Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*From Chris Burnett of the American Jazz Museum: I have wonderful news to share regarding “Kansas City’s 18th & Vine Jazz and Blues Festival”. The headliner talent has been finalized and with center around our new theme “Salute To George Duke” – featuring headliners: Pieces of a Dream, Bobby Lyle & Maysa, Con Funk Shun, The Messenger Legacy, Bettye LaVette, Kelley Hunt with local and regional talent! A great way to honor the legacy of the late a great master artist!  We are pleased to announce that plans for the Kansas City’s 18th & Vine Jazz and Blues Festival are generating excitement throughout the metropolitan area. To ensure success, we will be presenting a one-day event again this year. It is important to the Kansas City region to keep the momentum of this great event moving forward with an eye to offering a multiple-day festival format in the coming years.

*The Mutual Musicians Foundation published a schedule of events related to Charlie Parker's birthday. 

*Libby Hanssen and KC Jazz Lark reviewed Vine Street Rumble's recent performance at the Blue Room.

*The Kansas City Star published a fall jazz preview.

*Larry Appelbaum published a blindfold test he conducted with Bobby Watson in 2010 at his blog.

*An editorial in The Kansas City Star notes the role the late Marian McPartland played in the history of Kansas City's jazz scene.

*Russell Thorpe provides an update on Phonologotronic.

*London's Royal Albert Hall hosts a tribute to Charlie Parker on August 28. 

*Tweet o' the Week: Frank Basile- Tune into @WKCRjazz now through Thursday for 72 straight hours of Lester Young and Charlie Parker!!

*Comment o' the Week: Russell- Because we are not plumbers or electricians. I think most people who are not musicians would argue that our skill-sets and services occupy the tippy tippy top of Mazlow's heirarchy. One can live a secure and comfortable life without going out to see musicians every night. I mean face it, It's not like our skill-sets and services and the fancy thoughts we get to think as musicians are on par with "gotta eat, need a roof, jeez its cold i need clothes, gotta eat, the rent is too damn high, and etc"  We also have the detrimental benefit of recording. Music has been a noun for quite some time now. You have a tangible artifact that will be exactly the same each time you listen to it (which is whole other psychoaucoustic issue). Music a long time ago used to be a VERB that EVERYONE in the community participated in. Stomping and clapping and dancing and yelling and trancing and all the rest of the ecstatic behaviors the humans display. This is not to say that this doesn't happen today, but what I'm really saying is most people have absolutely zero awareness of the visceral reaction their bodies have when listening to musics. The whole mind/body thing and the cognitive and physiological magic that is music. (which is why we, musicians, do it)  As many a pundit would decry "we are losing our culture!" or "America is being poisoned" and etc, in some sense is correct. Communities are not what they once were, and music has shifted to a much more private experience, so the importance of the musician, that person or family who you sought out when you and your friends wanted to get together and dance around and drink fermented honey and etc, has become as a throwaway person or thing, filling a temporary hedonic want because you find them soothing or agitating until your attention flits to another place then another then another, and your musical experiences are nothing but an interrupted series of snippets.  Lack of attention span, lack of physiological and social awareness, and the relentless crush of capitalism for cheap. And I don't even want to touch the "anyone who doesn't fulfill Jazz Quests 1-10 is going to burn forever in hellish environs and we shall forever scorn them" debate that people like to rage about.  Bottom line, capitalism. Musicians have/want/need to spend so much time honing their technique that, unless they have inexhaustible amounts of energy to keep up with the entrepenurial demands of succeeding, something is gonna slack. blah blah blah blah -----> sad trombone

*From a press release: Hollywood composer Conrad Pope and writer Alessandro de Gaetano, with assistance from Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols, launched a $14,000 Kickstarter goal to produce the musical stage play All for a Song based on the life and career of Kansas City Jazz Legend Myra Taylor.  The Kickstarter end date is Sept. 5. To date, only $577 has been raised. To assist their former Wild Woman and dear friend Myra, the Wild Women of Kansas City are holding a fundraiser. All monies raised will go to this project.  Date / Time:  September 1, 2-5 p.m.  Where:  Hotel Phillips, 12th and Baltimore, KCMO, in the 12 Baltimore Restaurant.  Entrance Fee:  None, but generous donations are appreciated.  The Wild Women will perform. There will be splendid raffles, menu items and cocktails.

