Drowning Our Sorrows

I like Boulevard beer.  And I like the American Jazz Museum.  It was a given that I would diligently cast votes for the museum in the brewery's Boulevard Loves KC charitable campaign during the past ten days.  The museum was one of three charities designated to receive funding based on quarterly sales of Boulevard's KC Pils brand.  The charity with the most votes receives 60% of the funding.  The other two split the remaining 40%.

Between the daily votes I cast on my home network and elsewhere on my cell phone, my efforts represent over two percent of the 659 votes cast for the museum.  With a few hours remaining, The KC Pet Project has received 56% of the votes while the museum's tally accounts for 8%.  I'm not surprised that the museum lost- people in Kansas City are loopy for cats and dogs- but the paucity of votes for the museum is alarming.

Two recent failed Kickstarter campaigns related to Kansas City jazz giants Myra Taylor (15% of goal reached with 25 backers) and Bobby Watson (2% of its goal reached with four backers) indicate that the issue isn't limited to the American Jazz Museum.

I'll surprise longtime Plastic Sax readers by suggesting that the problem isn't that the audience for jazz is too small.  Instead, I believe it's too divided.  There's little consensus on what styles of jazz and which Kansas City jazz institutions merit support.

The majority of the over 1,000 people who attend every concert by the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra at Helzberg Hall probably aren't terribly concerned with the legacy of Charlie Parker.  Most of the supporters of the jam sessions at YJs don't feel a strong connection to the American Jazz Museum.  There's little overlap between fans of the outside sensibility of Snuff Jazz and the stride piano of Bram Wijnands.  During a free Jazz Winterlude concert in January, people waiting for an appearance by swing vocalist Deborah Brown didn't hide their displeasure with a forward-thinking acoustic performance by Julian Lage and Jorge Roeder.  Many of Lage's fans left Yardley Hall before Brown's set began.

We can talk about the digital divide and disagree over the policies of publicly-supported institutions, but until the entirety of the jazz community can rally around a single idea, the current fractured state of affairs will continue to weaken the entire scene.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Romance Without Finance

I ran into one of Kansas City's most prominent jazz musicians at a rock concert Saturday.  In addition to enjoying the show along with an audience of over 15,000, he was there to greet Jake Blanton.  Blanton, a one-time fixture of Kansas City's music scene, is currently a sideman for a successful rock band.  It's entirely possible that he plays for more people in a single night than the locally-based jazz musician plays for in a year. 

As I waited over 45 minutes in a parking lot for traffic to clear, I wondered if the jazz musician had any misgivings about his commitment to jazz.  Between ticket and merchandise sales, Saturday's event grossed over $600,000.  Most Kansas City-based jazz musicians play for an audience that numbers in the dozens.  And unless they're booked at one of Kansas City's two listening rooms dedicated to jazz, chances are good that they'll face a distracted audience.

As much as I'd like to think that pleasing my refined sensibility with his jazz conceptions is sufficient reward, making that sort of financial sacrifice can't be easy for the man I encountered Saturday.

I listened to Joe Dimino's new Neon Jazz interview with Matt Kane on Sunday.  The loquacious drummer addressed this issue as he discussed the constant indignities faced by jazz musicians in New York City.  Kane said that the challenges force him to constantly "really dig deep and define 'the why'." 

"It's got to be for the music. Period," Kane told Dimino.  He lives for "those moments when it's so beautiful and the music is coming through you and people are spiritually uplifted."

While Kane and the attendee of Saturday's rock concert could almost certainly secure more lucrative work in another genre, they remain committed to jazz.  I'm grateful.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

No Church in the Wild

I recently walked out on band during the first chorus of "Kansas City."  The Kansas City jazz musicians weren't catering to out-of-town basketball fans in a downtown bar.  They were playing for locals.  That's just not right.  Musicians can perform whatever they want, of course, but that doesn't mean I have to willingly endure it. 

I often find myself dodging gigs by locally-based musicians just because I know that I can't tolerate hearing their overly familiar renditions of classic compositions by Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter and Count Basie again. 

