Ugly Division

A 1980 study on possible uses for the Armory Building (today more commonly known as the Boone Theater) at 18th and Highland in Kansas City’s jazz district, commissioned by the Black Economic Union and funded by Office of the Arts of the Ford Foundation, surveyed 465 black Kansas City residents and 530 white Kansas City residents between October and December, 1979. Among the findings, on page 9 of the report, is this:

“To attract people, the leaders of the jazz effort in the Armory must face the issue of the safety reputation of the 18th and Vine area. Half of the white population and nearly three-quarters of the black, are nervous about the assumed dangers of the neighborhood; our researchers noted that white patrons…who had come into the neighborhood mid-day, were nervous about coming back at night. There would need to be a major public relations effort, to convince black and white customers that the Armory is a safe place to be.”

Earlier this month, on October 8th, organizers at the American Jazz Museum staged a magnificent Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival inside of and in the area behind the museum at 18th and Vine. The crowd loved the music and the environment. The organizers managed all of the details with professionalism and organizational skill, from seating to music to presentation, right down to the designed typeface on the signage (as opposed to hand-scribbled signs so often seen at similar events). They marketed the event well, with a solid web presence and ads in the Kansas City Star reaching out to the entire metropolitan area. I’ve previously mumbled about one of the headliners, and more promotional posters and cards placed around town would have helped build excitement. But the truth is, this was largely a model of how the best jazz festivals are staged in the 21st century.

The festival drew, by my estimate, about 7000 people. The crowd was, by my observation, predominantly urban.

By contrast, the Kansas City Jazz Festival in the 1980s in Volker Park, for which I was an organizer, drew more than 50,000 people over a weekend during its best years. The later Blues and Jazz Festival held in Penn Valley Park attracted even larger crowds.

You can blame the declining popularity of jazz for Rhythm and Ribs not attracting more people. You can blame the price of tickets. You can blame competition during a busy weekend in Kansas City.

But I blame a lingering, entrenched and undeserved reputation, an image identified in that study of the nearby Armory building nearly a third of a century ago, which continues to choke the neck of 18th and Vine. I blame Kansas Citians too naive to recognize a treasure.

I can understand my father’s generation avoiding the area, having grown up with its past. But I thought my generation would fix that. I thought that by building museums and restaurants and staging live music, the vitality and safety of the area would become obvious. I thought the Crossroads district growing east would bridge a path over less desirable neighborhoods to the front door of Kansas City’s history.

We’ve bridged nothing. Neighbors in my suburban neighborhood openly question whether I’ll arrive home from 18th and Vine safely. The truth: I’ve been going there for nearly three decades and have never – I repeat, never – suffered a negative experience.

Yet, perceptions breed divisions.

Last year the suburban community of Prairie Village started its own jazz festival. This year’s event was rained out, but last year’s organizers claimed a crowd of 7000 people for the day.

We’re dividing into a city of provincial jazz festivals. One in the city for an urban crowd, one out south for suburban patrons. Why can’t these 14,000 people – an apparent 7000 per festival – and more, mingle at a single celebration? Given our heritage, Kansas City deserves a major jazz festival.

Such a vision, to happen here, would first require a neutral site easily accessible from throughout the community. That shouldn’t be the case, but it is, because too many of my neighbors will enjoy jazz in Prairie Village but not at 18th and Vine. Attitudes anchored in ignorance cripple the jazz district’s ability to attract a substantially larger festival crowd.

It’s not because of the music. It’s not because of festival organizers. It’s because of misbegotten perceptions ingrained in too many Kansas Citians of my generation.

Still, at one place, I see a thread of hope.

I go down to the Mutual Musicians Foundation, at 1823 Highland, late on a Friday or Saturday night, and there I see young, diverse crowds interact. I see them mingle. There I see the potential of 18th and Vine.

There I see hope that the next generation might do better.

In Lieu of 1000 Words: 2011 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival

The weather was perfect. The friendly crowds grew throughout the day and night, swaying to and so clearly enjoying all the acts.

The space behind the American Jazz Museum, supplemented by The Blue Room and the museum’s atrium, proved ideal stages. The indoor areas were packed with people throughout the day, and the outdoor grounds were packed by night.

Vendors were pleased, some selling out of food before the last act. Sponsors should be happy with their exposure in and association with such a professionally-organized and successful event. Hopefully, all are anxious to return in 2012.

