In Lieu of 1000 Words: New Jazz Order Big Band at Winterlude

We’ll take it in chunks.

I had the chance to shoot photos of several of the bands which delighted audiences at this year’s Jazz Winterlude in Johnson County Community College's Carlsen Center, and they include some not previously pictured on this blog.

Time to picture them. But not all at once. I’ll show one chunk of shots – that is, one group – per post, starting with one of which I’ve raved before.

I still regret not carrying my camera with me the night I heard the New Jazz Order Big Band at The Blue Room. But I didn’t because, honestly, I didn’t expect to be as taken with this band as I was. You can read about how wrong that expectation was in the post I wrote here.

This big band remains a hard-driving collection of musicians playing outstanding big band music, respecting but not stuck in the past. From sax solos by Steve Lambert, to leader Clint Ashlock’s trumpet, to vocalist Megan Birdsall – to pull out just a few of the night's highlights – it’s hard to imagine Winterlude jumping off to a more musically magnificent start than it did January 20th in Polsky Theatre. You don’t have to take my word for it. Read what our friend Plastic Sax had to say about the show in his review, here.

You can catch the New Jazz Order Big Band any Tuesday night at Harling’s from 9 p.m. to midnight. But if you want to catch them in coat and tie, you may need to settle for the photos below (Harling’s just isn’t a coat and tie kind of joint). As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

The New Jazz Order Big Band opening Jazz Winterlude

Singer Megan Birdsall watches while Kerry Strayer solos on baritone sax. That's Andrew Ouellette on piano and Ben Leifer on bass.

Megan Birdsall sings

Aaron Linscheid solos on trumpet

Steve Lambert on tenor sax

Megan sings, Steve solos, the band plays

Band leader Clint Ashlock

The New Jazz Order Big Band

Scenes From a Jazz Club

• Last September, and the performance was spectacular. The singer hit every note with perfection and the rhythm section, feeling something unique, drove the music hard, with emotion. The audience that night, in that often noisy club, sat rapt and listened, quiet except for applause.

Sometimes when you sit down in this jazz club, the night is magical.

• Next month in that club, I went to hear a sax player, back in town to perform with his old pals. The music clicked, swinging and fun.

This night, I ordered dinner. As usual, I asked for a double order of green beans instead of potatoes (for diabetes control). The server came back and said the kitchen was short of green beans and could only serve a single order. Fine, I said, then just leave off the potatoes. The server said the kitchen told her that it was too busy to prepare special orders and I could just pick off the potatoes.

I looked around and counted 53 customers in the club who might order dinner. A restaurant with a posted capacity of 115 was overwhelmed by preparing perhaps 53 dinners?

I could have had a more personalized meal at McDonald’s.

• I remember a summer night, a Saturday, in the same club. The show started about 10:30. The room was packed, bodies wall to wall. The only available seat was at the bar. People talked, and here the sound system rarely overcomes the chatter. But this night the singer’s voice and choice of songs – it was a different singer – quieted just enough people and grabbed just enough attention to be heard. More people listened, and the performers increasingly commanded the space. Midway through the first set, the musicians owned the room.

This isn’t something you find every night in this club, but when it happens and jazz overtakes the cacophony of talk, you experience the definition of a jazz club.

• It was the last Wednesday of last year in the same club. I don’t usually make reservations, though I regularly walk in to table signs which read “Reserved.” But this time I planned to use a coupon, so when I was in the club on Monday night, for another show, I made a reservation for Wednesday. I watched the hostess write it in the reservation book.

I arrived on Wednesday on time, ready to order flat iron steak. The club was filled. I looked for a table with a “Reserved” card on it, like I always saw for people who made reservations. There was one. But that one, the hostess explained, was reserved for someone else. Well, I had a reservation, too. The hostess proceeded to clear a table right by the front door, a table covered with flowers and papers and junk. She wanted me to sit a few feet from a constantly opening door on the last Wednesday of December in Kansas City? I wasn’t going to enjoy flat iron steak – or anything – sitting there.

I could eat at the bar, she offered. No, I made a reservation for a table. I could point to it in the reservation book. There should be a table with a “Reserved” sign waiting, just like that other table with a sign is waiting for somebody else. If a spot opened up, the hostess offered, she would seat me.

I sat at the bar, angry. An hour later, apparently no spot having opened (or ignored because I looked angry), I left, hungry and mad. When I arrived home, I stuck a Banquet frozen dinner in the microwave. It wasn’t flat iron steak.

