kcjazzlark

The Rest of Winterlude…Well, Much of It

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Not everything, but I did capture more than one group.

The last post showcased photos of Matt Otto’s remarkable group. But Johnson County Community College’s Jazz Winterlude, on January 20th and 21st, offered plenty more jazz than that. I didn’t catch it all, but I had the chance to photograph many of the exceptional acts over the weekend.

For instance, Sam Wiseman’s Crosscurrent, playing music by and inspired by Lennie Tristano, was a Friday night favorite, with Sam on drums, Matt Otto and Steve Lambert on tenor sax, T.J. Martley on piano and Ben Leifer on bass.

The Jazz Disciples opened Saturday with Gerald Dunn on tenor sax, guest Jason Goudeau on trombone, Everett Freeman on piano, Bill McKemy on bass and Michael Warren on drums.

The Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet followed with Brandon on drums, Peter Sclamb on vibraphone, Rich Wheeler on tenor sax, and Jeff Harshbarger on bass.

Later on Saturday, the Will Matthews Quartet featured Will on guitar, Charles Williams on piano, James Ward on bass, and Ryan Lee on drums.

Photos of all are below. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

Jazz Disciples. Left to right: Jason Goudeau, Gerald Dunn, Everett Freeman, Bill McKemy, Michael Warren

Count Basie Orchestra guitarist, former president of the Mutual Musicians Foundation and leader of the Will Matthews Quartet: Will Matthews

Crosscurrent. Left to right: Steve Lambert, T.J. Martley, Matt Otto, Ben Leifer, Sam Wiseman

Leader of the Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet: Drummer Brandon Draper

Jazz Disciples bassist Bill McKemy

Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet. Left to right: Jeff Harshbarger, Rich Wheeler, Brandon Draper, Peter Schlamb

Jazz Disciples pianist Everett Freeman

Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet saxophonist Rich Wheeler

Jazz Disciples rhythm section: Everett Freeman, Bill McKemy and Michael Warren

Crosscurrent saxophonist Steve Lambert

Charles Williams, pianist with the Will Matthews Quartet

Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet vibraphonist Peter Schlamb

Crosscurrent: T.J. Martley on piano and Ben Leifer on bass

Matt Otto Quartet at Jazz Winterlude

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

I came to an infatuation with jazz through Basie. And I’ll be the first to admit I was dragged to contemporary jazz by the nose hairs. Some of it remains too extreme for my tastes, and I’m convinced some is transitory. But some of the best jazz being produced today is, indeed, contemporary. And none is better than the music of the Matt Otto Quartet supplemented by voice and piano.

I spent most of a couple weekends back at Johnson County Community College’s Jazz Winterlude. Club-sized crowds enjoyed some of the best jazz in Kansas City today, a mix of traditional and modern music. But of every group I heard, Matt’s stood out as the most extraordinary.

Matt Otto and Gerald Dunn, either of whom could play sax for anyone (Matt on tenor, Gerald on alto), here are at once complementary and competitive, each clearly admiring the other’s solos. Backed by Jeff Harshbarger on bass and Michael Warren’s drums, the base quartet presents Matt’s complex compositions as both supremely engaging and completely accessible. Now add T.J. Martley’s smart and inventive piano. Then layer on Shay Estes’ remarkable vocals. She isn’t singing songs. This is the voice as an instrument, but unlike any instrument played by manipulating keys.

I’m groping for words to explain the wonder which filled the theater. Simply, I have not heard another group like this.

I wrote about and photographed the Matt Otto Quartet last year, here. But I’m so taken by their music, here they are again, from their Jazz Winterlude performance on January 21st. As always. clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

The Matt Otto Quartet. Left to right: Gerald Dunn, Matt Otto, Jeff Harshbarger, and Michael Warren

Matt Otto on tenor sax

Gerald Dunn on alto sax

The front line with Gerald Dunn on alto, Matt Otto on tenor and Shay Estes vocalizing

Michael Warren on drums

Jeff Harshbarger on bass

The Matt Otto Quartet plus two. Left to right: T.J. Martley, Gerald Dunn, Matt Otto, Shay Estes, Jeff Harshbarger, Michael Warren

Shay Estes, vocals

T.J. Martley on piano

Jeff solos as Shay admires

The saxes: Gerald and Matt

Shay Estes vocalizing. Behind her, Jeff Harshbarger.

No, It's Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It’s not the J word.

Last week, our friend Plastic Sax identified the reason Nnenna Freelon’s Folly Theater show failed to draw more than some 400 people (here). “To a large extent, the barrier was antipathy to the j-word,” he wrote. “The jazz label may have drawn three-quarters of the existing audience, but it repelled even more potential ticket-buyers.”

Jazz the Repeller? Is a new super-villain threatening Gotham?

Is this a job for the Magic Jazz Fairy?

Well, maybe. Because it’s all about marketing.

Plastic Sax opines, “Music lovers of all stripes who appreciate Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, Luther Vandross, Frank Sinatra or Mary J. Blige would have loved Freelon's performance.”

I don’t doubt a word of that.

Now, will somebody let those music lovers know?

With the rare exception of shows starring a name with established crossover appeal, the Folly jazz series seems to draw 400 patrons a show, give or take. That’s what happens when you market to the same audience through direct mail and newspaper ads. You’re reaching your core, and that’s important. But so is expanding your core.

The core is not limited by an act being labeled jazz. Plastic Sax himself proved it, last month, in his alternate guise as mild-mannered Business Manager of The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra (KCJO).

KCJO’s December concert sold over 1000 tickets. How? In part by selling about 400 seats through new media, through Groupon.

There’s good and bad to Groupon. A business forgoes substantial cash in the promotion. And businesses debate how many of those deal-chasing customers will return at regular price. Each Groupon is effectively a non-scientific data collection experiment.

But, more importantly, through Groupon, KCJO marketed beyond the core. They marketed beyond the 4000 people who receive every postcard. They reached beyond we old fogies who catch their ads in the newspaper. They reached out to a younger and broader demographic.