The 2011 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival made October 8th a wonderful day and night of music. How wonderful? Take a look for yourself with the photos below. As usual, clicking on one should open a larger version of it.

The festival grounds: Those open spaces filled by night

Jazz headliner Christian McBride

Blues headliner Bobby "Blue" Bland

In the museum atrium, Sons of Brazil performs

Jaleel Shaw, saxophonist with Christina McBride's group, Inside Straight

The Wild Women of KC packed The Blue Room

Christian McBride, Jaleel Shaw, and vibraphonist Warren Wolf

Inside Straight drummer Carl Allen

Lori Tucker, of the Wild Women of KC, sings while a guest saxophonist watches

Bobby Watson joined Inside Straight for their final number. Left to right: Christian McBride, Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw

The museum's Atrium Stage at night

Bobby "Blue" Bland and guitarist

Four New KC Jazz CDs. Well, Three, Anyway.

I came to jazz via Basie. It's music that's great because it makes me feel great, a visceral reaction. Music, for me, doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

Except it always has been. Duke Ellington's Harlem Air Shaft has been, since the first time I heard it, one of my favorite compositions. In three minutes it musically illustrates a cornucopia of joys and sorrows one might hear in a Harlem tenement if, for a day, you just listened. It swings while driving you to think.

Similarly, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Race Riot Suite is jazz which drives you to think. It musically tells the story of the today little known 1921 Tulsa race riots, in which hundreds of black citizens were killed and a district in the Oklahoma city was destroyed.

It starts with Black Wall Street, a musical portrait of a wealthy black community, a composition of joy, yet just enough off-kilter to foreshadow the disaster to come. The Burning musically paints confusion and devastation, with kaleidoscopic moments that seem to picture someone caught in the middle wondering, What's going on? 

Mt. Zion views an aftermath with reflection and hope. Cover Up illustrates a discordant attempt to bury the disaster in history. Eye of the Dove pushes forward a community and story which defied burial.

But unlike Ellington's Harlem Air Shaft, a wonderful composition even if you never know what it represents, Race Riot Suite requires knowledge of the backstory and its chapters to appreciate the music. The first time I listened to the CD, I didn't know the history, and the music came across as the type of modern, eclectic jazz that you'll never hear from Basie or Ellington, and which I generally don't enjoy. Only after reading the history this CD musically represents, did I appreciate what I heard. This is jazz to enjoy intellectually.

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Race Riot Suite is available from Amazon, here, or can be downloaded from iTunes, here.

*****

In a far more traditional vein – that we came-to-jazz-via-Basie guys can appreciate without the liner notes – vocalist Laura Chalk's All the Things You Are brings together some of Kansas City's best jazz musicians.

After all, you cannot go wrong with Paul Smith on piano, Bob Bowman on bass, Tim Cambron on drums, Danny Embrey on guitar, or with Laura's own son, emerging sax superstar Matt Chalk, on alto.

Danny's guitar solos on Desafinado, Say It Over and Over Again and The Duke alone are reason enough to buy this CD. Now add Paul's piano solo on All the Things You Are and Bob's bass on Vello Piano. Next hear Matt's soulful sax inventiveness on Em Casa Sozinho. You'll understand why Kansas City instrumentalists are some of the jazz world's best.

Laura is returning to KC's jazz scene after years as a single mom. Her voice brings the right intonation for these classics, but most are delivered with a careful exactness and not yet with the carefree emotion or excitement of other area jazz singers. The concluding number, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, driven by Danny's guitar, carries the most emotion. But that self-confident looseness which can be the difference between hitting the perfect notes (which she does) and overwhelming impact isn't quite there. This is a work in process, and one worth following.

All the Things You Are is available from CD Baby, here.

*****

I have a confession.

Since Jeff Davis, leader of Sir Threadius Mongus, moved to Kansas City, he's sent me press releases. He's introduced himself (and is a nice guy). He's given me Sir Threadius Mongus CDs and musical tracks. He's done everything a person could do to garner mention in a Kansas City jazz blog. Yet, until now, he's never been mentioned.

I've attended a couple of Sir Threadius Mongus shows at Jardine's. The group plays a style of modern, free-form jazz which just doesn't appeal to me. There's nothing wrong with the music. It's just not a type of jazz I find accessible, and not what I personally prefer hearing.

