kcjazzlark

The Museum Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 04 Jul 2016 14:00:00 +0000

For the past month this blog has reprinted articles from the thirtieth anniversary issue of Jam magazine. I’ve done that because long after the printed copies – available free all over town – are filed in closets and trash cans, these stories will show up in Google searches, something less likely to happen to the PDF available for download (here).

The issue asks, what is the future of jazz in Kansas City. This week, the is last excerpt, with the views of Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner, the new executive director of the American Jazz Museum.

*****

Next year, Kansas City is getting a major new free admission jazz festival.

Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner, the still-new Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum explains:

“We are launching the Kansas City Jazz Festival. It will start on Memorial Day weekend, 2017. It will be a collaborative effort with various organizations to launch something huge. We will bring artists from out of town but we also want to elevate Kansas City jazz and Kansas City music and made in Kansas City. The festival is about celebrating our own brand. I want it to be a legacy for generations to come. I want it to be something that families prepare to go to every year.

“There are a lot of jazz festivals that happen all over the world in major cities. People who love jazz go to these festivals, a lot of them. I want our festival to be one where people say, I must be in Kansas City for the Kansas City Jazz Festival.”

Those are mighty lofty goals for someone who has been on the job just a few months.

But nobody who has met Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner doubts that she will pull it off, including the mayor (as you can read in his interview in this issue). She inspires that confidence.

The Mutual Musicians Foundation is the most historic and revered building in Kansas City jazz. But the American Jazz Museum is the elephant in the jazz room. It’s where the most programs, education initiatives, a major club, a major festival – and, oh yeah, a museum – begin.

For starters, out of the $27.6 million bond issue proposed for the 18th and Vine district, over $2 million is targeted for the museum.

Some of those funds will go towards reimagining the Blue Room including, Kositany-Buckner says, “the furniture, the look and feel, the ambiance and the food issue. That has really been a challenge for us, not having food in the Blue Room. Audiences sometimes leave to go seek food somewhere else.

“Our sound equipment is old. I tell people that we are an organization that deals with sound. We need to have state of the art technology to stream music, to allow people to connect to the live music going on in the Blue Room. The entire experience, I think, will change.”

Other plans, Kositany-Buickner says, “will allow us to create a new feel when walking into the jazz museum. Having the ability to experience jazz when you come in there, whether it’s through exhibits or music or performance or different kinds of activities.”

She turned towards the museum atrium. “We plan to increase our public programming. We are bringing in artists who have written books about jazz musicians. The Gem at 500 seats is sometimes too much for some of the activities we want to do. We use the space now for jazz storytelling. Every First Friday we have over 250 kids in the atrium.

“There are people in the community who come into that space to meet. It’s a community room.”

Plans are already proceeding for exhibits.

“There will be a number of changing exhibits,” Kositany-Buckner said. “There are going to be major exhibits that will be in place for three months. That will mostly include art with the theme of jazz or African American culture. One of the visions that I have is for the jazz museum at 18th and Vine to be the place where quality art is presented east of Troost.

“The other part of the temporary exhibits are going to be mostly historical, looking at what is in our collections and building temporary exhibits out of that. They may be themed exhibits. For example, we have wonderful gowns from jazz musicians. We’d love to do an exhibit of all of those gowns. We have some of the Duke Ellington collection. We’d like to do an exhibit on that. I met with the Marr Sound Archives, with Chuck [Haddix], on a partnership to show some of the collections they have as temporary exhibits. Those could be up for a month.

“We’re also thinking about traveling exhibits. The idea is that some of the historical exhibits, we would build and launch them here. After that, we would be sending them out. After all, we are the American Jazz Museum. Our boundaries are not just Kansas City. It’s the world.”

Kositany-Buckner’s optimism is infectious. But at the same time, she understands the reality of how Kansas City’s jazz district is often seen locally.

“Part of the challenge that we have is a perception issue,” she explained. “There is a lot going on. Jazz storytelling was in place before I came here. Thousands of kids come through those doors for tours day and night. The Blue Room is jamming four nights each week. The Jammin’ at the Gem series is selling out. There is a perception that nothing is going on but something is going on. Part of the community has embraced 18th and Vine but the larger community has not. As we infuse the funding into 18th and Vine, we want to start a another conversation on changing that perception.

I’ll give you an example. Two months ago, a couple walks in here. Staff started talking to them. They’re from Norway. Because of the centennial of [the birthday of] Jay McShann, they skipped every city in the United States, everywhere, and landed in Kansas City to find out more about Jay McShann. They were excited about the museum and being in the vicinity where jazz was created. You should have seen them.

“We get people from all over the nation and all over the world and they love it. But Kansas City says, nothing is happening there. Something has to change.”

The district is starting to work cohesively. They are participating in First Fridays, the Crossroads street celebration, establishing the area as an eastern anchor.

“For First Friday, everybody was at the table. We all came together and said we want to do this. We’re excited. We feel it was successful. All of the businesses and the cultural institutions from the district sat down and planned that First Friday.

“So I know we can do it.”

The Musicians’ View

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 14:00:00 +0000

In assembling the latest Jam – celebrating 30 years of the magazine with the question, what is the future of jazz in Kansas City – capturing the views of musicians was critical. I chose to include one who has been part of the KC scene for over a quarter century and one who is relatively new.

The June/July Jam can be picked up (free!) all over town or can be downloaded as a PDF here. Or you can read the interview with Mayor James, the views of club managers, and the views of educators in the last few posts. Next week, excerpts will conclude with the article quoting the executive director of the American Jazz Museum. This week, here's the issue’s articles with the views of Hermon Mehari and Angela Hagenbach.

*****

On August 28, 2009, the line to get into the Blue Room ran out the door and threatened to circle the block. Inside, Diverse was releasing their CD. The group, comprised mostly of UMKC jazz studies students, had won the Gene Harris Jazz Competition in June, 2008.

That night was when many in Kansas City recognized something special was happening in the jazz scene here. Some already knew. But others now understood that these young musicians brought special talent.

Hermon Mehari, a member of Diverse, remembers.

“It was a catalyst for original music in jazz. We were all pretty much working at that time individually. I feel like everyone from the get-go, all the players at UMKC, were immediately on the scene. Especially by 2009 I was being hired.

“During the competition I remember there was a lot of buzz about Diverse. Anything that gives Kansas City notoriety and the national spotlight, people around here get excited about.

“There wasn’t really a scene of young musicians with committed groups at the time, and especially committed groups playing original music. Now there’s a lot of that going on.”

Today, Mehari stands as a prime example of a young musician building a career in jazz in Kansas City in the 21st century.

“There’s a lot of potential to work here,” says Mehari, who moved to Kansas City to attend UMKC in 2006. “I’ve only seen ten years of it, but I feel like the scene here has always worked out in some way or another. It has its ups and downs but I think it’s on an upward trajectory in general, especially recently. If more players came here, it would be in concert with what I think is a growing younger audience. And I’m sure there’s going to be more venues opening up, and other places that maybe don’t have jazz yet will start having jazz.

“There’s enough work here. With the closing of Broadway Jazz Club and Take Five, the only thing that’s become more difficult is when I hear from people from out of town who want to come to Kansas City and play. That’s limited. One thing that has been a little more difficult is to accommodate touring musicians.”

Mehari has played a key role in enticing other outstanding jazz talent to move here and make Kansas City their base. He explains, “I kind of ushered in guys like Peter Schlamb, Karl McComas-Reichl and John Kizilarmut, who are incredible players who are not only part of the scene, they’re helping to push the scene. It means a lot that players like that would live here. It’s a testament to our scene. They love it. Those are guys who are also doing stuff outside of Kansas City on a regular basis. And all of that stuff is cool because it reflects on Kansas City.

“Peter and I have taken an initiative to start trying to bring people through here. I would never say that at the beginning the purpose is, hey, do you want to move here? It’s, let’s play. Then the love comes. I’ve brought Tony Trixier, who’s in Diverse now, maybe four times in the past four or five years. Recently Ben Van Gelder has come through a couple times. Travis Reuter, the guitar player, has partially moved here. Those guys talk about this place and all of a sudden young musicians in other cities are talking about Kansas City.”

But is Kansas City an environment that demands a musician plays more traditional jazz?

“It does in gigs like the Majestic,” Mehari says. “You’re mostly playing standards and swing. But with the Electric Tinks I play with Peter, we play First Fridays at the Green Lady, and it’s great. All original music and all electric music and it’s all top-notch players. I have liberty when I go to the Blue Room, I can do creatively what I want. And if I want to do the crossover stuff, I’m always open to play at clubs like the Record Bar or the Riot Room.

“It’s a balance. You can’t gig exclusively on the local scene playing just creative music. You can’t make a living. It’s impossible. If my income was solely based on playing Electric Tinks, and Peter was trying to book it as much as possible, it wouldn’t happen. But that’s the great thing about jazz musicians, we are very versatile. It’s important that we know the tradition anyway. We all love the traditions. We play all of the old stuff and we put our spin on the old stuff, too. It’s not just rehashing it in museum-type ways. It’s bringing life to it. And we have the original, creative stuff, too.”

Mehari and his peers find Kansas City to be a good base.

“We talk about this a lot with my peers and we feel strongly about this. We feel like it’s a great scene and it’s a growing scene. It’s an affordable city. It’s a city with a lot of culture and unique things. And it’s a great community which makes it very appealing to musicians.”

Appealing enough for young musicians to continue joining Kansas City’s jazz scene?

“I think it’s going to keep happening.”

*****

Last year, vocalist Angela Hagenbach marked 25 years on Kansas City’s jazz scene.

“My first steady gig was at the Ritz Carlton,” she remembers. “It was up in the ballroom. I played with Russ Long and Milt Abel [later, Gerald Spaits] and Ray DeMarchi. That was four nights a week for about four years. That’s where I honed my craft. It was wonderful because it was very glamorous and I was still modeling at the time. I got to wear gowns four nights a week, which was a model’s dream.”

At the time, Hagenbach says, “There were lots of festivals and lots of places to play. Someone like me could work seven nights a week if I wanted to, and several gigs a day. Through my work at The Ritz I got tons and tons of country club and private events which were very lucrative, and a lot times they were off nights. It really was great to bolster my income and broaden my fan base.”

But a singer today may find the opportunities more sparse.

“If they solely want to perform,” Hagenbach muses, “that could be a challenge. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of venues for vocals. It used to be vocal-heavy. But now it seems to be more instrumentally-heavy.

“One has to be creative if there’s not enough clubs available by thinking outside the box. Find a void and fill it. We need to have music here and I’m your girl. For example, I once started the luncheon at the Majestic because I wanted to do an earlier show on Wednesdays. I needed to work while my children were at school. I did that at a couple of places.”

And 25 years later, the pay has changed.

“It’s gotten worse,” Hagenbach maintains. “It’s homogenized. This is what everybody gets. If you want to take a leader fee, then everyone else is going to get less. I have a problem with that. It used to be, you would set your rate based on your ability to bring in a fan base and then you pay your guys a decent wage and you take a leader fee. There’s so much that a leader does in addition to perform. You get the gigs, promote the gigs, do the 1099, do the payroll. To me, that’s worth something. In a lot places, I had to even provide the sound system. That shouldn’t be free.”

Hagenbach is concerned about opportunities for veteran musicians.

“This is a city that has an abundance of talent. It’s startling how much there is. There’s people moving to town and these young people that are coming out of Bobby [Watson]’s program are very high quality players. It’s great that they’re going out and keeping the music alive.