So did that younger and broader demographic realize they were buying a ticket to something called (horrors!) jazz?

They were buying a ticket to see The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra.

Yep, I’m fairly certain they knew this was jazz.

Will all return for another show? No. Will there be some level of stickiness? Yes, absolutely.

This was a jazz concert in Kansas City which sold over 1000 tickets. So don’t tell me a jazz concert in Kansas City can’t sell 1000 tickets.

For December, KCJO’s guest was to be Kevin Mahogany (who, unfortunately, couldn’t attend due to an injury). No doubt many came to hear Kevin. He grew up in this area. Kansas Citians know him. But is his appeal inherently broader than a properly-marketed Nnenna Freelon? Of course not.

It’s incumbent on both her management and the presenting theater to make her appeal known. If she really could attract “music lovers of all stripes who appreciate Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, Luther Vandross, Frank Sinatra or Mary J. Blige,” why doesn’t somebody tell them? Why doesn’t somebody market her performance through new media, with links to song snippets and videos where a potential ticket buyer can hear the appeal for himself? Were there advertisements in media where lovers of Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross would hear them? Were there efforts to expose an audience beyond the core to Nnenna Freelon’s music?

Was the marketing geared towards telling the core, hey, guys, we’re having another jazz concert, wanna come? Or did anyone try to market Nnenna Freelon, the Event? Because if it’s the former, don’t plan on needing to accommodate more than 400 people, give or take.

This year’s Rhythm and Ribs Festival drew, by my estimation, 7000 fans. Last year’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival was rained out, but organizers claim the 2010 event attracted a similarly-sized crowd. KCJO sold over 1000 tickets to their December concert. And everyone attending all of those events knew they were predominantly (or completely) jazz.

You could argue that festivals are events and are seen and sold differently than a monthly music series, so my comparison isn’t fair. I’ll argue that you pick concerts in your series that can be sold as events and promote them as events to fill the house. And I’ll argue that nearly every show must be marketed beyond the core audience.

Isn’t a street-definition of stupidity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? There’s nothing stupid about marketing to your core. Never ignore them. Never take them for granted. But if you market only to your core, why would you expect different results? If you market only to your core, why would you expect a larger audience?

Some jazz products will only appeal to that core. Know which those are and don’t spend marketing dollars unwisely. But others will reach more broadly. Recognize them.

The word jazz itself is no super-villain. But never attempting to reach beyond the base? There’s the threat.

Jazz Winterlude 2012

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

On this, I am unabashedly biased.

Because I first worked with Doreen Maronde when I was a volunteer organizing jazz festivals and she was with our partner, Kansas City Parks and Recreation. She left that post for Johnson County Community College (JCCC). She’s since retired from there, but not from organizing jazz festivals. For the third consecutive year, this retiree is organizing Jazz Winterlude. It happens this Friday through Sunday, January 20th through 22nd.

Friday’s music starts a 6 p.m. with the Bill Crain Quartet, followed by Crosscurrent, then headlined by Dave Brubeck’s sons with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet.

Saturday’s music starts at 12:30 p.m. with the Jazz Disciples. Also this day: the Brandon Draper World Jazz Quartet, Lynn Zimmer and the Jazz Band, the Matt Otto Quintet, the Will Matthews Quartet and the Kansas City Brass Quartet. Finally, Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band headline Saturday night.

On Sunday, join a jazz brunch with pianist Roger Wilder leading a trio while you eat.

Friday actually starts early for 250 students participating in daylong clinics. Members of the Brubeck Quartet are hosting four of those sessions. And anyone can come and observe. One of the most intriguing sessions: At 4:30 p.m. Friday, Chris and Dan Brubeck host, Growing Up a Brubeck.

All this takes place inside JCCC’s wonderful Carlsen Center (with attached covered parking). Tickets are available at the Center’s box office, or by calling 913-469-4445, or online here. Any students with a current ID gets in for just $5 each day. More info on the festival is here. The weekend’s schedule is here.

Still don’t believe this will be a great weekend of jazz in Johnson County? Then take a look at the photos below from last year’s fest (clicking on one should open a larger version of it).

Millie Edwards Quartet. Left to right: Michael Pagan on piano, Bob Bowman on bass, Mille Edwards, vocals, Ray DeMarchi on drums

Diverse Trio. Left to right: Hermon Mehari on trumpet. Ben Leifer on bass, Ryan Lee on drums

Bram Wijands

Westport Art Ensemble with Gerald Spaits on bass, Dave Chael on saxophone and Todd Strait on drums (not pictured: pianist Roger Wilder)

Singer Megan Birdsall and saxophonist Steve Lambert with the New Jazz Order Big Band

Kim Park Quartet. Left to right: Joe Cartwirght on piano, Zack Beeson on bass, Kim Park on saxophone, Tommy Ruskin on drums

Hermon Mehari

Bram Wijands Trio. Left to right: Bram Wijnands on piano, Rod Fleeman on guitar, Tommy Rusklin on drums

New Jazz Order Big Band

So You Want to Own a Jazz Club

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It can be done. I’ve done the research. I’ve written the business plan. I’ve prepared a five year budget showing annual profits while projecting less business than experienced consultants said it would draw, because I wouldn’t invest my own money unless the numbers worked with a cushion.

So I know it can be done.

1911 Main started as a jazz club and was gone in a proverbial flash. Jardine’s has been buried in high profile turmoil for most of the last month-and-a-half. That’s it. What more proof do you need that a jazz club cannot survive today in Kansas City? You want to own a jazz club? It would be easier to just throw your cash into a bonfire.

Bull. I know it can be done.

It takes a knowledgeable operator, the right location, solid marketing, sufficient operating capital, and a tight business plan.

I wrote a business plan to open a new jazz club in Kansas City over two years ago. I retained consultants who own and operate successful restaurants and clubs in Kansas City and other markets.

Research revealed two basic operating models for a successful jazz club: Turn the room twice a night with a high cover charge (used by clubs in New York and Seattle, and by Jardine’s on weekends) or open for lunch, not just at night, to generate sufficient revenue.