I was interested, though, when Jeff sent the tracks to the latest Sir Threadius Mongus CD, Threads. The group has evolved since moving from Tulsa. This edition includes Andrew McGhie, one of the best young tenor saxophonists in Kansas City, and Stan Kessler, unquestionably one of KC's premiere trumpet players. Matt Otto, a saxophonist who has made a top-tier name for himself since moving here from California, is included. Several other members are a part of People's Liberation Big Band, an eclectic and fun group I've photographed a couple times. The talent on this CD is outstanding.

The music wisely thrusts that talent forward and lets it shine. The inventive ideas which come through sax solos on Before That are obvious even to a codger like me. Purr, one of three tracks recorded live at KC's R Bar, intrigued most, pulling me in with sax and guitar intertwined with vocals by the extraordinary Annie Ellicott.

Threads will be in stores on November 11th.

*****

River Cow Orchestra is a Kansas City group which bills itself as playing "zen jazz," which they describe as "collective spontaneous free improvisation." Their business card bills their music as "jazz for the third millennium."

Okay.

If their fifth CD, Go Wake the Rooster, is any indication, the third millennium is going to be filled with space age music of repetitive sounds which I have an awfully hard time classifying as jazz.

It's modern music without the whimsy of People's Liberation Big Band, or the intellectualism of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey.

I didn't appreciate Jacob Fred's Race Riot Suite until I understood the story behind it. And maybe there's more here than I'm understanding. But as someone who came to jazz via Basie, this is music I just don't get.

Go Wake the Rooster is available on CD Baby, here.

A Wonderful Festival, and a Conundrum

Crowds filled the field behind the American Jazz Museum last Saturday night – I’m guessing 7000 people by that point – for the 2011 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival.

Maybe half the audience was standing, swaying along to the music, clearly enjoying the beautiful night. Some grasped their partner’s hands and started to dance. The vocalist on stage cried out, “You know the words!” as he thrust his microphone towards the crowd.

The jazz and blues festival audience started chanting:

The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine,
The Cisco Kid was a friend of mine,
He drink whiskey, Poncho drink the wine,
He drink whiskey, Poncho drink the wine.

Don’t kid yourself: The audience loved this show. They loved hearing the songs they knew from pop radio performed live. They loved swaying to the groove. They loved singing along.

And don’t kid yourself: When the group War started performing, Rhythm and Ribs stopped being a jazz and blues festival.

It’s a conundrum to which I have no answer. From Newport to New Orleans, jazz festivals are booking pop acts to draw the crowds necessary to attract the sponsorships necessary to build the money necessary to stage a significant event. Today, jazz and blues are apparently too narrow a niche to draw sufficient festival crowds without a pop push.

It’s not a new phenomenon. In the 1980s, we sold the Kansas City Jazz Festival not as a jazz festival but as the city’s major event the weekend it was staged. We tried to sell the idea that if you missed this event, you were missing what everyone would be talking about on Monday morning. We signed the city’s top rock station as a sponsor, to draw people out to party. We did that because we knew jazz alone was an insufficient sell to fill an outdoor festival in Kansas City. Booking the funk group War is simply another means to the same end.

I don’t accept that War’s funk is really just another version of jazz and blues, as a panel discussion in The Blue Room a couple weeks back tried to establish. I accept that funk contains elements of each. I accept that it’s an evolution from earlier genres. I’ve demonstrated to friends many times rock and roll growing out of the blues via Big Joe Turner. But rock grew into a new genre. Likewise, funk is no more jazz and blues than my smartphone is a desktop computer, though in both cases one evolved from the other.

Yet it’s those tenuous ties that justify a funk band in a jazz and blues festival. You could argue that’s no better or worse than marketing a jazz festival on the back of rock radio, and I couldn’t argue you’re wrong. To fill the field at an outdoor festival, jazz needs the support of its offspring.

It’s a conundrum to which I have no answer.

*****

That commiserating aside, let’s recognize that the 2011 Rhythm and Ribs Festival was a wonderful success.

Crowds packed the American Jazz Museum’s atrium and The Blue Room for what were, effectively, the side stages. By the time Bobby “Blue” Bland walked onto the main stage, the outdoor field behind the museum was hosting thousands of guests. Before the last act took that stage, food vendors were selling out, delighted with their day. The crowd was friendly and happy. Plenty of legitimate jazz and blues acts were showcased throughout the schedule. I know nothing about the festival’s finances, but by every other measurement, this year’s festival met its goals in a magnificent way.

