Most ardent KC rock fans have heard about the 1967 concert The Who played at Shawnee Mission South High School. But did you know Chuck Berry headlined a private casino-night party staged by the Kehilath Israel Synagogue Sisterhood in 1956? It’s true, thanks to the late booking agent and KI Synagogue member Allan Bell. If you Google “inventor of rock and roll,” Chuck Berry’s name and face pop up. Bell had a relationship with Berry and/or his manager, and booked him around town several times, … [Read more...] about Did Chuck Berry play a KC synagogue?!
1950s
KC’s first homegrown rocker
According to several sources, the Kansas City area’s first homegrown rock band of note was Larry Emmett and the Sliders. While African-Americans were playing and listening to rhythm and blues in local clubs at least since the early 1950s, the flowering of white rock bands did not occur until after the Elvis Presley explosion of 1956. In fact, Larry Emmett was not a white man, but a Native American who was born on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation near Mayetta, Kan. His parents moved to … [Read more...] about KC’s first homegrown rocker