In the Blue Room: Matt Otto on tenor sax, Gerald Dunn on alto, and Shay Estes, vocalizing, harmonize into a single instrument, a unique sound on Matt’s unique composition. It’s a sound like none I’ve heard before, not live, anyway. Instinctively, I lean closer to the stage. I don’t want to risk missing any of it. I want to hear more.
At the Mutual Musicians Foundation: The trumpet is as big as his torso. But even at age five, Charles can hold his own in this band. Every Saturday morning, kids from Charles’s age through high school benefit from free music lessons at the Foundation. The morning I visit, they’re preparing for a competition at The Gem. But right now, I see young students rehearsing, surrounded by photos of the jazz royalty who preceded them in this room. I shoot a photo of Charles. He shoots back a dirty look.
At Take Five Coffee + Bar: Hermon Mehari on trumpet, Andy McGhie on sax, Andrew Ouellette on piano, Ben Leifer on bass, Ryan Lee on drums. This is a collection, a subset, really, of some of the outstanding young talent dominating Kansas City’s jazz scene today. They have captured the crowd. Hermon and Andy blend perfectly, then fly off into wonderful solos. This, I realize, must be the 21st century equivalent of what it was like to hear “Sweets” Edison and Jimmy Forrest perform together fifty years ago.
In this blog: The commentator passionately disagrees. He doesn’t like what he perceives the message of a post to be and defends what he feels I’ve attacked. Others respond and the first commentator posts again. I don’t participate in the exchange because, after all, I’ve already offered 800 to 1000 words on what I think. But I appreciate the disagreements. I welcome the counter opinions. I respect their passion. I enjoy the flow of thoughts.
At the Westport Coffee House: Ryan solos first. His drumming has always been impressive, since I first heard him with Diverse, but there’s more subtlety, more maturity evident now. Brian responds, building on Ryan’s lead and delivering an equally masterful solo back to him. Ryan takes that fastball and returns it. Then Brian. Then again. Stan Kessler promoted this new group heavily, through his newsletter, through Facebook posts, through personal emails. He knew this group would be special, featuring two of Kansas City’s best young drummers, Ryan Lee and Brain Steever. I have a confession: I generally don’t enjoy drum solos. Too many come across as so much banging without the intricacy of a good trumpet or sax or piano solo. I have another confession: I love listening to the drums, to the back-and-forth of two young masters, this night.
At Lake Winnebago: Mike and Pat Metheny, Tommy Ruskin, Paul Smith, Bob Bowman, Gerald Spaits and Marilyn Maye unforgettably swing a celebration of the the life of Lois Metheny. Gary Sivils tells stories about Pat that Pat’s children, sitting up front, probably shouldn’t hear. After the music concludes, as the sun sets behind the waters, Mike and Pat, and Pat’s wife and children, spread Lois’s ashes across the lake. I’m honored to have been invited, to have been asked to bring my camera, and to have the opportunity to share photos of a magic afternoon.
At the Plaza Library: Seeing the film Battleship Potemkin to the score of the People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City played live, you understand what home theaters can’t do. They are not a large screen in an auditorium.They don’t accommodate a big band. They can’t replicate the experience of being mesmerized by what’s in front of you, accompanied by live music, a communal experience shared by hundreds of fans. At the time, I described this show as spectacular. Looking back, yes, that was the right word.
In this blog: A post, one of my blog posts, is linked to by NPR’s web site. I get a big head. Later, NPR’s jazz blog challenges both Plastic Sax and me to respond to an Atlantic Cities article, focused on 18th and Vine, on the sustainability of jazz branding. NPR links to my response. I get a bigger head.
At Take Five Coffee + Bar: Rich Wheeler and Matt Otto, both on tenor sax, own the crowd. This is contemporary jazz, mostly Matt’s compositions, not something easy to swing or swing with. Folding chairs have been set up, but those filled, too, so some of the audience is leaning against counters or walls. Nobody is talking. We’re in the suburbs, in Leawood, Kansas. On a Friday night, a packed coffee house is where to find jazz. While Jardine’s withered, Take Five quietly grew into an engaging jazz venue. The KC area hosts the same number of jazz sites as we did when this blog began. Only the neighborhoods and atmosphere have changed.
At The Blue Room: I'd had a bad day, and a friend offered to buy me a drink at The Blue Room. A big band and vocalist were performing and, my friend assured me, they should be good together. A young, red-haired waif strutted onto the stage and belted an up-tempo version of Miss Otis Regrets. I was astounded. Here was a jazz vocalist as outstanding as anyone, anywhere. Hearing Megan Birdsall that night inspired me to go out and discover other young performers capturing Kansas City’s jazz scene. And finding them inspired me to start this blog.
These are some of the reasons you’ll find a new post on Kansas City and jazz here most Mondays.
This week marks the third anniversary of this blog, kcjazzlark.
Thank you, everyone, for coming back and taking another look.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
This 'n That 'n Chastised
So who among Kansas City jazz fans doesn’t receive this email?
This listing of area jazz events, emailed weekly, has become an increasingly invaluable calendar of where to hear our favorite music around KC. Currently The Blue Room and other American Jazz Museum venues, and The Phoenix, participate. If Take Five, The Majestic and the Mutual Musicians Foundation would also submit listings, this could become the most complete place to find where to find live jazz in the area.
I can report that the Magic Jazz Fairy (whose tales we’ve related many times before) was delighted to see this schedule. Absolutely thrilled. Well, there was one thing that didn’t thrill it, but never mind about that.
The email is free. It’s sent weekly by AllAboutJazz.com. You can sign up here. After you do, select Update Profile and from there the Content tab to enter your zip code and to click on a box to receive the emailed schedule.
If you’re a club, to enter an event after signing in, go here (instructions for uploading multiple events are here) or click on Calendar on the site.
*****
One advantage of having all area clubs participate would be the inclusion of this event: Parallax at Take Five on August 9th.
This is Stan Kessler’s new group with a pair of outstanding drummers.
I noted last week, after hearing Matt Otto’s sextet at The Blue Room, that some of jazz’s best musicians reside in Kansas City. Parallax is further proof, as demonstrated during their first performance at the Westport Coffee House. Stan Kessler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Roger Wilder on piano, Bill McKemy on bass, and both Ryan Lee and Brian Steever on drums, are jazz musicians who could perform anywhere, anytime, with anyone.
The unique sounds of Ryan and Brian driving each other on drums, one responding to the other, edged further by Roger and Bill, and complemented by Stan, sets this group apart.
Even more….
*****
Hey, this is the Magic Jazz Fairy. I’m jumping in here. I’m taking over the rest of today’s blog, because I got to tell you about what a moron it is who’s writing this.
Not about Parallax. Everything he says about them, he’s got that right. That show, you got to see.
But let’s talk about this weekly schedule he started with.
I’m looking the schedule over. I’m looking to see what’s there and what ain’t. Now, you know how this blogger, the moron who writes this blog, you know how he jumps all over venues that don’t promote their jazz events. You know how he’s always talking about how some places don’t use the free media available to them. You’ve read that stuff, right? And he’s on track with that talk.
And you know how he’s talked about his helping with the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.
So I’m looking over this schedule, this free media schedule that this blogger moron’s been getting for months.
Guess what event ain’t on there.
Oh, there’s a festival on there all right. Rhythm and Ribs, the one he wrote “bleh” about, that one’s promoted.
But the one mister raving-about-not-using-social-media helps with? The festival mister moron blogger booked?
Well, it’ll be on that schedule this week. Moron blogger and me, we had a talk. He understands the way I see things now. At my urging, he spent a little time on the computer to get that Prairie Village festival listed.
You know, I try to spread the word on jazz. I try to keep everyone informed. I try to do my job and help. But the organizers, do they help?
Some, yeah, they do. But sometimes, they turn out to be a damned moron blogger.
I can report that the Magic Jazz Fairy (whose tales we’ve related many times before) was delighted to see this schedule. Absolutely thrilled. Well, there was one thing that didn’t thrill it, but never mind about that.
The email is free. It’s sent weekly by AllAboutJazz.com. You can sign up here. After you do, select Update Profile and from there the Content tab to enter your zip code and to click on a box to receive the emailed schedule.