I found an ideal location within the downtown loop. Four other businesses on the street open for lunch, suggesting meaningful foot traffic. Research identified over 20,000 workers in walking-distance offices. And it was adjacent to two residential areas.

The space could be adapted to the character of a classic jazz club. The address was simple and memorable. Supported by professional operation and marketing, this location could draw music fans for dinner and drink at night and turn a profitable lunch operation during the day. The consultants saw enough potential that they offered to reduce their fees in return for an ownership stake.

Now consider 1911 Main.

I looked at that location. I saw a space that, with some tweaking, could become an ideal jazz club. But minimal weekday foot traffic in an area with less densely-packed offices limited its opportunities. True, other nearby restaurants have established solid daytime business (Grinder’s and the Cashew), but I was concerned it would take an establishment building an identity as a jazz destination too long to match their lunchtime success. More importantly, rent was nearly half again as much as the downtown locale.

I ran the numbers. 1911 Main would have been relatively inexpensive to move into, and that was attractive. But cold analysis said that once open, I could not project sufficient business to support a profitable jazz club there.

1911 Main Restaurant and Lounge, during its short jazz club life, eschewed cover charges and opened for lunch. Its choice of business model was clear. But I'd projected more than two years ago that at that location, that business model would not work.

Add to their woes poor marketing (ads in The Pitch, except during First Friday events, reached the wrong demographic) and start-up pains (twice when dining there I returned silverware covered with water stains) which discouraged business.

Success takes a knowledgeable operator, the right location, solid marketing, sufficient operating capital, and a tight business plan.

The Blue Room was recently recognized as one of the premiere jazz clubs in the country, and deservedly so. Jardines, if rumors are to be believed, will rise again. The Majestic showcases jazz in a space that was once a speakeasy. Take Five is pushing jazz to conquer the suburbs. The Phoenix has morphed into more of a blues bar, but still highlights nights of jazz.

Yet this area will support another jazz club. I’m certain of it.

The right location is one research says will support noontime business. The right operator is one experienced in the service industry, or one who employs operators with never-a-water-stain-on-the-silverware experience (the role my consultants would have fulfilled). The owner will have the capital to operate at least ninety days as he or she builds the business. And that business will be built through word of mouth, sustained with astute marketing, including strategically placed ads and a day-one online and social media presence.

The consultants told me, based on their operational experience, the business my jazz club would do in year one. I reduced their projections by $100,000 and still showed a profit. I then projected four to four-and-a-half percent annual growth and showed investors earning an eighteen percent return on their investment after five years.

Sadly, the recession bit a key investor and the club never happened. The space I targeted is no longer available. I’ve since resumed a career in advertising.

Any new business involves risk. But starting another jazz club in Kansas City, done right, need be no money bonfire. I have a business plan which says so. Other ideal locations exist.

I know it can be done.

In Lieu of 1000 Words: A Metheny Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

This waited two months because Pat was on tour, and his mother insisted it not interrupt work. That’s how she was, he explained.

Lois Metheny was mother to two of Kansas City’s – okay, Lee’s Summit’s – most celebrated musicians, Mike and Pat Metheny. Mike lives in the area (and, as I’ve repeatedly told him, needs to perform more often). Pat you may know from his 18 Grammy awards. Or, you may know Pat from his years growing up here.

Lois encouraged both in their music careers. She passed in October. But one of her last requests was a Celebration of Life jam session and party. As Mike put it, “It was her wish to go out on an upbeat note rather than with a sad funeral, so we are going to make sure it happens that way.”

Two days after Pat finished an 80 city tour, it did.

On December 11th, at the Arrowhead Yacht Club at Lake Winnebago, musicians, family and friends gathered. Mike and Pat led the jam session. Among the other musicians participating were Paul Smith, Bob Bowman, Tommy Ruskin, Gerald Spaits and Marilyn Maye.

Sometimes with jazz, you’re fortunate to be at the right place, right time, and hear something special. When Marilyn Maye and Pat Metheny – who may have won Grammys for more exotic music, but who grew up in Kansas City’s jazz community – performed a vocal and guitar duet, we heard magic.

As afternoon turned to dusk, we stepped outside. Lake Winnebago was a location where Lois asked her ashes be spread. Mike, Pat and Pat’s wife and children walked towards the end of the dock. Red tinged the clouds. The setting sun glazed the lake, beautifully.

Then Pat called out, “We’ve never done this before! We don’t know what we’re doing!”

They figured it out.

Mike suggested I bring my camera. The photos below are from the celebration’s jam session. As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

Pat and Mike Metheny. Mike is playing the E.V.I., or Electronic Valve Instrumement.

The jam session. Left to right: Pat Metheny, Tommy Ruskin, Mike Metheny, Bob Bowman, Paul Smith.

Mike Metheny plays. Behind him is Tommy Ruskin.

Pat Metheny on guitar

Paul Smith on piano

Marilyn Maye and Mike Metheny

Pat and Mike Metheny

Gary Sivils tells the story of teenage Pat’s first professional gig, with Gary’s group at a local lounge. At the right, Pat reacts. I couldn’t possibly retell the story here as well as Gary told it. If you run into Gary, ask him about it.

Bob Bowman on bass as Paul Smith watches

Pat Metheny on guitar and Tommy Ruskin on drums

Pat Metheny and Marilyn Maye duet

Mike Metheny

Pat solos while Mike watches

Lois Metheny’s boys

The Magic Jazz Fairy Sees Skin in the Game

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Instinctively, it flapped its wings in excitement, like a dog shakes its leg when scratched just so.

How many years had it been? it thought. How many years years had it been Kansas City’s Magic Jazz Fairy? Because never in all those years had it seen anything quite like this.

Every city has a Magic Jazz Fairy. It’s a phenomenon we’ve discussed before (here, here and here). How else to explain some jazz club owners never promoting yet expecting customers to show up? It’s because they know every city’s Magic Jazz Fairy tracks when jazz performances will happen, then flies around at night and whispers into the ear of every jazz fan when and where to find jazz, so that when we wake up, we know, we just know.