“But on the same hand, the older musicians and the people in the middle have to remain viable. They have to keep the jazz community vibrant. There’s not as many opportunities for the older ones because it seems as though there’s a large group who will play for less money just to play, which drives down our ability to earn a living.”

But beside the challenges, Hagenbach also sees opportunities.

“It’s like any movement, the struggle continues. You’ve got it keep it viable and keep it vibrant and relatable. It’s not going to be easy because there’s all this new music coming out. But there’s a renaissance coming. The young people are helping to bring it. I want to branch out to the people who don’t even have jazz on their radar. This is something that we as a city can use as a selling tool. When you arrive at the airport, you should have no doubt that you’re going to get some seriously good jazz here.”

Education and Audiences

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 14:00:00 +0000

The educators surprised me.

They’re engaged in far more than developing the next KC jazz superstar. They’re introducing children to the music. They’re developing audiences. They’re bringing the best of the best to this city. They’re perpetuating our jazz culture.

This is the third week of articles culled from the latest Jam. It’s available available – free! – all over town or can be downloaded as a PDF here. The issue celebrates the thirty years of publication by asking, what is the future of jazz in Kansas City? This week, the articles that quiz a pair of KC’s key education leaders.

*****

The best musicians are recruited.

“And one of the blessings that we get to sell,” says Dan Thomas, “is a vibrant jazz scene that is inclusive, that celebrates one another.”

Thomas is Associate Director of Jazz Studies and Co-Chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. He’s been at UMKC for 16 years and in his current position about six years.

“I do a lot of national recruiting,” Thomas explains. “I go out on the road and I’m performing with universities at their high school jazz festivals. If I perform at a club on the road, I hook up at a clinic somewhere to get in contact with the people who may not know UMKC’s name. There are a lot of institutions that have name recognition. We’re getting that now.

“Students are looking for contact. If I sweep through, I identify a few good kids. If I’ve given a good clinic, if I’ve played well, we’re connected now because jazz is a family. Then I can sell, for example, our bass instructor played with Thad Jones. I might invite him to come study at our jazz camp in the summer where you get a week-long workshop with our faculty, and they’re hooked. It takes sweeping moves where you make personal contact with folks.

“I spend 10 to 15 hours a week on the telephone and that’s all year long. Some of the studs that have made it onto our scene I’ve known since middle school.”

The number of jazz students coming into UMKC each year varies because, Thomas says, “we do enrollment management. If we have two trumpet players leaving, we’re only going to take two trumpet players. This year we’ve got 12 or 13 guys coming in. They’re all specific to what the program needs. They’re coming from all over the country. They’re amazing players.

“We carry 50-ish jazz majors, including undergrad and grad. Then we have several students who are jazz aficionados who participate in the program and need to participate in the program because we believe in the value of music education students. They need to have contact with us. If we don’t provide them with the opportunity, we’re just feeding the performance art. We need great music educators, too.”

UMKC’s program teaches five pillars of successful jazz musicians: performance, pedagogy, composition, arranging, and business and entrepreneurship.

“Duke Ellington traveled around and gave clinics,” Thomas says. “For us to as educators to say that all the money is in performance, it’s not. All the money’s in composition, it’s not. All the money’s in arranging, it’s not. All the money’s in teaching, it’s not. It’s all of it. Everybody gets to dial up their percentages and those percentages float. That’s the reality.”

The talent UMKC is bringing into Kansas City is some of the best. “The students that are looking at our school are bonafide jazz guys,” Thomas says. “They’re either going to be known relatively quickly amongst our scene or when they leave they’re going to be stars on their home turf.

“The depth of the program is significant. Every kid is amazing. They’re really talented kids who ten years ago would have been the star of the program. Now you’re looking at fifty or sixty of them.”

Convincing that talent to come to Kansas City can be hard. But, Thomas says, “once they get here, they realize how special it is.

After graduation, “the vast majority of students stay here. That’s a testament to our scene. There’s some doomsday folks who communicate about the lack of what’s going on in our scene. But Kansas City is a pretty phenomenal place that can absorb them.

“What’s unique about what we’re doing is that we’re trying to build unique artists. Because everybody is unique there is an opportunity for each one of them to generate revenue.”

Anyone who knows Kansas City’s jazz scene today recognizes that it is brimming with extraordinary young talent. But, Thomas notes, “Young folks have romantic ideas. They’re trying to prove something. That keeps old people young. You’ve got college age kids with seasoned veterans and there’s a healthy collaboration. Kansas City is not cutthroat and competitive. These students are so welcomed into the scene and they still have reverence for the old guard and what they can teach.”

*****

Talk with Bill McKemy and it quickly becomes clear. Jazz education isn’t just about building musicians. It’s about building jazz audiences.

“We tour a 6-piece group,” McKemy begins, “sometimes adding a vocalist to that, to go to schools and do either general assemblies performances or specific hands-on music clinics with bands. We’ve been to Raytown South, Fort Osage, Hickman Mills, the Blue Valley districts.

“We’ve played in some gyms and some school auditoriums. On the top end, size-wise, a little over 400 kids at once.

“But we’ll also go in and work with just the music students and work on the songs that they’re working on in jazz band. We’ll also give them instrument clinics and improvisational clinics while we’re there. We’re able to go hands-on. The teacher in that situation is having their message reinforced. The kids are right there with Hermon Mehari and Rich Wheeler and Ryan Lee and all of the great players on the scene.

“The kids are enthusiastic and fired up about jazz, generally with lots of questions and a high level of engagement.”

McKemy is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the American Jazz Museum (and an incredible bassist).

On September 10th, he launches a new program for students age 3 to 18 at the jazz museum. It’s Jazz Academy.

“There are three main components,” McKemy explains. “In the mornings we’re going to have general music classes for ages three through sixth grade. Those classes will be a mixture of movement, music and other activities. The system is designed to engage kids at play rather than sit them in rows and teach them. It’s designed to get them having fun with musical instrument-type toys, and eventually building not only their musical skill but the way that they engage something that’s fun and playful.

“It also teaches as a key element reliance on their own ear. They learn to hear and to trust what they hear.

Improvisation is incorporated from the start. “The thing we want to accomplish,” McKemy says, “is that improvisation isn’t something they learn after they become an advanced musician. It’s just something that you do with whatever you can play. If you can hit two drumsticks together, you can improvise.

From 1:00 to 3:00, McKemy continues, “we’ll have combos, big bands and improv classes. Rotating in with the improv classes, we’ll infuse history about the music, about Kansas City’s role in it and about its cultural significance.

“We’re hoping to build the audience as much as we’re building bright young folks to play music.”

The staff includes Clarence Smith, Stan Kessler, Marcus Lewis and John Kizilarmut. On a rotating basis, Bobby Watson, Dan Thomas, Matt Otto and Hermon Mehari will also participate.

The third component, McKemy says, will be “an education-themed jam session in the Blue Room from 3:00 to 5:00 with the kids from the academy and whoever else wants to drop in for it. We’ll have as mentors the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz and other players to offer encouragement and show the kids the way.”

Three sessions a year are planned to coincide with fall, spring and summer school terms.

For the students, the program is free.

“It’s free but we also want to instill a sense of ownership of the program and pride in the Kansas City community,” McKemy adds. “We’re going to ask the students to pay it forward by participating in community outreach performances. We’ll go to assisted living facilities or community events and perform. We want to be able to teach some life skills to the kids and show them the value they’ll get from performing community service.

“We won’t turn anyone away. I would be satisfied if for that first term we have 40 or more kids. I’d like to see 100 or more kids. Or 200 or 300. I’d like to have that problem.”

McKemy brings an even larger goal. “In Kansas City, in terms of talented musicians, we have an embarrassment of riches,” he says. “But historically, we have done just a so-so job at connecting the actual living resources of jazz with the kids. We can’t afford to let the resources go to waste. We need to have Brian Baggett and Ryan Lee and Clint Ashlock and Charles Perkins and Gerald Spaits sharing what they know. It has to be across generational lines and racial lines and economic lines.

“I think it’s correct for our city to have the best jazz education that exists. We should be on a par with New York, Chicago and New Orleans at a bare minimum.”

Clubs With Views

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 14:00:00 +0000

Now let’s hear from the clubs.

This is the second week of excerpting articles from the latest issue of Jam, on the streets now (it’s free) or downloadable from here. This issue celebrates the magazine’s thirtieth anniversary by asking, what is the future of jazz in Kansas City? Last week quizzed the mayor on 18th and Vine. This time, John Scott from Green Lady Lounge and Gerald Dunn from the Blue Room offer insights into their operations.

*****

Stepping into the Green Lady Lounge feels like stepping back into the 1940s. Dim lighting, red walls, red drapes and faux-classic art lining the walls all build a classic ambiance. This must be what a jazz club in Kansas City used to feel like.

That’s all by design. It’s owner John Scott’s vision or, as he puts it, his point of view.

“It’s the club’s responsibility to get the patrons in,” Scott explains. “When I hear club owners say, we want that band to get butts in seats, I don’t think that’s a useful phrase, and I don’t ever want to hear anybody representing Green Lady Lounge to use that phrase. It’s beyond the ability, generally, of a band in the jazz genre to put butts in seats.

“There’s a lot of things marketing-wise that can make a jazz musician or a jazz band popular. If you go somewhere where they don’t get a lot of jazz, then maybe a jazz band can put butts in seats. But in Kansas City there’s jazz everywhere. It’s so rich. It’s like gold to the Mayans.

“So that can’t be the primary draw. You cannot expect amazing, world-class jazz musicians to draw people into a barn. The club has to have a certain aesthetic. It has to have a point of view.

“That point of view comes from me. The look, the paint, the color, the accessories, the dark lighting, all of those things to me are pleasing. For a lot of reasons I’ve incorporated them into the bar. Some of them are very pragmatic. The drop ceiling is both an aesthetic, useful thing, and it’s practical, relatively inexpensive. It connects the two sides of the building which were cut in half originally. This building has been around since 1889.”

That point of view equally encompasses the music.

“The first year was a sampler platter of a whole variety of kinds of music,” Scott says. “I was listening and trying to figure out the Kansas City sound. What is it in the past? What is it now? What is it going to be in the future? And what do I want to help give a home to?

“I learned to really dislike pick-up gigs, where people are just kind of filling time on stage. I wanted bands. I wanted people who play together on a regular basis to bring their best. I don’t want jam sessions. This is not the venue for that. This is a place where people come, experience the ambiance and there’s a band that plays together and is also producing original content.”

Often that content includes an organ. You will not find a piano on the club’s main floor, unless a musician has brought his own keyboard. Instead you’ll see a Hammond B-3 organ. A favorite ensemble in the room is OJT. They’re the classic organ trio with Ken Lovern on organ, Brian Baggett on guitar and Kevin Frazee on drums.

Scott describes OJT as “a kind of a north star, a point to guide everything else by. It’s a sound that I feel combines a dirt road kind of blues and a real jazz sophistication. OJT is a Kansas City sound to me that combines swing with a lot of sophistication.”

Yet Scott also looks beyond classic jazz ensembles. Another favorite is vibraphonist Peter Schlamb’s eclectic group Electric Tinks.

“To me, Electric Tinks is not experimenting,” Scott says. “It’s progressive. It is pushing the genre. You can see from where he’s pulling but he’s doing a lot of original stuff. His musicianship is fantastic. And talk about a point of view. They’ve got a great a future and I’m incorporating them into our rotation.”