If you’re a club, to enter an event after signing in, go here (instructions for uploading multiple events are here) or click on Calendar on the site.
*****
One advantage of having all area clubs participate would be the inclusion of this event: Parallax at Take Five on August 9th.
This is Stan Kessler’s new group with a pair of outstanding drummers.
I noted last week, after hearing Matt Otto’s sextet at The Blue Room, that some of jazz’s best musicians reside in Kansas City. Parallax is further proof, as demonstrated during their first performance at the Westport Coffee House. Stan Kessler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Roger Wilder on piano, Bill McKemy on bass, and both Ryan Lee and Brian Steever on drums, are jazz musicians who could perform anywhere, anytime, with anyone.
The unique sounds of Ryan and Brian driving each other on drums, one responding to the other, edged further by Roger and Bill, and complemented by Stan, sets this group apart.
Even more….
*****
Hey, this is the Magic Jazz Fairy. I’m jumping in here. I’m taking over the rest of today’s blog, because I got to tell you about what a moron it is who’s writing this.
Not about Parallax. Everything he says about them, he’s got that right. That show, you got to see.
But let’s talk about this weekly schedule he started with.
I’m looking the schedule over. I’m looking to see what’s there and what ain’t. Now, you know how this blogger, the moron who writes this blog, you know how he jumps all over venues that don’t promote their jazz events. You know how he’s always talking about how some places don’t use the free media available to them. You’ve read that stuff, right? And he’s on track with that talk.
And you know how he’s talked about his helping with the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.
So I’m looking over this schedule, this free media schedule that this blogger moron’s been getting for months.
Guess what event ain’t on there.
Oh, there’s a festival on there all right. Rhythm and Ribs, the one he wrote “bleh” about, that one’s promoted.
But the one mister raving-about-not-using-social-media helps with? The festival mister moron blogger booked?
Well, it’ll be on that schedule this week. Moron blogger and me, we had a talk. He understands the way I see things now. At my urging, he spent a little time on the computer to get that Prairie Village festival listed.
You know, I try to spread the word on jazz. I try to keep everyone informed. I try to do my job and help. But the organizers, do they help?
Some, yeah, they do. But sometimes, they turn out to be a damned moron blogger.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Changing of the Jazz Club Guard
Step inside and you first notice everything not there anymore. There’s no piano, no soundboard, no speakers. The stage lights have been stripped from their hooks. The stage is stacked with unopened mail, mostly bills. If you stepped in the pile, it would cover your ankles.
A group contemplating a jazz club where Jardine’s once ruled recently asked for my assistance. I walked through the empty space then met with restaurant consultants who had also seen it.
There’s good reason that space still sits empty. Deferred maintenance is apparent. A knowledgeable operator will see the need for investment before reopening, especially anyone planning to stay there awhile. We’re talking investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which needs to be balanced against the potential financial return of a relatively small space (less than 1800 square feet on the main floor).
For instance, there’s no grease traps, a modern necessity of most full-service kitchens. But balance the costs of adding those (likely in the tens of thousands of dollars) against a different concept, maybe one featuring more limited food offerings. How would those adjusted income projections impact a business model supporting a substantial annual cost to book live jazz?
That’s just one example in an admittedly enticing space – because a jazz club did operate there, for decades – full of such considerations.
The Jardine’s space can reopen as a jazz club. But only a savvy, experienced operator, with a solid concept and a carefully considered business plan, is likely to succeed there.
*****
So, look elsewhere.
The Kill Devil Club is under construction in the second floor space at 14th and Main in the Power and Light District, and is scheduled to open in September (delayed from a previously announced August opening). At their website, www.killdevilclub.com, you can sign up for a promised email newsletter but, currently, little more. They also offer a Facebook page, here, and a Twitter feed, here.
(Hint, Kill Devil people: Link to your Facebook page and your Twitter feed on your web site. And on your Twitter and Facebook pages, link to your new website, not to the Power and Light District site.)
An email describes the music the club will feature as, “upbeat and vivacious jazz music, funk, and other tunes that local artists bring to the venue,” with an emphasis on upbeat.
It’s a solid and promising direction for a new jazz club. The fact that they’re already getting their promotional toes wet with an online presence is encouraging. So is the fact that they’re reaching out to the jazz community. And so is the involvement of Manifesto owner Ryan Maybee.
My main concern is that Power and Light’s Marquee Lounge (now the Chesterfield Club) started as a live jazz club, but tales of operational discord quickly upended that focus. I trust district operator Cordish learned some lessons from those travails and will give The Kill Devil Club the time to find its jazz audience.
*****
Besides, another newer jazz spot keeps looking more and more enticing.
At the other end of the Kansas City world, geographically, in suburban Leawood, sits Take Five. Its bookings as a jazz venue rank second to no other establishment. There’s no coddling a Johnson County crowd here. Last Friday night, Rich Wheeler, Matt Otto, T.J. Martley, Ben Leifer and Sam Wisman performed Matt’s complex contemporary jazz compositions to a standing room only house. And, unlike so many other places, everybody was listening (except maybe the yawning little girl, who might have been out past her bedtime).
It’s a unique environment, a cozy living-room-like space, not designed for music which nonetheless captures the sound with near perfection. It’s like listening to a live jazz band at home among friends.
Take Five has blossomed into a bona-fide jazz venue while Jardine’s wilted then closed. It does not completely fill the Jardine’s void. It programs fewer nights. And its suburban context cannot replace Jardine’s gritty urbanism or Plaza panache. It’s a different place. But it’s a place in the Kansas City area where you’ll consistently find outstanding jazz.
*****
Last Saturday night, I heard Matt Otto again, at The Blue Room, with the sextet I photographed last January (here). The room was packed. The music proved that some of today’s greatest jazz musicians reside in Kansas City.
The Blue Room reigns as this area’s premiere jazz club. We can also boast of The Majestic. Some might toss The Phoenix into the mix, though I’ll argue it’s more blues than jazz. Meanwhile, the Mutual Musicians Foundation swings unopposed on weekends overnight.
But beyond those venues, we’re witnessing a changing of the jazz club guard. The Jardine’s space could yet reopen with jazz. Making the business case is challenging but possible. The empty club is waiting for the right operator. Yet, regardless of what happens there, Take Five is thriving as a suburban jazz hotspot. And The Kill Devil Club promises that the chance for a little more downtown grit with your jazz is in KC’s very near future.
A group contemplating a jazz club where Jardine’s once ruled recently asked for my assistance. I walked through the empty space then met with restaurant consultants who had also seen it.
There’s good reason that space still sits empty. Deferred maintenance is apparent. A knowledgeable operator will see the need for investment before reopening, especially anyone planning to stay there awhile. We’re talking investment in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which needs to be balanced against the potential financial return of a relatively small space (less than 1800 square feet on the main floor).
For instance, there’s no grease traps, a modern necessity of most full-service kitchens. But balance the costs of adding those (likely in the tens of thousands of dollars) against a different concept, maybe one featuring more limited food offerings. How would those adjusted income projections impact a business model supporting a substantial annual cost to book live jazz?
That’s just one example in an admittedly enticing space – because a jazz club did operate there, for decades – full of such considerations.
The Jardine’s space can reopen as a jazz club. But only a savvy, experienced operator, with a solid concept and a carefully considered business plan, is likely to succeed there.
*****
So, look elsewhere.
The Kill Devil Club is under construction in the second floor space at 14th and Main in the Power and Light District, and is scheduled to open in September (delayed from a previously announced August opening). At their website, www.killdevilclub.com, you can sign up for a promised email newsletter but, currently, little more. They also offer a Facebook page, here, and a Twitter feed, here.
(Hint, Kill Devil people: Link to your Facebook page and your Twitter feed on your web site. And on your Twitter and Facebook pages, link to your new website, not to the Power and Light District site.)
An email describes the music the club will feature as, “upbeat and vivacious jazz music, funk, and other tunes that local artists bring to the venue,” with an emphasis on upbeat.
It’s a solid and promising direction for a new jazz club. The fact that they’re already getting their promotional toes wet with an online presence is encouraging. So is the fact that they’re reaching out to the jazz community. And so is the involvement of Manifesto owner Ryan Maybee.