I’ll offer more observations about the festival in future posts. But for now, let’s enjoy a few photos from the weekend. I’ll also offer more photos in future posts, but those take a while to sort through. Until I have that opportunity, here's a sampling:

Jazz headliner Christian McBride (playing Jeff Harshbarger's bass)

Saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, a member of McBride's group

In The Blue Room, Millie Edwards, of The Wild Women of KC, sings to a saxophonist joining the front window just for the festival

The Warner Project fills the American Jazz Museum's atrium

Headliner Bobby "Blue" Bland

Classic Shots: More Rhythm and Ribs Past

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

So let’s do this again.

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

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

Koko Taylor, 2005

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

Al Jarreau, 2007

George Benson, 2007

Pat Metheny, 2007

Al Green, 2006

Karrin Allyson, 2005

Shemekia Copeland, 2006

Lonnie Smith, 2007

George Benson and Al Jarreau, 2007

Pat Metheny and Christian McBride, 2007

Two Books Adding Context to KC Jazz History

Towards the end of Dysfunctional, in Chapter 30, Alaadeen observes:

“I’m constantly saying that the kids now are developing so fast. Kansas City jazz is starting to grow. I think the young kids around here are starting to get it. I noticed a bunch of the kids are wanting to play straight ahead rather than the fusion. It’s time for Kansas City to wake up and take your place in the world…. We have an outflow of young talent that’s coming out of Kansas City now. Kansas City…get ready for the explosion.”

It was a similar observation that inspired the start of this blog.

Kansas City jazz saxophonist Ahmad Alaadeen, born Sonny White in 1934, performed with Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and Jay McShann. He toured with Sam Cooke. He hung out with Dexter Gordon at 12th and the Paseo. He grew up hearing McShann’s big band with Charlie Parker practice just down the street. He worked with and taught some of today’s KC greats, like Harold O’Neal, Kevin Mahogany and Charles Perkins.

Alaadeen absorbed then left his stamp on Kansas City’s jazz scene. He recounts his stories in Dysfunctional: Life Journeys of a Second Generation Jazz Musician. After being diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer, Alaadeen spoke his memories into a recorder, which have been edited by his wife Fanny Dunfee into a vivid illustration of Kansas City’s jazz scene in the years after Basie left, through the 1950s and on into today.

The insights Alaadeen offers into KC’s second generation of jazz are invaluable. “I learned a lot of good from Jay [McShann],” he writes, “but also a lot of bad habits. He taught me much of the lifestyle back in the day; he taught me the street life.” Yet, too often passages tease without providing details. “In the early ’60s, I moved to New York and performed there. I was kind of a character back then, not too stable.” Kind of a character how? Unstable in what way? What did he do to warrant such a self-characterization? What stories are not being told?

Regardless, the thoughts Aladeen does convey build our understanding of jazz today. “My college was on the streets,” Alaadeen says, “and I was learning improvisation on the bandstand.” When comparing his education to now, Alaadeen relates, “Now it’s in learning institutes all over the country…. The music is taking a more intellectual turn when every institution of higher learning has a jazz program…. Jazz is not the same now…the technical level is better but not the creativity…. They go to school to get their technique, and then they learn to play this music. The musicians now are not playing from instincts, I think, as much as they’re playing from what is taught. Conservatory jazz or institution jazz is moving further from the tradition and cultural foundation from which the music was founded on…cultural experiences that were handed down through the oral tradition.”

That argument begs the question of where a student today finds the cultural experiences handed down orally that Alaadeen lived (except, perhaps, at the Mutual Musicians Foundation). But it helps explain why Kansas City jazz in unlikely to see another musician like Ahmad Alaadeen.

Jay McShann and Alaadeen at the 2001 Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival

Dysfunctional: Life Journeys of a Second Generation Jazz Musician. can be purchased from Alaadeen's website, here.

*****

There was a second introduction at the press conference last month, at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, announcing Kansas City wine (covered here). Also announced was the latest edition of Sonny Gibson’s book, Kansas City: Mecca of the New Negro.

This is a 376 page collection of newspaper and magazine clippings – news stories, obituaries, photographs, advertisements – from African American newspapers and magazines, dating from 1900 through the 1970s.

