In Lieu of 1000 Words: 2012 Prairie Village Jazz Fest, Part 2

A photographer craves the perfect light, the setting sun hitting the stage at a unique angle to illuminate the musicians perfectly, a fifteen minute period when you can capture a once in a lifetime shot.

At the 2012 Prairie Village Jazz Festival on September 8, the perfect light hit during the stage change between Megan Birdsall’s set and Bobby Watson’s set. Next year’s festival really needs to time that better.

The sun had settled behind the hill at Harmon Park when Bobby Watson took the stage. Backed by bassist Curtis Lundy, in from New York, Richard Johnson from Minneapolis on piano and Kansas City’s Michael Warren on drums, Bobby’s alto captured the crowd. Co-headiner Karrin Allyson followed with a wonderful set, accompanied by Los Angeles sax and woodwind master Bob Sheppard, and a trio of current and former Kansas Citians, jazz masters all: Rod Fleeman on guitar, Gerald Spaits on bass and Todd Strait on drums.

I offered photos of Gerald and Todd last week, from Mike Metheny’s set. Now here’s photos of the rest of the festival headliners. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

Bobby Watson on alto sax

Bassist Curtis Lundy

Pianist Richard Johnson

Drummer Michael Warren

Curtis and Bobby

At night, the audience filled the hill.

 

Karrin Allyson on piano and vocals

Bob Sheppard on sax

Karrin Allyson Quintet. Left to right: Rod Fleeman, Bob Sheppard, Karrin Allyson, Gerald Spaits, Todd Strait

Guitarist Rod Fleeman

Bob Sheppard on flute

For her final number, Karrin invited bassist Bob Bowman, who has performed with her often, and Bobby Watson to join her group on stage. Left to right: Karrin Allyson, Bob Bowman, Bobby Watson, Bob Sheppard, Rod Fleeman.

PV Jazz Fest: The Photo Schedule

I hold a vested interest in this one.

I booked the talent for this year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival, with the mayoral-appointed committee’s advice and consent. The festival takes place September 8th in Prairie Village’s Harmon Park (at 77th and Mission Road, next to Prairie Village City Hall and Shawnee Mission East High School). The sponsor is BRGR, with a pair of terrific restaurants in Prairie Village. The lineup was announced last week.

This suburban festival aims at celebrating Kansas City jazz, seeking headliners with KC roots and filling out the schedule with a sampling of some of the best local talent. Last year’s event was rained out after the second act. This year’s number one goal: Clear skies.

With the lineup officially announced, let’s take a look at the September 8th headliners and the full schedule, peppered with photos I’ve taken of these KC jazz all-stars over the last couple of years.

The Headliners

Karrin Allyson performed a few songs with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra in the first Prairie Village Jazz Festival a couple years back. This year she returns for a full set with her own group, her first KC performance in nearly a year. Since then, her album, ’Round Midnight, was nominated for a Grammy.

Bobby Watson was rained out last year, so of course we wanted to hear what the drenching made us miss. After all, Bobby is an international jazz superstar from whom we cannot hear enough.

The Schedule

3:00 - 4:00 p.m: Diverse – I've raved about the various incarnations of this young group since the blog began. After the festival, I get to rave once more, because drummer Ryan Lee (pictured above) leaves town in August. Brad Williams will join trumpeter Hermon Mehari and bassist Ben Leifer (also pictured above) to open the day.

4:20 - 5:20 p.m: Rich Wheeler Quartet – Rich is one of KC’s best saxophonists whose name few beyond musicians know, because he usually plays as a sideman. But not this time. At the festival, the secret is out, as he heads most of the group I photographed in May: Rich Wheeler on tenor sax, T.J. Martley on piano, Bill McKemy on bass and Sam Wisman on drums (Brian Steever drums in the photo above).