My main concern is that Power and Light’s Marquee Lounge (now the Chesterfield Club) started as a live jazz club, but tales of operational discord quickly upended that focus. I trust district operator Cordish learned some lessons from those travails and will give The Kill Devil Club the time to find its jazz audience.
*****
Besides, another newer jazz spot keeps looking more and more enticing.
At the other end of the Kansas City world, geographically, in suburban Leawood, sits Take Five. Its bookings as a jazz venue rank second to no other establishment. There’s no coddling a Johnson County crowd here. Last Friday night, Rich Wheeler, Matt Otto, T.J. Martley, Ben Leifer and Sam Wisman performed Matt’s complex contemporary jazz compositions to a standing room only house. And, unlike so many other places, everybody was listening (except maybe the yawning little girl, who might have been out past her bedtime).
It’s a unique environment, a cozy living-room-like space, not designed for music which nonetheless captures the sound with near perfection. It’s like listening to a live jazz band at home among friends.
Take Five has blossomed into a bona-fide jazz venue while Jardine’s wilted then closed. It does not completely fill the Jardine’s void. It programs fewer nights. And its suburban context cannot replace Jardine’s gritty urbanism or Plaza panache. It’s a different place. But it’s a place in the Kansas City area where you’ll consistently find outstanding jazz.
*****
Last Saturday night, I heard Matt Otto again, at The Blue Room, with the sextet I photographed last January (here). The room was packed. The music proved that some of today’s greatest jazz musicians reside in Kansas City.
The Blue Room reigns as this area’s premiere jazz club. We can also boast of The Majestic. Some might toss The Phoenix into the mix, though I’ll argue it’s more blues than jazz. Meanwhile, the Mutual Musicians Foundation swings unopposed on weekends overnight.
But beyond those venues, we’re witnessing a changing of the jazz club guard. The Jardine’s space could yet reopen with jazz. Making the business case is challenging but possible. The empty club is waiting for the right operator. Yet, regardless of what happens there, Take Five is thriving as a suburban jazz hotspot. And The Kill Devil Club promises that the chance for a little more downtown grit with your jazz is in KC’s very near future.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Classic Shots: Claude "Fiddler" Williams
I miss the Julys in Kansas City of the 1990s.
Not because it was cooler then (though it may have been), but because that was the month of the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, a much grander jazz event than any this city hosts today.
The festival was a combination of the KC jazz fest I once helped organize and the city’s annual blues festival. To the credit of its organizers, most years it was far greater than the sum of its parts.
And most years, the festival delivered the treat of hearing Claude “Fiddler” Williams. Claude first recorded with Andy Kirk’s band in 1929. He was guitarist with the Count Basie band which left Kansas City in 1936. He was part of our jazz history, internationally renowned on jazz violin, who until the end played magnificently. Every opportunity to hear him was a delight.
I’ve posted photos before of Fiddler playing with Bobby Watson in the 2000 festival (here). Below are more shots of a genuine KC jazz legend. These are from the 1998 Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, staged in Penn Valley Park 14 years ago this month, and five months past Claude’s 90th birthday. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.
I miss hearing many of the Kansas City jazz greats who have passed since I discovered the music in the 1980s. I miss none more than Fiddler.
Not because it was cooler then (though it may have been), but because that was the month of the Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, a much grander jazz event than any this city hosts today.
The festival was a combination of the KC jazz fest I once helped organize and the city’s annual blues festival. To the credit of its organizers, most years it was far greater than the sum of its parts.
And most years, the festival delivered the treat of hearing Claude “Fiddler” Williams. Claude first recorded with Andy Kirk’s band in 1929. He was guitarist with the Count Basie band which left Kansas City in 1936. He was part of our jazz history, internationally renowned on jazz violin, who until the end played magnificently. Every opportunity to hear him was a delight.
I’ve posted photos before of Fiddler playing with Bobby Watson in the 2000 festival (here). Below are more shots of a genuine KC jazz legend. These are from the 1998 Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival, staged in Penn Valley Park 14 years ago this month, and five months past Claude’s 90th birthday. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.
I miss hearing many of the Kansas City jazz greats who have passed since I discovered the music in the 1980s. I miss none more than Fiddler.
Monday, July 9, 2012
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
The Schedule
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.
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.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Compared to Our Peers
It was the middle of the week, a Wednesday night. I didn’t recognize the name of the leader of the group, but he was a drummer from California, and quite good. He brought a clarinetist with him. The group was rounded out with a local bassist and trumpet player.
Much of the audience was in their 40s, and younger. The cover charge was $15.00. Nearly everyone held a drink. Maybe half had ordered dinner. The jazz club, about a hundred seats by my guess, was sold out.
On a Wednesday night. With a $15.00 cover charge.
In Denver, Colorado.
*****
I wanted to hear them, last Saturday night at Take Five, because these are five of Kansas City’s best young jazz musicians. I knew I’d hear good jazz. But I didn’t expect this.
Andy McGhie on tenor sax and Hermon Mehari on trumpet meshed like a single instrument, then on solos individually exploded. Andy and Hermon play a more modern sound, but I know where I’ve heard this before: On recordings of “Sweets” Edison and Jimmy Forrest. This is what “Sweets” and Jimmy would sound like if they were raised a couple of generations later and recorded in 2012 instead of 1958.
Behind them, Andrew Ouellette on piano and Ben Leifer on bass provided perfect support and provocative solos. But the night’s best interplay was between Hermon and drummer Ryan Lee. The synergy between these two musicians, the way one drives the other and each instinctively responds, is jazz at its best.
Some groups of young musicians try to stretch the music's edge, and sometimes that doesn’t work. But Saturday night, I heard young masters playing modern jazz, and everything worked. The music was fresh, accessible and superb.
*****
A vacation in Denver a couple weeks back included a peek at the city’s jazz scene. With a metro area population about 600,000 more than Kansas City, a large downtown thriving day and night with new art and history museums and Coors Field, an expansive light rail system, nearby University of Colorado, and mountains, Denver is home to a couple of well known downtown jazz clubs.
Most famous is Dazzle, sporting a reputation as Denver’s premiere jazz and supper club. Walk in and choose to sit at a bar outside the music area or pay the cover charge and slip through black drapes into the entertainment room. There, a large stage stretches across the front. Small tables are packed together, wait staff barely able to slip between them. Maybe 100 patrons will fill the room. Sound is excellent. Meals run in the $16 to $20-plus range. Food is good but not exceptional. This is the Denver equivalent of Jardine’s.
Dazzle’s website says cover most weeknights runs $5 to $7, so apparently I caught a special act. Regardless, I was impressed that the room was filled in the middle of the week despite the substantial cover. And this was the first of two shows that night. Another cover was required for the 9:00 performance.
I left impressed but despaired. Dazzle made obvious the hole ripped through Kansas City’s jazz scene by the loss of Jardine’s. Kansas City currently hosts no comparable venue.
The Blue Room is an outstanding jazz club. But no suppers – or any kind of food – are found there. The Majestic serves suppers, but priced to make them a rare experience. Take Five offers meals, and its environment is wonderful, but it’s not a jazz club.
*****
The music at Dazzle was good but, outside of the drummer leading the group, the musicians seemed tight. At the end of the set, I sensed more relief than enthusiasm.
The night before, I visited other Denver jazz spots. El Chapultepec, a couple blocks from the baseball stadium, has featured jazz for over thirty years. Walls are lined with photos of Milt Hinton, Slide Hampton, Budd Johnson, Buddy Tate, Sweets Edison, and dozens others. It’s a mix between Milton’s and The Phoenix when Karrin Allyson played there. A piano dominates the small stage. Music starts at 9. This night, the singer was fun, and her pianist and bassist were good. But with a drummer who pounded his instrument like his goal was to break it, one set was enough.
The bartender suggested checking out Herb’s, an easy walk away. There a jam session, anchored by a Hammond B3, was swinging the bar, with some fine musicians rotating in and out. The manager said Herb's books a variety of music, but Tuesday is jazz jam night.
*****
In Kansas City, there’s hope. A new jazz club opens next month in downtown’s Power and Light District, where Peachtree once served. Developer Cordish has brought in Ryan Maybee, who knows Kansas City’s jazz scene and whose bar Manifesto is arguably the best place in town to buy a drink.
