Brian Steever’s vital role in Kansas City’s jazz community was clarified during the drummer’s performance at the album release show for Drew Williams’ Demons Hate Fresh Air in December.
The set closed with a robust reading of Paul Motian’s “The Owl of Cranston” in which Steever once again demonstrated that he’s Kansas City’s equivalent of the legendary drummer. Like Motian, Steever is equally adept in straight-ahead and avant-garde settings.
With drumsticks serving as extensions of his long limbs, Steever is a joy to watch as he elevates every gig on which he appears. Steever’s annual collaborations with Steve Cardenas are especially rewarding.
Steever’s exceptional work on strong 2025 albums by Kansas City stalwarts Gerald Spaits, the aforementioned Williams and Wire Town further certifies the drummer as Plastic Sax’s 2025 Person of the Year.
The previous recipients of the designation are Dwight Frizzell (2024), Matt Otto (2023), Seth Davis and Evan Verploegh (2022), Rod Fleeman (2021), Charlie Parker (2020), Logan Richardson (2019), Peter Schlamb (2018), John Scott (2017), Eddie Moore (2016), Larry Kopitnik (2015), Deborah Brown (2014), Stan Kessler (2013), Doug and Lori Chandler (2012), Jeff Harshbarger (2011), Mark Lowrey (2010) and Hermon Mehari (2009). Bobby Watson was named the Plastic Sax Person of the Decade in 2009 and again in 2019.