The club is Jardine’s, arguably Kansas City’s premiere jazz club. Music at The Blue Room is just as wonderful (and sometimes better), but The Blue Room is open less often and doesn’t serve food. The Majestic has better food, but only a pianist until Thursdays, and then usually just small, unobtrusive combos. The Phoenix offers cheaper but inferior food (extraordinarily bland, in my experience) and seems undecided on whether it’s a jazz club or a blues bar. At R Bar you’ll find vastly superior (albeit higher priced) dinners and a superior sound system, but only occasional jazz.

If you want good and varied jazz with fine drinks and/or a decent meal, most nights in Kansas City, Jardine’s is the choice.

But it’s not the choice because you always like it. Often you do. Often you hear magnificent jazz by Kansas City’s outstanding musicians. Go there enough, and you will experience nights of magic.

But go there enough and you will experience nights when you would have been better off with a CD and a Whopper.

Jardine’s is the choice by default.

And that’s frustrating. A gaping hole floats over Kansas City’s jazz scene, asking to be filled by a club where you can expect consistently – consistency is key here – fine food, good drinks, excellent service, all tightly managed.

I keep hoping that Jardine’s will tighten into that place. But nights like the last Wednesday of 2010 leave me wondering if it will ever be Kansas City’s premiere jazz club for more reason than there just isn’t anyplace better.

Then I have a night like this:

• The group is one of my favorites. I’ve written about them before. Two saxophonists started playing. They’re outstanding. A guest bassist was sitting in, a former Kansas Citian. His solos are spectacular, even better than when he lived here. He was driving the pianist, whose playing I always enjoy, to greater solos. This is a tight group at their best. Nobody heard better live jazz than I heard that Monday night.

It was so good, I decided to return Wednesday. I made a reservation and watched the hostess write it in the book. On Wednesday, I thought, I'd try the flat iron steak.

The KC Jazz Musician Quiz (and a Plug)

Today’s post is a shameless plug for which I make no apology. Because the organizer of Johnson County Community College’s Jazz Winterlude has been a friend for about a quarter century, since I was a volunteer organizer of the Kansas City Jazz Festival and she was the main contact with our partner, Kansas City Parks and Recreation.

So I know first hand that when Doreen Maronde commits to a project, it will be meticulously planned and an event worth attending. That statement’s not part of the plug. That’s just a fact.

The second Jazz Winterlude starts this Thursday, January 20th, at 7 p.m. with the New Jazz Order Big Band and guest Megan Birdsall in Polsky Theatre, within the Carlsen Center, on the Johnson County Community College campus. If you’ve never heard this group at their Tuesday night gig at Harlings, or at one of their Blue Room performances (one of which I raved about here), you have no excuse now.

Winterlude continues with concerts running from 4 to 10:15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and concludes with a jazz brunch on Sunday. The complete schedule and ticket information is here.

There’s the plug. Now let’s have some fun. Because I offered to prepare a Twitter feed and Facebook page for Winterlude this year, and to populate both daily with fun facts supplied by the musicians performing in the festival about themselves. For various reasons, neither the feed nor the page congealed as originally envisioned, and with only 20 or so followers each, I know few of you have seen the fun facts.

So here’s a quiz. Every question is about a Kansas City jazz musician performing at Winterlude. Think you know our local jazz stars? Now is your chance to find out, with the ten questions that follow. Answers are at the end.

1.  Which KC pianist was born in Eindhoven? And where the heck is Eindhoven?

2.  Here’s a clue: The largest school of jazz in Europe is Hilversum Conservatory. That Eindhoven-born pianist is a Hilversum grad. Who might he be?

3.  Let's look at another musician. This one has toured with B.B. King, Grover Washington, Lou Donaldson, and backed Redd Foxx in Vegas. He plays tenor sax, electric bass, guitar, clarinet, flute, harmonica, drums and sings. Who is this?

4.  Her grandmother taught music. Her mother sang. Her father took her to the Mutual Musicians Foundation. She was playing piano at age 12. As a viola student at Ottawa University, she had a chance to work with Aaron Copland. Who is she?

5.  At age 8 he sold newspapers on a street corner in Joplin, MO. At age 10 he sold drinks at Starlight, but was fired for tipping over a container of ice. For three years he worked Swope Park Concessions and saved money to buy his first drum set. Name him.

