I take umbrage when members of Kansas City’s jazz community whine about the smooth jazz that’s played in portions of the airport in Kansas City. The malcontents insist that “real” jazz should be used in its place.
The general public prefers smooth jazz to “real” jazz. Besides, Kansas City has produced several prominent smooth jazz artists. Millions of compact discs featuring the Kansas City-raised Norman Brown, for instance, were purchased in the 1990s.
The guitarist opens his latest album Authentically Norman with the frothy "Chillax". The title is bound to infuriate haters, but the soothing tone is precisely what travelers appreciate while conducting their business in airport bathrooms or studying arrival and departure boards in concourses.
Brown doesn’t pretend to challenge listeners on the R&B-infused Authentically Norman. Instead, he succeeds in his unassuming goal of providing a modicum of comfort and a tasteful dose of sexiness to the otherwise harried lives of people yearning for a tranquil moment.
That said, musicians in Kansas City do have a legitimate beef concerning their city’s new airport. Airports in many other cities in the United States- Detroit, Nashville and Portland among them- feature at least ten hours of live entertainment every day.
Musicians often rake in enormous tips during their shifts at these gigs. That the practice isn’t replicated in Kansas City is unfathomable. A campaign aimed at establishing a similar program would be welcome. Otherwise, Kansas City’s musicians would do well to take Brown’s advice to chillax.