Whether you agree with it or disagree, John Scott’s point of view is working. He pegs half his customers as coming from outside of Kansas City.

“Kansas City jazz is something that already exists out there, this brand,” he says. “We just realize the product and give it justice, give it support and help market it. People come to Kansas City and if they hear on Huffington Post or some Facebook feed, or however they heard about Kansas City jazz, and then they hear about Green Lady, associate it with Kansas City jazz, then they seek it out. That’s what’s happening.

“Green Lady is an evangelical jazz club because we’re not just preaching to the people who already know they love jazz, but rather I believe in getting people exposed to jazz and I believe they will like it.

That point of view extends to Scott’s vision for growing Kansas City jazz.

“If there isn’t a jazz scene, then you take a shotgun approach. But when a scene is vital and rich, clubs can more narrowly define, deeply and richly, what your take on the Kansas City sound is. Evidence of a rich scene would be that each club books a more focused part of the overall scene.

“Other private people need to come along and join the scene in earnest. If they don’t think it’s commercially viable, they’re wrong. If they want some help, I can help them. That doesn’t mean making it just like the Green Lady but it does mean having an aesthetic that is unique to you and consistent in your point of view and care.

“We have excellent, amazing musicians in Kansas City who, given the right environment, will really spread the love of Kansas City jazz.”

*****

Gerald Dunn has worked at the American Jazz Museum since the day it opened. But he originally turned them down.

“I was living in New York at the time and had just come off touring the south of France for the whole month of June with Illinois Jacquet’s big band,” Dunn recalled. “I started working in Harlem, subbing for different bands, subbing at the Cotton Club. I felt at the time that if I left I would lose those connections.”

The museum asked again. He talked the offer over with his parents.

“My dad said, ‘Let me help you out. You have no more times to call to borrow money.’”

Today at the museum Dunn is Director of Entertainment and Blue Room General Manager.

The Blue Room, Dunn said, “started out only booking local musicians. We wanted to build a strong relationship with the community.”

Dunn remembers discussing jazz with veteran musicians like Jay McShann and Eddie Saunders. “Listening to them talk about why people played the music,” he said, “what music meant to them, what music meant to their friends, that gave me a good foundation of understanding what to look for.

“The older guys set a level of consistency. When you saw the Scamps perform on the stage, they brought an experience to you. The tunes that they sang, you could feel the song, you could feel the lyrics because they lived the lyrics. Those songs excited them. When they were playing from the stage, you were seeing that excitement. When it’s coming out of their horns, it’s exciting, it’s happening.

“Sometimes Eddie [Saunders] would be one of the grumpiest guys on earth, but once he put the horn in his mouth it became happy songs.

“I tell some of these stories to the young guys so that they can see there are legacies that they are a part of.”

In a city brimming with young jazz talent, nearly all wanting to play at the fabled corner of 18th and Vine, Dunn is looking “at how people are willing to work with others, how people are willing to respond to the crowd, how they’re willing to present themselves to the crowd.

“Make sure you have enough variety in your repertoire to be able to entertain the crowd. You can play original music, and that’s cool. But as people are coming in to understand you as an artist it’s good to be able to accommodate them and give them something that they might be able to grasp.

“It’s not always playing the best solo. A lot of times it’s being able to release the audience. Give them a break. Lay something in their lap. Get into their soul. Make them feel like clapping is what they want to be doing.”

Dunn has worked to understand who comes to the Blue Room.

“It’s people who want to have a Kansas City experience. They read about it and they want to experience it. We’re conscious of trying to bring in diverse crowds and bringing in the most diversity when it comes to artists.

Moving forward, does the Blue Room need to evolve?

“We’re changing now,” Dunn responded. “We’re constantly moving. The scene forces you to change. You can’t stay the same.

“We’re opening up to other communities. We’re opening up the neo-soul community. We’re opening up to the Latin jazz community. Those pieces are infusing into the jazz pieces. Some of the younger jazz guys have a lot of those pieces. Fusion is a part of Dominque [Sanders]’s music. Hermon [Mehari] plays with some of the neo-soul acts.”

And when a young musician with a non-jazz background approaches Dunn, “I don’t have to say, you can’t play here because you don’t play jazz. Come in, check out what goes on, and see how you can contribute to what’s going on. Let’s see how you can fit in. Let’s find ways to include you.

“We pay respect to the traditions of Kansas City jazz. And we pay respect to what kids have access to now.”

The Mayor on 18th and Vine

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 14:00:00 +0000

Nary a post in May. Let’s get this blog back on track, starting with the mayor.

My May was monopolized with putting together the new Jam, hitting the streets now. It’s a special issue, marking the publication’s thirtieth year. As editor, I decided to celebrate by looking not back but ahead and asking this question: What is the future of jazz in Kansas City?

Articles quiz Mayor Sly James on the future of 18th and Vine; Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner on the American Jazz Museum; John Scott and Gerald Dunn on jazz clubs; Dan Thomas and Bill McKemy on jazz education; and Angela Hagnebach and Hermon Mehari for a pair of perspectives from musicians.

You can download the issue from the Jazz Ambassadors web site here. Better yet, pick up a copy around town (12,000 of them are printed) for the cozy feel of slick paper between your fingers as you peruse.

Or here’s another alternative. Each week I’ll reprint one or two of the stories here, for wider distribution and because their only other online presence – a PDF – doesn’t show up in online search results like a well-scoured blog.

This week, a committee of the Kansas City Council is considering a $27.6 million bond proposal for improvements to the 18th and Vine district. Mayor James offers his perspective in the Jam interview, we’ll start with that article. This is going to be longer than a typical post, but since this is the blog’s first missive in a month, I’m not really taking up more of your last thirty days than I normally would.

Each article is accompanied by a photo of the subject reading Jam. I’ll post those, too.

*****

The 18th and Vine district is Kansas City jazz’s soul. It’s a district at the cusp of major changes. In April, ground was broken on construction of the nation’s seventh Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy in Parade Park, directly behind the jazz and Negro Leagues museums. The next week, the city unveiled details of proposed district improvements totaling $27.6 million. And a new executive director is leading the district’s anchor, the American Jazz Museum, into its twentieth year. Jam sat down with Kansas City Mayor Sly James to discuss the future of 18th and Vine, starting with the MLB Urban Youth Academy. What is it?

MAYOR SLY JAMES: It is first and foremost going to be an opportunity to engage 600 to 1000 kids a year in baseball as a vehicle for a lot of different things. It will teach kids the skills needed to play baseball, and some who have talent will move higher than others. But all who are there will be in contact with people who know the game, know how to teach the game, and follow a basic philosophy that’s been promulgated by [Kansas City Royals General Manager] Dayton Moore and the way that he built the team. You’re looking for certain things and you’re teaching certain things, like team before self. Character is important. Leadership is important.

But also it’s going to be an opportunity for kids who might ordinarily just be hanging around to do something that’s conducted in a safe environment under the watchful eyes of adults and have fun doing it.

It will also provide some academic support. They’ll calculate the flight of a baseball over the wall and use baseball and statistics as a way of teaching math. There will be opportunities for kids to learn what it means to be a groundskeeper, what it means to be a concessionaire. You want to be a broadcaster? Go up and broadcast this game. But the main thing is that it is going to use baseball to improve the lives of urban kids in a way that hasn’t been done.

The physical layout will consist of two large fields, one a championship field – the fences, I think, will be 400 feet to center, some big alleys – a little league field and a softball field. And then a building where instruction can take place during twelve months of the year with an infield, batting cages, pitching cages, and classrooms. The whole operation will be operated by the Royals as a low level minor league type of a deal. They’ll pay for it for twenty years and run it like they run their team.

I’m really excited about this for a number of reasons. What it does for kids in this community is huge. We know from our summer programming that when kids are engaged, juvenile crime and victimization goes down 18 per cent. We also know that kids, when given an opportunity to do something positive, will take it.

What we’re doing is putting a bunch of kids in the area of 18th and Vine, which means they’re going to be there with their parents. There will be people from different parts of the city and the region coming in to play games at 18th and Vine. 18th and Vine should have more foot traffic. Hopefully, retail will spring up organically in order to satisfy some of the foot traffic. There will be people who are in the Negro Leagues museum and in the jazz museum, expanding the reach of those two places. Bringing people to the area means there’s going to be more exposure of the assets in the area.

The next phase is more assets need to be in the area. We need more rooftops. We need more retail. We need more eateries. If I could, I’d probably go down there and try to get me a space and get a little ice cream stand that’s open up on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in the summer and sell tons of ice cream to kids who are out there playing ball and waiting for games to be played. That’s the type of stuff that may come about.

There are also other things that are going on, and this is in conjunction with a different plan [the proposed $27.6 million in improvements]. There will be lots of discussion about what that should look like in the coming weeks, how do we make 18th and Vine more viable and live up to the history and tradition.

Last but not least, I think there is something in the works to stop having the Gem Theater be dark for three-fourths of the year. It’s a great venue and we don’t have enough activity there. There’s been conversations about a contract with some entertainers who would fill that on an ongoing basis. That’s not finished yet, but it’s something that I hope gets finished soon.

JAM: With the baseball academy attracting more people, proposed improvements in the area, and the Crossroads area growing towards the east, are we starting to see more of an alignment of the district with the rest of the city?

MAYOR JAMES: That’s the goal. That’s the articulated and tangible goal of connecting east Crossroads to 18th and Vine in a seamless way.

The problem that we have is that along 18th Street it gets kind of quasi-industrial, not very inviting. Lots of concrete, the overpass, things that don't necessarily say, hey, we’re pretty, come see us. So we’re looking at some options to make changes there.

Early on I did a Mayor’s Institute of City Design with Charleston Mayor Joe Riley. When you do that, you select an area of the city that you’d like to examine and talk about and have some input on in terms of changing what it is. The area I selected was 18th and Vine.

The biggest thing that came out of that was to get more people down there as frequently as possible, for a couple of different reasons. Number one, the more people you have down there, the more activity that will be generated and the more incentive there will be for people, even on a pop-up basis or a food truck basis, to create economic activity. Then you will have incentive to increase that economic activity by connecting to the east Crossroads. You also generate more buzz.

Getting the urban youth baseball academy there brings more people down. The next step is working with the Downtown Council to get more people down on First Fridays and those types of things, so we can start that constant flow. If you have that constant and you’re a resident down there and you see every week there’s an additional 2000 people walking on the streets of 18th and Vine, and you’ve got an idea for shakes and ice cream or hamburgers and hot dogs, or bandaids and cigarettes, whatever it is you want to sell, now all of a sudden you’re saying, this might be viable. How about a coffee shop? Anything. Just get some retail activity down there so that you’re always generating activity on the street.

But that also requires that we continue to build out housing. We have to have the rooftops in order to be sustainable for those times when people aren’t there. If I live in the area and there’s not a coffee shop on the street, then I’m going someplace else for my coffee. If there is a coffee shop, then me and the other people who live in the same area might bump into each other there, have a conversation. Now we’re talking neighborhood. Now we’re talking cohesiveness. When you have people come together as neighbors in a cohesive way, good things happen. That’s what we’re shooting for. That’s the plan and the target.

JAM: When the improvements proposal was first discussed last year, you expressed concerns, perhaps about what kind of private funding it would leverage.