To be called The Kill Devil Club, its 5400 square feet and 120 seats sounds large for a jazz venue. And they’re talking a food menu of small plates, which was not a rousing success when Cordish tried to open the nearby Marquee Lounge as a jazz club. But between Cordish’s backing (they will own and operate the club) and Ryan’s experience, there’s reason to be optimistic that The Kill Devil Club will be given the chance to find its audience.
Meanwhile, the Marquee has been rechristened the Chesterfield to recount KC’s jazz age, though it’s not clear whether that recounting will include live jazz.
And I’m aware of at least one other group working to establish a new jazz club in Kansas City.
*****
We do not have a jazz supper club. Not right now. But we have the musicians. That’s what sets Kansas City apart.
Granted, a couple weeknights on the town provides just a glimpse of Denver’s jazz scene.
But the jazz I heard in Denver does not approach the quality and excitement of the jazz I heard in a Kansas City suburb last Saturday night.
I’m jealous of Denver’s venue.
But we have the musicians.
Much of the audience was in their 40s, and younger. The cover charge was $15.00. Nearly everyone held a drink. Maybe half had ordered dinner. The jazz club, about a hundred seats by my guess, was sold out.
On a Wednesday night. With a $15.00 cover charge.
In Denver, Colorado.
*****
I wanted to hear them, last Saturday night at Take Five, because these are five of Kansas City’s best young jazz musicians. I knew I’d hear good jazz. But I didn’t expect this.
Andy McGhie on tenor sax and Hermon Mehari on trumpet meshed like a single instrument, then on solos individually exploded. Andy and Hermon play a more modern sound, but I know where I’ve heard this before: On recordings of “Sweets” Edison and Jimmy Forrest. This is what “Sweets” and Jimmy would sound like if they were raised a couple of generations later and recorded in 2012 instead of 1958.
Behind them, Andrew Ouellette on piano and Ben Leifer on bass provided perfect support and provocative solos. But the night’s best interplay was between Hermon and drummer Ryan Lee. The synergy between these two musicians, the way one drives the other and each instinctively responds, is jazz at its best.
Some groups of young musicians try to stretch the music's edge, and sometimes that doesn’t work. But Saturday night, I heard young masters playing modern jazz, and everything worked. The music was fresh, accessible and superb.
*****
A vacation in Denver a couple weeks back included a peek at the city’s jazz scene. With a metro area population about 600,000 more than Kansas City, a large downtown thriving day and night with new art and history museums and Coors Field, an expansive light rail system, nearby University of Colorado, and mountains, Denver is home to a couple of well known downtown jazz clubs.
Most famous is Dazzle, sporting a reputation as Denver’s premiere jazz and supper club. Walk in and choose to sit at a bar outside the music area or pay the cover charge and slip through black drapes into the entertainment room. There, a large stage stretches across the front. Small tables are packed together, wait staff barely able to slip between them. Maybe 100 patrons will fill the room. Sound is excellent. Meals run in the $16 to $20-plus range. Food is good but not exceptional. This is the Denver equivalent of Jardine’s.
Dazzle’s website says cover most weeknights runs $5 to $7, so apparently I caught a special act. Regardless, I was impressed that the room was filled in the middle of the week despite the substantial cover. And this was the first of two shows that night. Another cover was required for the 9:00 performance.
I left impressed but despaired. Dazzle made obvious the hole ripped through Kansas City’s jazz scene by the loss of Jardine’s. Kansas City currently hosts no comparable venue.
The Blue Room is an outstanding jazz club. But no suppers – or any kind of food – are found there. The Majestic serves suppers, but priced to make them a rare experience. Take Five offers meals, and its environment is wonderful, but it’s not a jazz club.
*****
The music at Dazzle was good but, outside of the drummer leading the group, the musicians seemed tight. At the end of the set, I sensed more relief than enthusiasm.
The night before, I visited other Denver jazz spots. El Chapultepec, a couple blocks from the baseball stadium, has featured jazz for over thirty years. Walls are lined with photos of Milt Hinton, Slide Hampton, Budd Johnson, Buddy Tate, Sweets Edison, and dozens others. It’s a mix between Milton’s and The Phoenix when Karrin Allyson played there. A piano dominates the small stage. Music starts at 9. This night, the singer was fun, and her pianist and bassist were good. But with a drummer who pounded his instrument like his goal was to break it, one set was enough.
The bartender suggested checking out Herb’s, an easy walk away. There a jam session, anchored by a Hammond B3, was swinging the bar, with some fine musicians rotating in and out. The manager said Herb's books a variety of music, but Tuesday is jazz jam night.
*****
In Kansas City, there’s hope. A new jazz club opens next month in downtown’s Power and Light District, where Peachtree once served. Developer Cordish has brought in Ryan Maybee, who knows Kansas City’s jazz scene and whose bar Manifesto is arguably the best place in town to buy a drink.
To be called The Kill Devil Club, its 5400 square feet and 120 seats sounds large for a jazz venue. And they’re talking a food menu of small plates, which was not a rousing success when Cordish tried to open the nearby Marquee Lounge as a jazz club. But between Cordish’s backing (they will own and operate the club) and Ryan’s experience, there’s reason to be optimistic that The Kill Devil Club will be given the chance to find its audience.
Meanwhile, the Marquee has been rechristened the Chesterfield to recount KC’s jazz age, though it’s not clear whether that recounting will include live jazz.
And I’m aware of at least one other group working to establish a new jazz club in Kansas City.
*****
We do not have a jazz supper club. Not right now. But we have the musicians. That’s what sets Kansas City apart.
Granted, a couple weeknights on the town provides just a glimpse of Denver’s jazz scene.
But the jazz I heard in Denver does not approach the quality and excitement of the jazz I heard in a Kansas City suburb last Saturday night.
I’m jealous of Denver’s venue.
But we have the musicians.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wanted: Aspirations
Headliners for this year’s Detroit Jazz Festival, over Labor Day weekend, in Detroit’s Hart Park: Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Pat Metheny Unity Band, Chick Corea and Gray Burton, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Joe Lovano, Art Blakey Tribute with Terence Blanchard, Lew Tabackin Quartet featuring Randy Brecker, Charles McPherson/Tom Harrell Quintet, Donald Harrison Quintet, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Pancho Sanchez, Artuto O’Farrill Septet with Donald Harrison, Ellery Eskelin Trio, Kenny Garret Quartet, Louis Hayes Quaret.
Wow.
Headliners for this year’s Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival, on October 13 in the 18th and Vine district: Arturo Sandoval, Joe Louis Walker, Angie Stone.
Bleh.
This year we’ll see the third downsized festival since Rhythm and Ribs’s resurrection. And let’s recognize that last year, organizers staged an extraordinarily professional event. They expertly managed virtually every detail, from the staging of the music right down to the signage. It was marketed strongly. The vendors with whom I spoke were thrilled. I estimated crowd size at around 7000 for the day (as far as I know, no official numbers were announced), and most of them appeared thrilled, too.
The American Jazz Museum’s 2011 audit report, available on the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation website (download PDF here) covers the first revived festival, in 2010. Without breaking out details, it notes that 2010 was the first Rhythm and Ribs Festival ever to turn a profit. It seems reasonable to assume last year’s did, too.
But something is missing.
Museum officials two years back spoke of the 2010 event as a fresh start. After a year’s absence, in 2010 Rhythm and Ribs was back. It was downsized, out of Parade Park, into a more confined (and, presumably, more affordable) space between the American Jazz Museum and the Gregg Community Center, and with a more limited line-up. But that was just the start, officials said. The festival would grow from there.
Two years later, the festival shows no aspirations of growing.
The space is good, the right fit for the crowd the festival currently attracts.
But festival talent seems settled in a pattern of one good but not particularly major jazz headliner, one blues headliner, and one headliner with crossover appeal who presumably will be the one to draw a crowd.
That’s a pattern to bring about 7000 people into 18th and Vine for a day. That’s a pattern to maintain a day of profit and high profile for the American Jazz Museum. Both are solid goals.
But that’s a pattern, not a start. It’s not a pattern showing any confidence in jazz. It’s not a pattern showing any aspiration of building into a significant jazz festival.