A study is being done today to renovate the Boone Theater at 18th and Highland. Want to know what the theater’s namesake, J.W. “Blind” Boone looked like? Find out in a 1914 news story, or in an ad when he played the Allen Chapel in Columbia, Missouri.

There’s ads for the Roberts Company Motor Mart, “The Only Negro Automobile Sales Room in America.” The building still stands at 19th and Vine.

I’ve written about The Second Most Historic Jazz Structure in KC, the Eblon Theater (here). Here’s a photo of it being built. And a news story on its opening (“A modern, reinforced concrete and steel structure costing $60,000 will be thrown open to the public when the Eblon Theater opens its doors to patrons….”). There’s a photo of owner Homer “Jap” Eblon and, on a later page, his obituary.

And, of course, there’s news stories, photos and ads from Kansas City’s historic jazz scene.

From an ad: “Bennie Moten Musical Crown in Danger. Jesse Stone Defies Bennie For Orchestra Contest. $500 Side Bet. Bennie Posts $250.00 - Stone’s Money is Up. Bennie Accepts the Challenge. Thurs. Night Feb. 3. 15th and Paseo, Recreation Hall. Who Will Win? Come Out and See!”

On another page, a photo of two men in white coats and bow ties. The caption begins, “Pete Johnson and Joe Turner, who are featured entertainers nightly at the Lone Star Gardens on Twelfth Street….”

But the book is as frustrating as it is valuable. Organization is rudimentary. There’s no contents and no index, and no good way to find anything other than flipping through the pages. Many pieces bear no dates (for instance, there’s no indication of when the ad with “Blind” Boone in Columbia ran). And none of the sources are cited. For historical research, the lack of identifying records limits the book’s usefulness. Also, many of the photos, articles and ads appear to be photocopies of photocopies.

But I don’t know where else you’ll find this volume of Kansas City black history and information in one place. I don’t know where else you find this kind of backstory and context for the culture which created Kansas City jazz.

The back cover: Joe Louis boxed on the top floor of this building, long gone from 18th and Vine. An inscription in the corner of the photo dates it at 1981.

Mecca of the New Negro is $25.00 plus $4.50 shipping and handling, and is available directly from Sonny Gibson at 3550 Wabash Ave., Kansas City, MO 64109. Or call Sonny at 816-457-1401.

Classic Shots: Jay McShann at the Foundation. And a Video.

It wasn’t just Fiddler. Hootie was there, too.

The fall afternoon in 2003 was a special day. The Mutual Musicians Foundation was celebrating its anniversary.

Last November, I posted photos of a frail, 95-year old Claude “Fiddler” Williams swinging his violin like a rambunctious kid that day (here). But Fiddler wasn’t the only Kansas City jazz legend who stepped in the Foundation. Jay “Hootie” McShann also came to honor Kansas City’s history, of which he was so important a part.

It’s not hard to find images of Jay McShann in the Mutual Musicians Foundation. Just pop a DVD of The Last of the Blue Devils into a player, and there he is for most of ninety minutes. But this day was different. This day, 87-year old Jay was there to celebrate the building which was then Kansas City’s only National Historic Landmark, and a key piece of the birth of Kansas City jazz.

I captured some photos that day. Not as many as I do in a typical photo spread now, but I didn’t know then that someday I might be posting to a blog. Here’s some shots from 2003 of Jay McShann at the piano in the Mutual Musicians Foundation. That same piano is still on the Foundation’s first floor stage. As always, clicking on an image should open a larger version of it.

And since I don't have many photos this time, after you've perused them, let’s watch a video.

Jay McShann at the piano

Note Claude "Fiddler" Williams in the audience listening, wearing a hat, on the extreme right

Jay and bass

Note Claude Williams in the audience, with a hat, three people to the right of the piano

Jay "Hootie" McShann in the Mutual Musicians Foundation

*****

Last year, I posted several videos from a tape I digitized for a friend.

There’s one more.

This last one from the tape is just three minutes long. I don’t know where it originally ran, but the recording is from a television broadcast. It was sponsored by a corporation, which had blurbs at the beginning and end of the segment (and which I've edited out, to minimize the chance that someone might ask for the video to be removed from YouTube). Clothing and other videos on the tape lead me to guess that it dates to the 1970s.

So enjoy three minutes of Jay McShann not at the Foundation. But three minutes of Hootie performing anywhere is a delight.