After all, it cannot be the club owner’s fault if they don’t promote and nobody shows up. They’re savvy businessmen. There must be someone else at fault. If nobody comes, it must be the fault of the Magic Jazz Fairy.

But this time, this was something different. This jazz club usually promoted itself well, though an online calendar, and Facebook postings, and emails. Now, however, nobody was coming because it was a jazz club with no live jazz.

Jazz musicians were boycotting it.

This was something entirely different. The Magic Jazz Fairy’s wings instinctively flapped again.

It had flown by the club just the other day. There were no signs in the windows, no indications of upcoming shows. It looked at the club’s online calendar. The calendar was blank. This club wasn’t promoting because, from all appearances, it had nothing to promote.

The Magic Jazz Fairy had seen the TV news stories on the club. They’re all on YouTube (and, with a major jazz club having nothing to promote, the Magic Jazz Fairy had time on its wings to look at YouTube). It had seen the multitude of blog posts. It had seen the accusations of addiction and abuse. It had seen the stories of staff being fired or quitting or not showing up. Not that how it happened mattered. The bottom line was that, for a time, there was no staff.

The owner spoke when triumphantly reopening the club’s doors, with a newly recruited staff trained and ready to serve. The Magic Jazz Fairy applauded the owner’s promotional savvy in using the press like that. But when reopening turned, apparently, into one week and out, the owner talked betrayal then publicly clammed up.

Betrayal, the owner claimed, by jazz musicians who refused to work the reopened and restaffed jazz club.

The Magic Jazz Fairy had seen the message the owner sent to over seventy email addresses, asking the jazz musicians to return. “It’s a new start for me,” the owner wrote. “If I was rude to anyone, I apologize and I plan on doing this efficiently and with eyes wide open.”

One musician, who played there often, responded to the list, “I’m sorry to say I can no longer support [this club] as a musician or patron. I’ve seen unethical and unprofessional behavior and a downright lack of human decency for years.”

Other musicians echoed those sentiments. Whatever sparked the staff upheaval, sparked much more. And it united Kansas City jazz musicians in a way the Magic Jazz Fairy had not seen in all its years on the job.

The mystical, winged being smiled impishly. It had seen plenty broadcast and written, and deservedly so, on the ex-staff. It had seen plenty written on the club’s owner. Yet it had seen little but betrayal accusations written about the city's jazz musicians.

This was no betrayal, the Magic Jazz fairy knew. There's no abundance of opportunities in any city in 2011 to make money playing and singing jazz. Yet here is a group of extraordinarily talented artists disciplined in denying an invitation to perform, and during the holiday season. These musicians have skin in the game. That, the magic jazz fairy knew, drove credibility to their charges. The mystical being did not know what went on behind the curtain in that jazz club. But it knew many of these musicians, and their united sacrifice said it could believe in them.

The Magic Jazz Fairy didn’t know what would become of the boycotted club. The owner may well be a savvy business person, but not savvy enough to draw customers to a jazz club without live jazz musicians. Selling the club seemed the most hopeful solution. With time, it thought, this situation would work itself out.

Meanwhile, there was work to do. Other jazz clubs remained open and were now even more vital to the jazz scene. And other restaurants and clubs were picking up some of the cancelled shows. Every Kansas City jazz fan needed to know about these opportunities.

The Magic Jazz Fairy smiled broadly. Like a dog scratched in that oh-so-perfect spot, instinctively, it flapped its wings.

KC Jazz for Christmas, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

Myra Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

This is what I meant.

Myra Taylor: Born in Bonner Springs, Kansas, but raised, for all practical purposes, around 18th and Vine. She hobnobbed with Bennie Moten and Count Basie, with Lester Young and Charlie Parker. She recorded with Harlan Leonard’s Rockets, one of KC’s renowned big bands. She traveled the world and sang, by her own description, swing learned in Kansas City.

In the 1990s, Myra returned here, and with the Wild Women of KC was part of one of the most vivacious and funnest groups we Kansas City jazz fans have had the delight to enjoy. Myra sang swing learned when Kansas City jazz masters dominated the music. Then others learned from her.

This is what I meant when I wrote last week that in Kansas City, we have a jazz culture and tradition, which even today is passed from one extraordinary musician to the next.

Friday, one of our last links to Kansas City’s jazz origins, the wonderful Myra Taylor, passed at age 94. What she gave us cannot be replaced, but neither can it be forgotten. So today, let’s remember Myra with two sets of photos.

The first is from the fall of 2003, when the US Park Service unveiled the plaque on the front of the Mutual Musicians Foundation designating it a National Historic Landmark. Outside of the Foundation that day, Chuck Haddix from UMKC’s Marr Sound Archives gave Myra copies of publicity photos from her younger days which she was obviously thrilled to see.

The second set is from February 27th of last year, when I photographed the Wild Women of Kansas City playing The Blue Room, celebrating Myra’s 93rd birthday. Some photos from that night were featured in a previous post (here). But here’s a few additional shots taken of the night's star (clicking on a photo should open a larger version).

Myra Taylor and young Myra Taylor

Presenting the photos to a delighted Myra

Myra with another young Myra

When the US Park Service unveiled the plaque designating the Mutual Musicians Foundation a National Historic Landmark, Myra Taylor was in the front row.

February, 2010 at The Blue Room, with 93-year young – and young is the right word – Myra Taylor sings with the Wild Women of Kansas City

We all applauded Myra

We'll miss you, Myra Taylor

Clubs in Transition

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Restaurant leases typically contain a clause allowing them to not pay rent for any days they’re closed due to repairs needed to the landlord’s property. That’s why, when a restaurant closes and the business owner is still liable for lease payments, it’s not uncommon for the restaurant to post a sign saying it is closed for repairs.

Jardine’s, arguably Kansas City’s premier jazz club for two decades, has a sign posted in its front window which reads, Closed for Repairs. Internet chatter says the staff was laid off last week.