And it’s largely not the American Jazz Museum’s fault.
Look at the Detroit Jazz Festival’s web site (here). Look at its history. That festival started in 1980 and received an endowment of ten million dollars in 2006. That’s why it can afford Rollins and Marsalis and Metheny and dozens more in 2012.
The Kansas City Jazz Festival in the 1980s grew not from a bunch of jazz fans, but from a civic organization of young professionals, with strong connections to Kansas City’s business and philanthropic communities, looking to make a contribution to the city.
That’s the support a jazz festival needs to grow beyond a well organized annual fundraiser. Lacking a ten million dollar benefactor, it requires the resources and stature which follow the civic community stepping forward and saying Kansas City needs and deserves something better.
I wrote after last year’s festival that it appeared the civic community had coalesced behind Rhythm and Ribs as Kansas City’s annual jazz event. Now, I’m dubious. Rather, some businesses are contributing to a fundraising day for the Jazz Museum in the guise of a festival.
Every one of us should support that.
But in its third year, Rhythm and Ribs appears to have settled into a comfort zone, and that zone includes no apparent aspirations to be anything more than a profitable day with a jazz guy, a blues guy and someone who will draw a bigger crowd than either the jazz guy or blues guy will draw.
Unquestionably, this city will support a major jazz event. The Kansas City Jazz Festival of the 1980s attracted tens of thousands of people over a weekend. It can happen again.
But it requires more than jazz fans. It requires an organization with strong business ties.
Or maybe there’s another answer.
Maybe an organization can build a jazz festival in Kansas City with the support of a company looking to bring its brand into this market with a major new venture, looking to garner civic support and acclaim, which can be sold on the benefit of attaching itself to a major community celebration.
The Kansas City Google Jazz Festival, anyone?
Wow.
Headliners for this year’s Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival, on October 13 in the 18th and Vine district: Arturo Sandoval, Joe Louis Walker, Angie Stone.
Bleh.
This year we’ll see the third downsized festival since Rhythm and Ribs’s resurrection. And let’s recognize that last year, organizers staged an extraordinarily professional event. They expertly managed virtually every detail, from the staging of the music right down to the signage. It was marketed strongly. The vendors with whom I spoke were thrilled. I estimated crowd size at around 7000 for the day (as far as I know, no official numbers were announced), and most of them appeared thrilled, too.
The American Jazz Museum’s 2011 audit report, available on the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation website (download PDF here) covers the first revived festival, in 2010. Without breaking out details, it notes that 2010 was the first Rhythm and Ribs Festival ever to turn a profit. It seems reasonable to assume last year’s did, too.
But something is missing.
Museum officials two years back spoke of the 2010 event as a fresh start. After a year’s absence, in 2010 Rhythm and Ribs was back. It was downsized, out of Parade Park, into a more confined (and, presumably, more affordable) space between the American Jazz Museum and the Gregg Community Center, and with a more limited line-up. But that was just the start, officials said. The festival would grow from there.
Two years later, the festival shows no aspirations of growing.
The space is good, the right fit for the crowd the festival currently attracts.
But festival talent seems settled in a pattern of one good but not particularly major jazz headliner, one blues headliner, and one headliner with crossover appeal who presumably will be the one to draw a crowd.
That’s a pattern to bring about 7000 people into 18th and Vine for a day. That’s a pattern to maintain a day of profit and high profile for the American Jazz Museum. Both are solid goals.
But that’s a pattern, not a start. It’s not a pattern showing any confidence in jazz. It’s not a pattern showing any aspiration of building into a significant jazz festival.
And it’s largely not the American Jazz Museum’s fault.
Look at the Detroit Jazz Festival’s web site (here). Look at its history. That festival started in 1980 and received an endowment of ten million dollars in 2006. That’s why it can afford Rollins and Marsalis and Metheny and dozens more in 2012.
The Kansas City Jazz Festival in the 1980s grew not from a bunch of jazz fans, but from a civic organization of young professionals, with strong connections to Kansas City’s business and philanthropic communities, looking to make a contribution to the city.
That’s the support a jazz festival needs to grow beyond a well organized annual fundraiser. Lacking a ten million dollar benefactor, it requires the resources and stature which follow the civic community stepping forward and saying Kansas City needs and deserves something better.
I wrote after last year’s festival that it appeared the civic community had coalesced behind Rhythm and Ribs as Kansas City’s annual jazz event. Now, I’m dubious. Rather, some businesses are contributing to a fundraising day for the Jazz Museum in the guise of a festival.
Every one of us should support that.
But in its third year, Rhythm and Ribs appears to have settled into a comfort zone, and that zone includes no apparent aspirations to be anything more than a profitable day with a jazz guy, a blues guy and someone who will draw a bigger crowd than either the jazz guy or blues guy will draw.
Unquestionably, this city will support a major jazz event. The Kansas City Jazz Festival of the 1980s attracted tens of thousands of people over a weekend. It can happen again.
But it requires more than jazz fans. It requires an organization with strong business ties.
Or maybe there’s another answer.
Maybe an organization can build a jazz festival in Kansas City with the support of a company looking to bring its brand into this market with a major new venture, looking to garner civic support and acclaim, which can be sold on the benefit of attaching itself to a major community celebration.
The Kansas City Google Jazz Festival, anyone?
Monday, June 18, 2012
Urban Renewal and 18th and Vine
As early as the 1930s, Kansas City Realtor, the publication of the Kansas City Real Estate Board, decried the effects of blight on property values in the Central Business District. The federal Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954 supplied funding to identify blighted areas, acquire and clear the properties, then redevelop the areas with public housing. 1954’s Housing Act termed this process “urban renewal.”
Kansas City became so good at urban renewal that in 1958, Look magazine, in its article, City Honored for Face Lift, awarded us its Community Home Achievement Award, citing our redevelopment of slum areas. In 1959, the American Institute of Architects awarded the Kansas City chapter its Citation of Honor Award, at that time given in just 15 instances over 102 years, for its plan to revitalize downtown.
So just what was it we did so well?
18 urban renewal projects, starting with North Side (1953 - 1960, 6.6 acres, along Main Street between Sixth and Ninth Streets), continuing with Attucks (1955 - 1965, 54.2 acres, from Truman Road to 18th Street and Woodland to Brooklyn, displacing 478 black residents, 0 white residents and 85 businesses), and concluding with 12th and Vine (1969 - 1972, 33.1 acres, displacing 309 black residents, 19 white residents and 49 businesses).
In between, South Humboldt (1956 - 1965, 27.6 acres, displacing 28 black residents, 203 white residents and 66 businesses) and East Side (1958 - 1965, 58.3 acres, displacing 88 black residents, 582 white residents and 95 businesses) cleared land for construction of the downtown interstate highway loop.
And there were 13 other projects.
18th and Vine itself was not a part of any urban renewal project. Neither of the studies I reviewed suggest it was ever targeted. But the surrounding neighborhoods were decimated. Contiguous stretches of homes and businesses were torn down then bisected by interstates, insuring they could never return. The density of population needed to support a thriving business district, which 18th and Vine had been, scattered and has never returned.
But it’s difficult to say these were the wrong moves. One history of Kansas City describes the land cleared for the North Side project, along Main Street, as a “skid row.” And of the Attucks project, adjacent to 18th and Vine, the book says, “This area contained as bad a slum as any in the United States. Here some families lived without running water or toilets, and some of the buildings had dirt floors.”
A March, 1950 article in Holiday magazine declared, “Kansas City is marked by sharp physical contrasts. There are tenements only a few blocks from skyscrapers, the landscaped lands of elaborate homes face vacant lots cluttered with billboards, and there are shanties only a short distance outside the business district.”
It’s easy today to look back and ask why we tore down all the jazz clubs, why we destroyed, arguably, our most significant history.
We look back romantically today at the Reno Club, where Count Basie was discovered. It’s easy to mourn the history lost when looking now over the cracked pavement of the police station parking lot which replaced it. But saxophonist Buster Smith described the Reno Club as, “nothin’ but a hole in the wall. Just mediocre people mostly went in there. A lot of the prostitutes and hustlers and thugs hung out down there.”
Today, we decry tangible history no longer here. But at the time, urban renewal was clearing shanties and holes in the wall. Large swaths of population left and never returned. But many left for better conditions.