MAYOR JAMES: My concern was simply this, and it remains a concern regardless of what project it is: having money is not a plan. Have a plan and then figure out how to finance it. What we had was money but no real plan. It doesn’t make any sense to have money out there and say, we’re going to use this to help 18th and Vine, or we’re going to use it to help Brookside, or anything else. What are you going to do with it? Is this best idea? Who’s vetting this? What are you going to need? Is this sustainable on its own down the road, or is this something that’s going to be a one-shot wonder? All of those things need to be answered and that planning is still in the process.

I want to separate two things. Number one, I want to separate my desire to see 18th and Vine completed in a way that is responsible, that creates jobs and activity, and brings it back to something approaching its original glory. I want to see that happen. But I am going to always be critical of the way we get there in order to make sure that we’re being efficient and that we’re actually using money to accomplish the goals that we need as opposed to shooting at a false target.

When we get the planning done, and it becomes clear what the money is going to be used for, how it needs to be allocated, then I’m for it. But until there is a complete plan and it’s been vetted and everybody is on board, I’m going to reserve some judgement on it, which is totally different than the overall goal of seeing the improvements. That’s not going to change. This is something that Councilman Reed has been championing and, although I agree with the ultimate goal, I want to see more meat on the bones before I join.

JAM: Do you have a reaction to the specific projects that were announced?

MAYOR JAMES: I don’t have a reaction to specific projects. My reaction to any project of this type and scope is, is it catalytic and is it sustainable? I don’t want to do something where in five years it’s going to be, hey, we need another ten million dollars or, hey, we need to do something different here because it’s not working. I want to see all of that taken care of on the front end. Sustainability is huge and being catalytic is huge. We want things that cause other things to happen. We want things that say to people outside, look what’s happening here, maybe I ought to join. Then you’re having the influx of private money that’s going to supplement it and make it a much more vibrant area.

I look at the money coming from the city as a point of leverage. We need to leverage those dollars into other things that bring in private investment because that’s how you’re going to build wealth in the community. That’s how you’re going to build minority businesses and minority pride in a minority neighborhood that does the things that it used to do. Those are my goals.

JAM: Is it appropriate for the jazz museum to continue to receive substantial funding from the city?

MAYOR JAMES: Depends on what you mean by substantial. I do think it’s appropriate for us to ask the jazz museum, when are you going to be able to live without it? The jazz museum is in the same building as the Negro Leagues museum. They’ve been heading in different directions financially. Why?

There’s new leadership at the jazz museum in Cheptoo. I have a heck of a lot of faith in that lady. I think she is going to turn things around. So my position basically would be, let’s not hamper her ability to turn it around by making her budgetary problems so severe that’s all she’s able to concentrate on.

However, there has to be an understanding that, hey, we expect you to be able to be self-sustaining at some point, so what are you doing to work in that direction? I think that’s a fair thing to do. It’s a fair thing to do with Negro Leagues and I think they’ve done it. So if one can do it, the other can.

That’s especially true now that I think there’s going to be more people in that area. There will be a lot more foot traffic in that building when the the urban youth baseball academy starts. It’ll be a lot of kids going to the Negro Leagues museum, but it’ll be a lot of adults there with those kids who will want to see both museums. It’s an opportunity to do some cross-marketing. It’s an opportunity to make some sales that may not have been made. It’s an opportunity to do programming. When you know there’s going to be big crowds, you draw people in. There’s all sorts of opportunities there. I have every belief that Cheptoo will recognize those opportunities and seize on them. I know she’s planning a jazz festival for next year. That’s marvelous and a good thing to do.

JAM: Do you like to get out and hear jazz?

MAYOR JAMES: Oh yeah, I do.

JAM: Who do you like to hear?

MAYOR JAMES: Bobby Watson. I’ve asked Bobby Watson to play at two states of the city. I love going to 12th Street Jump. I like Hermon Mehari. I love Joe Cartwright. I think he’s a fabulous pianist. One of my favorite all-time musicians, period, is Pat Metheny. I love Pat Metheny. There’s a lot of good musicians. I also like blues, so I listen to a lot of blues.

JAM: Is there anything you’d like to add in conclusion?

MAYOR JAMES: I think we’re looking at the beginning of a renaissance at 18th and Vine, which is why I want to make sure it’s done right. I want to make sure that as we’re rolling this out, it’s being done in such a way that it will excite people and engage them and cause them to come down, and keep that spirit growing. It’s all at our fingertips. When it happens, it’s going to explode and it’s going to be a vibrant area. I’m also keen on the economic activity phase because it should be an economic center in the community. It’s not functioning quite at that level yet but we have an opportunity to shape it in a way that it will.

27.6 Mil for 18th and Vine

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:00:00 +0000

Probably the earliest efforts to build a jazz hall of fame in Kansas City date to 1969. That group envisioned it near 12th and The Paseo. In 1997, following decades of fits and starts, feints and fights, the jazz museum opened, along with the Negro Leagues museum, the Black Archives and a rebuilt Gem Theater, at a cost of $32 million. The city has contributed ongoing support in the decades since, and rightly so. The Kansas City Museum and Liberty Memorial receive annual budget dollars, so why shouldn’t museums honoring this city’s greatest contributions to the world?

Last week, the city announced plans to consider, from their official press release (here), a “bond-funding commitment of $27,637,162” for the district. Never mind that the figure originally quoted last year for the district was $7 million, then leapt to $18 million in January, and is now hovering at 27.6 (skyrocketing numbers with each public pronouncement is a questionable strategy). Instead consider that the city shovels $12 to $15 million into the Power and Light district every year. By comparison, a one time shot-in-the-arm of $27.6 million to 18th and Vine sounds fair.

The proposal. It can be viewed or downloaded as a PDF here.

Importantly, the list of projects paves some major historic district holes. Three in particular stand out.

New, refurbished and nicely faked facades (towards Woodland) have lined most of 18th Street for two decades. More recently, refurbished homes and apartments have made Highland Street surrounding the Mutual Musicians Foundation wonderfully more enticing. But Vine between 18th and 19th streets has remained the jazz district’s ghost town. That block, boasting the remains of the Cherry Blossom night club and the first black-owned auto dealership in the United States, is arguably one the most significant to 20th century culture. Yet discussion when the new district proposal was first announced was to tear down history in favor of building something deemed more useful, maybe a parking garage.

The original $7 million proposal included $160,000 for demolition. The $18 million version included, per a Kansas City Star article, “$5.3 million to replace dangerous buildings on Vine Street with mixed-use development.” Sanity appears to have prevailed. The new plan, according to the official document, includes $4,960,461 for “stabilization of facades of historic buildings in the 1800 block of Vine Street to prepare the area for construction of new infill development. The facades of historic buildings at 1814, 1816, 1820 and 1822 Vine St. are projected to be preserved and incorporated into this project.” The Cherry Blossom facade stands at 1822 Vine.

The proposal also includes $4,200,000 in public money (up from $1 million in the first two proposals), to be matched with $4 million in private funding and in-kind services, for the Buck O'Neil Education and Research Center, more commonly recognized as the Paseo YMCA. Specifically, the money is to “construct a north entrance including a lobby, elevator, stair tower, and renovation of the Education and Center.”

The charter creating the Negro Baseball Leagues was signed there on February 20th, 1920. This building is a Kansas City historical monument. Completing its renovation and reopening it to the public are key priorities of any historic district funding. This city needs to be celebrating in there on February 20th, 2020.

This map illustrating the projects can be downloaded here.

A new parking lot is in the proposal, between Lydia and Grove streets (Grove is between Lydia and The Paseo) on the south side of 18th Street. But, more importantly, the proposal includes $3,043,350 to “enhance street and pedestrian lighting and bump outs on 18th Street from Lydia parking lot to Attucks School. Provide connection between Bruce R. Watkins overpass and the historic 18th and Vine district.”

The 18th and Vine district will never thrive as an oasis surrounded by an urban moat. It must connect in a welcoming way to the Crossroads area. People who know the area and who are comfortable in the city recognize there’s nothing to fear. But that excludes a substantial number of area residents. The surrounding corridor looks more inviting than it did twenty years ago but it’s not inviting enough. Few improvements will boost 18th and Vine more than extending its welcome mat at least to the Bruce R. Watkins overpass.

Those are the most critical projects. Also in the proposal:

$1,743,194 for the American Jazz Museum for “design and construction of Blue Room expansion and new café, construction of exhibit and lobby improvements, and equipment upgrades for the Gem Theater.”

$432,109 for “repurposing of the existing structure located at the north side of the American Jazz Museum to allow for a new fully equipped stage for summer music events.” This one also includes $7 million in private funding. Its title calls this an outdoor amphitheater.

$747,241 to “move Horace Peterson 18th and Vine Visitor’s Center from 18th Street museums building into north space of Archives facility.”

$140,000 to the Mutual Musicians Foundation to “install a wheelchair lift and new masonry walls along the historic building.”

$1,832,016 in city funds plus $1,150,000 in private funding for a “public-private partnership for the design and construction of the KC Friends of Alvin Ailey facility, a multipurpose space with class space and offices” at 1714 E. 18th St. That’s between the Kansas City Call building and the Boone Theater.

$1,229,781 for “rehabilitation of Kansas City’s Historic Boone Theatre.”

$405,000 for “replacement of building systems” in the Lincoln Building.

$5,651,587 for a “public-private partnership for the design and construction of a new retail building with upper-floor market rate housing and office space.” The map accompanying the proposal shows this development fronting the south side of 18th Street between The Paseo and Vine Street, then wrapping around the corner and a bit up Vine.

$105,000 for “construction of a west doorway with enclosed patio for existing restaurant space” at 18th and The Paseo, outside the building where a couple of restaurants have come and gone.

$1,028,821 to “design and construct fountain on City property at the southeast and southwest intersections of 18th Street and The Paseo.”

$1,182,602 for “construction of lighted, landscaped lot on 19th Street between Lydia and Grove Streets.” The project map actually shows this lot extending from 19th to 18th streets.

Finally, management and administration is broken into multiple buckets such as planning, historic preservation, marketing, project management, and maintenance. But it boils down to $2,962,000 for management and administration.

Deborah Brown at The Blue Room

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 14:00:00 +0000

It’s always a treat when Deborah Brown plays Kansas City.

Deborah’s magnificent jazz voice is acclaimed all over the world – her website is available in five languages – but she rarely performs here, in her hometown. So when she does, pay attention. Especially when the guests dropping by to perform with her include Bobby Watson, David Basse, Todd Strait, Bram Wijnands, a saxophonist from Poland and a Dutch bassist. And that’s on top of an ensemble with Rod Fleeman on guitar, Joe Cartwright on piano and Mike Warren on drums.

I’d suggest that nobody anywhere heard better live jazz the night of February 16th than those of us gathered in The Blue Room. Hell, why just suggest it? I’ll proclaim it. If you were there, you know I’m right.

And if you weren’t there, below is a photo sampling of what you missed. As always, clicking on a shot should open a larger version of it.

Deborah Brown

Deborah Brown and Bobby Watson in The Blue Room

Bobby Watson on sax

Polish saxophonist Sylwester Ostrowski

Sylwester Ostrowski, Deborah Brown and Bobby Watson

Joris Teepe on bass

Deborah Brown, Joris Teepe and Sylwester Ostrowski

David Basse and Deborah Brown

Rod Fleeman on guitar

Joe Cartwright on piano

Mike Warren on drums

Bobby Watson and Rod Fleeman

Todd Strait sits in on drums

David Basse and Deborah Brown: mutual admiration. Behind them, Joris Teepe

Deborah Brown and Bobby Watson: more mutual admiration

Deborah Brown sings in The Blue Room. Behind her, a very happy Joris Teepe.

