The Top Stories and Trends of 2023 on Kansas City’s Jazz Scene

1. Last Train Home
The Lee’s Summit native Pat Metheny snapped an eleven-year embargo of the Kansas City area with a concert at Muriel Kauffman Theatre in June. 

2. Larson vs. Otto: Everybody Wins
The astounding productivity of Adam Larson and Matt Otto, Kansas City based saxophonists in their artistic primes, resembled a friendly cutting contest.

3. Too Marvelous for Words
The Kansas City mainstay Marilyn Maye celebrated her 95th birthday with a concert at Carnegie Hall.

4. Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City
The Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society presented performances by cutting-edge touring musicians including Vinny Golia, Maria Elena Silva, Eli Wallace and Jack Wright. 

5. Absinthe Ascendent
Green Lady Lounge tightened its stranglehold as Kansas City’s dominant jazz venue. A program on Kansas Public Radio and an ongoing series of live albums furthered its hegemony.

6. Outside the Lines
Just two of  Plastic Sax’s 20 Favorite Performances of 2023 transpired in jazz clubs. Venues including concert halls and art galleries hosted much of the most interesting improvised music performed in Kansas City.

7. Ticketed
Attendance at concerts by Samara Joy, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Pat Metheny and Domi and JD Beck indicates the Kansas City area is home to about 1,500 people who are willing to pay $25 or more to hear instrumental jazz.

8. Turnover
Rashida Phillips resigned her position as Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum.

9. It Takes a Village
The Prairie Village Jazz Festival, a one-day, single-stage event featuring locally based musicians, remains the region’s most notable jazz festival.

10. Con Man
Con Chapman’s Kansas City Jazz A Little Evil Will Do You Good provided new insights into the area’s jazz history.

Last year’s recap is here.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*KCUR reported on the resignation of Rashida Phillips as the executive director of the American Jazz Museum.

*Reed Jackson investigated the Kansas origins of guitarist David Lord for The Pitch.

*Greg Carroll and Deborah Brown promoted the annual Spotlight: Charlie Parker initiative on KCUR.

*Joe Dimino interviewed Matt Otto.

*Marc Myers is on a Basie bender.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*The New York Times caught up with Marilyn Maye.

*Eboni Fondren and Rashida Phillips considered the role of women in the development of Kansas City jazz on KCUR’s Up To Date program.

*KCUR published A Guide to the Best Venues for Live Music Around the Metro.

*​All Night Trio and Back Alley Brass Band submitted entries to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest.

*Tweet of the Week: Coalback- Saw u last night @GreenLadyLounge. Excellent show!

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Libby Hanssen created a feature about Kansas City’s women jazz musicians for KCUR.

*Nduduzo Makhathini chatted with Rashida Phillips of the American Jazz Museum.

*Tweet of the Week: Miles- Kansas City took my Jazz club virginity and I am so grateful for it (video)

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Nedra Dixon and Pamela Baskin-Watson were awarded an Opera America grant to assist in the advancement of their “A God- Sib's Tale: A Folk Opera” project.

*Rashida Phillips of the American Jazz Museum chatted with Steve Kraske on KCUR’s Up To Date prgram.

*El Intruso’s 14th Annual International Critics Poll was published this week.  My ballot includes votes for the Kansas City musicians Brett Jackson, Hermon Mehari, Pat Metheny, Brian Scarborough and Bobby Watson.

*Tweet of the Week: The Eldridge- POSTPONED! Look for a new date soon. Susan Hancock is roaring back to the Lawrence, KS music scene for the first time in two years! She is delighted to be joined by two top Kansas City jazz musicians, Roger Wilder, pianist, and Joey Panella, bass. #theeldridge #lawrence #music

Exhibit Review: “Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic” at the American Jazz Museum

Billie Holiday boasted “my mother, she gave me something- it's going to carry me through this world” on “Billie’s Blues,” one of the iconic artist’s signature songs.  The powerful attribute radiates from the 56 images in Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic at the American Jazz Museum.  The museum hosts the traveling exhibit curated by the Smithsonian Institution through August 1.