And in the mid-1950s, less than twenty years had passed since our most famous jazz musicians and the culture they helped build had moved on. It was too soon to recognize that the music, and barbecue and steaks, would define Kansas City forevermore.
Still, one resident, in the study from which many of the facts which open this post were quoted, looked back and noted:
“There had been semi-economic centers for black businesses that were around 12th Street, 18th Street, coming up Vine, say to 25th Street, because I remember Barker’s Market, Johnson’s Drug Store, and a cab company and a bunch of stuff like that. And all of the clientele was in walking distance, mainly because in the 1940s and early 1950s…people lived closer together. With urban renewal and people moving out, they lost their clientele.”
A look at population maps from 1950 and today make clear that 18th and Vine will not again be what it once was. Not in my lifetime, anyway. Right or wrong, not returning to what a district once was defines the heart of urban renewal.
But you can walk through the jazz district and see apartments and homes along 19th Street and along The Paseo, and more housing on Highland. You see a couple restaurants and a couple museums. You see modern offices. Yes, you still see some blight and you shouldn’t. But at the Mutual Musicians Foundation and at the facade of the Cherry Blossom, you can still touch jazz history.
I don’t know how the district builds beyond the groundwork. So far, nobody has figured that out. But, decades after urban renewal removed both slums and life, the groundwork is there for the area to grow into something better.
*****
Facts about urban renewal are quoted from the 2001 article, A City Without Slums: Urban Renewal, Public Housing and Downtown Revitalization in Kansas City Missouri. It can be read online here, or a PDF can be downloaded by clicking here. More illustrations and maps can be found in the 2009 thesis, Development at 18th and Vine: Understanding Problems and Formulating Strategies for the Future. A PDF can be downloaded by clicking here. The quote by Buster Smith is from the 1987 book, Goin' to Kansas City. Other facts come from the 1978 book, K.C.: A History of Kansas City, Missouri.
Kansas City became so good at urban renewal that in 1958, Look magazine, in its article, City Honored for Face Lift, awarded us its Community Home Achievement Award, citing our redevelopment of slum areas. In 1959, the American Institute of Architects awarded the Kansas City chapter its Citation of Honor Award, at that time given in just 15 instances over 102 years, for its plan to revitalize downtown.
So just what was it we did so well?
18 urban renewal projects, starting with North Side (1953 - 1960, 6.6 acres, along Main Street between Sixth and Ninth Streets), continuing with Attucks (1955 - 1965, 54.2 acres, from Truman Road to 18th Street and Woodland to Brooklyn, displacing 478 black residents, 0 white residents and 85 businesses), and concluding with 12th and Vine (1969 - 1972, 33.1 acres, displacing 309 black residents, 19 white residents and 49 businesses).
In between, South Humboldt (1956 - 1965, 27.6 acres, displacing 28 black residents, 203 white residents and 66 businesses) and East Side (1958 - 1965, 58.3 acres, displacing 88 black residents, 582 white residents and 95 businesses) cleared land for construction of the downtown interstate highway loop.
And there were 13 other projects.
18th and Vine itself was not a part of any urban renewal project. Neither of the studies I reviewed suggest it was ever targeted. But the surrounding neighborhoods were decimated. Contiguous stretches of homes and businesses were torn down then bisected by interstates, insuring they could never return. The density of population needed to support a thriving business district, which 18th and Vine had been, scattered and has never returned.
But it’s difficult to say these were the wrong moves. One history of Kansas City describes the land cleared for the North Side project, along Main Street, as a “skid row.” And of the Attucks project, adjacent to 18th and Vine, the book says, “This area contained as bad a slum as any in the United States. Here some families lived without running water or toilets, and some of the buildings had dirt floors.”
A March, 1950 article in Holiday magazine declared, “Kansas City is marked by sharp physical contrasts. There are tenements only a few blocks from skyscrapers, the landscaped lands of elaborate homes face vacant lots cluttered with billboards, and there are shanties only a short distance outside the business district.”
It’s easy today to look back and ask why we tore down all the jazz clubs, why we destroyed, arguably, our most significant history.
We look back romantically today at the Reno Club, where Count Basie was discovered. It’s easy to mourn the history lost when looking now over the cracked pavement of the police station parking lot which replaced it. But saxophonist Buster Smith described the Reno Club as, “nothin’ but a hole in the wall. Just mediocre people mostly went in there. A lot of the prostitutes and hustlers and thugs hung out down there.”
Today, we decry tangible history no longer here. But at the time, urban renewal was clearing shanties and holes in the wall. Large swaths of population left and never returned. But many left for better conditions.
And in the mid-1950s, less than twenty years had passed since our most famous jazz musicians and the culture they helped build had moved on. It was too soon to recognize that the music, and barbecue and steaks, would define Kansas City forevermore.
Still, one resident, in the study from which many of the facts which open this post were quoted, looked back and noted:
“There had been semi-economic centers for black businesses that were around 12th Street, 18th Street, coming up Vine, say to 25th Street, because I remember Barker’s Market, Johnson’s Drug Store, and a cab company and a bunch of stuff like that. And all of the clientele was in walking distance, mainly because in the 1940s and early 1950s…people lived closer together. With urban renewal and people moving out, they lost their clientele.”
A look at population maps from 1950 and today make clear that 18th and Vine will not again be what it once was. Not in my lifetime, anyway. Right or wrong, not returning to what a district once was defines the heart of urban renewal.
But you can walk through the jazz district and see apartments and homes along 19th Street and along The Paseo, and more housing on Highland. You see a couple restaurants and a couple museums. You see modern offices. Yes, you still see some blight and you shouldn’t. But at the Mutual Musicians Foundation and at the facade of the Cherry Blossom, you can still touch jazz history.
I don’t know how the district builds beyond the groundwork. So far, nobody has figured that out. But, decades after urban renewal removed both slums and life, the groundwork is there for the area to grow into something better.
*****
Facts about urban renewal are quoted from the 2001 article, A City Without Slums: Urban Renewal, Public Housing and Downtown Revitalization in Kansas City Missouri. It can be read online here, or a PDF can be downloaded by clicking here. More illustrations and maps can be found in the 2009 thesis, Development at 18th and Vine: Understanding Problems and Formulating Strategies for the Future. A PDF can be downloaded by clicking here. The quote by Buster Smith is from the 1987 book, Goin' to Kansas City. Other facts come from the 1978 book, K.C.: A History of Kansas City, Missouri.
Monday, June 11, 2012
The Dearth of Swing
In 1932, in Kansas City, Mary Lou Williams turned 22 years old. Lester Young and Ben Webster turned 23. Count Basie turned 28.
Led in part by Bennie Moten (who, in 1932, turned 38), they and other musicians developed a style of swing derived from 12-bar blues, with extended solos, backed by riffs, a unique music which secured Kansas City in jazz history.
When I first went to the Mutual Musicians Foundation, in the early 1980s, some of the masters who played the music at its height could be found there, still playing. Herman Walder had performed with Moten. Bill Saunders, Joe Thomas, Step-Buddy Anderson, “Piggy” Minor, Ben Kynard, Sam Johnson, Sr., were among the regulars who would sit across a table from you and describe what Kansas City once was.
Or, you could head over to 32nd and Main and let Milton Morris regale you with tales from the days when Kansas City peaked. If you were lucky, you might walk into Milton’s Tap Room on a Saturday afternoon when Count Basie was visiting.
Claude Williams’s and Jay McShann’s music epitomized Kansas City swing. But when “Fiddler” passed eight years ago, and “Hootie” six years ago, we lost our last geniuses with direct ties to Kansas City’s internationally renowned past, who could often be found playing around town. And with that direct influence gone, jazz in Kansas City has changed.
Pockets of Kansas City swing can still be found here. The Wild Women of Kansas City are wonderfully fun. The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra still plays the music though, between booking acts like the Four Freshmen and pricing the cheap seats at $40 next season (they were $25), the Orchestra appears to be targeting a limited audience.
Kansas City today is brimming with outstanding jazz musicians around the ages that Mary Lou Williams and Lester Young and Ben Webster and Count Basie were in the days they were exchanging musical ideas and developing Kansas City’s signature sound. But these young musicians are seeking their own voice and their own sound. And in many cases, lacking direct links to decades past, that voice is the antithesis of Kansas City jazz.