SoJo Blow

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 14:00:00 +0000

That wasn’t less frequent. That was moribund.

When I last posted seven long weeks ago, I said blog posts would continue though less often. Editing Jam magazine was monopolizing more of my meager mind than I expected.

Nothing like a little stupidity to flush the blogger back out.

Last week, the Overland Park South Rotary joyfully announced that the 27-year old Corporate Woods Jazz Festival, better known as Jazz in the Woods, has morphed into the SoJo Summerfest. Announcing a lineup that boasts country rock, Celtic pop and both Elton John and U2 cover bands, organizers proclaimed in a press release, “As you can see from our talented group of home-grown bands from Kansas City, SoJo Summerfest is definitely not a jazz concert.”

The Corporate Woods Jazz Festival launched in 1990, organized by two people on the board of the 1989 Kansas City Jazz Festival that I led and who were displeased with the direction that event was taking the next year. They found a sympathetic sponsor in Corporate Woods. The festival was eventually handed off to the Rotary which has turned it into a major fundraiser for children’s charities, raising more than $1.5 million over its lifetime. That number, frankly, is both wonderful and amazing.

They’ve stubbed their toes occasionally during their stewardship. Adding a day of country music one year was really dumb (I’m told the country fans spent less money and left a bigger mess than the audience festival organizers had spent a decade cultivating). And they haven’t overwhelmed fans in KC’s jazz community with their emphasis on smooth jazz and R&B.

But the fact is that Jazz in the Woods organizers built the oldest, the biggest and the most financially successful jazz festival in this metropolitan area. Overland Park police pegged attendance at last year’s two-day event at 30,000 people. I was there. That number feels right. And just as importantly, the acts booked drew one of the most racially diverse and integrated audiences I’ve seen at a Kansas City music event this side of Stevie Wonder.

Overland Park South Rotary is in this to raise money for charities. The festival has grown into a wildly successful vehicle for channeling volunteers, engaging and entertaining the public and, most years, meeting that primary goal. But the pending sale of Corporate Woods cost the fest a major sponsor and jeopardized the event’s fundraising abilities.

Wisely, they’ve examined costs. The lavish stage flanked by multi-monitor video screens and outstanding sound may be part of the event’s appeal. But Jazz in the Woods in recent years spent half again as much just on staging as the entire budget of the Prairie Village Jazz Festival. Their stage was imported from another city because nobody in KC stocks anything like it.

Remarkably less wisely, they concluded that the only way to draw a larger crowd was to publicly divorce themselves from the audience they’ve grown over 26 years and to rebrand the event with an insipid name. “SoJo Summerfest is definitely not a jazz concert.”

You can argue whether the smooth jazz, blues, R&B and soul music that dominated 2015’s Jazz in the Woods qualifies it as a jazz event. I say that in broad terms it does. It’s not the kind of music festival Count Basie devotees crave. But you’re not going to raise tens of thousands of dollars in this century by catering to Count Basie devotees. You’re going to raise it through a music event with a distinct and recognizable focus that appeals to an audience from throughout the metropolitan area.

And you can do that without adopting a provincial contraction of a name apparently intended to firmly break the event from its heritage. Jazz in the title doesn’t scare away audiences. Just ask the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival how extensively the word has damaged their event (2015 attendance: 460,000).

Focus is a missing key. I don't know just how hard this festival’s budget was hit, though going to an all local lineup suggests heavy damage. Now there’s no distinctive name to build promotion around. Now the schedule is no more significant than a half dozen other suburban music fests – all with smarter titles – that pepper the region’s summer calendar. And when the lineup ranges from Shades of Jade to Big Time Grain Company (that’s the country rock band), there’s a feeling of scheduling by throwing underwear against a wall and seeing what sticks. There’s no focus. The appeal is simply, come because we’ve been big.

Also, going head-to-head with the Boulevardia festival might not be an act of audience-building genius. Could be that an event on the same days in the West Bottoms doesn’t really compete with an unfocused fest in SoJo. But last year’s Boulevardia claimed bigger crowds and charitable donations than Jazz in the Woods.

The real test may come next year. This year’s event may well draw an audience out of habit. But after experiencing this year, will they return for the 2017 SoJo Summer Mess?

Um, I meant Summer Fest.

No I didn’t.

Not Dead But Less Frequent

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 15:00:00 +0000

Other than a promise of a post yet to appear, this blog has been fairly barren the last several weeks. This blog is not dead, but it has become a less frequent endeavor. Fact is, taking over Jam magazine has monopolized more time than I expected. As soon as an issue is done, I’ve discovered, planning for the next one needs to begin. And that takes most of my meager thoughts on Kansas City and jazz.

While I’m striving to bring a new voice to Jam, there will still be ideas and photos which do not find a home there. Jam is not a place for the blunt snarkiness I often delight in here. On the other hand, I don't want this blog to become all snark with the pleasant observations residing only in Jam. I’m still winding my way through the appropriate approach for each forum.

When I was turning out a blog post nearly every week, and occasionally finding them linked to NPR or other well-known media (some weeks making my head grow insufferably big), I was overwhelmed with the opportunities of the internet. The internet was the future, the press for everyone who couldn’t afford a press. Print was passé, so twentieth century, a grandpa medium.

Editing Jam has led me to understand otherwise. There is still something unique and important to many people, maybe most people, to the permanence of print. People still like holding and fondling a photo. It is a different and more highly regarded experience to many to read words on paper versus a screen. That also means the words committed to that paper need to be more carefully considered because, I have discovered and I really didn’t expect this, they are more precious to many readers than thoughts thrown into the internet ether.

I also didn’t take over Jam fully recognizing the significance of its legacy. The magazine’s June/July issue will mark Jam’s thirtieth anniversary. With a print run of 12,000 copies per issue, Jam has become its own Kansas City jazz tradition. I neither understood nor appreciated its importance to many in the KC jazz community until now, with four issues under my sizable belt. I thought I’d assumed editorship of a quaint KC relic. I realize now that I assumed editorship of a publication that matters.

Here’s what I mean. I signed a release last week for the last issue of Jam to be used in an upcoming movie. A feature film is being made which, quoting from the release, “follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.” One character is in Kansas City. The filmmakers were looking for set pieces that identified the location as KC. They thought of Jam because it’s been around for three decades. They saw the issue with Eboni Fondren on the cover and their reaction was wow, an image with jazz, the Royals, the Negro Leagues...how much more Kansas City can you get?

Most importantly, they knew Jam. They looked for Jam, these movie makers in Universal City, California.

I’d better start taking that magazine seriously.

This blog isn’t going away. It isn’t going on hiatus. This is a forum to lay out photos and thoughts that don’t fit print, and that’s a forum I intend to maintain. But this blog has become less frequent. I’m no longer pressing to turn out a noteworthy post every week. Rather, when I think I just might have something noteworthy or fun (or, better yet, both), there will be a post.

I’ve retired from booking the Prairie Village Jazz Festival after four years. Between editing Jam and a bit of scribbling for The Pitch, I’d taken on more than my limited skills could juggle. It was time to pull back. With this blog, I’m now pulling back a bit more.

But that means more time will be devoted to continuing to develop the voice of Jam. More effort goes there because it’s more important than I understood.

Oh, and do me a favor? Don’t tell any of the Jazz Ambassadors I thought I was taking over a quaint relic, okay?

New Thoughts Next Week

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:53:00 +0000

Last week I offered nary a post as the next issue of Jam magazine came together. It should start hitting the streets later this week, featuring stories that look both back and ahead at jazz in Kansas City. This week, another writing assignment monopolized the weekend, so we’re postless again.

But recently I’ve been struck by both the continuity and change embracing jazz in Kansas City today. Let’s look at that next week.

Hootie is a Hundred

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 15:00:00 +0000

Last week was big for Kansas City jazz. A resolution directed directed the City Manager to find funding sources for $18 million in improvements – curiously up from the $7 million announced just a week and a half earlier – to the 18th and Vine District. This could include improvements to the Jazz Museum, the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the Paseo YMCA, a new district home for Friends of Alvin Ailey, a parking garage, and some suspiciously not-yet-publicly-defined demolition along Vine (an incredibly historic street as long as you don’t destroy the remaining history there).

But more on that another time, because this week is bigger. This Tuesday, January 12th, would have been Jay “Hootie” McShann’s hundredth birthday.

Another resolution passed by the City Council this past Thursday, January 7th read:

RESOLUTION NO. 160010

Declaring January 12th – 16th as Jay “Hootie” McShann Week in recognition of his 100th Birthday and his life, artistry, contributions to Jazz and lengthy career.

WHEREAS, Pianist, Composer, Bandleader, Recording Artist and Singer, James Columbus “Jay” “Hootie” McShann was born January 12, 1916, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and died on December 7, 2006 in Kansas City at the age of 90; and

WHEREAS; McShann received several national and international awards and recognitions to include the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame, Rhythm and Blues Foundation, Paris All-Star Tribute to Charlie Parker, The Rolling Stones recording of "Confessin' the Blues", character in 1940’s crime-fiction novel, The Hot Kid, written by Elmore Leonard in 2005, 1991 Grammy Award Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance, and in 2003 for Goin' to Kansas City - Best Traditional Blues Album; and

WHEREAS; from the 1960’s until his passing, James Columbus McShann remained a prominent pianist, bandleader and vocalist often teaming with violinist Claude “Fiddler” Williams and vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon; and

WHEREAS; the City of Kansas City will join with the Jay McShann family (Jayne McShann-Lewis, Linda McShann-Gerber and Pamela McShann), American Jazz Museum, Historic Jazz Foundation, GEM Theater, UMKC Marr Sound Library and Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz in celebrating his 100th Birthday; NOW THEREFORE;

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:

That the Mayor and Council hereby declare the week of January 12th – 16th as Jay “Hootie” McShann Week in Kansas City; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution be spread upon the Minutes of the Council in testimony thereof and that a copy hereof be presented to the family of Jay McShann in token of the Mayor, Council and citizens of Kansas City’s highest esteem with which Jay McShann is held in their hearts and minds.

(You can find a link to the resolution, pictured at the left, on the city’s website here.)

I’m not going to presume to lecture anyone who holds even a passing interest in this blog on the importance of a legend like Jay McShann. Until his death nine years ago, Jay McShann defined Kansas City jazz. Out in the world today, names like Count Basie and Charlie Parker may be more widely recognized. But nobody meant more to Kansas City jazz than Jay McShann.

This coming Saturday, his daughter invite the city to celebrate Hootie’s hundredth birthday at the Gem Theater. The evening opens with a presentation by Chuck Haddix on McShann’s history and importance to jazz. Then Joe Cartwright sets the tone for the night leading an ensemble with Gerald Spaits and Todd Strait – McShann’s regular accompanists in his later years – and a trio of vocalists performing Jay’s standards. The wonderful pianist Benny Green takes the stage in a special performance. And Bobby Watson assembles a collection of Kansas City All-Stars to salute Hootie. A new collection of McShann memorabilia will be on display in the Gem.

A reception starts about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 16th. The music starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25.

Resolve to be there.

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Rhapsodizes

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 15:00:00 +0000

The personality of The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra (KCJO) has evolved under each of its three artistic directors.