Meanwhile, in New York City, a renowned jazz club has changed formats. The Iridium is where electric guitar pioneer Les Paul played each Monday night. But it’s also a jazz institution, where Harry “Sweets” Edison, Frank Wess, Clark Terry and Junior Mance recorded a live CD in 1997, and where an Art Blakey alumni group recorded in 1998.

A November 12th New York Times article, here, describes the Iridium’s transition “into a guitar Mecca:”

“The club’s new emphasis becomes obvious from the moment you walk in. A score of electric guitars are displayed on the walls, some in glass cases. all signed by famous musicians: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Tom Petty, Steve Miller.”

The article explains, “These are difficult times for jazz clubs, as shrinking audiences and an aging clientele make it harder to stay in business. The steps the Iridium has taken mirror the moves that jazz labels like Verve and Blue Note have made over the last decade to remain profitable, putting more pop musicians on their rosters to subsidize jazz recordings.”

So I guess that’s it. Will the last aging clientele to leave a repair-bound jazz club turn out the lights?

But first, consider this:

On October 29th, Kansas City jazz trumpeter Hermon Mehari and a group of musicians filled the Record Bar with 20-somethings for a tribute to Michael Jackson. The show mixed jazz and pop to the thrill of a large, youthful crowd.

And pianist Mark Lowrey fuses jazz with hip-hop at the Record Bar on the 21st of this month. Hip Hop may not appeal to me, but it doesn’t need to. I’m part of the aging clientele. Mark will be exposing the music to an audience packed with the next generation of clientele.

Kansas City’s spectacular young jazz musicians are reaching out to a broader base through jazz plus something shows. They’re expanding the music and its reach. They’re growing jazz.

Not that my generation is ready for lights out. The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra sold over 200 deals on Groupon for this Friday’s show. Considering that most of those were for multiple tickets, it’s a terrific new-media response for a 1000-seat house (and far better than I predicted they’d do. Sometimes, I’m thrilled to be wrong).

Also, before reaching for the light switch, take look around town (and at recent blog posts). Kansas City is home to two new jazz venues, 1911 Main and Take Five Coffee + Bar. That’s not enough locations to showcase all of the talent bursting this city’s jazz seams. But it’s not lights out.

A couple months ago, I was in Toronto, Canada, a huge metropolitan area with an all-jazz radio station. On Friday night, I went looking for jazz. I found a downtown club, with an atmosphere similar to Jardine’s. Before the band started, background music included Basie, “Lockjaw” Davis and Big Joe Turner. I felt right at home.

The night’s live band was one that plays the club every weekend. They were enthusiastic, rattling through standards and jazz-infused R & B, not unlike what City Light Orchestra once played. But this was not the quality of jazz you’ll hear in Kansas City. It wasn't close. The pianist pounded the keys like a pugilist. The trumpeter soloed with more subtlety, but lacked the sophistication of a Stan Kessler or a Hermon Mehari.

The difference, I suspect, lies with Kansas City’s jazz tradition and culture, and the lessons handed down from one extraordinary musician to the next. I still remember, years ago, a young guitarist describing a technique Claude “Fiddler” Williams taught him, with “Fiddler” adding, “I taught that to Barney Kessel.”

I don’t know that one band heard one night was typical of Toronto. I don’t know Toronto’s jazz culture. But I question whether the city is home to jazz masters passing on their knowledge and support to the next budding jazz master, like Kansas City.

A jazz culture thrives here.

I don’t know Jardine’s situation. I sincerely hope the club reopens, and soon. And let’s not forget that in recent years both The Phoenix and The Majestic reopened, under new ownership, after closing. This city has a history of jazz club revivals.

But what if Jardine’s is done? We have weekends at the Mutual Musicians Foundation. The Blue Room and The Majestic remain. Two other new venues are already open. Young jazz musicians are enticing their generation.

This may be a time of transition.

Because restaurants and clubs post a Closed for Repairs sign more often on advice of attorney than because they’re closed for repairs.

They're Listening to Jazz in the Suburbs

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

You drive up, and on one side you pass Zenail and Spa, and His and Her Fitness. On the other side is Nevaeh Salon. Admit it, this strip center is as suburban Johnson County as it gets.

Inside, on a Friday night, the crowd fills every seat. Folding chairs have been set up, but they’re not enough. Some people stand, leaning against a counter or a wall. They range in age from grade school to the gray haired. This crowd is as suburban Johnson County as it gets.

Take Five Coffee + Bar last Saturday night

Except they’re listening to jazz. Stan Kessler and Joe Cartwright are on stage. The audience is not talking, there are not thirty conversations competing with the music. Instead, music fills the room, packed with people who are listening to jazz.

In a coffee house. In suburban Johnson County.

Matt Otto, Jeff Harshbarger and Michael Warren perform

This is one of the Kansas City area’s new jazz venues, Take Five Coffee + Bar, in the strip center at the northeast corner of 151st and Nall in Leawood, Kansas. That’s right, in Leawood. Which is as suburban Johnson County as it gets.

In the quarter century I’ve been listening to jazz in Kansas City, I’ve seen Johnson County jazz clubs come and go. I long ago concluded that jazz doesn’t work in Johnson County. People don’t move to the suburbs looking to slum a little urban grittiness at a juke joint down the street. That – at the risk of unfairly generalizing – is what most Johnson Countians think the city is for.

Matt Otto and Jeff Harshbarger

The thought of jazz in a quiet coffee shop, where customers come earlier in the day for muffins and cappuccino, but which also serves wine (and Coke to those grade schoolers) and stays open long past your Starbucks-on-every-corner, never occurred to me. I equated jazz with urban grittiness, and Kansas City’s jazz clubs delivered.

So credit Take Five owner Lori Chandler for pursuing a different vision and, based on the recent packed house, one which appears to be taking hold in Johnson County. Credit her for opening a clean, suburban room, with some plush easy chairs and a fireplace, tables on which to set your latte or wine, carpeting, and angled beams which contribute to an acoustically wonderful space.