That’s not entirely bad and it’s not entirely good. Charlie Parker came out of Kansas City and, with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, developed the voice of bebop. Miles Davis was constantly moving forward, absorbing the music around him and adding his own signature, eschewing what he had played before. Some of jazz’s best musicians thrive on constant growth.
And some Kansas City groups have shed this city’s signature jazz sound with resounding success. The People’s Liberation Big Band has reinvented big band music in Kansas City, its wit bringing accessibility to some way-out-there sounds.
But other groups showcasing original compositions perform with mixed results. At one recent show I attended, I endured during one number a sonic debacle. This may be part of the process of young musicians finding themselves. Or it may be young musicians demonstrating that, nope, the 21st century’s Lester Young – a player regaled for his tone, his unique style, his masterful and original solos – isn’t in this group.
I understand musicians wanting and needing to find their own place in jazz. I understand their absorbing the influences immediately surrounding them. That’s what a young Basie and Lester and Ben and Mary Lou did in creating Kansas City jazz. But I’m not a musician. I’m an enthusiast, a fan. And I also understand that playing the unfamiliar can lead to limited audiences. Matt Otto noted, in an article in Jazz Ambassador Magazine, that he needed to play more accessible tenor sax to support himself in Kansas City.
There’s the key. The music needs to be accessible. I’m not going to buy a painting that I don’t understand no matter how good the painting technique. Likewise, I’m not going to enjoy sitting through a performance if the music fails to draw me in. Some of Kansas City’s young musicians venture into originality at the sake of accessibility.
It surprises and disappoints me how quickly, our masters gone, that Kansas City jazz has largely abandoned its signature sound. I’m booking acts for this year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival. The principal sponsor favored a more traditional Kansas City jazz sound, appropriate for the family audience this festival attracts. The purpose of this festival is not to force Prairie Village to understand something musically new. It’s to entertain up to 10,000 people, on blankets and lounge chairs, from a large stage. Much of what I hear today on Kansas City jazz stages does not fit that profile.
I was surprised at how difficult it was to fill the limited spots in the festival. Not every act booked fits the profile. And one musician agreed to play some more traditional jazz, because that’s what it took for his group to secure the booking. In Kansas City today, there’s a dearth of Kansas City swing.
Jay McShann performed in the 1986 Kansas City Jazz Festival with “Sweets” Edison, Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Gus Johnson and Major Holley. A recording exists of that concert. Not long before he passed, one of Jay’s daughters played the recording for him. She suggested he should put together a group like that one more time. He couldn’t, he told her, because everyone who could play like that was gone.
That’s not entirely true.
One of the best live music shows I’ve attended over the last year was Ernie Andrews at The Blue Room. There, Bobby Watson, known for more complex music with his group Horizon, swung like he’d played 18th and Vine in 1932 with Basie and Lester and Ben and Mary Lou.
I’m not suggesting that’s what musicians looking for their own voice should adopt.
But I will suggest music doesn’t get any more accessible than that.
Led in part by Bennie Moten (who, in 1932, turned 38), they and other musicians developed a style of swing derived from 12-bar blues, with extended solos, backed by riffs, a unique music which secured Kansas City in jazz history.
When I first went to the Mutual Musicians Foundation, in the early 1980s, some of the masters who played the music at its height could be found there, still playing. Herman Walder had performed with Moten. Bill Saunders, Joe Thomas, Step-Buddy Anderson, “Piggy” Minor, Ben Kynard, Sam Johnson, Sr., were among the regulars who would sit across a table from you and describe what Kansas City once was.
Or, you could head over to 32nd and Main and let Milton Morris regale you with tales from the days when Kansas City peaked. If you were lucky, you might walk into Milton’s Tap Room on a Saturday afternoon when Count Basie was visiting.
Claude Williams’s and Jay McShann’s music epitomized Kansas City swing. But when “Fiddler” passed eight years ago, and “Hootie” six years ago, we lost our last geniuses with direct ties to Kansas City’s internationally renowned past, who could often be found playing around town. And with that direct influence gone, jazz in Kansas City has changed.
Pockets of Kansas City swing can still be found here. The Wild Women of Kansas City are wonderfully fun. The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra still plays the music though, between booking acts like the Four Freshmen and pricing the cheap seats at $40 next season (they were $25), the Orchestra appears to be targeting a limited audience.
Kansas City today is brimming with outstanding jazz musicians around the ages that Mary Lou Williams and Lester Young and Ben Webster and Count Basie were in the days they were exchanging musical ideas and developing Kansas City’s signature sound. But these young musicians are seeking their own voice and their own sound. And in many cases, lacking direct links to decades past, that voice is the antithesis of Kansas City jazz.
That’s not entirely bad and it’s not entirely good. Charlie Parker came out of Kansas City and, with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, developed the voice of bebop. Miles Davis was constantly moving forward, absorbing the music around him and adding his own signature, eschewing what he had played before. Some of jazz’s best musicians thrive on constant growth.
And some Kansas City groups have shed this city’s signature jazz sound with resounding success. The People’s Liberation Big Band has reinvented big band music in Kansas City, its wit bringing accessibility to some way-out-there sounds.
But other groups showcasing original compositions perform with mixed results. At one recent show I attended, I endured during one number a sonic debacle. This may be part of the process of young musicians finding themselves. Or it may be young musicians demonstrating that, nope, the 21st century’s Lester Young – a player regaled for his tone, his unique style, his masterful and original solos – isn’t in this group.
I understand musicians wanting and needing to find their own place in jazz. I understand their absorbing the influences immediately surrounding them. That’s what a young Basie and Lester and Ben and Mary Lou did in creating Kansas City jazz. But I’m not a musician. I’m an enthusiast, a fan. And I also understand that playing the unfamiliar can lead to limited audiences. Matt Otto noted, in an article in Jazz Ambassador Magazine, that he needed to play more accessible tenor sax to support himself in Kansas City.
There’s the key. The music needs to be accessible. I’m not going to buy a painting that I don’t understand no matter how good the painting technique. Likewise, I’m not going to enjoy sitting through a performance if the music fails to draw me in. Some of Kansas City’s young musicians venture into originality at the sake of accessibility.
It surprises and disappoints me how quickly, our masters gone, that Kansas City jazz has largely abandoned its signature sound. I’m booking acts for this year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival. The principal sponsor favored a more traditional Kansas City jazz sound, appropriate for the family audience this festival attracts. The purpose of this festival is not to force Prairie Village to understand something musically new. It’s to entertain up to 10,000 people, on blankets and lounge chairs, from a large stage. Much of what I hear today on Kansas City jazz stages does not fit that profile.
I was surprised at how difficult it was to fill the limited spots in the festival. Not every act booked fits the profile. And one musician agreed to play some more traditional jazz, because that’s what it took for his group to secure the booking. In Kansas City today, there’s a dearth of Kansas City swing.
Jay McShann performed in the 1986 Kansas City Jazz Festival with “Sweets” Edison, Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Gus Johnson and Major Holley. A recording exists of that concert. Not long before he passed, one of Jay’s daughters played the recording for him. She suggested he should put together a group like that one more time. He couldn’t, he told her, because everyone who could play like that was gone.
That’s not entirely true.
One of the best live music shows I’ve attended over the last year was Ernie Andrews at The Blue Room. There, Bobby Watson, known for more complex music with his group Horizon, swung like he’d played 18th and Vine in 1932 with Basie and Lester and Ben and Mary Lou.
I’m not suggesting that’s what musicians looking for their own voice should adopt.
But I will suggest music doesn’t get any more accessible than that.
Monday, June 4, 2012
The Magic Jazz Fairy Screams
It had been there several times last year, its wings wrapped tight behind its back so nobody would recognize it. It wanted to be discreet, to enjoy jazz on the outdoor patio, nestled in The Plaza, and a drink on a warm summer evening.
Last summer the same singer and pianist played the patio each Wednesday evening, sometimes with guests. They promoted the shows on their Facebook pages, through some tweets, with occasional emails. Crowds filled the deck.
