![]() ![]() Two years later, she traveled to Washington, D.C., for the most memorable gig of her career. One exception was when she was a headliner with Count Basie and his orchestra in 1947 at the Million Dollar Theatre in Los Angeles, where Basie introduced her as “the toast of Kansas City.” She ventured outside Kansas City for concerts only occasionally. So Lee became a fixture at local clubs for more than three decades starting in the 1920s, including at Milton’s Tap Room, which was then at 35111 Troost Ave., for more than 15 years. Surviving a 1930 car accident that killed a fellow musician also soured her on the road. The racism Black people experienced was one reason Lee disliked touring. “And so that limited her touring,” he said. Lee could have been even bigger, Haddix said, except she didn’t like to travel. Lee Novelty Singing Orchestra, before going out on her own. ![]() Julia Lee was a pianist for her brother’s band, the George E. Haddix also wrote “Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker” and is curator of the Marr Sound Archives at UMKC. “Julia Lee was really a big star, not only locally but nationally, because of her recordings,” said Chuck Haddix, co-author of the 2005 book “Kansas City Jazz From Ragtime to Bebop - A History,” which is filled with details about Lee’s career. ![]() She and Kansas City contemporaries such as Moten and Count Basie played for both white and Black audiences, even if the musicians weren’t allowed to eat at the all-white clubs where they performed. Jazz was one of the few areas where the races mixed in the first half of the 20th century, at least to some degree. Lee got plenty - from Black and white audiences alike. She blazed a trail as a Black female musician during an era when segregation was the law of the land and women fought for every scrap of respect they got. Lee was born in Boonville, Missouri, in 1902 or 1903 - the year changes from source to source - and grew up in Kansas City, attending Lincoln High School. LABUDDE SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UMKC UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Julia Lee’s headstone in Highland Cemetery lists her birth year as 1903,īut almost all other sources say it was 1902. ![]()
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