”
I said “no, I don’t know what I am listening for in order to understand what I am hearing.”
That reply was the key to the process and beginnings of my being able to truly learn music at a deeper level beyond playing written notated parts.
Hamp’ sat down at the keyboard in our barracks room and played (1) sub dominant, (2) dominant, and (3) tonic function sounds as chords in the harmonic progression context of various common modern jazz song forms.
He then further explained how they related to the scales that I already knew. Mind blown.
I have never looked at or heard any type of music the same since. Our great friend, Marcus A. Hampton, Jr. passed away in 2021 but his impact lives on through us as his friends and my jazz students who never met him.
Yes, I can hear that now, man. Thanks 🎵
(ARTICLE) Musings In Cb: “Listening and actually hearing”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
The Alaadeen Ensemble (2024) is the newest Kansas City Area Youth Jazz program element.
The KCAYJ Fellows selected for this ensemble will perform Mr. Ahmed Alaadeen’s original music and works associated with his broad musical palette.
I am honored and pleased to be the very first clinician to serve as musical director of The Alaadeen Ensemble in both performances and the 2024 FELLOWS album recording session.
Mr. and Mrs. Alaadeen were the first people in the Kansas City music scene and Jazz community to actually welcome me back home as a professional musician.
The Alaadeen’s had a boutique label that they formed to release his discography into the mainstream commercial marketplace and a publishing company for his original music.
They brought me onboard as a staff writer with the publishing company and as the operations manager of their label in 2002. I worked with them for 5 years.
I met Alaadeen by searching for an established Jazz Master to study with and mentor me in the business paradigms of the civilian music industry.
ABOVE PHOTO: A special Jay McShann Tribute Big Band at the Gem Theater, Kansas City. Musicians shown are (L to R) Gerald Dunn, Zach Albetta, Craig Aiken, Christopher Burnett, Dennis Winslett, Al Pearson, Bobby Watson, Godfrey Powell, Clint Ashlock, Alaadeen, Ken Clond, Nick Howell, Louis C. Neal, and Kerry Strayer. Not shown but present is the pianist Harold O’Neal. Photograph taken in 2007 by Jerry Lockett.
He also included me among the cats and sponsored me into the musicians union Local 34-627 as a full professional member.
He and I became good friends. I was already an accomplished professional musician in my 40s and had just concluded a very successful career with military bands when he took me as a student. I learned another level of the truth about the essence of this music from him. Alaadeen was my last great Jazz teacher.
(ARTICLE) Musings In Cb: “Time Through The Ages”
PHOTO by Corinna Gray Photography (2023)
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
This is a photograph of my NATO ID card from when I served with the Commander In Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (NATO) Band at Naples Italy. Since it lived in my wallet and inside my pocket, this ID card was actually pristine when I finished that tour of duty in 1992, as well as when I concluded my entire 22-year active duty military career in 1996.
“Time Stamps” by Christopher Burnett (BMI)
The reason it became so tattered is that I gave it to our son, Micah to carry with him when he was deployed and served in combat. He carried it with him the entire time. In 2003, Micah deployed to Iraq with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He received the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device for his exemplary heroic combat service. Yes, he was in the real stuff.
The Second Battle of Fallujah—code-named Operation Al-Fajr (Arabic: الفجر “the dawn”) and Operation Phantom Fury—was a joint American, the Iraqi government, and British offensive in November and December 2004, considered the highest point of conflict in Fallujah during the Iraq War. It was led by the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army against the Iraqi insurgents in the city of Fallujah and was authorized by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Interim Government. The U.S. military called it “some of the heaviest urban combat U.S. Marines and Soldiers have been involved in since the Battle of Huế City in Vietnam in 1968.”
Micah brought my NATO ID card back home to me as he promised he would. After his time in service, he went back to college, finished a double major, and even initially served in a job that provided services and resources that helped vets. They told me that he was a superstar in that work and enjoyed helping other veterans transition back to the civilian society after serving.
I was a musician in the band my entire career and never came close to combat duty. My son is a true war hero. I love him very much and I’m very proud to be his father. We have lots to be thankful for as a family. All four of us are military veterans, our son is a combat hero and our daughter was the very first commissioned officer in the history of our entire family. That’s cool. We are grateful. SALUTE! 🇺🇸
Christopher and Terri (Anderson) Burnett established their branch of The Burnett Family in March of 1979 in Copenhagen, Denmark. They are professional musicians, educators, and entrepreneurs based in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.