*From a press release: The fall lineup for the JCCC Jazz Series has been set. The series, which showcases the talents of local jazz musicians, takes place at noon on Tuesdays for six consecutive weeks from Sept. 24 to Oct. 29. All performances, which are free and open to the public, are held in the Recital Hall of the Carlsen Center unless otherwise noted. Here's the lineup: Sept. 24- Roger Wilder Quintet; Oct. 1- Tim Whitmer Trio; Oct. 8- Dan Bliss and Rod Fleeman, guitars; Oct. 15- Everett Freeman Quartet; Oct. 22- James Ward Band featuring Ron Gutierrez, Polsky Theatre; Oct. 29- John Brewer presents Mosaic Jazz.

*From a press release: Black Lab, a new music festival sponsored by Black House Collective and Charlotte Street Foundation, will celebrate innovative new work being produced by artists and composers in the Midwest. The festival will take place in September and October 2013 in downtown Kansas City at Charlotte Street Foundation’s Paragraph Gallery, with performances each Thursday and Saturday night, featuring a wide range of talented musicians, dancers and artists.  Black Lab kicks off on Thursday, September 5 with a free opening night featuring a series of collaborative performances by Kansas City-based composers, performers, and artists. Russell Thorpe will premiere a new duet for alto saxophone and euphonium, and composer Teri Quinn will collaborate with costume designer Lynn Thonet and writer Sarah Mundy for a chaotic fashion show. Hunter Long will premiere two pieces, one choreographed and performed by Chadi El-Khoury, and the other a series of portraits for soprano titled "Now That I'm Dead I Know Everything."… Please visit blackhouse.typepad.com/black-lab.html for current info and tickets. Here's a related blog post.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*KCJazzLark is a man with a (business) plan.

*Tony's Kansas City chronicles the Jardine's saga here. Hearne Christopher tracks the story here.

*Finally! A Kansas City jazz video. (Sort of.)

*From the American Jazz Museum: The American Jazz Museum’s Blue Room jazz club is the first among two Kansas City venues to be named to Down Beat Magazine’s “212 Great Jazz Rooms - An International Listing of the Best Places to See and Hear Live Jazz”.

*A track from the forthcoming Project H album is streaming here.

*Roy Hargrove will appear at UMKC Jazz Festival on February 3.

*A Lee's Summit publication features Clarence Smith.

*"Meet Chris Burnett."

*T-shirts, gigs and ideas are on tap at the latest post at the site of the Black House Improvisors' Collective.

*Miles Bonny has a new Kickstarter campaign.

*An exhibit at UMKC includes items related to Kansas City's jazz legacy. (Via KC Stage.)

*The title of the January 18 edition of KCUR's Central Standard Time is "Kansas City Jazz with musician Mark Lowrey."

*The Sun Session, the new album by Grand Marquis, has been released.

*The Glenn Miller Orchestra is performing at Shawnee Mission West on February 11.

*Tweet o' the Week: americanjazzkc- Count down to Benny Golson in the Blue Room 2.25.12...let us know your favorite Benny Golson tune!

*From Doug Talley: As you probably know, Westport Presbyterian Church suffered fire damage a couple of weeks ago. So our annual Martin Luther King Day concert has been relocated to Community Christian Church, 4601 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64112… As always, the concert will begin at noon on Martin Luther King Day, next Monday, January 16.

*From Central Seminary: Please be our guest at Central Seminary this year for the Sacred Arts Recital Series which began last fall in the Baugh-Marshall Chapel. These complimentary recitals feature some of Kansas City’s finest musicians. The spring series, which will be held on the third Sundays of the month at 4:00 p.m. begins this Sunday, January 15… This Sunday’s recital will feature jazz keyboardists Dr. Michael Pagan, Roger Wilder, and Joe Cartwright for a keyboard “play-off.”

