Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*As my note at The Kansas City Jazz Calendar indicates, Kansas City’s live music venues have been silenced.

*CJ Janovy created an audio feature about Logan Richardson for KCUR.

*I highlighted the careers of artists including Deborah Brown, Julia Lee, Marilyn Maye and Priscilla Bowman in an episode of 90.9 The Bridge’s Eight One Sixty program.

*Mike Herrera and Jim Lower discussed Kansas City’s jazz scene with Joe Dimino.

*The New York Times recommended Logan Richardson’s appearance at the Jazz Gallery.

*A devastating fire ravaged Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club.  The venue fostered the careers of musicians including Mike Dillon.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Mayor Quinton Lucas- Under the authority of Mayor Lucas’s State of Emergency proclamation, and per new @CDCgov guidance, no events or gatherings with 50 or more attendees will be allowed in Kansas City for the next eight weeks. #COVIDー19 #KCMO

*From the American Jazz Museum: In order to support Kansas City’s effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 the American Jazz Museum and The Blue Room jazz club will be closed temporarily, effective immediately.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Album Review: The Myers Swingset- The State of This City

The provocative title of The State of This City, the new album by the Myers Swingset, demands a forthright reckoning.  Pianist and bandleader Jackie Myers, saxophonist Mike Herrera, bassist Sam Copeland and drummer Jim Lower provide a high-definition aural snapshot of the music most commonly performed in Kansas City jazz clubs.

Myers’ 2018 album The Instrumental One is an uncommonly hazy document, but the Texas transplant and the three stalwarts of Kansas City’s scene offer a buttoned-down form of jazz on The State of This City.  The album may be unapologetically mainstream, but strong melodies and unfailingly swinging arrangements deter tedium.

Myers is the least assertive member of quartet.  Her largess allows Herrera to sound like one of Cannonball Adderley’s worthiest disciples.  His contribution to the funky “Song for Lydia” is particularly rewarding.  Copeland’s heartfelt bowed solo on “Ice Elation” is a thing of beauty.  Lower is unleashed on “Modal Logic.”  And Myers earns bonus points for the ingenious title of “Ernestly Melting”.

The audience at the live recording is the most troubling aspect of The State of This City.  The lackluster response of what seems to be a couple dozen people at the Green Lady Lounge Black Dolphin sounds as if hostages are being forced to applaud at gunpoint.  Their timidity belies the setting.  Local audiences demand expertly performed straight-ahead jazz.

The State of This City doesn’t contain a single surprise or unexpected turn.  Uniform consistency is also precisely what’s prized at Kansas City’s ballyhooed barbecue restaurants.  It’s indicative of the conservative nature of the region.  The jazz scene looks and sounds much different elsewhere, but adherence to convention and dedication to decorum continue to define the state of this city.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: The Jim Lower Big Band

The weekly Jim Lower Big Band session recently migrated from Parker & Vine to Black Dolphin.  The ensemble performs at the latter club on Tuesdays.  Every area gig is listed on The Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Downbeat reviewed Bobby Watson’s forthcoming Made in America album.

*Jessie Riggins praised a collaboration between the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the Kansas City Chorale.

*Joe Klopus highlights the week’s jazz events for The Kansas City Star.

*Eater magazine reports on the live music component of Corvino Supper Club & Tasting Room.

*The Jefferson City News Tribune interviewed Hermon Mehari.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Urban Music Scene LISTEN To Guitarist Norman Brown’s Duet With Chanté Moore “Holding You” from New Album "Let it Go" Coming April 14! (link)

*From a press release: On April 25 David Basse will begin a year-long weekly engagement on Tuesdays with Jim Lower’s 18 piece Big Band at Jazz Nebula inside Californos Westport. With a full dinner menu and an intimate setting, this new nightspot will provide dinner and a true focus on live jazz, an element that has long been missing from the Kansas City Jazz Scene… David’s long successful run as host of The Jazz Scene on Kansas Public Radio, which also began 16 years ago, now appears to be coming to an end. Due to recent state budget cuts, Saturday, June 24, will be the final day of the popular radio program.

*From a press release: On Wednesday, April 12, 2017, the American Jazz Museum will host a book launch event for local author... Steve Penn’s new book Last Call: A History of the Kansas City CODA Jazz Fund. (T)he program (is) at 6:30pm (and) includes a guest appearance from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II, and performance by Adam Galblum, a Kansas City instrumentalist… As part of the program, Mrs. Blanche Williams, the  widow of Claude "Fiddler" Williams, will officially gift her late husband’s violin to the American Jazz Museum.  Last Call: A History of the Kansas City CODA Jazz Fund features biographies and photos of many of the musicians for whom the organization has provided funeral services and burials. The CODA Jazz Fund pays these expenses for area jazz musicians whose families can't afford the cost.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)