Green Parrot Supports Bahama Village Music Program
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Last week Larry Baeder, Justin VanAken, Daryl Brookes, and myself visited the campus of the Bahama Village Music Program to meet with program director Katchen Duncan in their new location behind the Douglass Gym at Emma and Olivia Street.
….an amazing, and loving space, and lively, with classes just starting to get rolling when we arrived.
The Bahama Village Music Program is now in its12th year of bringing free musical education and instruction, to children aged 6 to 16 in our community. BVMP is more than just an educational institution, our program creates a great sense of community spirit and pride, fosters important mentor relationships between local teenage musicians and their students, encourages parent participation, and enhances student’s self-esteem. Bahama Village Music Program’s mission is to provide quality music education to children who would otherwise not have access to private music instruction.
The Bahama Village Music Program is now in its12th year of bringing free musical education and instruction, to children aged 6 to 16 in our community. BVMP is more than just an educational institution, our program creates a great sense of community spirit and pride, fosters important mentor relationships between local teenage musicians and their students, encourages parent participation, and enhances student’s self-esteem. Bahama Village Music Program’s mission is to provide quality music education to children who would otherwise not have access to private music instruction.
The reason for our visit was to deliver a check for profits received from recent Green Parrot events to benefit The Bahama Village Music Program
The money, over $1600.00, represented profits from The Fats Navarro Tribute and Green Parrot Chicken and Waffle Jazz Brunch, hosted by Larry Baeder, and Norman and Justin VanAken respectively, and a Green Parrot Ukulele Association Concert that featured an auction of ukuleles donated by Daryl Brookes’s’ The Grateful Guitar
It was Baeder, well known in the Key West music scene as well as being a much sought-after sideman nationally, who first proposed a tribute to jazz legend and Key West native Fats Navarro, to be held annually as The Green Parrot Chicken and Waffle Jazz Brunch.
Celebrity Chef Norman Van Aken and son Justin, pictured above, using their Chicken and Waffle recipe from their recently co-authored “My Key West Kitchen”, prepared scores of the sweet and savory platters to benefit The Bahama Village Music program and provide seed money to help realize Larry Baeder’s dream of a Bahama Village Music Program Jazz Band.
The following weekend, Daryl Brooke, from Grateful Guitars Music Shop in Duval Square, in conjunction with The Green Parrot Ukulele Association, donated two ukuleles that were raffled off by Kaachen during The Green Parrot Ukulele Association Concert.
Over 700 raffle tickets at one dollar a ticket were sold to benefit The Bahama Village Music Program, again, with a specific goal, this time the creation a Bahama Village Music program Ukulele Orchestra.
Copies of Norman and Justin Van Aken’s “My Key West Kitchen” are available through Kyle books, on amazon, or at The Green Parrot Gift Shop next to the bar,
and a large selection of quality new and vintage instruments, including ukuleles are available at The Grateful Guitar.
