In 1984, Chuck Haddix aka Chuck Haddock joined the staff of KCUR as a jazz producer. The next year, he began producing the Fish Fry. You can reach him at haddixc@umsystem.edu.
The 122-year-old former burlesque house the oldest theater in the city will officially welcome patrons to new carpets, artwork, larger seating and other upgrades after a four-month closure.
For three decades, Julia Lee reigned over Kansas City jazz clubs singing raunchy songs “her mother taught her not to sing.” But beyond the lyrical wordplay of hits like "Snatch and Grab It," Lee was a trailblazer for Black female musicians, and forged a career on her own terms.
If you've not been lucky enough to be in the same room as Robert Johnson, Koko Taylor, Bobby Blue Bland or other blues icons, you might feel as if you have after visiting "A Cast of Blues."
In the early 1960s Kansas City native Dave Dexter Jr., as a record company executive, held the first right of refusal to sign the Beatles in the United States. He rejected them. Here's the story of how he scrambled to get them back.