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.)

Highland Cemetery

At the conclusion of the revitalized gravesite ceremony honoring Charlie Parker on August 30, Kent Rausch offered to provide a tour of nearby Highland Cemetery.  The founder and bandleader of the Vine Street Rumble Jazz Orchestra, Rausch is a leading historian of Kansas City's jazz heyday. 

Embarrassed that I'd never visited the graves of Bennie Moten and Julia Lee, I accepted Rausch's invitation.  Less than five minutes after departing Parker's grave at Lincoln Cemetery, I was looking at the new marker pictured above.  The engraved stone was installed by the people behind the Coda Jazz Fund earlier this year. 

Rausch recounted the story of Moten's shocking death and the huge turnout for his funeral.  "Moten Swing" is one of the recordings that first put Kansas City on the musical map.  Julia Lee's grave is just a few steps away.  Decades later, her risqué songs are still shocking.

Here's a map linking the two cemeteries.  Note that the entrance to Lincoln Cemetery is actually on Blue Ridge Boulevard.















(Original images by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Hearne Christopher reports that jazz will soon be featured in a revamped space at the downtown AMC movie theater.

*Dave Brubeck's October 14 concert at The Folly Theater has been cancelled. An appearance by Ellis Marsalis on February 11 replaces Brubeck's date in the venue's jazz series.

*The Star offers a review of Saturday's concert by The Bad Plus at The Folly Theater. And There Stands the Glass took notes at Sunday's performance by The Gang Font at The Record Bar.

*Here's an extremely nice segment on Marilyn Maye from Sue Vicory's Kansas City Jazz & Blues: Past, Present & Future. And here's a new trailer for the film. The documentary will be screened tonight, September 29, at B.B.'s Lawnside BBQ.

*UMKC's archival work on the memorabilia of Claude "Fiddler" Williams is noted by Steve Penn.

*Dude Langford is recalled by KCJazzLark.

*The NFL apparently produced a television spot that features a 1947 song by Kansas City's Julia Lee and Her Boyfriends. NPR's A Blog Supreme made the catch.

*Here's an upsetting jazz-related crime report.

*Kansas City bassist Jeff Harshbarger seems to fit right in with The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey in this gorgeous footage of JFJO collaborating with the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra. The Oklahoma-based band performs October 9 at Jardine's.

*12th Street Jump resumes Friday at the downtown Marriott with a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn.

*The Power & Light District hosts an event titled "The 14th Street Jazz Festival" on October 2. The McFadden Brothers are the only act listed at the "festival."

*Is Geneva Price is the daughter of Priscilla Bowman? A comment "GPrice" made here suggests that it's true. I have an expert investigating the matter, but please leave a comment if you can verify or dismiss this amazing assertion. UPDATE: The expert reports that Geneva is not related to Priscilla. I apologize for the false alarm.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Jay McShann- Trouble In Mind

Here's an appropriate song for these exceedingly difficult times. "The sun's gonna shine in my back door someday," Julia Lee suggests moments before contemplating suicide. If it's true that we seek refuge in the classics during times of trouble, weary souls need look no further than this 1944 collaboration of Kansas City giants. If you have any money to spare, you can purchase the MP3 here. (It's out of print on CD.)

Christmas Spirits All Around Me

Julia Lee is "afraid ol' Santa won't be coming." The band on this '47 date includes Vic Dickenson on trombone, Benny Carter on sax and Sam "Baby" Lovett on drums. That's Lee on piano. Merry Christmas!

The Ten Best Kansas City Jazz Recordings

Nine of the ten discs I've selected as the best Kansas City jazz recordings have one thing in common- they exude a sense of joyful celebration. The melding of blues and jazz that characterizes the Kansas City sound is intended as the soundtrack to a party. Even Frizzell and Metheny, the two artists on my list who veer farthest away from the city's traditional sound, radiate positive vibrations. The revolutionary work of Charlie Parker, manic and confrontational, makes him the odd man out. But he never fit in. In chronological order:

1. Bennie Moten- Band Box Shuffle (recorded 1929-32, Hep Records compilation released 2000)
Kansas City jazz didn't begin with Moten, but he was the first significant area bandleader to be extensively recorded. This set contains two-and-a-half hours of intoxicatingly vibrant music featuring the likes of Count Basie, Harlan Leonard, Hot Lips Page and Jimmy Rushing.

2. Count Basie- The Best of Early Basie (recorded 1937-39, Decca compilation released 1996)
The mother lode. Just the names of the participants- Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Claude Williams, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jo Jones- inspire awe. When someone in Tokyo or Paris thinks of Kansas City, they have "Jumpin' At the Woodside" or "Doggin' Around" in mind. This set also includes Jimmy Rushing's reading of "Blues In the Dark," which may be my favorite recording of the twentieth century.

3. Jay McShann- Blues From Kansas City (recorded 1941-43, Decca compilation released 1992)
Impossibly hip titles like "Say Forward, I'll March" and "Hootie's Ignorant Oil" hint at the good times provided by these classic sides. And yes, the young Charlie Parker's first recorded honks are here.

4. Julia Lee- Kansas City's First Lady of the Blues, (recorded 1944-47, JSP compilation released 2001)
A full sixty years later, many of Lee's raunchy songs are fully capable of inducing blushes. Local legends like Sam "Baby" Lovett play alongside stars including Benny Carter and Red Norvo on these wild and wooly sessions.

5. Charlie Parker- Complete Dial Sessions (recorded 1946-47, Stash compilation released 1993)
As with his personal life, Parker's discography is complicated and somewhat messy. This selection comes down to personal preference; I really dig the mind-bendingly creative Dial sessions, which emphasize Parker's compositional skills.

6. Dwight Frizzell & Anal Magic- Beyond the Black Crack (recorded and self-released in 1976; reissued on Paradigm in 1998)
Does this obscure title by Kansas City's favorite oddball actually exist? Does it matter? The Sun Ra-obsessed Frizzell went on to make many experimental recordings with BCR, which for years was arguably the best band in Kansas City, jazz or otherwise.

7. Pat Metheny- American Garage (recorded and released in 1979, ECM)
As with Aaron Copeland's most popular works, the majestic compositions of American Garage evoke the generous vistas of the American plains. Metheny's incorporation of folk and country elements paved the way for explorations by both fellow guitarist Bill Frisell and new-grass acts including Bela Fleck and Nickel Creek.

8. Count Basie- Kansas City Shout (recorded and released in 1980, Pablo)
This late-career summit of Basie, Joe Turner and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson reminds me of great late-night sessions at the Mutual Musicians Foudation, except there's nothing casual about the sophisticated big bands charts on "Blues For Joe Turner." Swinging came as easily to the old veterans as breathing.

9. City Light Orchestra- Raised Spirits (recorded and released in 1984, City Light Entertainment)
The sound captured by swinging traditionalists Dave Basse, Tim Whitmer, Ahmad Alaadeen, Jano and Laverne Barker continues to dominate Kansas City's jazz scene twenty-three years after this perfectly-titled set's release.

10. Myra Taylor- My Night To Dream (recorded in 2000, released in 2001, APO Records)
Even at ninety-years-old, Taylor shows more energy and spunk than almost every other entertainer in town. With Sonny Kenner's guitar and Eddie Saunders' tenor sax, this crisp recording unites Kansas City's jazz and blues legacies.

Disagree with my selections? I should hope so. Please add your list and thoughts to the comments section.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)