6.  He grew up in a Nebraska town with no record store, so for music he’d visit a local supper club which featured a Dixieland band. Who is he?

7.  She first sang with the King’s Men, a Shawnee Mission North group that also featured saxophonist Mike White. Later, Marilyn Maye helped her start in jazz by lending her pianist Sammy Tucker for an audition. Which singer is this?

8.  He’s played bass with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra in New York and the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin Big Band in L.A., and he’s toured South America and Japan with Carmen McRae. But he started on piano before switching to clarinet in Topeka. Who is he?

9.  Now consider another bassist. He’s played the Montreux Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival and the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain. Who?

10.  He played trumpet in high school. But he’s known as a pianist and has accompanied Louis Bellson, Ruby Braff, Randy Brecker, Karrin Allyson, Nick Brignola, Bob Brookmeyer, Gary Burton, Conti Condoli, Doc Cheatham, Al Cohn, Buddy DeFranco, Paquito D’Rivera, Gary Foster, Ubie Green, Eddie Harris, Red Holloway, Carmell Jones, Jay Leonhart, Kevin Mahogany, Marilyn Maye, Rob McConnell, David “Fathead” Newman, Anita O’Day, John Pizzarelli, Dianne Reeves, Red Rodney, Pat Metheny, Marshall Royal, Bud Shank, Jack Sheldon, Zoot Sims, Grady Tate, Clark Terry, Bobby Watson and Phil Woods. Whose resume is this?

*****

Answers:

1. and 2.  Pianist Bram Wijnands was born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and graduated from Hilversum Conservatory in 1991, but has lived in KC now for nearly 20 years.

3.  Dwight Foster has toured with B.B. King, Grover Washington, Lou Donaldson, and backed Redd Foxx.

4.  Wild Woman Millie Edwards came from a family that loved music. At age 12 she was playing piano, and by 19 she was singing solo.

5.  Tommy Ruskin paid for his first drum set by selling concessions at Swope Park.

6.  Baritone saxophonist Kerry Strayer grew up in a small Nebraska town with no record store.

7.  Singer Julie Turner started with the King’s Men out of Shawnee Mission North. But she credits singer Marilyn Maye for her start in jazz.

8.  Bassist Bob Bowman has played New York, Los Angeles, South America and Japan with some of the biggest names in jazz.

9.  Bassist Gerald Spaits has played Montreux, San Jose and Seville.

10.  The pianist who has accompanied Bellson, Braff, Brecker, Allyson, Brignola, Brookmeyer, Burton, Condoli, Cheatham, Cohn, DeFranco, D’Rivera, Foster, Green, Harris, Holloway, Jones, Leonhart, Mahogany, Maye, McConnell, Newman, O’Day, Pizzarelli, Reeves, Rodney, Metheny, Royal, Shank, Sheldon, Sims, Tate Terry, Watson and Woods is…Paul Smith.

The Return of the Magic Jazz Fairy

“It’s a new me!” the Magic Jazz Fairy cried out, fist pumped high, as the doors to detox swung open.

The mystical being knew it had not been doing its job, and jazz in Kansas City had suffered. Because it’s not the fault of some of the club owners who book jazz if they don’t promote then nobody shows up. And, of course, if a jazz musician doesn’t tweet to followers that there’s a show, or doesn’t post the news in advance to their Facebook wall or their web site, it’s not the musician’s fault, either. After all, they’re musicians, not ad agencies.

So if neither the venue nor the performer holds any responsibility to let jazz fans know that there’s jazz, it must be the responsibility of a mystical being. And that mystical being, as described in an earlier post (here), is the Magic Jazz Fairy. It’s the Magic Fairy who knows when all jazz is happening, and it’s the Magic Jazz Fairy who should be going around to every jazz fan and whispering in our ear while we sleep where and when we can hear jazz so we know, so we just know. And Kansas City has been burdened with a lame Magic Jazz Fairy who has not been doing its job, and jazz attendance has suffered and now we know why. Now we know the real reason so many jazz shows have faced so many empty seats.

Our Magic Jazz Fairy had a drinking problem.

But even mystical beings feel a sense of right and wrong (I’m sure I’m not saying anything you didn’t already know), and our Magic Jazz Fairy manned up and got help.

So the doors to detox swung open wide and the Magic Jazz Fairy was ready. All it had to do was find out when and where jazz in Kansas City is happening and tell us. This isn’t rocket science. Just find the sources, take notes, then fly around at night and tell us. Heck, any sober winged mystical being could do that.

