Now's the Time: Christian McBride

Thanks to a tip from Plastic Sax reader and KJHK radio personality Lucas Homer, I learned that Christian McBride will be in Lawrence on Saturday, March 5, as part of the KU Jazz Festival. Dick Oatts is featured on Friday, March 4. McBride's work alongside Pat Metheny and Antonio Sanchez speaks for itself.

Jazz Clubbing

I had a specific venue in mind when I began to create this animated short, but the dialog is actually a composite of conversations I had with several jazz presenters in 2010. The challenges have already carried over into 2011. I went to two jazz-oriented venues on January 1. The first club didn't have the show listed online and the headliner has absolutely no web presence. An audience of nine people caught the majority of the first set. At the second venue, I couldn't find anyone willing to take the five dollar cover charge from me. And citing the full room, a waiter suggested that he'd prefer not to take my table's drink orders.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*The Pitch reports that Gi Gi's Jazz Inn, a jazz club on Troost, has opened. Aside from Jason Harper's story, the venue has no web presence.

*All About Jazz published an extensive interview with vocalist Deborah Brown.

*The Star reports that The Majestic is "temporarily closed." The downtown venue featured jazz nightly.

*Subtitled "A Father's account of his history of jazz in Kansas City," Then appears to be a personal jazz-oriented documentary. As Vimeo is buggy for me, I haven't been able to view much of it. (Tip via Tony's Kansas City.)

*The author of The Daily Record bemoans the fact that he can attend a free jazz festival featuring the likes of Dave Brubeck and Dr. John in Jacksonville but not in Kansas City.

*The excellent lineup for the 17th annual Charlie Parker festival has been announced. Alas, it's in New York City.

*Two prominent local scribes, Tony of Tony's Kansas City and John Mark Eberhart rave about Dave Stephens' recent appearance at Jardine's.

*The Star's piece on Alacartoona is a mandatory reading for all area musicians.

*The Star offers an in-depth story about the ongoing drama at KKFI.

*Our friend Lee brought this jazz radio news to our attention.

*Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is playing The Blue Room on July 11. Stefon Harris returns to Kansas City in January.

*According to this this Pitch piece, The Blue Room attracts quite a crowd for its monthly poetry slams.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Is This Thing On?

One of Kansas City's most compelling jazz musicians handed me a show flyer as I exited The Pistol last week.

It's great that the guy is out there grinding and interacting with his target audience.

But... The guy doesn't have a proper web site or MySpace account. He doesn't employ Twitter or, to my knowledge, maintain an email list. He lacks a YouTube channel. Why wouldn't every musician use today's most effective- and inexpensive- means of communication?

Another artist listed on the handbill has publicly complained about the reluctance of music venues to book free jazz acts. I'm sympathetic. I also recognize that it's the obligation of musicians to create, foster and develop their audiences.

Look at The Bad Plus. While I'm a fan, I recognize that their relative success has a lot to do with their willingness to be relentless self-promoters.

One more thing- what about my jazz calendar? Hey, I know it's ugly. But sadly, it's the only online directory dedicated to Kansas City jazz. Use it.

It's 2009. Just being a genius is no longer enough.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Here's an amusing, well-produced video that features a recent performance by The Blue Devils. It would appear these talented guys are affiliated with Kansas City Kansas Community College.

*Here's more on the Claude "Fiddler" Williams collection.

*I checked on the progress of True To the Game. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum's benefit CD is currently ranked #45,501 in Amazon's music department. That's disappointing for a title with exclusive tracks from many of hip hop's biggest stars. As I suggested several months ago, might a project featuring regional artists outperform it?

*The artier and noisier element of Plastic Sax's readership will want to check out The Pistol's calendar.

*The lineup of this weekend's Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival isn't compelling enough to put me on I-70, but it's still quite solid.

*Who says times are tough? Kansas just received $300,000 in tax dollars to be "redistributed to arts and cultural organizations."

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)