Chuck Haddix, host of KCUR’s popular Fish Fry weekend music show, will be honored with a community service award at William Jewell College’s annual Northland Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, for his work in preserving the African American culture of music.
Program chair Dr. Cecelia Robinson says Haddix’s “knowledge and expertise in jazz, blues, and zydeco over the years have been a way to help bridge the gap between the races through the Fish Fry, in addition to his work as an author and speaker on African American music and musicians.”
In addition to hosting the Fish Fry, Haddix is curator of the Marr Sound Archives, a collection of 450,000 historic sound recordings housed in the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Haddix also teaches Kansas City jazz history at the Kansas City Art Institute.
“Chuck is a local treasure in Kansas City,” says KCUR general manager Sarah Morris. “Not only is he a historian and a radio host, he’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We are proud of our association with Chuck and especially pleased to offer the Fish Fry on KCUR 89.3 for more than 40 years.”
Over the years, Haddix has contributed to a wide variety of theatrical, recording, video and film projects including “Cronkite Remembers,” a biography of Walter Cronkite; Robert Altman's “Kansas City”; and Merchant-Ivory's “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.”
His writing has appeared in Down Beat and Living Blues Magazine, and he is the author of “Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker” from the University of Illinois Press and coauthor of “Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop–A History” from Oxford University Press.
Haddix will be recognized at William Jewell’s Gano Chapel on Monday, Jan. 16 at 10:15 a.m., as part of the 39th annual Northland Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, sponsored by Clay County African American Legacy. The keynote speaker for the event will be Qiana Thomason, president and CEO of Health Forward Foundation.