Listen to its first CD from a decade ago without anyone telling you who it is, and you could be excused if you guessed this was some of the best of the 1980s-vintage Basie band. Under artistic director and co-founder Jim Mair, the breezy swing, with classy brass and sterling solos barreling over hard-driving rhythm, showed us what the music born in Kansas City had grown up to be. And, heck, I’ll take Lisa Henry’s vocals on that CD over the Basie band’s Carmen Bradford any day.

Kerry Strayer’s time leading the band was, tragically, far too brief. While under Jim the orchestra would venture beyond classic swing, with Kerry it stretched a bit further while never ignoring its roots. I briefly served as KCJO’s business manager when Kerry took over. His plans to perform Bobby Watson’s Gates BBQ Suite in concert concerned some of the orchestra’s board members. That, they felt (without ever actually hearing the suite, but that’s another story), was not the kind of big band music this orchestra performed. Kerry and I reassured them it would be an amazing show. Of course, it was.

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra’s new CD, Rhapsody, under the direction of artistic director Clint Ashlock, captures an orchestra continuing to grow. Here’s a band of extraordinary talent, many of whom have played together now for a dozen years, emphasizing fresh arrangements performed with crisp precision and a modern elegance.

A somber yet playful Prelude #2 (Blue Lullabye) opens Rhapsody. You hear an exact performance in this music. This isn’t the devil-may-care whimsy of KCJO’s first Basie-induced CD. This isn’t what the Orchestra would have recorded a decade ago.

Next is the album’s centerpiece, Clint Ashlock’s arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue. Joe Cartwright takes over the keyboards, and his piano is our guide through this 27-minute Gershwin classic. There’s an exactly-played joyousness to the ensemble sections, which contrasts with the glib looseness of Clint’s trumpet and David Chael’s alto solos. Then contrast that further with the wicked sultriness of Brad Gregory’s tenor turn. This composition is a journey of wonderful twists performed with refined, never trite, vigor by Kansas City jazz masters.

The CD is filled out with fresh arrangements of big band standards. David Aaberg’s voicing on Swinging on a Star and Brad Gregory’s take on Emily – featuring Jeff Hamer’s loose and light trombone – return the orchestra to its beginnings. We have a selection from each of the band’s two most-often heard vocalists, Kathleen Holeman on Embraceable You and Ron Guiterrez on Alfie. Two of Clint’s arrangements close the CD: Every Time We Say Goodbye, starring Mark Cohick on baritone sax, and the controlled raucousness of I Got Rhythm.

This band takes a category that was new more than eighty years ago – big band jazz – and performs it so a listener in 2015 is intrigued. They grow the music with refinement. You hear it in their Kauffman Center performances – which now regularly draw over 1000 fans to each show – and it’s documented here.

That’s how a jazz orchestra approaching its teen years can thrive.

Rhapsody is available on The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra website, here.

Snapshots of 2015

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 15:00:00 +0000

Quotes from posts this year:

*****

This is what I remember first: Saturday afternoon at The Phoenix, with Milt Abel on bass and Tommy Ruskin on drums. I can still see Milt mesmerizing the audience with his take on Big Wind Blew in From Winnetka. And then Tommy drumming on everything in sight for Caravan. What amazing fun.

2015 opened with a harsh jolt. The morning of January 1st, the Kansas City jazz community lost an anchor when drummer Tommy Ruskin passed away.

*****

Take Five Coffee + Bar is a growing a formidable base of customers, ranging from suburban high school students engaged in the music to those of us with grey hair and oversized bellies. Sure, part of the audience turns out for that night’s ensemble, but part of it just trusts the venue to book good music. And they do.

The Broadway Jazz Club is working to build the same trusting, repeat business. On weekends, this is where you’re likely to find some of the best female vocalists, a fine complement to a fine dinner.

*****

Last month, the Mutual Musician’s Foundation (MMF) won a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a radio station. The call letters will be KOJH-LP. The -LP identifies it as a low power radio station. KOJH, MMF officials say, stands for Kansas City’s Oldest Jazz House.

The permit, FCC file number BNPL-20131114ARG, was granted on January 20, 2015. MMF received notification of the approval on the 26th. The permit allows 18 months, until July 20, 2016, to have the station operational.

With the possibility of eventually broadcasting jazz 24 hours a day on the air from Overland Park to Parkville, and worldwide on the Web, the Mutual Musicians Foundation has the chance to build a voice nobody else in Kansas City jazz can match or ignore.

*****

This summer, Roger Atkinson is retiring as editor of Jam.

The new editor will be me.

Jam will remain a publication that supports the Kansas City jazz scene. The criticisms and snarky comments found in this blog have no place in the magazine. But I suspect some of my personality will sneak in. Some of my photos will, too.

New leadership and a board spiked with younger members are reinvigorating the Jazz Ambassadors at a time when younger musicians are reinvigorating Kansas City’s jazz scene. It’s an exciting opportunity to assume the reins of this city’s premiere jazz forum.

*****

In September, the American Jazz Museum celebrates 18 years since its opening. For the last eight of those years, Greg Carroll has served as CEO. Last week, Carroll “resigned” from that position.

*****

Kansas City jazz took a wallop last week when Take Five Coffee + Bar announced Friday morning that it is closing on August 15th. Few in the community saw this one coming.

The closing of Take Five is a Kansas City jazz sucker punch. It hurts. This was a wonderful venue, built to showcase KC’s abundance of jazz talent and to help that talent thrive and grow the music in fresh directions. While I’ve argued that it was partly responsible for keeping Johnson Countians away from the midtown club that tried to be the next Jardine’s, Take Five mostly grew its own audience. It offered an easy and comfy style, a no grit, no-excitement-here-but-the-music ambiance that no other jazz club in the area replicated. Take Five didn’t fill a hole. It cultivated a sparkling niche.

*****

I sat down to talk with the new interim CEO of the museum for a Q and A in the next issue of Jam magazine. As I walked through the jazz museum offices, I was struck by a fresh feel of excitement, animation, a spark not present before. The difference was palpable.

That’s just one of the changes Ralph Reid is shepherding through the American Jazz Museum. Following 35 years at Sprint, retiring as Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and President of the Sprint Foundation, Reid brings unique experience and a new outlook. He’s focused on how the museum’s brand is perceived, a key to the success of any corporate behemoth or civic institution. And his words suggest a comprehensive vision, of recognizing the museum’s role in selling the complete 18th and Vine district.

*****

The museums’ back yard is about to change. In a joint venture between the Kansas City Royals, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, the country’s seventh MLB Urban Youth Academy will be built in Parade Park.

This development brings with it the potential to transform the 18th and Vine district. The district never did and never will thrive on jazz alone. In the 1930s, jazz was the soundtrack to vice. It needs a new companion.

*****

Broadway Kansas City, until earlier this year The Broadway Jazz Club, has been sold. The space will become a Scandinavian restaurant. The new owners tell The Pitch that they see their concept as a destination. Presumably, it will be a destination without live music. The sale does not include the sound system or piano.

*****

The Art Factory at 135th and Nall is dipping its toes into Friday night jazz. Louie’s Wine Dive, at 71st and Wornall, features the music in a downstairs alcove most Saturdays. You can find jazz in upscale surroundings at the American Restaurant in Crown Center and at Chaz in the Raphael Hotel on The Plaza. We have the Green Lady Lounge and The Blue Room and The Majestic and on some nights The Phoenix and the Westport Coffee House. The area hosts a couple of relatively small festivals, a Charlie Parker celebration, winter series at both The Folly and The Gem, and The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra in the Kauffman Center. Jazz education programs at UMKC and Kansas City, Kansas Community College continue to thrive. The Mutual Musicians Foundation remains open overnight every Friday and Saturday for its historic jam sessions.

The Broadway Jazz Club and Take Five were both unique circumstances and jazz in Kansas City is decidedly not dead.

The Night Before a 2015 KC Jazz Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 15:00:00 +0000

’Twas the night before Christmas and all through K.C.
Jazz fans sat ’round restless with less shows to see.
Sure, we still had the Folly, the Gem Theater, too,
And Green Lady, Majestic, a Room known as Blue.
But some clubs had closed, fewer places to cheer.
And we lose RecordBar at the end of the year.
The situation’s not dire. Jazz faces no doom.
But the holidays bared just a wee bit of gloom.
Then off in the distance there arose such a clatter
I yanked off my earbuds to see what was the matter.
I ran to the window and to my eyes did appear
A miniature sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer.
On my roof it did land. My dog quickly was riled.
My phone I did grasp. Nine-one-one I might dial.
A man dropped down my chimney. I was stunned. In his hand
Was the new Christmas CD by the Count Basie band.
He dressed all in red, with a laugh jolly and quick.
He was either a madman or the elf named St. Nick.
“I mean no harm,” he did say. “Here, this album’s for you.
“It’s music that riffs on the good kind of blues.
“I heard your despair, but you need worry not.
“Not with the jazz talent this city has got.
“Eighty years next November, can you believe,
“Since from Kansas City, Count Basie did leave.
“But a culture was born and continues to live
“In this great city as musicians still give
“Of their time and their talent. To students they teach
“The wonders of jazz. Generations they reach.
“Some honor tradition, some go new directions.
“But both find an audience and make a connection.
“On Mehari! On Lambert! On Megan Birdsall!
“On Eddie Moore, Shay Estes, and all!
“Hear the B-3 played by Hazelton’s hand!
“Or hear the People’s Liberation Big Band!
“On Molly! On Eboni! On Lisa Henry!
“On Jazz Disciples! Tyrone Clark! There’s so many!
“Hear New Jazz Order each Wednesday night!
“Or to K.C. Jazz Orchestra you can delight!
“On Lowrey! On Kessler! And on Hagenbach!
“In Kansas City, all see that jazz has a lock
“On a style that was born here. And talent that grows
“Will find its new venues. This much I know.
“Clubs come and they go, but the culture remains
“And talent this great you will not contain.
“Jazz now may not thrive as in eighty years past
“But in K.C. be assured its presence will last.”
St. Nick stood in the chimney, winked once, then he rose.
He sat in his sleigh and shook soot from his clothes.
As he flew off, I sat up quick in my bed.
’Twas all but a dream. It was all in my head.
I walked to the window and stared into the night.
But all that I dreamed, I knew it was right.
I turned back to my bed and, wait, what did I see?
There on the night stand…how’d I get that new Basie CD?

The People's Liberation Big Band Ends an Era at the Record Bar

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:00:00 +0000

To a standing room only crowd, a seven-and-a-half year jazz era concluded on Sunday, December 6th when the People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City performed their last show in this location of the Record Bar.

The Record Bar loses its lease after New Year’s Eve. But while we wait for a new location to be vetted, People’s Lib loses, for now, its home on the first Sunday of each month.

This night the band played the best known and most popular numbers in its eclectic library and recorded the show, presumably for a future CD release. It was a reminder of how its music is so wonderfully inventive. Sometimes outlandish but consistently accessible and fun, this is what an extraordinary collection of jazz talent can produce when given the freedom to explore.

If you missed it, below are glimpses at a few of the musicians on stage. As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City

Leader Brad Cox taking a turn on piano

Shay Estes sings

Mark Southerland on sax

Jeff Harshbarger on bass

Multi-instrumentalist Mark Cohick

Roger Wilder on piano, clearly enjoying the music

Forrest Stewart

Mike Stover

Rich Wheeler on sax

Sam Wisman on drums

Shay Estes

When I've heard Mark Southerland before, it was on odd instruments of his own invention playing music that experimented a bit beyond what I understand and enjoy. This night he played a beautiful and powerful extended saxophone solo that won - deservedly - a standing ovation.