Jeff Harshbarger and Michael Warren

On Saturday night the crowd was a bit smaller, and some high schoolers talked through the first set. But the space seemed to swallow that conversation. leaving the music clear. I sat in one of the easy chairs – which can also swallow you – listening to Matt Otto on tenor sax, Jeff Harshbarger on bass and Michael Warren on drums. These aren’t just some of the best musicians in Kansas City. These are among the best musicians playing jazz in 2011, anywhere. I’ve heard them before, in town, at Jardine’s and The Blue Room. Matt and Jeff will be part of The People’s Liberation Big Band at The Record Bar next Sunday, in Westport. This isn’t take-it-easy-on-the-suburban-neophytes jazz. This is jazz normally served with a slice of urban grittiness. But tonight, it’s in your uncle’s living room where you can savor every unamplified bass note.

(Jeff unpacked his amplifier for the second set. It wasn't needed.)

Matt, Jeff and Michael in Take Five

Well, it’s not exactly like a jazz band in your living room. Your living room doesn’t have floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on Eye Associates or Banana Island or a Walgreen’s drive-through. But it’s a more intimate setting than a typical jazz club, and it eventually pulls in everyone. By the second set, the high schoolers were no longer conversing, Most sat facing the band, listening, and applauding magnificent solos.

They’re listening to jazz in the suburbs.

Take Five Coffee + Bar

A Look Back at Some Festival Tales

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Being out of town on business all of last week meant not just that I missed hearing some of my favorite live Kansas City jazz, but that I ran out of time to write a new blog post (actually, I sat at my computer Sunday night to write, but instead fell asleep. A failure of mind over rather tired matter).

So instead today, let's look back. During the first year of this blog, I wrote a series titled Festival Tales, recounting snippets and stories from my days as an organizer of the Kansas City Jazz Festival and as chairman of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, through much of the 1980s. Those posts are never looked at anymore, and more people read this blog now than did then, so odds are good that you've never seen these posts. Odds are even better that you don't remember them if you did.

Below, then, is a rerun, the first Festival Tales post, from September, 2009.

*****

While Jazz Commission chair, I helped the coordinator of the 18th and Vine Festival, then a free outdoor music fest held each September (and a separate event from the much larger Kansas City Jazz Festival).

At that time the Kansas City Star published crowd estimates provided by professionals, such as the police. Previously, they printed numbers festival organizers quoted, until it became apparent we organizers might, um, exaggerate a bit (or a lot).

One year, as the 18th and Vine Festival wound down on a Sunday evening, several of us gathered around a concession stand and chatted. We agreed among ourselves about 5000 people had passed through the event that weekend. A few police officers, assisting with security, walked by. We asked if they might like some hot dogs and soft drinks. The hot dogs would just be discarded anyway, we told them, so they took us up on the offer. They thanked us, adding those were a good end to a long day. Then the officer in charge asked, so what do you want the weekend crowd estimate to be? 20,000? Sure, we said, 20,000 sounded good.

And that’s how (then, anyway) published crowd estimates were derived.

*****

Festivals are funded by corporate sponsorships, foundation grants and concession sales. At the Kansas City Jazz Festival, we sometimes joked that we might make more money if we gave away the beer and charged for the Porta-Johns. That is, until the year a Porta-John tipped over with someone in it.

The patron was drunk. He stepped into a Porta-John and swayed back and forth. It was an end unit. He continued to sway. He swayed until tthe unit fell on its side to the ground.

Inside, the disoriented drunk couldn’t figure out where the door went.

*****

Today, the Kansas City Star has knowledgeable writers covering jazz, like Joe Klopus and Steve Paul. That wasn’t always the case. Such as when our 1985 headliner was the Modern Jazz Quartet and The Star’s reviewer compared them to Muzak.

But we needed The Star to help publicize an event with a meager marketing budget. So at times we endured a love-hate relationship with the newspaper.

By the 1990s I had stepped away from organizing the festival, and the event had merged with the blues fest to create something much larger. I still attended each year. One of those years, the Star’s then jazz writer (who has long since left town) published an article critical of the festival’s talent lineup. After the event, I wrote a letter, which the Star printed, praising the organizers on what was an exceptionally well produced event that year, even in the face of critics who didn’t understand the limitations of talent availability and budgets.

The next year, I was walking through the festival grounds when a mutual friend stopped and introduced me to the Star’s jazz writer. When he heard my name, the writer pointed a finger at me and exclaimed (all these years later, this isn’t really an exact quote), You! You’re the one who wrote the letter! I heard from so many people on that article! But you didn’t get my point! Nobody got the point!

Now, it seems to me that if nobody got his point, he didn’t express it very well.

But more importantly, to find out that my letter had caused that writer so much grief, and that a year later it still bothered him, felt wonderful.

That remains one of my favorite days at a jazz festival.

*****

The year the Modern Jazz Quartet headlined, I learned to refer to them as the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet. Milt Jackson told me. But that’s a story for another blog post.

This 'n That 'n More Festival Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

When establishing a location for the Kansas City Jazz Festival in the early 1980s, organizers chose the south lawn of the Nelson Museum – back when it was controlled by the Parks Department and before it was landscaped – and Volker Park, also known as Theis Memorial Mall, immediately south of the Museum. They were chosen, in part, with the hope of presenting a jazz festival in a setting which would draw both Kansas City’s black and white populations. It was a good location.

Later, the jazz festival merged with the blues festival and moved to the more multiple-stage accommodating Penn Valley Park. That was another good and neutral location.

Two weeks ago I wrote about perceptions of 18th and Vine and how they impact the Rhythm and Ribs Jazz and Blues Festival. It drew several comments, all of which are greatly appreciated.

To clarify a few points:

• I don’t accept that racism, with rare exceptions, plays into suburban residents staying away from 18th and Vine. It’s an undeserved perception of danger, an image which has plagued the district for decades, which scares potential patrons away. The failure to overcome that image both frustrates and angers me.

• One commentator noted people not wanting to venture into the areas surrounding 18th and Vine. That’s a valid point.