5:40 - 6:40 p.m: Mike Metheny Quartet – I’ve told Mike repeatedly we have far too few opportunities in KC to hear him play. Last year’s festival was going to correct that but Mike, like Bobby, was rained out. When you hear Mike Metheny on trumpet, flugelhorn, and/or EVI, with T.J. Martley on piano, Gerald Spaits on bass and Todd Strait on drums, you’ll understand why we were thrilled when Mike agreed to try again. You’ll also find him at the Metheny Foundation tent at the festival.

7:00 - 8:00 p.m: Megan Birdsall Quartet – Megan is one of KC’s most magnificent vocalists. I can’t say it any more plainly than that. If you haven’t had the delight to hear her live, here's your chance. If you have heard her, you know why you want to be in the audience on September 8th. Her group will include Megan Birdsall on vocals, Wayne Hawkins on piano, Bob Bowman on bass and Matt Leifer on drums.

8:20 - 9:20 p.m: Bobby Watson Quartet – Bobby will be performing with the quartet pictured above, the one with whom we’d hoped to showcase him with last year. With Bobby Watson on alto sax, his longtime bassist Curtis Lundy flying in from New York, Chris Clarke on piano and Michael Warren on drums, it’s hard to imagine a better headliner in any jazz festival.

9:40 - 10:55 p.m: Karrin Allyson Quintet – When Karrin lived in KC, I went to The Phoenix nearly every Tuesday night and sat at the piano bar to hear her on vocals and piano with Rod Fleeman on guitar. I knew I was hearing a talent who would someday be internationally recognized as a jazz star. With multiple Grammy nominations now under her belt, here's a chance to see one of jazz’s best vocalists, with Karrin Allyson on piano and vocals, Bob Sheppard from Los Angeles on tenor sax and flute, Rod Fleeman on guitar, Gerald Spaits on bass and Todd Strait on drums.

KC Jazz for Christmas, 2011

’Twas the week before Christmas when a friend turned to me
And said, “I need a jazz gift for under the tree.
It must be KC jazz, a wonderful find,
So that when it is opened, she’ll scream, “It’s divine!””

First take Jacob Fred, as in Jazz Odyssey,
Their Race Riot Suite is the epitome
Of their music to date, a story told true,
History as jazz, always crisp, sometimes blue.

Or take Mike Metheny (also listed last year),
With a new retrospective, a pleasure to hear.
Whether swinging Miss Jones or a more complex track,
To Old Wine/New Bossa you’ll always come back.

You say you want vocals? All the Things You Are brings
KC’s top rhythm section while Laura Chalk sings.
Add Embrey’s guitar and Laura’s son Matt,
For the best jazz musicians, none better than that.

If you’d rather hear duos, just piano and song,
With Millie and Mike you will not go wrong.
Michael Pagan backing Millie’s strong voice
Makes this live recording a wonderful choice.

The People’s Lib Big Band of Greater KC
Played one show with dance, a wonder to see.
But if you missed Nutcracker and the Mouse King,
The music’s on CD, a great offering.

Sir Threadius Mongus plays jazz with an edge.
On Threads, a great front line. On that I’ll not hedge.
With Andrew McGhie, Matt Otto, Stan Kessler,
The talent’s superb. You just can’t do better.

Karrin we claim. KC long was her home.
So her CD, ’Round Midnight is one of our own.
It’s won rave reviews. In some it scored ten.
No surprise here, ’cause we knew her back when.

“This is great! It’s superb!” my friend yelled with a screech,
“I want them all! I’ll take one of each!”
And my friend did exclaim, ’fore he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all and to all a jazzed night!”

*****

• Jacob Fred Jazz Oddyssey’s Race Riot Suite is available from Amazon, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.
• Mike Metheney’s Old Wine/New Bossa is available from Mike’s website, here, or from Amazon, here.
• Laura Chalk’s All the Things You Are is available from CD Baby, here.
• Millie Edwards and Michael Pagan’s Millie and Mike Live is available from Amazon, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.
• The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is available from Tzigane Music, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.
• Sir Threadius Mongus’s Threads is available from CD Baby, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.
• Karrin Allyson’s ’Round Midnight is available from Amazon, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.