Brad Cox directs the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City in the Record Bar

Voids

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:00:00 +0000

Agreed, the story is not “jazz is dead.” But in Kansas City, it’s a little bit wounded.

When talking with Jim Pollock, owner of the Broadway Jazz Club, one of his greatest concerns was that the story surrounding the club’s closing not devolve into “jazz is dead.” He knew his club’s sale would fall on the heels of the loss of Johnson County’s beloved Take Five. And he knew how easy it would be to twist the narrative of two area jazz clubs closing in relatively quick succession into the inevitable end of this music as we know it.

That’s one reason why he contributed his tale on the life and death of the Broadway Jazz Club, published in this blog in September, here. He wanted it known that the club was not well managed and did not keep a business-like rein on expenses until it was too late. Any restaurant / club, regardless of music offered, would fail under such circumstances, and many do every week.

Similarly, Take Five, ensconced in a posh suburban mall, needed more than jazz to meet posh suburban mall rents. Its concept was to thrive as a busy coffee shop by day and jazz club by weekend night. Jazz fans did their part, avidly seeking out the venue. But sufficient daylight business on the barren butt-side of Corbin Park never materialized, and only half a business plan succeeding is not a business plan succeeding.

Despite these closings, the Art Factory at 135th and Nall is dipping its toes into Friday night jazz. Louie’s Wine Dive, at 71st and Wornall, features the music in a downstairs alcove most Saturdays (but good luck finding out who’s there if you don’t follow the musician on Facebook). You can find jazz in upscale surroundings at the American Restaurant in Crown Center and at Chaz in the Raphael Hotel on The Plaza. We have the Green Lady Lounge and The Blue Room and The Majestic and on some nights The Phoenix and the Westport Coffee House. The area hosts a couple of relatively small festivals, a Charlie Parker celebration, winter series at both The Folly and The Gem, and The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra in the Kauffman Center. Jazz education programs at UMKC and Kansas City, Kansas Community College continue to thrive. The Mutual Musicians Foundation remains open overnight every Friday and Saturday for its historic jam sessions.

So The Broadway Jazz Club and Take Five were both unique circumstances and jazz in Kansas City is decidedly not dead.

But let’s not stick our heads in the jazz sand, either. We’ve lost two clubs and that (along with turnover at the top of the American Jazz Museum) ranks as one of Kansas City’s major jazz stories of 2015.

In Broadway, we lost a stage that showcased singers. Take Five featured the full gamut of Kansas City jazz. And while The Blue Room and Green Lady Lounge have attempted to plug a few of the holes, they have their own formats and their own regular performers who have made them successful. Plenty of gaps remain. For instance, I love hearing Rich Wheeler’s ensemble. As far as I know, that group hasn’t played a public gig since Take Five’s doors were sealed.

We’ve been here before. Today’s contraction doesn’t feel nearly as dire as when Jardine’s shut down. Then we lost one of the area’s jazz anchors. But soon Green Lady opened, for a while Kill Devil Club featured jazz, Take Five expanded, and Broadway tried to imitate Jardine’s.

As John Scott, owner of Green Lady Lounge and the last manager of The Broadway Jazz Club lamented as Broadway was heading towards its demise, small businesses come and small businesses go all the time. Every jazz club is a small business.

Today, Kansas City jazz is a little bit wounded. We face a void. But a void is an opportunity for a new small business to fill.

UMKC will continue to funnel sterling talent into our jazz scene. By this time next year, phase one of a new KC Royals-sponsored baseball academy should be transforming Parade Park and, assuming the city can control news of crime in the area, fresh crowds could be flowing into the 18th and Vine district. The Mutual Musicians Foundation’s new jazz radio station should be broadcasting. The Record Bar, which features jazz a couple times a month, will be settled into a fresh home.

And just maybe a new small business or two will have opened, recognizing the opportunity to fill a void.

Three CDs Reviewed Simply and Viscerally

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:00:00 +0000

In editing Jam, I’ve found some CD reviewers get into what I find to be the musical weeds, praising elements like “rapid fire sixteenth-note bursts.” I’ve never attended a music class in my life and I wouldn’t know a sixteenth note burst from the movie Sixteen Candles. My reaction to music is more simplistic and visceral. It generally boils down to either (a) I like it or (b) I don’t like it.

For instance, I like the Michael Pagan / Bob Bowman / Brian Steever CD, The Ottawa Sessions, recorded at Ottawa University’s Fredrikson Chapel. Starting with the joyous bounce of Lullabye of the Leaves, these musicians are engaged in a musical conversation. Pagan’s piano winds over, under and around Steever’s propelling drums on the rambunctious Hebgen Happy Hour. Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise invites you to pay attention through a more intimate but no less engaging journey. Bowman’s intricate plethora of notes delights on Owe You Blues (“intricate plethora of notes” – that’s as technical as my reviews get).

Repeatedly you’re struck by how integral each musician is to this music. Any piano trio could easily devolve into little more than the pianist’s showcase. And Pagan’s playing, consistently expressive, excels. But it is the artistry and interplay between three of today’s Kansas City jazz masters that gives this CD its exceptional voice.

The Ottawa Sessions can be found on Amazon here, on CDBaby here, and on iTunes here.

No less delightful is Ron Carlson’s new CD, Kind Folk. Carlson was nudged into the studio by Rob Scheps, who joins him on saxophone and flute. Also joining all numbers are bassist Bob Bowman and drummer Brian Steever, who are clearly not spending all of their spare time in Ottawa, and baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Roger Rosenberg visiting with Scheps from New York.

Carlson’s name may grace the cover of the CD, but his role here is more often that of host and glue, clearly driving the rhythm but letting the other musicians shine. On the title tune, Scheps and Rosenberg invitingly layer saxophones over and around Carlson’s compelling guitar. On the ballad First Song, Rosenberg’s bass clarinet glides beautifully, followed by Scheps’s smooth but darting flute, before both weave together with grace.

Stellar KC vocalists join three of the numbers. Angela Hagenbach romps with Scheps and Rosenberg on the exquisitely fun Bye Bye Country Boy. A Felicidade finds Scheps’s flute bouncing around Shay Estes’s Portuguese vocals. A Beautiful Friendship opens with Kathleen Holeman over Bowman’s bass before the entire ensemble swings in.

Kind Folk is available on CDBaby here.

Where the first two albums are unabashed swing, Mike Metheny’s new CD. Twelve For the Road, experiments. Our friend Plastic Sax described the sound as “electronic space music.” That fits many of the selections.

But not all. The brief For Parkville is one of the most conventional and most appealing numbers to a non-music-educated luddite like me. Carousel brings to mind a slightly off-kilter score to a Fellini film. Both feature Metheny on keyboards. He’s on keyboards on most numbers here. His flugelhorn comes out on Home, with a sound smoothly dense and welcome.

Much of this music rides the edge of jazz. I understand and appreciate an artist reaching for new directions. But sometimes electronic experimentation in music leads me to greater appreciation of the conventional. I suppose that’s just the simple and visceral in me.

Twelve For the Road is available on Amazon here, on CDBaby here and on Mike Metheny’s website here.

Kissin' Cousins

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 15:00:00 +0000

Editing Jam takes a toll. Three weeks and nary a new post.

This blog has been neither forgotten nor ignored. But as editor of Jam magazine – I still want to say new editor, but three issues in I’m not sure that holds – I’m finding that every couple of months, a few weekends need to be handed over to producing the next issue. I have neither the time nor stamina to spend a weekend writing and editing articles for the magazine while simultaneously mustering pithy thoughts here.

This week’s post is short, as I recoup from last weekend’s 4 a.m. nights. But the result is worth the effort. The December/January Jam printed last week and is being distributed around town now. It’s far from perfected, but this issue comes closer to my vision for the magazine, which celebrates 30 years of publication in 2016. Jam is developing a new voice and a fresh look. I have found that even in this digital century, holding a slick printed document remains important to many.

I share the new issue’s cover to shamelessly promote it. That’s singer Eboni Fondren decked in Royals gear and standing on the small baseball diamond adjacent to the historic Paseo YMCA at 19th and The Paseo.

Clearly, the photo is inspired by the Royals’ World Series championship. But it works in part because in Kansas City, baseball and jazz have long been kissin’ cousins. In the 1920s and ’30s, when a new style of jazz was growing up in this city, the Kansas City Monarchs dominated baseball’s Negro Leagues and were as integral to the fabric of 18th and Vine as were music and vice. The Monarchs’ office stood on 18th Street, between The Paseo and Vine. They played in Municipal Stadium at 22nd and Brooklyn.

The Negro Leagues fed the integration of baseball, and the integration of baseball is often cited as one key to the acceptance of integration in America. February will mark 96 years since the charter creating the Negro Baseball Leagues was signed at the Paseo YMCA, in 1920. I’ve long argued that the building deserves recognition as a National Historic Landmark.

Add September’s announcement on plans to build the nation’s seventh Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy in Parade Park, behind the jazz and Negro Leagues museums. If the city can find a solution to taming crime in the district, and the devastating news stories that crime generates, this development will attract a new audience to Kansas City’s historic jazz district. It further strengthens Kansas City’s historic bonds between baseball and jazz.

But while baseball season has ended for this year, jazz continues. Diana Krall performed at the Midland on Saturday night. And Friday night, she sat in with Matt Otto at The Blue Room on his last set. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen just anywhere. The loss of Take Five and The Broadway Jazz Club means fewer opportunities for musicians to perform. No question, it’s a setback. But the wealth of jazz talent in Kansas City today will keep the music thriving, and will keep performers like Diana Krall getting out when they visit to sample what we have going on.

No New Post

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 15:00:00 +0000

As work in n the next issue of Jam magazine heats up – with an early close due to Thanksgiving – work on this blog takes a break. No new post this week. (But the next issue of the magazine is going to be awesome!)

Congratulations, Royals!

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:00:00 +0000

This blog is about Kansas City and jazz. But today this city is all about our Royals winning the World Series. Next week we can rerturn to what passes here for on-topic punditry. Today, along with all other proud and excited Kansas Citians, I have just one thought: Congratulations, Kansas City Royals!

Another One Bites the Dust

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Broadway Kansas City, until earlier this year The Broadway Jazz Club, has been sold. The space will become a Scandinavian restaurant (their website is here). The new owners tell The Pitch (here) that they see their concept as a destination. Presumably, it will be a destination without live music. The sale does not include the sound system or piano.

Tentative plans are for Clint Ashlock’s wonderful New Jazz Order Big Band, which had established itself as a Tuesday Broadway favorite, to relocate to the Green Lady Lounge’s downstairs Orion Room early in November on Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m., leading into Ken Lovern’s weekly OJT gig upstairs at 9:00. Recordings scheduled yet for this year of the good music/bad comedy radio program 12th Street Jump will supplant New Jazz Order in the Orion Room on two upcoming Wednesdays, including November 18th for a show featuring Kevin Mahogany.

It’s been six years since I tried – and failed – to open a jazz club in Kansas City (the recession interfered). In researching a plan at the time, I found two successful business models employed by other jazz clubs: Turn the audience twice a night or also open during the day. Either can generate a revenue stream sufficient to pay rent and investors.

