Alaadeen: Don't Leave the Porch
Memoir of a Life in Jazz
Jazz musician, composer, and educator Ahmad Alaadeen, who is equally skilled and original on tenor and soprano saxophones, has made a major impact on the Kansas City jazz scene ever since he settled back in his native Kansas City in the early 1970s. In an ongoing series of articles, he shares recollections of his life in jazz.
Don't Leave the Porch
The bug hit me at the tender age of about five. I was living three or four doors down the street from Jay McShann at around 10th and Park at the time. I would constantly hear all of this commotion coming from Jay's house - like people having a good time. They were blowing and playing and stuff like that. The music really moved me beyond description. However, my mother told me: “Boy, don't you leave this porch. If you leave this porch, I'm going to have to do something to you'.” But, despite the forewarned consequences, the music had a stronger influence than my mother's order not to go any closer to listen. One day, the urge was too much and I left the porch to go down to Jay's house. I recall looking through the screen door and seeing these people just having a good time playing this music. And from there, my mind was made up and I said that's what I want to do. After several moments of actually being up close and watching the musicians as I listened to their music, I thought about what my mother said. I immediately ran back home to our porch. Of course, she was there waiting on me.
That particular band, which I heard rehearsing almost everyday was, of course, Jay McShann's famous unit. It also included Charlie Parker. The positive impact of the experience stayed with me. My love for music and my choice of occupation has been sealed ever since.
99 Dollars
I took up the alto sax when I was in the 6th grade. “I got my first saxophone in the 6th grade. It was an alto. There was a music store in town called Bohart’s around 13th and Grand. They had this alto, and they wanted $99 for it. I begged and cried, you know, and finally got it. Then I started in elementary school with this teacher, Paris Jim Jones; he was a violinist.”
Straight To Hell
My professional career began at the age of 14. Then in 1950, I received my Union card. My parents told me I was going straight to Hell. They scorned those women with the short dresses and the paint on their faces…those gamblers. Well, I didn’t see all that, all I heard was the music. They were not in favor of me playing on the street, but I could play in church. They would ask me to play songs in church, which were the same notes I played on the street, but I guess when I went to church, the notes got holy. They were not very cooperative.
Miss Creamy's
I was a student at R.T. Coles. I would play hooky also and come up here to the 18th and Vine area. The song says, “Come with me if you want to go to Kansas City.” There’s a phrase in there that says “in Miss Creamy’s Dreamy town.” I knew Miss Creamy. I would actually go in Miss Creamy’s. And this was the atmosphere that this music was in.
At R.T. Coles, under the tutelage of Leo H. Davis, I was schooled to be a professional musician. That was really my start of loving the music because R.T. Coles had so much to offer. It was like a trade school or an academy. I had four hours of music every day, freshman through senior year, plus an hour of theory; at that time they called it harmony. The school was at 19th and Tracy so I’m right down in the Jazz District. It was fascination. In fact, I had my union card when I was a sophomore in High School. Leo Davis, by being the school teacher, was also the director of the municipal band, which was a concert band that would play by Paseo Park. I also played an E-flat horn, called a peck horn, played the afterbeat on the marches and stuff like that. I played second horn in the band and got my first Union card.
At R.T. Coles, the students would benefit from assembly performances by big bands including The Lionel Hampton Band and The Billy Eckstein Band and impromptu classroom appearances by Elmer Price and other local musicians. My band teacher, Leo H. Davis, was reported to have been Charlie Parker’s teacher, although Davis claimed that he didn’t remember Bird. Davis was credited with teaching the musicians of Kansas City how to read music. When I left there, I was ready for the pro ranks.
At one school assembly, The Lionel Hampton band was playing “Flying Home.” We were sitting in the orchestra pit. Scotty (Clifford Scott) jumped off the stage, right over our heads, and started walking in the seats. The principal, H. I. Harewell, went off, "Oh we can’t have any more of this in our school, desecrating our property." He didn’t like musicians because he caught one with his wife. He banned musicians from public assemblies after the Clifford Scott visit. After that, the students would refer to Scott as “Bat Man.”
©Ahmad Alaadeen
Alaadeen has recorded a number of critically-acclaimed CD including Blues For RC and Josephine Too, Time Through The Ages, New Africa Suite, and his latest recording And The Beauty Of It All. Alaadeen has taken steps to document his ongoing legacy by starting the ASR label. Alaadeen also plays music locally as a central figure in City Light Orchestra.
The Rest Of The Story, Jazz Improvisation and History by Ahmad S. Alaadeen. Available at Fandeen Publishing Company, 6610 West 67th Street, Overland Park, KS 66202, 913.831.4396. If you are a Jazz musician, educator or historian, then you should consider what Kansas City Jazz master Alaadeen has to say in this very unique manual. 54-Page, Spiral Bound. Purchase a hard copy for only $22.50 + S&H or order an e-Manual online for $10. www.Alaadeen.com
"Music" is proudly sponsored by American Jazz Museum.
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