This year the restaurant has chosen to feature different jazz artists each week. The pianist and singer opened the season. The mystical being saw that on the pianist’s Facebook page. And a trumpeter would be playing later this month. That was in the trumpeter’s email newsletter. But who else would be there each week? The Magic Jazz Fairy needed to know, so it could spread the word.
Because, as we’ve established in previous posts, every city has a Magic Jazz Fairy who flies through town at night and whispers in the ears of sleeping jazz fans when and where to find the music, so we wake up knowing, just knowing. That must be the way jazz promotion works because, of course, small crowds couldn’t possibly be the fault of savvy restaurants and bars for not telling anyone they booked jazz.
But before it can spread the word to all of us sleeping jazz fans, the Magic Jazz Fairy needs to know the schedule. Surely this restaurant, with the outdoor patio nestled in The Plaza, this major restaurant, part of a nationwide chain, renowned for exquisite seafood, surely this restaurant has properly promoted their weekly jazz happy hour.
The Magic Jazz Fairy sat down at its computer and, with a quick Google search, found the restaurant’s website. Ah, a tab for Calendar. The mystical being clicked it. Up came this:
What? A blank screen? A page filled with black? It clicked back, then clicked the Calendar tab again. Again, a page of black.
How could that be, the Magic Jazz Fairy sputtered. How could the national restaurant with the patio nestled in The Plaza and exquisite seafood, how could that restaurant be promoting its weekly jazz event with a blank, black page?
Did that national restaurant want to know how to promote jazz? the Fairy thought aloud. Did it? Well, then, just look at this website, for a local downtown steakhouse with exquisite steak and jazz every night. Just look at their calendar. The mystical being clicked, and up came this:
There, see, the Magic Jazz Fairy harumphed. Look at it, and I can tell you that this weekend the jazz group there is...
The Magic Jazz Fairy looked. The calendar said, Live Jazz Band. Okay, I know that, the Fairy thought, but which jazz band? Who? The mystical being clicked a link. A window popped up which told him that playing at the downtown restaurant with exquisite steaks this Friday was...a live jazz band. It clicked Saturday’s link. Playing that night would be...a live jazz band.
Upset and annoyed, the Magic Jazz Fairy declared, “I’ll show you both. Look at this. Look at the calendar for this city’s premiere jazz club in the historic jazz district. Look at how easy it is to find who’s there this Saturday night.”
The mystical being clicked a link, and up came this:
It triumphantly turned to its computer and announced that there this Saturday night was...Saturday In The Blue Room. The Fairy looked again. The jazz club’s calendar described nothing more. It didn’t for half the month.
“What is going on?” the Magic Jazz Fairy yelled out. “How can I fly around town and tell every jazz fan while they sleep who is playing jazz so they wake up knowing, just knowing, if nobody announces who is playing jazz?”
Anger welled. Ever since a major jazz club closed last year, the music has been more difficult to find. It’s been up to the musicians, through Facebook posts and emails and whatever other communications they could muster with no budget or time, to tell fans where to find them. But too many post the day of the event, I’m here tonight. That’s not good enough. That doesn’t allow for planning. Besides, it forces Kansas City jazz fans to subscribe to the email or the tweets or the Facebook page of every musician they know to have any inkling of where to find them playing jazz.
Red glazed the Fairy’s eyes. It pounded its mystical fist on its desk once, twice. Besides, it maintained, the restaurant or club stands to gain the most through promotion, through more jazz fans showing up and buying food and drinks. It’s not unreasonable to expect a musician to announce a gig on Facebook. But marketing and promotion are responsibilities which lie heaviest on who gains most. Is it too much to expect more than a nebulous listing? Or a black page?
“No!” the being yelled. “Don’t complain that jazz draws nobody when you do nothing to tell anyone who's playing the jazz!”
“Knock, knock” cried the furious being, its wings flapping wildly.
“Who’s there?” answered a feeble voice in its head.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy!" it cried out, its feet off the ground.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy who?” queried the voice.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy who wants to poke your eyes out for promoting a fun weekly jazz event with a blank page!” the Magic Jazz Fairy screamed.
Enraged, the mystical being flew out a window. It needed a drink.
Or to poke somebody’s eyes out. Euphemistically, of course.
Last summer the same singer and pianist played the patio each Wednesday evening, sometimes with guests. They promoted the shows on their Facebook pages, through some tweets, with occasional emails. Crowds filled the deck.
This year the restaurant has chosen to feature different jazz artists each week. The pianist and singer opened the season. The mystical being saw that on the pianist’s Facebook page. And a trumpeter would be playing later this month. That was in the trumpeter’s email newsletter. But who else would be there each week? The Magic Jazz Fairy needed to know, so it could spread the word.
Because, as we’ve established in previous posts, every city has a Magic Jazz Fairy who flies through town at night and whispers in the ears of sleeping jazz fans when and where to find the music, so we wake up knowing, just knowing. That must be the way jazz promotion works because, of course, small crowds couldn’t possibly be the fault of savvy restaurants and bars for not telling anyone they booked jazz.
But before it can spread the word to all of us sleeping jazz fans, the Magic Jazz Fairy needs to know the schedule. Surely this restaurant, with the outdoor patio nestled in The Plaza, this major restaurant, part of a nationwide chain, renowned for exquisite seafood, surely this restaurant has properly promoted their weekly jazz happy hour.
The Magic Jazz Fairy sat down at its computer and, with a quick Google search, found the restaurant’s website. Ah, a tab for Calendar. The mystical being clicked it. Up came this:
What? A blank screen? A page filled with black? It clicked back, then clicked the Calendar tab again. Again, a page of black.
How could that be, the Magic Jazz Fairy sputtered. How could the national restaurant with the patio nestled in The Plaza and exquisite seafood, how could that restaurant be promoting its weekly jazz event with a blank, black page?
Did that national restaurant want to know how to promote jazz? the Fairy thought aloud. Did it? Well, then, just look at this website, for a local downtown steakhouse with exquisite steak and jazz every night. Just look at their calendar. The mystical being clicked, and up came this:
The Magic Jazz Fairy looked. The calendar said, Live Jazz Band. Okay, I know that, the Fairy thought, but which jazz band? Who? The mystical being clicked a link. A window popped up which told him that playing at the downtown restaurant with exquisite steaks this Friday was...a live jazz band. It clicked Saturday’s link. Playing that night would be...a live jazz band.
Upset and annoyed, the Magic Jazz Fairy declared, “I’ll show you both. Look at this. Look at the calendar for this city’s premiere jazz club in the historic jazz district. Look at how easy it is to find who’s there this Saturday night.”
The mystical being clicked a link, and up came this:
“What is going on?” the Magic Jazz Fairy yelled out. “How can I fly around town and tell every jazz fan while they sleep who is playing jazz so they wake up knowing, just knowing, if nobody announces who is playing jazz?”
Anger welled. Ever since a major jazz club closed last year, the music has been more difficult to find. It’s been up to the musicians, through Facebook posts and emails and whatever other communications they could muster with no budget or time, to tell fans where to find them. But too many post the day of the event, I’m here tonight. That’s not good enough. That doesn’t allow for planning. Besides, it forces Kansas City jazz fans to subscribe to the email or the tweets or the Facebook page of every musician they know to have any inkling of where to find them playing jazz.
Red glazed the Fairy’s eyes. It pounded its mystical fist on its desk once, twice. Besides, it maintained, the restaurant or club stands to gain the most through promotion, through more jazz fans showing up and buying food and drinks. It’s not unreasonable to expect a musician to announce a gig on Facebook. But marketing and promotion are responsibilities which lie heaviest on who gains most. Is it too much to expect more than a nebulous listing? Or a black page?
“No!” the being yelled. “Don’t complain that jazz draws nobody when you do nothing to tell anyone who's playing the jazz!”
“Knock, knock” cried the furious being, its wings flapping wildly.
“Who’s there?” answered a feeble voice in its head.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy!" it cried out, its feet off the ground.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy who?” queried the voice.
“The Magic Jazz Fairy who wants to poke your eyes out for promoting a fun weekly jazz event with a blank page!” the Magic Jazz Fairy screamed.
Enraged, the mystical being flew out a window. It needed a drink.
Or to poke somebody’s eyes out. Euphemistically, of course.
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