Two festivals honoring the birthday of saxophonist Charlie Parker will be held beginning today. </p><p>The Yardbird Festival, held in conjunction with the American Jazz Museum, will be today at the Jay McShann Pavilion, the outdoor performance venue behind the museum. This goes from noon until 6 p.m. and will feature the music of the Elder Statesman of Jazz and the Horace Washington Quartet. A special group known as Saxplosion, with 10 area saxophonists, will also perform. </p><p>At noon today, the movie &ldquo;Confessin&rsquo; the Blues,&rdquo; with the music of Jay McShann, will be screened. The film &ldquo;Last of the Blue Devils&rdquo; and film footage of Charlie Parker also will be shown. </p><p>From 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the atrium of the American Jazz Museum, the Yardbird Festival will have &ldquo;Stories From the Vine.&rdquo; The session will focus on Kansas City&rsquo;s love of the saxophone and will include a conversation with saxophonist Bobby Watson and Ahmad Alaadeen. </p><p>Celeste Rogers Reed was the coordinator of the festival. </p><p>&ldquo;In Japan and in New York, they have annual Charlie Parker festivals in their respective cities,&rdquo; Reed said. &ldquo;As far as an all-out festival that celebrates his genius, his music and his legacy, we haven&rsquo;t until now. We want it to be an annual celebration staged on the weekend of his birthday every year from here on out. And we want it to remain free.&rdquo; </p><p>&bull;&bull;&bull; </p><p>The second gathering will be the Bird Lives Festival, a Charlie Parker birthday celebration sponsored by the Mutual Musicians Foundation. </p><p>That festival will begin with a group photo of all the blues and jazz musicians across the area at noon at the Mutual Musicians Foundation. </p><p>From 2 to 8 p.m., the foundation will showcase two outdoor stages of live jazz and blues. The foundation will feature an early jam session that begins at 8 p.m. The regular late-night jam session will begin at 1 a.m. </p><p>At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, musicians and fans will gather at Parker&rsquo;s grave in Lincoln Cemetery for a saxophone salute. The festivities will conclude with the Yardbird Chicken Feed and Jazz Jam session held at the Mutual Musicians Foundation. </p><p>&bull;&bull;&bull; </p><p>Aug. 21 was the last day of work for Andrew Zender, the communications coordinator at the American Jazz Museum. Co-workers brought in food that day to honor Zender. </p><p>Zender quit his job at the museum to assume the job of the communication coordinator for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park. </p><p>Zender said he was grateful for his job at the museum, one he held three years. He graduated from Kansas State University in 2005 with a journalism degree with an emphasis on advertising. </p><p>&ldquo;This was my first gig out of college,&rdquo; Zender said. &ldquo;I was very lucky to get a job here. The jazz museum is one of Kansas City&rsquo;s most important institutions. It&rsquo;s in the cultural DNA of Kansas City.&rdquo;