The Magic Jazz Fairy started with the obvious sources. Jardine’s, The Blue Room, The Majestic and The Phoenix all publish online calendars, and all follow up with some combination of emails, tweets and Facebook posts. So, the Magic Jazz Fairy reasoned, every Kansas City jazz fan should already know who’s there. We don’t need those dates whispered in our ears as we sleep. After all, whisper too much and guys (especially guys) will wake up confused.

But another downtown venue is now booking jazz and not drawing crowds. The Magic Jazz Fairy needed details. First, it found the venue’s web site. Curiously, the site made no mention of music, none at all. The mystical being next checked musicians’ web sites. Only one mentioned a performance there, no others. Quickly, it looked up the venue’s Facebook page. There was the word “jazz” on the page, all right, but no mention of when or who. Next the Magic Jazz Fairy checked the musicians’ Facebook pages. Encouragingly, some posted that they would be playing there. But, discouragingly, they posted the news just hours before a performance. The Magic Jazz Fairy lifted its head in anguish. How could that work? How could it fly to all Kansas City jazz fans while we sleep and whisper in our ears when and where jazz would be performed if the news could only be found on Facebook hours before the performance?

Frustrated, the Magic Jazz Fairy folded its wings up tight to its back and pulled on an overcoat. It wanted to be responsible. It wanted to do its job. It would go and check out the venue.

The Magic Jazz Fairy walked through the club’s door. A stage spanned the front, set that night for live jazz. But the mystical being walked in between sets and Beyonce music was blaring from the speakers. A jazz club that blared Beyonce between live jazz sets?

The mystical being picked up a drink menu. There, in the back, were tabs to insert a schedule. But the tabs held no schedule, only stains.

The Magic Jazz Fairy was increasingly distraught. How could it do its job? How could it spread the word of jazz in Kansas City if the venue never listed the music on its web site or Facebook page, if it didn’t list it anywhere in the club, if performers mentioned it only sporadically on their web sites, and on their Facebook page only hours before a show? What good was a sober Magic Jazz Fairy under these conditions?

The Magic Jazz Fairy sat at the bar and laid its head in its hands. Beyonce blared. The bartender walked up and gazed at the disturbed being.

“What can I get you, friend?” the bartender asked.

The Magic Jazz fairy looked up. You shoulda put a ring on it blared in its ears, over and over. What can you get me? it thought. You could get me a list of your live music. You could get me a printed schedule. You could get me an online schedule. You could point me to Facebook posts and to tweets. You could get the musicians to help, to post to their pages sooner. You could get some other kind of between set music if you want to sell live jazz. You could help me help you draw a crowd and grow this into a successful jazz club.

That’s what the mystical being, fresh out of detox, thought.

“Scotch on the rocks,” the Magic Jazz Fairy said.

In Lieu of 1000 Words: Harold O'Neal at the Mutual Musicians Foundation

The New York Times wrote about Harold O’Neal: “He comes with a full, orchestral piano sound, rippling, weaving, punching like Kenny Kirkland’s solos did in the 1990s….”

High praise for the Tanzania-born, Kansas City-raised pianist, who attended the Paseo Performing Arts Academy and found a musical home with revered KC jazz greats like Bobby Watson and Ahmad Alaadeen. But at age 29, now calling New York home, his new CD, Whirling Mantis, is deservedly hot in jazz circles, garnering reviews on NPR (here) and in The New York Times (here).

Yet for New Year’s Eve, Harold returned to his real home, Kansas City and the Mutual Musicians Foundation. I’ve written about the Foundation before (here). It’s Kansas City’s most historic site, still hosting jams from 1 to 5 a.m. on weekend nights. Harold presided over the New Year’s jam, noting how delighted he was to be back in, as he put it, the first club where he hung out. And we were thrilled to hear him here, in the building where any name associated with Kansas City jazz has jammed, where a portrait of Jay McShann watched approvingly. His classical solo take on a Bud Powell composition, to call out just one number, was an unforgettable musical start to the year.

In an exchange of messages on a photography forum, Harold’s producer suggested I ask him to do a card trick. I did, but neither of us had a deck of cards. If you have the pleasure of hearing him play, I suggest you ask for that Bud Powell number.

