2014 PV Jazz Fest: The Headliners

The weather and the music were as close to ideal as they could be. The local acts brought their best for the 2014 Prairie Village Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 6th. But the audience size grew to its peak as Kevin Mahogany took the stage.

I’d long considered bringing in Kevin with a big band (and may yet do that someday), but for various reasons the festival couldn’t accommodate a big band this year. So instead we paired Kevin with Joe Cartwright’s trio. Backed by Joe on piano, Tyrone Clarke on bass and Michael Warren on drums, Kevin’s baritone voice connected with the audience from that big outdoor stage to a grassy hill full of people in an intimate way I never anticipated.

Then Deborah Brown took the stage. Backed by Joe Lovano on sax, Terell Stafford on trumpet, Richard Johnson on piano, Leon Anderson on drums and Tyrone Clarke (putting in a long but wonderful night) on bass, Deborah’s amazing voice shined. Stafford’s solos, ripe with power and inventiveness, owned the stage. Lovano’s solos, this night reimagining a trio Charlie Parker compositions, proved too contemporary for a suburban Kansas City audience, which thinned before the set ended. But they also proved why Lovano has repeatedly won Downbeat’s Critic’s Poll as best tenor saxophonist. All of us who stayed enjoyed more than an hour and a half of jazz in 2014 at its best. Unfortunately, the sound system was not at its best, though I’m not sure that feedback which haunted the stage area was discernible more than a few short times to the audience.

Below are photos from the night. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

Singer Kevin Mahogany

Left to right: Joe Cartwirght on piano, Tyrone Clark on bass, Kevin Mahogany, vocals, Michael Warren on drums

Connecting with the audience

Kevin Mahogany with the Joe Cartwright Trio

Kevin Mahogany sings

On stage at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival

Kevin Mahogany

Left to right: Deborah Brown, vocals, Richard Johnson on piano, Terell Stafford on trumpet, Tyrone Clark on bass, Joe Lovano on tenor sax, Leon Anderson on drums

Deborah Brown and Terell Stafford

Joe Lovano

Deborah Brown and Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Leon Anderson

Deborah Brown with Terell Stafford and Tyrone Clark

Deborah Brown and Joe Lovano

Richard enjoys Deborah’s vocals

Deborah, Terell and Tyrone appreciate Joe’s solo

Deborah Brown with Joe Lovano and Terell Stafford brilliantly conclude the 2014 Prairie Village Jazz Festival

Saturday's Fifth Annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival

Maybe this is why it happened.

Three years ago, at the end of the second act of the second annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival, a microburst blew across Harmon Park, site of the festival. Clouds in the west had been darkening, growing more threatening, during that second set. They started moving towards the park more rapidly. They weren’t spread out. This was a dark and concentrated, a frighteningly intense cluster of clouds, like a missile aimed at a precise target. And when they struck, it wasn’t at all of Prairie Village. They ripped Harmon Park with savage winds and rain that pummeled the grounds like it wanted to hurt. Nobody was injured by the storm, but sound equipment was damaged and the second annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival ended.

Among the acts scheduled that day was Deborah Brown. She was to be backed by the group she would assemble for the rare instances she played Kansas City, including Matt Otto on sax. It was going to be an opportunity to introduce Deborah to a larger audience than hears her in The Blue Room, a chance for thousands of people to discover what a magnificent jazz vocal talent we have hidden here in Kansas City.

But maybe the storm was a way for someone bigger to say, “That's not good enough. Deborah Brown is too incredible a talent to play your festival with her Blue Room ensemble. She needs to be showcased with some of the greatest talent in jazz, because her talent is at that level. So I’m wiping out your event today and giving you the chance to present her right. Oh, and when you do, bring back Matt Otto somewhere in that festival, too, or I’ll be pissed again.”

We took the hint.

Saxophonist Joe Lovano has repeatedly won Downbeat magazine’s Critics Poll for best tenor saxophonist. His last album won for jazz CD of the year. A few years ago, he won as Jazz Musician of the Year. He travels the world performing. In the weeks before the festival, he was in France. The Saturday after, he’s in Bogata, Columbia. A stop in Prairie Village, Kansas almost looked like a mistake in his online schedule.

Terell Stafford was last in Kansas City in February, with the reunion of Bobby Watson and Horizon at The Blue Room. His trumpet blowing was incredible. Don’t tell Bobby I said so, but between you and me, that night he was better than Bobby.