Rain, Rain Go Away

At an outdoor festival, you can control everything except the weather.

I was president of the 1989 Kansas City Jazz Festival. It was my sixth year as a volunteer organizer. I’d been Vice President of the event, and Secretary and Treasurer. I’d headed up fundraising and chaired the talent committee. I’d appeared on TV and radio to promote previous years. But this was the first time my name was actually attached to the event.

And we booked Pat Metheny as the headliner. This was someone we wanted every year since I was first involved, but we either couldn’t afford him or we couldn’t meet his group's power needs, or schedules didn’t align. But he wanted to play Kansas City, so his agent negotiated a fee we could afford, substantially less than any other stop on that tour, and he could be here on Sunday. We rented extra generators to accommodate the show.

Sunday night, crowds streamed into Volker Park, where the stage stood at the south end. What was then Brush Creek Boulevard, between the park and the Nelson Museum’s south lawn, gridlocked bumper-to-bumper with cars. We were going to fill the park and probably the Nelson’s lawn, too.

Friday night, as we set up, Bryan Busby of KMBC broadcast the weather for the 6:00 news from the park. He predicted rain for Sunday night. When he was done, I told him, respectfully, I hoped he was wrong. For our sake, he hoped so, too.

He wasn’t wrong.

As the local acts preceding Pat ended, and as the crew prepared the stage for the Pat Metheny Group, dark clouds claimed the venue. Winds escalated. A few rain drops fell. Then a storm lashed the park, violently. We shut everything down.

After the storm passed, I consulted the stage, sound and light professionals. Equipment was damaged. It would not be safe to restore power. I made the only decision available, and cancelled Pat Metheny’s performance. As I later told a reporter for The Kansas City Star, I’d rather be known for doing the festival which cancelled Pat Metheny than for doing the festival which electrocuted Pat Metheny.

We’d spent a year planning the event. We had no paid staff (though Kansas City Parks and Rec provided invaluable help). As president of the event, the hours devoted to planning and preparation felt like holding a second and third full time job. To expend that time and effort then be denied such a highly anticipated conclusion, left me feeling numb. I wasn’t sad. It didn’t actually hurt. Because, while there’s always situations which will be handled better next time, we had planned as well as we could. We were staging a damn good festival. We had no reason to to feel sorry, no reason to regret. We had done a good job.

I just felt numb. Recalling that day, I still do.

And I recall that day now because Saturday’s second annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival suffered the same fate.

As the second act concluded, ominous clouds blew in from the northeast. The northeast? Kansas City never gets storms from the northeast, do we?

Saturday we did.

About 3:45 p.m., a storm suddenly engulfed the park. Musicians and volunteers and crew tried to rescue the equipment on stage. The stage was lowered and a tarp secured. But straight-line winds popped bungee cords holding the tarp, the tarp blew open, equipment tumbled across the stage, savaged by rain and hail. The few vehicles driving down Mission Road looked like they were parting the Red Sea. One person tells me she saw the winds lift one person off the stage.

In the end, nobody was hurt. Equipment was damaged and some of it ruined. The rest of this year’s festival was cancelled.

I helped little with the Prairie Village Jazz Festival. I didn’t have the time or emotional investment that other organizers brought into Saturday. I didn't endure the arguments or setbacks or successes, which are inevitably part of organizing such an event, that many others did. I’m sad to see the festival end with a torrent. But I don’t feel what others who devoted so much more to the event feel.

I do have some idea, though, about what they feel. Because those of us who have planned a jazz festival in Kansas City only to see its climax denied by a rainstorm, comprise a rather small club.

We know you can control everything at an outdoor festival except the weather.

*****

My job at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival was to take photos. Along with the rest of the event, that task was cut short. But the audience in Harmon Park was anything but short-changed by the two acts which did take the stage: An amazingly good Shawnee Mission East Jazz Band (which I propose should open each year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival) and Shay Estes and Trio ALL, which for an hour on Saturday owned Prairie Village, Kansas. I’ve since directed a dozen people to Shay’s website to find out where else they can hear her sing.

I’d hoped to fill a few weeks of blog posts with festival photos. Not this year. But here’s a shot of each of the acts, to show you what you may have missed before the Prairie Village Monsoon of 2011 hit.

The Shawnee Mission East Jazz Band

Shay Estes and Trio ALL

Festival Season

Never mind, for the moment, the promotional image with circles outlining a 1970s-style afro. Does that really appeal to the age group which attends outdoor music festivals?