When I was chairman of the Kansas City Jazz Commission, in the mid to late 1980s, the Executive Director of the Black Economic Union showed me extensive blueprint plans for renovating the jazz district. Most of it was not what was eventually built (though some of the since-constructed housing was there).

My reaction at the time was that these were plans for an oasis surrounded by blight. You could not, I said more than 25 years ago, expect people to come to this jazz mecca if they had to pass through neighborhoods which were then far more uninviting and intimidating than what surrounds 18th and Vine today.

The Executive Director agreed and assured me that renovation would grow beyond what I saw in those blueprints. But that’s never happened. As the Crossroads area has extended east – at one point including a performance space at 18th and Troost, which was featured in a story on KCUR – I hoped the uninviting neighborhoods would be bridged. But that, too, has never happened.

• Also noted was a desire for a jazz festival in a neutral site, no doubt remembering the ones described in the opening of this post.

One commentator is right in noting that parking around 18th and Vine for this year’s Rhythm and Ribs was a challenge. I was frustrated to see most of the known lots blocked off for use by, it seemed, anyone but me. I wound up parking in the VIP lot, on the west side of Paseo, not because I’m a VIP, but because I saw spaces available and nobody standing guard to tell me I couldn’t.

The parks of the old festivals held advantages. But the fact is that in the 21st century, nobody is staging a jazz festival on those sites. Nobody is organizing volunteers, or raising money, or pulling in Kansas City’s civic structure, to stage a jazz festival in Volker Park or in Penn Valley Park. Instead, Kansas City’s civic community has coalesced its resources behind a jazz festival at 18th and Vine.

Look for a moment at the 2007 Rhythm and Ribs Festival. All of Parade Park was fenced off. Headliners included Al Jarreau, George Benson, Pat Metheny and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Unless B.B. King was added, I don’t know how you could come up with a more stellar, all-star lineup for a jazz and blues festival in this century. The space, the star power, everything was in place for a breakout event. I don’t know how that festival drew or how it fared financially. But the fact that two years later there was no festival, and it subsequently returned downsized to accommodate around 7000 people, suggests much.

A person with the proper pull could conceivably walk into Kansas City’s civic structure and use that example to suggest the city would be better served by a jazz festival in Penn Valley Park. But that person had best come prepared with a plan, the organization, and the backing to make the event happen. And that person had best come prepared to counter the participants favoring an 18th and Vine location, participants who this year hit their stride in producing an excellent event.

I don’t see that happening. I’m not suggesting it should. The fact is, this city’s major jazz festival is taking place, for the foreseeable future, at 18th and Vine. I maintain the challenge to overcome is how to draw more people to the area.

*****

When the Mutual Musicians Foundation introduced Kansas City wine last August (here), also introduced was a 2012 Charlie Parker calendar. Each month showcases a photo of the great Kansas City-born alto saxophonist, ranging from age 14 months to a clipping of his funeral notice. In between are ubiquitous photos you’ll recognize – Bird with Jay McShann’s band – and some I haven’t seen, such as one of Parker performing in Birdland with Lester Young and Hot Lips Page.

The Charlie Parker 2012 Calendar is available for $10.00 plus $2.50 shipping from SPG Publications, 1146 Harrison Street, Kansas City, MO 64106, or by phoning 816-842-9068, or by emailing design@serviceprintingonline.com.

Two New Jazz Spots in Town

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:30:00 +0000

I remember the old days, when each bi-monthly issue of Jazz Ambassador Magazine profiled a different Kansas City jazz club.

It’s been a long time since the publication could do that.

Since long before I started this blog, Kansas City has been home to three jazz clubs: Jardine’s, The Blue Room and The Majestic. Four jazz clubs if you count The Phoenix, though that bar has mostly veered towards the blues. The Phoenix apparently decided a fourth club in KC couldn’t survive on jazz.

Two new jazz spots beg to differ. And they’re doing it wonderfully.

1911 Main is both name and address of KC’s newest jazz restaurant and club. In the space once known as Bar Natasha, a semi-circular stage pushes musicians forward among listeners and diners, letting their music fill the room.

On my first visit, a Monday with few in the audience, the room’s abundance of hard surfaces (concrete floor, brick walls) presented the music with a harsh edge.

But last Saturday night the space was filled with people and the sound differed, not harsh but excitingly full and alive. Last Saturday night, Matt Otto’s tenor sax, nearly always played with perfect tone, sounded as smooth yet crisp and precise as I’ve heard it. Backed by T.J. Martley on piano, Ben Leifer on bass and Brian Steever on drums, and playing standards and some of Matt’s more accessible compositions, this group in this space was a genuine jazz delight.

And the music could be clearly heard and enjoyed despite a chattering full house. No series of overhead speakers is needed here to carry the sound. No speaker volume needs to be cranked to enjoy jazz over the crowd.

There’s no cover charge. Food is a fraction of the price of its restaurant-and-jazz-club competition 25 blocks down Main Street, maintaining a quality and consistency – everything is served hot! What a novel concept for a jazz club! – those of us who have dined repeatedly at that competition have long dreamed of experiencing with our jazz.

If 1911 Main had a weak spot, until recently it’s been promotion and an easy way to discover just who is playing there each night. But a new website at www.1911main.com tells you everything you need to know. Their online calendar is now linked at the right of this blog. And a recent Groupon promotion found over 820 buyers (excellent results for a new and largely not-yet-known establishment). Given that each of those Groupons was for two or four diners, there’s more than 1600 people ready to discover the new jazz kid on Main Street.

Excellent jazz. Good sound. Good food. Reasonable prices. No cover charge. Ample parking (in a lot at 20th and Walnut, connected by an alley). What more could you want?

How about another outstanding jazz spot, this one in the southern reaches of suburban Johnson County?

Walk into Take Five Coffee and Bar, in the strip mall at the northeast corner of 151st Street and Nall, and you’ll first notice posters of Ella, of Lady Day, of Bird and Diz and Pops. This place is obviously owned by a jazz lover.