(Original image of Russell Thorpe by Plastic Sax.)

Review: Sir Threadius Mongus at La Esquina

Imagine you intended to form a jazz-based band in Kansas City. Who would you pick to join your ensemble? Jeff Davis chose wisely. The version of Sir Threadius Mongus that performed Friday at La Esquina included Matt Otto, Russell Thorpe and Andrew McGhie on reeds, Stan Kessler on trumpet, Mike Stover on bass and Jonathan Taylor on drums. Davis plays guitar.

That band could play most anything, including Davis' dense Mingus-inspired compositions. Here's an example. Davis, to his credit, didn't take a single solo in the thirty minutes I was there. (First Friday's siren song is irresistible.)

Aside from the screech of trains slowing down as they passed through downtown ("coal-trains" a witty friend accurately observed), La Esquina served as an ideal performance space. Yet in spite of the free beer, absence of a cover charge and a promotional push by the Charlotte Street Foundation, only a handful of people attended.

Everyone else missed out on something special.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Detractors of Plastic Sax should rejoice. KCJazzLark's clever review and gorgeous photos of Saturday's Bobby Watson & Horizon show are so good that I momentarily considered abandoning my Kansas City jazz blog.

*But who aside from Plastic Sax would point out that Jason Harper took a gratuitous swipe at Kansas City's jazz scene in his final column as the Pitch's music editor? "Efforts to revive the old music through appeals to noble concepts, such as 'heritage,' have been hugely ineffectual (the sad Jazz District)," Harper suggests. And who else would note that he agrees with Harper's sentiment?

*Before taking umbrage at my previous statement, note that Harper's, the charming restaurant directly across the street from The Blue Room, has closed.

*Doug Tatum is leaving his position as The Folly Theater's executive director.

*Robert Folsom profiles Hermon Mehari of Diverse.

*The Black House Improvisors' Collective site features a revealing interview with Russell Thorpe. An interview with Matt Otto is less successful. The ensemble next performs on January 15.

*"I hesitate to call myself a jazz singer," Ida McBeth tells John Kreibergs. "There always seems to be someone that'll say, 'She doesn't sing jazz; she sings R&B' or 'She sings gospel.' Instead, I prefer to call myself a song stylist." Read the rest of the excellent portrait of McBeth here. And Hearne Christopher remembers an old story concerning McBeth.

*KCJazzLark shares wonderful photos of Diverse. While it lacks the same degree of artistry, I'm rather proud of the image I took on the same night.

*Jardine's site was hacked last week. Everything seems fine now. Hearne Christopher offers details.

*Can anyone vouch for John Stein? A press release says the "internationally renowned" guitarist was "born and raised" in Kansas City.

*Alaadeen periodically posts stories online. It's good stuff.

*Here's a rave review of a Deborah Brown performance in Europe. She's at the Blue Room on January 15.

*A blogger wonders about the career of trumpeter Carmel Jones.

*Sue Vicory announced that her documentary about Kansas City jazz and blues will premiere at the Gem Theater on May 6.

*A local blogger lists and ranks 43 albums and mixtapes released by Kansas City-area hip hop artists in 2009. How many jazz albums were released by local artists last year? A dozen?

*The 2010 schedule for St. Louis' Jazz At the Bistro is stellar. The Bad Plus and Vijay Iyer play the club in January. Lou Donaldson and Freddy Cole are among the artists performing in February. Meanwhile, Branford Marsalis plays a larger St. Louis venue next month. The organization also provides podcast interviews with Iyer and other visiting artists. Ahem...

*I really enjoy this rendition of Bobby Watson's "Lemon Cello" by a group of California students.

*It may be clumsy, but Plastic Sax's Kansas City Jazz Calendar remains the best tool in town for jazz fans. Jazz advocates have particularly intriguing decisions to make Friday. Choices include Allen Toussaint at The Folly Theater, the opening night of the Jazz Winterlude festival and Mark Lowrey vs Hip Hop at the Czar Bar.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)