This Saturday night, at 9 p.m. at the fifth annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival, Deborah Brown takes the stage accompanied by Joe Lovano and Terell Stafford, with Richard Johnson from Minnesota on piano (this is Richard's second appearance in the festival; he played piano with Bobby Watson’s quartet two years ago), Leon Anderson from Florida on drums and Kansas City’s Tyrone Clark on bass.

The buzz building for this year’s festival has an intensity unlike any I’ve heard in previous years. Because not only is Deborah Brown one of the greatest vocalists in jazz today, she is one of the most beloved individuals in Kansas City’s jazz community among those who know her. The community is excited by the chance to hear her shine with some of the greatest names in jazz. She does this regularly in Europe. Saturday, she has the opportunity in her hometown.

And for anyone who thinks calling Deborah Brown one of today’s greatest jazz vocalists is hyperbole, come Saturday night and you will leave understanding the description fits.

Below is the complete schedule of this year's Prairie Village Jazz Festival, including the musicians in each group. Preceding Deborah Brown is Kevin Mahogany, one Kansas City’s most popular favorite sons, back in town with Joe Cartwright’s trio.

And earlier in the day, you can hear Matt Otto with Shay Estes.

So everyone in the sky should be appeased.

*****

2014 Prairie Village Jazz Festival

Saturday, September 6, 2014 at Harmon Park, 7700 Mission Rd. (next to Shawnee Mission East High School and Prairie Village City Hall). $5 admission (Children 18 and under are free).

2:00 – 2:10 p.m.    Welcome by the Mayor

2:10 – 2:40 p.m.    Shawnee Mission East Blue Knights
Kim Harrison, director

3:00 – 3:50 p.m.    Project H
Ryan Heinlein, trombone, Brett Jackson, saxophones, Nate Nall, trumpet, Jeff Stocks, guitar, Andrew Ouellette, piano, Dominique Sanders, bass, Matt Leifer, drums

4:10 – 5:00 p.m.    Shay Estes with Rod Fleeman and Matt Otto
Shay Estes, vocals, Matt Otto, tenor sax, Rod Fleeman, guitar, Mark Lowrey, piano, Karl McComas-Reichl, bass, John Kizilarmut, drums

5:20 – 6:10 p.m.    The Jazz Disciples with Jason Goudeau and Stephanie Moore
Gerald Dunn, alto sax, Everett Freeman, piano, James Ward, bass, Michael Warren, drums, Jason Goudeau, trombone, Stephanie Moore, vocals

6:30 – 7:20 p.m.    Bram Wijnands Swingtet
Bram Wijnands, piano and vocals, David Chael, clarinet, Carl Bender, tenor and baritone sax, Mike Herrera, alto sax, Phillip Wakefield, drums

7:40 – 8:40 p.m.    Kevin Mahogany with the Joe Cartwright Trio
Kevin Mahogany, vocals, Joe Cartwright, piano, Tyrone Clark, bass, Michael Warren, drums

9:00 – 10:30 p.m.  Deborah Brown with Joe Lovano and Terell Stafford
Deborah Brown, vocals, Joe Lovano, tenor sax, Terell Stafford, trumpet, Richard Johnson, piano, Tyrone Clark, bass, Leon Anderson, drums

Bobby Watson and Horizon at The Blue Room

We can say definitively that the roof of The Blue Room is firmly attached. Because if it was ever going to come off, that would have happened during one of Terell Stafford’s solos a week ago Friday.

Bobby Watson on alto sax, Terell Stafford on trumpet, Edward Simon on piano, Essiet Okon Essiet on bass and Victor Lewis on drums reunited on Friday, February 21st at The Blue Room to celebrate 30 years of Bobby Watson and Horizon. You will not find an ensemble where every player knows and responds to each other more instinctively, more naturally, or more imaginatively or more expressively, than this one. The musicians who make up Horizon may have evolved over the years. They may not reunite as an ensemble all that often anymore. But you will not hear five more talented jazz musicians sharing a stage in 2014. This is jazz at another level.

Especially when Terell Stafford is on fire, and this Friday, he was.

If you missed it, below you can see how the evening looked. As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

Horizon. Left to right: Edward Simon on piano, Bobby Watson on alto sax, Essiet Okon Essiet on bass, Terell Stafford on trumpet, Victor Lewis on drums.

Bobby Watson on alto sax

Terell Stafford on trumpet

Bobby and Terell

Edward Simon on piano

Essiet Okon Essiet on bass

Victor Lewis on drums

Bobby Watson, Edward Simon and Terell Stafford in The Blue Room

Terell Stafford

Bobby Watson

Admiration