Here’s how it looked New Year’s Eve 2010/New Year’s morning 2011 at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, mostly shots of Harold O’Neal at the piano, but also a few with some of the KC musicians who jammed with him. As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

Hootie You Haven't Heard

What better way for a jazz blog to end the year than with some music? And what better way for a blog on Kansas City jazz to end the year than with some Jay McShann you’ve probably never heard?

Earlier this year, I digitized for a friend a video tape she could no longer play. I’ve previously posted other videos from that tape, and here’s one more: 28 and a half minutes from Nebraska Public Television of Jay McShann’s trio. I don’t have a date on this one, but I’m guessing for various reasons – including the dates of what surrounds it on the tape – it’s from about 1980, give or take. Jay is accompanied by longtime drummer Paul Gunther and a bassist with whom I’m not familiar. A stereotypical 1980s-PBS-style talking head doesn’t exactly build excitement. But nothing can take away from hearing a Jay McShann performance which probably hasn’t been seen in about three decades, and by most of us never.

The program is divided into two parts, due to YouTube restrictions. Unless someone objects, those two videos are embedded below.

Happy New Year, everyone!


Part 1


Part 2

KC Jazz for Christmas, 2010

’Twas the week before Christmas. I needed a gift
For a new KC jazz fan who wanted a lift.
“I know about Basie, ’bout Lester and Bird.
“But who’s playing now? Tell me, what's today’s word?
“Point me to CDs that are current and clear.
“What new KC jazz was released this past year?”

Well, there’s Metheny’s new one – Mike and not Pat –
Hearing Mike’s E.V.I., can’t go wrong with that.
Add Wilder’s keyboards, Embry’s guitar, what fun!
Bowman’s bass, Draper’s drums, you’ll love 60.1.
A blues and a ballad, then music so brash,
This delivers a sound you can’t otherwise match.

If acoustic’s your preference, I’m sure you’d agree,
When Turkish and jazz blend on Taman Abi,
With Beau Bledsoe on oud and Harshbarger’s bass,
Sait Arat’s darbuka (unmatched anyplace),
Add in Rich Wheeler’s tenor: a CD to seek.
Alaturka plays jazz that’s fun and unique.

Or you want more outlandish? You want less demure?
I know your CD, know you’ll love it for sure.
The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater KC:
It’s not Basie or Benny. It’s jazz that's been freed.
Untraditional big band rattling musical puns. 
Best way to describe it? This jazz is just fun.

You’ve heard him ’round town backing Lonnie and Shay
But here he’s alone. It’s an intimate play
Of piano once subtle, dynamic yet sure,
Pulls you in, turns your head, you listen and you’re
In a Lush Life, or Mars. You are Live at Jardine’s,
Mark Lowrey’s piano you should hear, by all means.

Big band, it returns: The Gates BBQ Suite
KC jazz celebration of our favorite treat.
With May I Help You? and Heavy On Sauce,
Compositions by Watson, not once at a loss.
The Concert Jazz Orchestra, UMKC,
Shines jazz's bright future. They prove it, you’ll see.

“That’s it! I want all!" exclaimed KC jazz fan.
“If they’re all in my stocking, I’m one happy man.
“I’ll always like Basie and Lester and Bird,
“But it’s two-thousand-ten and to this I’ve been spurred:
“To hear today’s jazz and in all of its might.
“So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

*****

You, too, can (and should) have all of these CDs:

• Mike Metheny’s 60.1 was discussed here. You can purchase it from Mike’s web site, here, or download it from iTunes, here.
  
• Alaturka was photographed here. Taman Abi can be purchased from their web site, here, or downloaded from iTunes, here.
  
• The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater KC was showcased last week, here. Their CD can be purchased here, or downloaded from iTunes, here.
  
• Mark Lowrey’s Live at Jardine’s is available in Kansas City at Streetside Records and at Jardine's.
  
• The Blue Room performance of Bobby Watson’s The Gates BBQ Suite was photographed here. The CD can be purchased from CDBaby, here, or downloaded from iTunes, here.
  

In Lieu of 1000 Words: The People's Liberation Big Band

This is not your daddy's big band. Though there's at least one similarity: Listening to these guys is a helluva lot of fun.

Go to the Record Bar each month to hear The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, and you might see a head-lamped saxophonist walking the crowd, playing, and accompanied by a cellist. You might hear an opera singer vocalizing. You might hear musical nursery rhymes, 2010 style.

