A friend rhapsodized about his plan to make professional recordings of Kansas City jazz artists a couple weeks ago. As he spoke, a quartet expertly covered smooth jazz and soul-jazz standards for a paid audience of less than ten at a listening room. I told him that identifying worthy musicians is easy. Finding an audience for the prospective recordings presents a bigger challenge.
At a different venue later that night, three world-class Kansas City based musicians played daring original material for an audience consisting of myself and three saxophonists at a no-cover gig. The two dozen other people in the room ignored the trio. That’s par for the course.
Given the harsh climate for jazz in Kansas City and elsewhere, I remain enormously grateful for the intrepid musicians diligently documenting their work. A rich bounty is produced by Kansas City artists every year. Two recently published polls highlight their challenges and accomplishments on the international stage.
Four-hundred-and-sixty-one new albums received at least one vote in the mid-year edition of the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. Kansas City is represented by new albums by Pat Metheny (81st place with three votes) and Steve Cardenas (82nd place with three votes). My ballot is here.
DownBeat recently published the results of its extensive 74th Annual Critics Poll. A tally of Kansas City artists making appearances follows. Individual voter ballots aren’t published.
Bob Brookmeyer: Hall of Fame (22nd place)
Pat Metheny: Artist of the Year: (22nd place); Album of the Year: (26th place); Group of the Year: (21st place); Guitarist of the Year: (6th place); Composer of the Year: (9th place)
Mike Dillon: Vibraphonist of the Year (21st place)
Samantha Fish: Blues Artist of the Year (12th place); Blues Album of the Year (4th place)
Hermon Mehari: Rising Star Trumpeter (14th place)
Eldar Djangirov: Rising Star Pianist (24th place)
Brittany Davis: Rising Star Keyboardist (19th place); Rising Star Female Vocalist (8th place)
Chris Hazelton: Rising Star Organist (15th place)
Peter Schlamb: Rising Star Vibraphonist (9th place)