The proceedings of a reception in the museum’s atrium celebrating the May 8 opening of the exhibit- the fourth of the show’s six tour stops- effectively affirmed Holiday’s ongoing relevance in popular culture.  Backed by the James Ward Band, Rashida Phillips, Executive Director of the museum, Piaget Long and Love, Mae C, (Instagram clip) performed winning renditions of songs associated with Holiday.

Dr. Dina Bennett, Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs, mentioned Kanye West’s sample of Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit” on his divisive 2013 album Yeezus.  Phillips referenced the new Andra Day vehicle The United States vs. Billie Holiday.  Dantzic’s output while on the payroll of Decca Records in 1957 possesses a similarly timeless quality.  Holiday is seen in strikingly intimate photos at home, in paparazzi-style street shots and in instructive images at the New Jersey nightclub Sugar Hill.

All of the portraits can be easily located online, but seeing the handsomely framed photographs hanging on the walls of the museum’s Changing Gallery offers a vastly superior experience.  Holiday claimed “I ain’t good looking” in “Billie’s Blues.”  It’s not true.  Dantzic’s photos depict a woman who was beautiful inside and out.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*The American Jazz Museum’s Rashida Phillips was interviewed by Northeast News and KC Studio.

*Ken Lovern remembers the late Joe Miquelon in a conversation with Joe Dimino.

*The New York Times notes the ongoing interest in Mary Lou Williams’ “Zodiac Suite.”

*Tweet of the Week: Pat Metheny- Today @librarycongress @LibnOfCongress Carla Hayden named ‘Bright Size Life’ among 25 selections as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage. #NatRecRegistry

K.C. Blues, Part Four

I didn’t set out to enrage readers with the unintentionally incendiary K.C. Blues series.  The first three installments are a surprisingly controversial reality check.  Problems are best addressed with candid recognition of the challenges.  This, the fourth and final part of the series, lists eight reasons for optimism.

1. Lonnie’s Reno Club isn’t a new jazz venue. The hotel at 1111 Grand Boulevard has long hosted live jazz.  But the newly rebranded club is slated to feature performances by the dynamic Lonnie McFadden three nights a week.  In addition to being an ideal attraction for guests from out of town, the exciting concept breathes new life into Kansas City’s arts scene.

2. Rashida Phillips hasn’t had an adequate opportunity to show her stripes.  The pandemic hit a few months after she was named the Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum.  Here’s hoping Phillips is a creative innovator capable of altering the trajectory of the troubled institution.

3. The stylistic breadth of jazz made in Kansas City continues to expand.  Amber Underwood, Eddie Moore and Logan Richardson are among the musicians capable of growing the audience for improvised sounds by bridging the divide between jazz and popular music.

4. Bobby Watson is irreplaceable.  Yet the addition of Adam Larson to the faculty of the UMKC Conservatory lessens the blow of Watson’s retirement from academia.  Larson possesses substantial artistic imagination and vital industry connections.

5. "Chronicles of Conception", a track Ernest Melton quietly issued earlier this year, suggests the brilliance occasionally flashed by the saxophonist may soon turn into a consistent torrent of inspiration.

6. The improvised music scene will be infused by a manic burst of energy if the peripatetic Mike Dillon continues to hang his hat in Kansas City.  His return to his longtime home coincides with the release of the outstanding Rosewood.

7. The emergence of live streaming as a (semi)viable alternative to conventional performances is constructive.  The high quality of productions at Black Dolphin continues to astound.  There’s no reason the digital presentations shouldn’t be held over following a return to normalcy.

8. I’ll reveal my annual year-end top ten jazz album list by Kansas City artists in several weeks.  Impressive 2020 releases are so plentiful that several strong albums won’t make the cut.  My recognition of the abundant artistic excellence is yet another reminder to readers that my grievances shouldn’t be misconstrued as discontent with the music produced by Kansas City’s jazz musicians.