Classic Shots: More Rhythm and Ribs Past

A year ago a I posted photos taken at past Rhythm and Ribs Festivals. That post remains a popular one. And there’s plenty more photos where those came from.

So let’s do this again.

The 2012 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival (with a funk headliner…but that’s not part of the official name) happens behind the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine this Saturday, October 8th, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You can find all the details here. I plan to be there, taking photos. You should plan to be there, enjoying the music.

You can see below just how much everyone enjoyed past Rhythm and Ribs Fests. After all, how could a jazz fan not enjoy the acts pictured below? As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

Koko Taylor, 2005

Christian McBride with Pat Metheny's group in 2007. McBride with his own group is a headliner of this year's festival.

Al Jarreau, 2007

George Benson, 2007

Pat Metheny, 2007

Al Green, 2006

Karrin Allyson, 2005

Shemekia Copeland, 2006

Lonnie Smith, 2007

George Benson and Al Jarreau, 2007

Pat Metheny and Christian McBride, 2007

3 New KC Jazz CDs

Her voice soars.

I first met Millie Edwards some fifteen years ago, when her husband and I worked at the same ad agency. He was an art director and I was the production manager. Then she was working days and singing nights, often with Everett DeVan. Today she’s best known as a Wild Woman, singing with Myra Taylor, Geneva Price and Lori Tucker as one of the Wild Women of KC, a jazz favorite (photographed here).


But each Monday you’ll find her at The Phoenix (one of that bar’s last links to its jazz heritage). And on the new CD, Mike and Mille Live, you’ll find her with pianist Michael Pagán in vocal and piano duets recorded live at Jardine’s.

From the perfectly hit soaring notes on In a Mellow Tone and Just In Time to the tenderness of The Very Thought of You and Someone to Watch Over Me, Millie’s voice caries each song with power and emotion, vicarious hurt or fervent joy.

Michael Pagán’s piano is more than a complement to the singing. It sets its own voice, imaginatively playing out its own twists and takes on traditional numbers, weaving in and out and around Millie’s contribution. It is supportive of the singing without just establishing a base for the voice, but imbuing each piano and voice duet with its own, always swinging, often complex, vigor and interest.

I don’t usually care for piano and singer duets. Too often, they strike me as too simple, lacking depth. But not this one. When Millie cries out, “There’s a joy unknown/When you do it in a mellow tone,” my reaction is: Amen!

Millie and Mike Live is available on iTunes, here, at Amazon, here, and at CDBaby, here. And I’m betting you can find it Monday nights at The Phoenix.

*****

His EVI can swing and soar and soothe.

It’s been 24 years since I first met Mike Metheny. He was living in Boston when we brought him in as one of the two headliners of the 1987 Kansas City Jazz Festival in Volker Park. Wynton Marsalis was the other. Mike’s performance was better received. Wynton’s trumpet bordered on clinical while Mike’s trumpet, flugelhorn and EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) were more accessible, more personal and more vibrantly engaged the audience.

You hear those qualities in Mike’s latest CD, Old Wine/New Bossa, a compilation of what he considers his best recorded work from nine previous CDs.

Yes, I’ve Met Miss Jones, backed by Kansas City’s PBT Trio (Paul Smith, piano, Bob Bowman, bass and Todd Strait, drums) opens the CD with swing as Kansas City knows it. Mike’s simultaneously sublime and beautiful flugelhorn on How Insensitive (complemented by Rod Fleeman’s guitar solo), delivers a fresh tenderness to a song I discovered when Karrin Allyson sang it in KC clubs. That same flugelhorn followed by EVI pull me into the soothing yet intriguing world of the CD’s title track, Old Wine/New Bossa. And on Benny Golson’s Are You Real? with Roger Wilder's piano solo followed by Mike's coronet followed by Danny Embrey’s guitar solo, you have a snapshot of some of Kansas City’s best jazz musicians at their best.