You will hear wonderful music.

Because first and foremost, The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City is a collection of outstanding musicians assembled by Brad Cox to play modern big band compositions, including a fair number of his.

Take those nursery rhyme numbers, for instance. This is not music with which to put the kids to sleep. This is not Jimmy Rushing singing Stop Beatin' Around the Mulberry Bush with the Count Basie Orchestra. These selections are closer in sensibility to Fractured Fairy Tales than to Little Bo Peep.

For this big band, think Mingus before you think Basie. Think Mingus then take it a step further.

And that next step is a mix of eccentricity, experimentation, excitement and fun. Think no fear of stepping to a musical edge while rooted by a professional jazz base. That's what musicians this good bring to the stage. Look, I'm not particularly a fan of jazz which gets too far out there. But anyone can tell these guys are having a ball, and that playfulness, through skillful sections and expert solos, projects to the audience. With this music, even I loosen up and revel in the delight.

You can revel, too. It was a delightful and relatively tame night on November 7th when The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City celebrated their first CD release at the Record Bar. Five of those nursery rhymes start the disk, so if you don’t yet grasp what this group is about, you just need to listen. You can find the CD here.

And you can grasp a look of what it was like at that release gig and again last week, December 5th, from the photos below. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

Brad Cox directs The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City

Brad Cox, Roger Wilder, Jeff Harshbarger

Sait Arat of the group Alaturka sat in on darbuka. Roger Wilder watches.

Brad Cox, um, directs

The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City

100 Posts and Feet to the Fire

This, to my amazement, is this blog’s 100th post. And now is your chance to get even.

If you’re a subject I’ve criticized in one of the previous 99 missives, or if you’ve long thought my occasional jazz marketing and management rants rank me as all blowhard, now you can claim that pound of flesh. If you’re right.

Because starting on January 1st, I’m the new Orchestra Manager of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra (or, KCJO).

Husband and wife Jim and Mary Mair, with others, birthed the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra 8 years ago and have built it into one of this city’s most respected jazz organizations. But after 8 years of dedicating body and soul, and producing the finest series of big band jazz you will hear anywhere, they have decided to step aside.

The board has wisely hired Kerry Strayer as the new artistic director. I can tell you that Kerry is bringing exciting ideas for the orchestra’s future (though I can’t tell you, yet, what they are).

And in a more dubious decision, the board hired me as the new manager.

So after 100 blog posts on Kansas City and jazz, after posts criticizing other KC jazz presenters for their management and marketing of this city’s heritage, after being handed management and marketing of one of Kansas City’s premiere jazz organizations….

I’d better not screw this up.

The position is part time. This will not become a KCJO blog (in fact, I may start another, albeit less frequent, KCJO-dedicated blog). This blog will continue.

Though how much of the next 100 posts are bombast or contrition may be determined, in part, by whether I’m pulling a foot well-wedged from mouth or, from many of the last 99 posts, successfully practicing the practices I’ve preached.

I will be opening the orchestra’s new office doors fully expecting the latter.

(…the blogger wrote, with shameless bombast….)

*****

But to determine, definitively, how I do, you first need a standard of comparison. Which means you need to go out this Friday, December 10th, to Unity on the Plaza, at 8 p.m., and hear the final Kansas City Jazz Orchestra concert expertly produced by the Mairs. It’s A Big Band Christmas. Midway though, Jim hands off the conductor's baton to Kerry. General admission tickets start at $25. Student tickets are available at the door for just $5 (with student ID). Hear how good this music and presentation can be.

(And I’m not promising you will not see more plugs here. Actually, you will.)

The Importance of Buster Smith. And Lucille's.

In 1987, the city started to demolish the building behind this painted false front. It was dangerous, they said. Protesters screamed that the building is a crucial piece of Kansas City jazz history. The process was stopped and a city department head later said he made a mistake.

Behind there, at 1713 E. 18th Street, next door to the Kansas City Call, stood Lucille’s Paradise Band Box. There, in 1938, Buster Smith tutored a teenage Charlie “Bird” Parker on playing the alto sax.

Buster Smith on Charlie Parker:

“I couldn’t get rid of him. He was always up under me. In my band we’d split solos. If I took two, he’d take two. If I’d take three, he’d take three, and so forth. He always wanted me to take the first solo. I guess he thought he’d learn something that way. He did play like me quite a bit, I guess. But, after a while, anything I could make on my horn, he could make, too, and make something better of it.”