Then check out the November calendar posted prominently by the door: Rich Wheeler Quartet, Killer Strayhorn, 9plus1 (every other Monday), Stan Kessler. Matt Otto will be here, too, with a different group, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

There’s a lineup to compete with any music space in KC.

But in a coffee shop (where, let’s note, they serve an outstanding cappuccino)? No worry. They offer some excellent wine, too.

Even more importantly, owner Lori Chandler may have hit on the right formula for presenting nightly jazz in Johnson County. Over the years, I’ve seen jazz bars in this suburb come and go. But here is a relaxing atmosphere, where someone may be reading a Kindle while enjoying wine with his live jazz. Quiet talk by patrons serves as a unique contrast to the more bombastic atmospheres in town. Meanwhile, angled ceilings capture and reflect back the music with exceptional clarity and presence.

If you want a meal and a Scotch with your jazz, I know of a couple of places on Main Street to direct you towards. But if your wish is for a more genteel environment to savor exceptional music (and maybe a Kindle), welcome to the suburbs. This is a different but no less wonderful setting for enjoying jazz.

The schedule is not just available on the chalk board by the front door. Check out the excellent web site at www.takefivecoffeebar.com which includes that monthly lineup, now linked at the right of this blog.

Two new Kansas City jazz spots serving live music four to six nights a week…Y’know, I’m not sure it’s possible to write a better blog post than this.

Ugly Division

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:30:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:33:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:26:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:29:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:29:00 +0000

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

Hootie, Buddy, Sweets, Al, Gus, Major and Almost Cleanhead

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:30:00 +0000

August 24, 1986 – it was a Sunday night – The Kansas City Jazz Festival, on a stage at the south end of Volker Park, presented its finale: Jay McShann with Buddy Tate, Harry Edison, Al Grey, Gus Johnson and Major Holley. I was one of the festival organizers back then. The show lasted two hours. About an hour and a half in, tired at the end of a weekend-long event, our sound man asked me to signal the group to end. I told him I couldn’t do that. He turned, angry, and walked off (he later apologized). I continued listening to some incredible Kansas City jazz.

Twenty five years ago I and maybe 20,000 other people (we said it was more, but that’s what you do at festivals), heard a wonderful concert. One of Jay’s daughters told me she played a tape of the concert to him late in his life, and he teared up, because the music sounded so special, and everyone on the tape except him was, by that time, gone. She said she asked him to put together another group like that, one more time. She said he told her he couldn’t, it was more work than he could take on at that stage of his life and, besides, there weren’t enough musicians left who could play like that.

During the first year of this blog, I wrote a series titled, Festival Tales where I recalled stories from my days of organizing the Kansas City Jazz Festival. Nobody looks at those old posts, and odds are you never saw the one with the background on this concert. So, from 2009, my first re-post, on the jazz festival Kansas City celebrated 25 years ago this week.

Plus, at the end, something old and new.

*****

The 1986 festival headlined KC legend Jay “Hootie” McShann. We asked Jay to choose anyone – anyone – with whom he’d like to perform and told him we would try to book them. His choices: Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis on tenor sax, Buddy Tate also on tenor, Harry “Sweets" Edison on trumpet, Al Grey on trombone, Milt Hinton on bass and Gus Johnson on drums.

Milt was in Japan for the summer and unavailable, so Jay chose Major Holley instead. “Lockjaw” was too ill to perform (he would pass away, from cancer, a couple months after the festival). We suggested Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson on alto sax as a replacement, and Jay agreed. But “Cleanhead” was already scheduled in San Francisco that night and couldn’t break the engagement. So we settled on a group without the additional horn.

But there was one more complication: Buddy, “Sweets”, Al and Gus were booked in Europe (Belgium, if I remember correctly) in another festival that same weekend. Nonetheless, they wanted to play Kansas City, too.

Gus left the other festival a day early, deciding he needed a little rest between shows. But Buddy, “Sweets” and Al played the complete overseas event. They then traveled for over 30 continuous hours, sleeping on flights, and were in Kansas City for only about five hours before climbing the steps to our stage.

Al Grey was making arrangements for the group. Frankly, we were not paying these jazz icons all that much. One day, our contact asked Al why he, Buddy and “Sweets,” all in their 60s or 70s at the time, were putting themselves through such tortuous travel. It sure wasn’t for the money. They didn’t need our gig. They had more leisurely return plans in place before we called. So why do this? Why put themselves through this sleep-deprived travel hell?

Answered Al: “It’s a chance to play with Hootie! We’d never turn down a chance to play with Hootie!”

*****

Friends with a tape recorder were in the audience at that performance. I’ve since digitized the tape and keep mp3s of it among the music on my phone. From time to time, I’ll listen to the concert again.

“Sweets” Edison is clearly tired. Buddy Tate is good and at some moments great. The others are consistently amazing. The way Jay drives the group and the way Al Grey and Major Holley, in particular, respond is Kansas City jazz at its best. It’s pure fun, a joyous reminder of why I love this music.

On the final number, Buddy and Al unexpectedly sing: “She got it, she keeps it, she sits right on it, she just won’t give it away / Anybody get it sure has got to pay!” Then the music transitions into a One O’Clock Jump tribute to Count Basie, who had died two years earlier. It's music that makes me smile. It's music that will make anyone smile.

(One tip from our sound man: The best place to record a festival is in front of the mixing tower, because that’s where the music is being adjusted to sound its best.)

*****

The next January, “Cleanhead” Vinson called us. He was booking his schedule for the coming year and wanted to know if we were putting together the same group for that year’s festival. Because if we were, he would leave the date open.

He did not want to miss another chance to play with Hootie.

*****

The original post ended with an anecdote from the next year's festival. Instead, let's end this one with music.

Below is an embed from YouTube of the music from that final number described above. Unless you were at the festival, or unless you're one of the few folks who has heard the concert recording, this Kansas City jazz is new to you. If you were at the festival, here's 15 minutes you loved 25 years ago this week.

Prepare to smile.