Park Being Renamed After Milwaukee Jazz Legend

Al Jarreau in 1996. Photo by Stig Ove Voll, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A Milwaukee park will be renamed after musician Al Jarreau as part of a larger renovation plan.

The Cawker Play Area, near the intersection of N. 30th Street and W. Locust Street, is one of several dozen city-owned parks.

Jarreau won six Grammy awards during his career, including the 1982 award for “Best Male Pop Vocal Performance,” and was nominated for 13 more. He found his love for music growing up in Milwaukee, then became a professional musician while living in California. Known primarily for performing jazz music, Jarreau crossed genres into R&B, soul and pop music. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 76 after several decades of touring.

The play area has already been identified as a target for improvement by the city’s MKE Plays program. Artist Tia Richardson is creating a new fence mural and basketball court mural for the park. Other improvements are planned.

“This is the neighborhood in which Al Jarreau was raised in,” said area Alderman Khalif Rainey to the Public Works Committee on Wednesday [Ed: Jarreau’s extended family tells Urban Milwaukee he lived at 336 W. Reservoir Ave., a couples miles east]. “I hope it’s not the last tribute Al Jarreau receives here in Milwaukee.” In a letter, he said he once considered naming a segment of nearby W. Fond du Lac Avenue for Jarreau. Rainey noted that Jarreau never forgot his hometown, which was exhibited by Jarreau’s deathbed wish for well-wishers to support young artists in the city.

The park’s formal name will be Alwin Lopez (Al) Jarreau Park, pending final approval by the Common Council on July 31.

The renaming request was initiated by the neighborhood-focused nonprofit Amani United Neighborhood Association.

“Parks are places where kids can dream and develop their talents, skills, and abilities. Jarreau’s legacy serves as a model to aspire to, and naming a park for him would introduce him to future generations of Milwaukee youth,” says the nomination from Amani United board president Elizabeth Brown and housing and economic development chair Barbara Smith.

Jarreau attended Milwaukee Public Schools‘ Lincoln High School (now Lincoln Center for the Arts middle school), where he served as class president. He graduated from Ripon College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and the University of Iowa with a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation, which led to his work as a counselor before becoming a professional musician in the 1960s.

Who was Cawker? The play area draws its name from the adjacent W. Cawker Place, one of the city’s shortest streets. The street was named in 1889 for English immigrant Emanuel Cawker who owned the surrounding land (recognized in property deeds today as Cawker’s Subdivision). His son, Col. E. Harrison Cawker, was an attorney and investor whose name can be found on the Cawker Building in Westown. The building was named for Harrison posthumously by his daughter Lenore Cawker. Cawker City, Kansas is also named for Harrison, who allegedly won the rights during a poker game.

The park, 2929 N. 30th St., is just east of the 30th Street railroad corridor and immediately north of the Milwaukee Fire Department‘s Station 13. Richardson, who is designing the new murals, also painted a mural in 2021 on the other side of the railroad tracks. The park site is one of several in the corridor that was once occupied by an industrial building that has since been demolished. Free wireless internet service was added to the park in 2021.

Rainey, in a press release, said the Dominican Center, Milwaukee County Parks and Safe & Sound are also supporting the mural project. MKE Plays director Joe Kaltenberg told Urban Milwaukee in May that a larger grant from the Burke Foundation would support the renovation.

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Related Legislation: File 230388