The two-shows-a-night model is used by clubs in larger cities, such as the Village Vanguard or Blue Note in New York, or Jazz Alley in Seattle. Jardine’s practiced it on weekends. But Kansas City’s jazz audience clearly isn’t large enough for that model to succeed here nightly.

A friend was among the group that bought Milton’s from Milton Morris’ niece decades ago. He told me that the iconic Kansas City jazz bar was essentially a break-even business. But it wouldn’t have been even that without the lushes who wandered in off a then-grittier Main Street throughout the day.

More than once, as I sat among a crowded but quite settled in weekend audience, I wondered how The Broadway Jazz Club was surviving. Listeners were enjoying outstanding jazz. But they weren’t leaving. The room wasn’t turning over. How could Broadway afford to pay performers what Jardine’s paid yet sell half as many dinners? How were they making financial ends meet?

Turns out, as initial investor and eventual owner Jim Pollock revealed in a timeline six weeks ago (here), they weren’t. They never did. This club wanted, initially anyway, to be the next Jardine’s. But there was never an apparent effort to turn the room on weekend nights as Jardine’s did. It’s not a new notion. Milton Morris boasted of a 1930s New Year’s Eve when he paid police to “raid” his jazz club and clear it for a fresh crowd (though that’s probably going a bit further than The Broadway Jazz Club needed).

More, this was the wrong neighborhood for the next Jardine’s. My blog post about being attacked by youths with a gun on my fifth visit certainly didn’t help. But approaching 3600 Broadway from the south after dark, visitors drive past a Sprint store with steel bars covering its windows. There’s a rougher, uneasy midtown quality to this neighborhood, unlike Jardine’s just-north-of-the-Plaza, look-you-can-see-Nichols-Fountain-from-here location. This part of town, in 2015, works for eclectic restaurants, like the nearby Hamburger Mary’s. Kansas City will support a dinner jazz club. But not here.

Broadway's demise follows the closing of Take Five Coffee + Bar. Take Five embraced the revenue-throughout-the-day business model, but in a pricey Johnson County development that never developed except, at the end, for another coffee shop in a nearby sporting goods store.

Yet, there is a jazz club success story in our midst: The Green Lady Lounge. With a bar hugging the length of one wall designed to serve a large number of customers quickly, a 3 a.m. license (a rarity in the Crossroads district), an inviting and classic environment, and a simple and direct marketing message of jazz and drinks seven nights a week, owner John Scott has tripled revenues since opening his second stage downstairs.

Green Lady Lounge is a variation of the turn-the-crowd model, with the later license, no cover charge and that long bar facilitating volume business. It’s proof that a smartly conceived and operated jazz business can indeed succeed in Kansas City.

It’s probably best that I didn’t start a jazz club six years ago. While I was working with experienced consultants and remain convinced that I’d targeted a solid location, my lack of service industry experience, in the end, would have likely doomed the venture. Small businesses die every day. But had I tried and failed, the business would have ended because of me, because of my lack of club smarts and acumen, because I wasn’t sufficiently savvy.

It would not have died because it featured jazz. In Kansas City, run right, a jazz business will succeed.

No New Post

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:11:00 +0000

No post, no photos, nothing new this week, profound or otherwise.

That's not quite right. I do have one thought new to this blog, though it's not especially jazz related:

Go Royals!

The 2015 Prairie Village Jazz Festival, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 14:00:00 +0000

A previous post covered how the headline act of the 2015 Prairie Village Jazz Festival came to be the McFadden Brothers with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. But the simple fact is, no matter who else may have been considered in the course of developing this year’s festival, nobody, absolutely nobody, could have delighted the young and old, the kids and the parents packing the hill in Harmon Park more completely than the McFaddens with KCJO.

Certain acts just turn out to be a perfect match for a particular setting, a stage, an audience. Sometimes, 5000 people, ideal weather, an orchestra and a couple of tap dancers gel perfectly. That’s what happened in Prairie Village on September 10th.

Angela Hagenbach preceded them with the magnificent vocals that have made her a favorite of Kansas City and worldwide audiences for over two decades. Don’t miss her production of Alice in Wonderland set to the music of John Coltrane – Jazz Alice – on the stage in the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Library on October 28th. It’s previewed in the latest issue of Jam.

And preceding Angela in the festival, playing to a beautiful setting sun, Matt Kane and the Kansas City Generations Sextet matched drummer Kane – now based in New York but originally from Hannibal, Missouri and a graduate of UMKC’s Conservatory – with five of the best of Kansas City’s amazing new jazz generation.

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

As the sun set in Prairie Village on September 10th, a growing crowd packed the hill in Harmon Park.

Matt Kane and the Generations Sextet. Left to right: Ben Leifer on bass, Andrew Ouellette on piano, Matt Kane on drums, Steve Lambert on tenor sax, Hermon Mehari on trumpet, Michael Shults on alto sax.

The stage, with Matt Kane and the Generations Sextet, bathed in the setting sun.

Angela Hagenbach sings

Danny Embry with Angela's group

Angela in the spotlight

The McFadden Brothers and The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra

The McFadden Brothers dance to an audience standing and applauding with joy.

Clint Ashlock directs The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra

Ronnie McFadden

Lonnie McFadden

The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra

The 2015 Prairie Village Jazz Festival, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 14:00:00 +0000

The weather could not have cooperated better.

The Prairie Village Jazz Festival is still remembered by some for its second year when a microburst pummeled the grounds and ended the day after two acts. Perhaps the weather gods realize they overdid it that year – and they did – and have have been making up for it since.

This year, on Saturday September 10th, crowds started building early and stayed through the McFadden Brothers and The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra bringing thousands to their feet to sway to the magnificent music.

We’ll get to photos of the finale (and Angela Hagenbach and Matt Kane and the Generations Sextet) next week. This week, we take a glance at the day’s first four acts, including Tyrone Clark and True Dig with Lisa Henry, Horacescope, the Peter Schlamb Quartet and the Shawnee Mission East blue Knights.

As always, clicking on a photo should open a larger version of it.

A decent sized crowd for 2:30 in the afternoon and magnificent weather greeted the Shawnee Mission East Blue Knights to open the 2015 festival.

The Shawnee Mission East Blue Knights

The Peter Schlamb Quartet. Left to right: Peter Schlamb on vibraphone, Karl McComas-Reichl on bass, John Kizilarmut on drums, Hermon Mehari on trumpet.

Peter Schlamb. Behind him, Karl McComas-Reichl.

Hermon Mehari

Tyrone Clark and True Dig. Left to right: Charles Williams on keyboards, Tyrone Clark on bass, Lisa Henry, vocals, Michael Warren on drums, Charles Gatschet on guitar.

Tyrone Clark

Lisa Henry

Horacescope. Left to right: Roger Wilder on piano, James Albright on bass, Stan Kessler on trumpet, Sam Wisman on drums, David Chael on saxophone.

James Albright, Stan Kessler, David Chael and Sam Wisman

As the sun started to set, the crowd grew.

All the Pieces

noreply@blogger.com (kcjazzlark) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 14:00:00 +0000

The difference in body language caught my attention first.

I sat in a meeting early this summer, in a conference room near 18th and Vine, that included several staff members from the American Jazz Museum. I noticed the way one sat angled in his chair, the edge in a voice when one spoke, the wayward gaze of another. We’ve all sat through gatherings on a bad day. This was different. There was an overarching sense of disgruntlement and defiance, not with the topic at hand but with something else.

Two months later, I sat down to talk with the new interim CEO of the museum for a Q and A in the next issue of Jam magazine. As I walked through the jazz museum offices, I was struck by a fresh feel of excitement, animation, a spark not present before. The difference was palpable. The body language had changed.

That’s just one of the changes Ralph Reid is shepherding through the American Jazz Museum. Following 35 years at Sprint, retiring as Vice President for Corporate Responsibility and President of the Sprint Foundation, Reid brings unique experience and a new outlook. He’s focused on how the museum’s brand is perceived, a key to the success of any corporate behemoth or civic institution. And his words suggest a comprehensive vision, of recognizing the museum’s role in selling the complete 18th and Vine district.

That’s especially important following last week’s announcement at the Negro Leagues Museum. The museums’ back yard is about to change. In a joint venture between the Kansas City Royals, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, the country’s seventh MLB Urban Youth Academy will be built in Parade Park. From Mayor Sly James’s website (here):

The Academy and park improvements will be developed in two phases:

• Phase I includes two full-size baseball fields, including one with permanent and portable bleachers for tournament play; two youth baseball-softball fields; a half-mile walking trail with views of the baseball and softball diamonds; relocated basketball courts; relocated and renovated tennis courts, and a new playground near the community center.

• Phase II includes the indoor training facility with a turf infield, batting cages, pitching mounds, restrooms and concession facilities for the diamonds; a Great Lawn that will serve as a front yard for the Academy and as a shared event space, and additional parking.

Here’s the layout, with the museums highlighted in yellow (clicking on the image should open a larger view):

Phase 1 is scheduled to be completed in a year. Fundraising continues for phase 2 with the hopes that the training facility will be standing a year later.

This development brings with it the potential to transform the 18th and Vine district. The district never did and never will thrive on jazz alone. In the 1930s, jazz was the soundtrack to vice. It needs a new companion.

But this district faces special challenges. I’ve quoted often from a 1979 study commissioned by the Black Economic Union and funded by the Ford Foundation which said, in part, that even then people feared coming into the area. The city needs to address an image ingrained for decades and underscored just this past Sunday when, at 2:40 a.m., four people were shot at 18th and Highland, one seriously (news reports here and here). These incidents must end. This isn’t The Plaza where stories of woebegone youth surprise. This is what too many people anticipate here, so they don’t come. The five o’clock news cannot open with reports from the district of “an uptick in crime” and a resident saying, “This is a horrible street to live on” while you ask parents to send their kids to play baseball in the neighborhood park.

Because the possibilities here are incredible.

If the city can stymie the stories of violence, the coming of the beloved and Snow White-sweet Royals, with Major League Baseball, can bestow the district with equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. They can draw a new audience. Will it be a large enough crowd to entice new restaurants and shops? That’s the hope.

I suspect Mayor James has been pushing for East Crossroads development incentives in part because this revitalization is coming. That’s another element necessary to begin to dispel languishing fears: the district needs a not-so-scary-to-nonurbanites connection to the rest of the city.

I’m aware of two clubs which at least sometimes book jazz being courted to East Crossroads. Could this city, in a few years, boast of Green Lady Lounge accompanied by some new jazz cohorts jamming in an area that leads to an 18th and Vine district with The Blue Room, the Mutual Musicians Foundation broadcasting its new radio station and a Major League Baseball facility training future major leaguers? Many discussions are preliminary. Money needs to be raised. So much could yet fall elsewhere or simply fall apart. But today, all of the critical pieces are dangling for that vision to be a possibility.

The vision. I spoke with Ralph Reid just two weeks after he took over leadership of the American Jazz Museum. He was uncomfortable attaching the word vision to his ideas and plans. Yet, Reid’s Sprint experience in community outreach and his time spent on the boards of other major not-for-profit organizations brings the experience and vision needed at the jazz museum during a time of district transitions. He’s another critical piece.

A few weeks ago, on KCPT’s Kansas City Week in Review, I watched as the panelists speculated on whether Ralph Reid might consider staying on at the museum past his designated interim role. I thought, I know the answer to that. I asked him that question earlier in the week. And the answer is…

…in the next issue of Jam, available around town starting later this week.

(I can be such a tease.)