Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Tony's Kansas City highlighted an intriguing item published by the city clerk's office.  Dated June 7, it's titled Authorizing the City Manager to enter into a Management Agreement with the American Jazz Museum, in the amount of $647,363.00, from the American Jazz Museum account, for management and operations of the 18th and Vine Project. Readers are welcome to explain the implications of this proposal.

*Kansas City needs to "re-embrace jazz," Chad Harris tells The Pitch.  "We are known for it, yet I fear it is leaving our community, and fewer and fewer venues seem to offer it on a regular basis." (Tip via Plastic Sax reader Gary.)

*Hearne Christopher suggests that an expiring liquor license associated with the site that once housed Jardine's could spell the end of the tired saga.

*KCJazzLark laments the "dearth" of young musicians performing traditional Kansas City jazz.

*"Maybe I hate jazz," Hunter Long confesses in an excellent blog post.

*A lengthy story in the Columbia Tribune details the work of Jon Poses. 

*Columbia's Blind Boone Ragtime and Early Jazz Festival is noted by the Columbia Missourian.

*The first big review of the new Pat Metheny album comes from The Guardian.  Reviews from All About Jazz and Peter Hum are also overwhelmingly positive.  Metheny refers to the project as a "straight-ahead jazz quintet" album in a video stream of a new podcast.

*The New York Times's Stephen Holden raves about an appearance by Karrin Allyson at Birdland.

*Joyce Smith reports on a new black history tour that includes stops at the American Jazz Museum and the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

*Mike Hendricks wrote an interesting article about a new push to sell real estate near the Jazz District.

*Comment o' the Week: Anon- Bill - I didn't go to the gig, but your review is kind of a bummer... one wonders if was a necessary to post anything.

*Tweet o' the Week: Jaleel Shaw- @benwmsonbass: The new Pat Metheny album "Unity Band" is out TODAY!!! Downloading noooow. @PatMethenyNews

*Road trip alert: Sonny Rollins, the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, the Pat Metheny Unity Band, Chick Corea/Gary Burton, Wayne Shorter, Joe Lovano/Dave Douglas, Fred Hersch, Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett and David Binney are among the acts performing at the free Detroit Jazz Festival.

*From a press release: The Marr Sound Archives’ Chuck Haddix discusses the city’s contribution to this most American of musical forms in Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop at the annual meeting and party of the Friends of the Kansas City Public Library. Haddix is one of the leading authorities on the subject, having authored biographies of local jazz players Jay McShann and Claude “Fiddler” Williams, the section on Kansas City jazz in the New Grove Dictionary of Music, and (with Frank Driggs) Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop. A Friends membership is required to attend and may be purchased either in advance or at the door. The event is Wednesday, June 13, at 6 p.m.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Tim Finn praises Kansas City's homegrown talent in an excellent essay. Karrin Allyson, Mike Dillon, Jeff Harshbarger, Hearts of Darkness and Krystle Warren are mentioned in Finn's piece, but that's obviously just a small fraction of the area's jazz and jazz-related talent. In the spirit of Finn's piece, I'll suggest that infrequent Plastic Sax readers shouldn't hesitate to catch international stars like Joe Lovano and Christian McBride when they come to town, but they should also know that the Kansas City Jazz Calendar is loaded with listings for performances by some of the world's best jazz musicians.

*Recipients of The Pitch's 2011 music awards included Heart of Darkness, "Best Jazz Ensemble," and Mark Lowrey, "Best Jazz Solo Artist."

*The largely forgotten career of Blind Boone is revisited by KCUR's KC Currents.

*Megan Birdsall's ongoing medical problems are summarized by KCJazzLark.

*This year's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival includes appearances by Toots Thielmans, James Carter, the Archie Shepp Quartet and Anat Cohen. As thousands of New Yorkers celebrate jazz royalty in Tompkins Square Park, a few dozen Kansas Citians will congregate for a graveside service at Lincoln Cemetery.

*Chris Burnett is the interim Marketing/Communications Manager at the American Jazz Musuem.

*A Logan Richardson gig in London is reviewed by The Financial Times.

*Shay Estes (pictured above) is in and the Ukrainians are out at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival. The Prairie Village Post has the story. (Tip via PF.)

*The forthcoming We Always Swing season in Columbia, Missouri, is very impressive.

*The new owner of Overland Park's Intentions promises that her venue will feature live jazz two nights a week.

*Mary Lou Williams: The Next 100 Years, a new album by the New York-based Virginia Mayhew Quartet, was released yesterday.

*Here's a set of video uploads from last weekend's gig at Davey's featuring Alaturka and Malachy Papers.

*Additional video from the recent Black On Both Sides event at the Blue Room was recently uploaded to YouTube.

*St. Louis Jazz Notes reports that Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quartet are among the acts scheduled to perform in the 2011-12 season of St. Louis' New Music Circle.

*Chicago-based critic Howard Reich reviews a Charlie Parker-inspired performance by Donald Harrison, Jr.

*Tweet o' the Week: thesoundkc: Hosting a late night, multi-genre PARTY!!!!!!! on Saturday, August 27th at the Firehouse on Troost! Great DJs and bands lined up. No cover!!!

*From Jim Mair: WHAT: The Kansas City High School All Star Jazz Ensemble. WHO: The best of the best from both sides of the state line. WHEN: For ten weeks beginning Wednesday August 7 from 6:30 to 9:30pm WHERE: ...Kansas City Kansas Community College. COST: $90. Director: Hermon Mehari... Please have any interested students contact Jim Mair 913-288-7149.

*From Jim Mair: The 2012 edition of "The Kansas City Jazz Summit" will be held April 25-27. In short, The Kansas City Jazz Summit will cater to Middle School and High School Jazz Bands, Jazz Combos and Jazz Choirs. We will have three categories and three performance sites all at KCKCC. More information is available here.

(Original image of Gerald Dunn, Shay Estes and Matt Otto performing August 11 at the Blue Room by Plastic Sax.)