The more complex paths of Three for Boston, the haunting uneasiness of Farmer’s Trust, the tranquil and dreamlike Deceptive Resolution, and the placid joy of Ta-Ta For Now (with little brother Pat) cement this collection.

You can hear Mike at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival on September 10th. Until then, you can find Old Wine/New Bossa on Mike’s website, here.

******

Her voice will break a heart.

I met Karrin Allyson over fifteen years ago when every Tuesday night she and Rod Fleeman played The Phoenix (back when The Phoenix was a legitimate jazz destination, when the neon “Live Jazz” sign in the window wasn’t, on most nights, false advertising). Nearly every week, I was there. Karrin played piano and sang while Rod accompanied on guitar. It was obvious then that Karrin’s voice was extraordinary.

Her voice is still extraordinary. And on her new CD of ballads, ’Round Midnight, she plays piano, something we’ve heard only occasionally on her recordings in recent years. Add Rod Fleeman on guitar on all but three of the cuts and Randy Weinstein, who would sometimes sit in on harmonica in Karrin’s KC days, on a couple numbers, and it's just like The Phoenix.

But it’s not like at The Phoenix. Karrin’s voice is even better today, with a virtuosity and depth built from experience. Take Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, a song I heard her sing often in her Kansas City days. Here it’s delivered with smoothness punctuated by a mature playfulness. There’s a precision to Sophisticated Lady, an intimacy which, on this CD, makes it Karrin Allyson’s song. You don’t hear that in a noisy bar. And at the end of Goodbye, listen when she sings, “Kiss me when you go, goodbye.” She’s singing that to you, just to you, and she’s breaking your heart.

Karrin Allyson’s ’Round Midnight is available from Amazon , here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.

In Lieu of 1000 Words: The Prairie Village Jazz Festival

As far as I can tell, the organizers of the first Prairie Village Jazz Festival last Saturday made only one error.

A friend asked if I’d volunteer the day of the event, and I agreed. Then I found they put me on security.

Security? Me?

But if any other mistake was made, I didn't see it.

The inaugural Prairie Village Jazz Festival was a magnificent success. The community where I grew up (just a few blocks from the festival grounds, actually) assembled a perfect day of jazz. The park was ideal. The organization seemed flawless. The weather could not have been better (okay, that one’s thanks to someone other than festival organizers). More of the crowd even seemed to be listening to the music than on a typical night at Jardine’s.

The music they heard, start to finish, was Kansas City at its best. I was at my volunteer post during the first two sets, but what wafted there of Killer Strayhorn and Sons of Brazil proved ideal openers. David Basse’s group, a superb mix of KC veterans and youth, swung his vocals hard. Eldar’s return is always welcome, though I wondered going in if a piano trio would play well to a large outdoor setting. He knew what would work here and engaged the crowd in his mastery. The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, which struck me as a a bit tepid when I heard them last January, this night brought the figurative house down, partly with the help of guest Miguel DeLeon. And Grammy nominee Karrin Allyson, another returning KC jazz hero, joined the Jazz Orchestra, never sounding better.

Below are photos of how it looked, mostly of the headliners. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

By the way, turns out security just meant making sure nobody entered with a cooler. So, my official security report: Prevented three people from bringing in a banned cooler (the Prairie Village police officer behind me may have helped).

Karrin Allyson sings

Eldar Djangirov on piano

 

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra

Left to right: Zach Beeson, Joe Cartwright, David Basse, David Basse's signature hat, Brian Steever

Karrin Allyson

Miguel DeLeon

Eldar

 

In the mid-1990s, I went to The Phoenix nearly every Tuesday night for Karrin Allyson on piano and vocals and Rod Fleeman on guitar. It's still some of the best jazz I've heard. The musical chemistry they share is just as delightful to see and hear today.

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and two (maybe three) new fans