And never mind the headlining group War, which only has a songbook in common with its 1970s funk namesake. As someone who helped organize jazz festivals for seven years, I recognize the importance of a well known name to draw attention and an audience, even if the connection between their music and the festival’s intent is, perhaps, precarious.

Instead, look at the schedule, here, of the 2011 Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival, taking place on October 8th from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. by the American Jazz Museum. With other headliners like Christian McBride and Bobby “Blue” Bland, and with other scheduled performers like Charlie Hunter, Rob Scheps and the Wild Women of KC, this event is musically solid.

This is the second year for a scaled-back, viable-in-a-recession Rhythm and Ribs festival. I applauded the return of the event, in whatever form, last year. I hoped last year established a base from which subsequent festivals would solidly grow.

I realize we're still mired in an economic downturn. I realize that corporations are tighter with donations and civic support today than they were during the Rhythm and Ribs glory years. I know first hand how critical corporate support is to a financially successful festival. And I applaud the American Jazz Museum for staging a financially responsible event, because I also know first hand how easy it is to let ambitions overtake fiscal reality. I know all this.

Yet, it's hard to set aside a twinge of disappointment that this year's festival doesn't appear to have artistically grown.

I missed last year’s fest (a nephew was married that day). So until I experience this year's event, I will refrain from expressing further twinges, and from further comparisons to the grand event this festival was before succumbing to an economic hiatus.

Rather, I’m excited that, for the second consecutive year, the Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival is back. Tickets are just $10 until September 15th (prices increase after that) at the American Jazz Museum. I have mine. I’m looking forward to enjoying a day of solid music.

Despite the dated afro and War.

*****

But before the second year of a resurrected Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival, comes the second year of the Prairie Village Jazz Festival, this Saturday. Last year the volunteer team staged a wonderful inaugural event, a day of free music, which I photographed here.

Full disclosure: The festival recruited me to assist with this year’s event (though I’ve done little more than shoot my mouth off at a few meetings). So I don’t come to this unbiased. I want you to attend to this festival. It’s free, so you have no excuse not to. None.

Besides, take a look at the lineup (here). Nobody should miss a day of jazz starring Bobby Watson, Deborah Brown, Mike Metheny, The People’s Liberation Big Band, and Shay Estes with a reunited Trio ALL. Every one of them except Mike has been featured in photo spreads in this blog. And Metheney’s CDs have been reviewed here twice.

All for good reason. Each one is among Kansas City’s jazz best.

The only clunker of the day looks to be a staging of a weekly radio variety show, 12th Street Jump. A variety show in the middle of a music festival wrecks the day’s flow and is idiocy. Meanwhile, some of last year’s founders left the event while whining to the press that they didn’t get their way, embarrassing only themselves.

But, if you've read about the family squabbles, set them aside. As long as the weather cooperates, the second Prairie Village Jazz Festival promises to be a day mostly filled with spectacular music. Admission is free. It’s this Saturday, September 10th, from 2  to 10 p.m., in Harmon Park at 77th and Mission Road, next to Shawnee Mission East High School.

My job that day? I’ve volunteered to take photos. You'll see them in this blog first.

*****

This Friday, on Steve Kraske’s Up to Date on KCUR-FM (89.3) at 11 a.m., Bobby Watson, Deborah Brown and Brad Cox (leader of The People's Liberation Big Band) are scheduled to discuss the state of jazz, both locally and internationally. Each participant brings a unique background and view. This promises to be a fascinating roundtable.

Then, of course, hear each of them perform the next day at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.

*****

And the week after Prairie Village is a downtown mystery jazz festival. The Power and Light District’s schedule boasts the 14th Street Jazz Festival for 2 to 9 p.m. (that’s what it says at the top of the page) on Sunday, September 18th. Or maybe it’s 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The only knowns on this one are in a blurb on their web site (here):

“Enjoy live jazz and blues from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the 14th Street Jazz Festival in the Kansas City Power and Light District. The festival kicks off at 11 a.m. with a Jazz Brunch at participating restaurants…. At 2 p.m., join us on the 14th Street stage for great Kansas City jazz and blues! Performance schedule to be announced soon….”

It’s two weeks before your festival, Power and Light guys. Now is not too soon.