One of the most influential yet today least known names in KC jazz history is Henry “Buster” Smith, also called “Prof.” His name came up repeatedly in my Reno Club posts (here and here).

Bassist Gene Ramey:

“Buster was...a great improviser. He didn’t have the strong sound of Johnny Hodges, Bird or Benny Carter. He had a soft alto sound…. But though it was soft, he was very good playing lead. And when Benny Goodman or any other clarinet players came into a [jam], Buster would get his clarinet out and clean everybody up, including Benny.”

Lester Young, center, Buster Smith, right, 1932

Buster Smith started with the Blue Devils, a band which Bennie Moten raided for the musicians who made his own band great, including Smith.

Buster Smith:

[After Moten’s death] “I...went down to the Reno and carried my repertory with me. Basie told me, ‘Prof, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. We’ll organize the band and have a partnership. It’ll be your band and my band…. I said okay, be fine. So we started the band and split our money.”

Count Basie:

“Prof Smith was the lead man in the reed section, and every now and then he would put a couple of things together for us…. Prof wrote a few things when he felt like it, and when he was in a good mood he would really put something together for you. He could put something together for you, and he could play for you, too. He was great…. There was nobody like him on alto. He had a style that was different from everybody.”

Gene Ramey:

“Buster Smith’s influence was not so direct…. Buster would set riffs. There might be one trumpet and ten saxophone players. Usually, when one horn sets a riff, the other guys play in unison with him, but with Buster the other horns had to harmonize. Then it would sound like a written chorus, and that’s what you hear on records when Basie’s band was jumping so good.

“Buster was noted for that, and for eliminating those who didn’t get the harmonic notes right in the riffs. You may have played your solo well, but you had to get out and not play for a while. Buster would always do that at jam sessions where there were too many horns. The guys would take their horns to a table and listen to the heavy riffs he set.

“It made them think, yes, but it also showed the young guys that they had to learn to team as well as play a solo....

“All this was inspiring to Bird, who learned many tricky riffs that way.”

When John Hammond took Basie’s band East, Prof remained behind.

Buster Smith:

“We’d heard so much about how somebody was going to come and get the band and make it big, I just didn’t think anything about it – figured it was just more talk – so I left.”

Count Basie:

“I guess Prof didn’t really think we were going to make it into the big time. I don’t know.”

Buster Smith:

“I had to do something for myself and I made me up a band, got Charlie Parker and a bunch of boys…and then Lucille’s Paradise wanted me to work up there…. Charlie Parker and about six of us was playing up there every night. I think we was off one or two nights. During them nights I would take [a] big band out on some of them club dates, social functions, like that…. But I used Charlie in both bands….

“I had the band about two years and Charlie was with me all that time. He was the youngest cat in the band…. He was a little hot-headed sometimes, and he wouldn’t stay with nobody but me. He stayed with me longer than anybody ’til he got with McShann.”

But by staying here, Prof rarely recorded. He moved to New York for a short time (Bird followed), and solos as a sideman on recordings made there – 1939 and early 1940s Pete Johnson/Big Joe Turner, Eddie Durham and Hot Lips Page sides – provide glimpses of his genius.

Buster Smith:

“I had saved up a little bankroll…and I said, ‘I think I’m going back to Texas.’ I had lost my father and I couldn’t even be there, to see him put away…. [I] opened me up a restaurant and organized a eight-piece band…playing all them little shows around here.”

Buster Smith from his 1959 album

In 1959, Prof recorded an album in Dallas, but by then he was past his prime. An auto accident in the 1960s left him with dental problems and unable to play sax. He continued performing on piano and bass.

Gene Ramey:

“He was a nice, easy going man…. He told me once he was sorry in a way that he didn’t go with Basie, yet I think it was Buster who really made the Basie band what it was, a riff band with very little music.”

Buster Smith on Charlie Parker:

“He’d listen to you. He used to call me his dad. I called him my boy.”

Basie’s co-leader and Bird’s tutor died in Dallas in 1991.

1713 E. 18th Street, where Buster Smith bridged jazz generations, nearly died in Kansas City in 1987.

*****

Quotes by Count Basie are from his autobiography, Good Morning Blues. Quotes by Buster Smith are from a 1960 interview in The Jazz Review and from the book, Goin’ to Kansas City. Quotes by Gene Ramey are from the book, The World of Count Basie.