This 'n That 'n Houses 'n Wine

The windows were covered with plywood painted a sickly green, except for one window, on the upper floor, which stared back uncovered, exposing the interior. Had a transient broken in through there? Might someone be inside who could burn the building down?

Across the street, the row of white houses had clearly sat occupied for decades. They look dilapidated, barely standing. And they’re numbered, one through six spray-painted on their fronts, as if someone already marked the order for their destruction.

If you haven’t been here before, if you don’t know the area, that’s the first impression.

These are no surroundings for a landmark.

Last Thursday, I accompanied some business associates from North Carolina and a coworker to the Mutual Musicians Foundation. Anita graciously agreed to stay around and greet us for a tour. I wanted these associates to experience real Kansas City jazz history.

It was around 7 p.m. on a sunny summer night. The neighborhood was quiet. The Foundation impressed, just as it always impresses. But when we left, the coworker, judging the surroundings, said he wouldn’t have come here if I hadn’t brought him.

I’ve been going to the Mutual Musicians Foundation for over twenty-five years. I know the area. Never – never – have I suffered a negative experience.

But this night, as we left, I looked around. And I saw the Rochester Hotel, dirty and boarded except for one window open to the air. I saw six once-vibrant but now decrepit houses. I saw the neighborhood through the eyes of guests who didn’t know it. Through those eyes, it did not look like someplace where an outsider wanted to be.

That’s about to change.

According to an article in last Friday’s Kansas City Star (here), The Kansas City Council unanimously approved the money to secure a construction loan to begin redevelopment of the Rochester Hotel and the six houses. They will be converted into a total of 22 affordable housing units, mostly apartments. The cost is $4.9 million, to be paid with federal funds and federal and state historic tax credits. Construction should start in September and be done in a year.

I previously wrote about this restoration and questioned whether there weren’t more more historic redevelopment needs in the 18th and Vine district (in History and Homes and 18th and Vine, linked in the column at the right under Most Popular Posts). I realize now there are not greater needs. New housing graces the south end of Highland at 19th Street. At the north end of the street, restoration of the Boone Theater/Armory Building on the corner of 18th and Highland is being discussed, thanks to a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

If the Armory restoration happens, and the Rochester Hotel and houses surrounding the Foundation are renovated, Highland Avenue will again shine as appropriate surroundings for a landmark.

Until then, trust me. As my business colleagues discovered, this is someplace where you want to be.

A bottle of Kansas City Wine

*****

I was at the Mutual Musicians Foundation again on Friday morning, for a press conference. Actually, my colleagues and I glimpsed a preview when we were there on Thursday night.

In a couple weeks, the Foundation will begin selling Kansas City Wine.

Nobody owned the name, “Kansas City Wine.” Now, the Mutual Musicians Foundation does.

The wine will be produced at Amigoni Urban Winery in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. The label will showcase a photo from the Foundation’s unique collection of over 300 Kansas City jazz photographs, with a new edition – and a new photo – planned each year. The label wrapping the first bottle is the historic lineup of Kansas City musicians from the May, 1930 opening of the building which was then Musicians Local 627 and today is the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

A bottle of wine will cost $35 and will initially be sold exclusively at the Foundation. All profits support the Foundation.

Start your collection now. They run out of photos in about 300 years.

From the Mutual Musicians Foundation wall, Bennie Moten approves

*****

Now, from the Foundation to The Brick. Because I received such an imaginative self-promotion last week, I’m compelled to share. I know nothing about this group except they write a delightful email. Its subject was “Magic Jazz Fairy”:

Dear Magic Jazz Fairy,

I have really been paying close attention to your wants, needs, and utterances. They actually seem rather basic and not at all unreasonable.

Magic Jazz Fairy wish list:
1. Talented young players
2. Straight ahead, classic jazz tunes
3. Patron friendly venue
4. Good food and a broad menu of choices
5. An honest drink
6. All at a reasonable cost

It wasn’t easy but I do believe we have done it. Just open the attachment and your wishes will be granted [the attachment was an ad for the performance].

You are now informed which should make it much easier for a wing weary Magic Jazz Fairy to fly around as KC Jazz fans sleep and whisper in their ears, “A Touch of Color” playing a matinee at The Brick; 1727 McGee, September 3, 2011; 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Oh Magic Jazz Fairy, we know we can trust you to get the word out.

Most sincerely,
Gin drinking Bohemian