Acknowledging that it's 2013 is one way to avoid stagnancy.  In addition to a repertoire of worthy originals, Diverse plays a solid arrangement of a hit from Watch the Throne.  Phonologotron focuses on contemporary pop material.  Mark Lowrey plays an intriguing version of "Buildings and Mountains" by the Kansas City rock band the Republic Tigers.

It's an unhealthy sign that much of the positive attention the Next Collective is receiving is due to its contemporary song selection instead of the brilliant playing of its members.  Young musicians should perform material like "No Church in the Wild" as a matter of course. 

I have no intention of reviving the controversy associated with Benjamin Schwarz's controversial review of Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire.  Nor do I endorse a disavowal of the past.  Instead, I'm merely encouraging a handful of hidebound musicians to consider updating their songbooks.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Ballot Initiative

Could my steadfast belief that Kansas City's jazz scene is undergoing an artistic renaissance be little more than wishful thinking and provincial boosterism? 

The disconcerting results of the 7th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, the most comprehensive and authoritative year-end jazz album listing, continue to stick in my craw.  Dozens of prominent jazz critics cast votes for 421 albums.  Of the projects with Kansas City connections, only Unity Band by Pat Metheny was represented.  It placed #27.  Otherwise, albums released by Kansas City's jazz artists were ignored.

Even the sole participant from the Kansas City area opted not to include any locally-released titles among his ten picks.  (I wasn't included.  My selections are here.)

I'm not suggesting that the titles that received votes aren't worthwhile.  Yet is it really possible that 421 jazz albums are "better" than, say, the latest efforts by Deborah Brown or Matt Otto?   A great deal of the underrepresentation can be attributed to the fact that most albums by Kansas City's jazz artists are self-released.  That liability, combined with the usual group-think and bandwagoning among music critics, might help to explain the omissions. 

Three new albums by Kansas City artists- Tangos For 18th Street by Mark Lowrey, The Freedom of Expression by Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle and Yalniz by Alaturka are simply too good to be ignored. 

If none of these seemingly powerful releases develop grassroots followings and a critical buzz during the next nine months I may be forced to reassess my esteem for the music being created in Kansas City.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Review: Deborah Brown- All Too Soon

I've said it time and time again and I'll say it once more- Deborah Brown is Kansas City's premier jazz vocalist. 

Brown's superb new album All Too Soon serves to solidify my opinion.  Brown's lustrous voice is in spectacular form.  Unlike far too many so-called jazz vocalists, Brown doesn't sound like a frustrated pop artist who only recently discovered Ella Fitzgerald.  She's the genuine article.  It's no coincidence that Brown can regularly be spotted in the audience at instrumental jazz gigs.

An expert band led by Eric Ineke backs Brown on All Too Soon.  While the recording is pristine, Brown and Ineke's charges sound as if they inhabit 1962.  The project holds its own against Nancy Wilson's 1960 album Something Wonderful and Ella Fitzgerald's 1962 album Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!.

Yet until now, the internet doesn't contain a single review of All Too Soon.  Brown remains a virtual non-entity among jazz fans- both in her home town and throughout the United States.  Brown's low stature isn't a complete mystery.  She's her own worst enemy.  Brown's woeful site doesn't list her forthcoming tour dates nor does it even mention All Too Soon.  I assume she hasn't solicited jazz journalists about the project. 

Even if the "right" people received press kits promoting All Too Soon, there's no guarantee that the album would be well-received.  The taste-makers who advocate Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran might be inclined to believe that Brown's throwback swing is passé.  That argument is playing out locally here and here.

Finally, race, age and appearance almost certainly contribute to the ongoing neglect of Brown.  As has been suggested elsewhere, non-musical considerations help explain why Diana Krall fills large venues while Dee Dee Bridgewater performs in clubs.  Meanwhile, friends and family continue to tell me about the "great new jazz singer" Nikki Yanofsky.  The Canadian teen, not coincidentally, looks as if she belongs on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine.  It's the difference between a McDonald’s McRib and a mixed plate at Gates Bar-B-Q or between Miller Lite and The Sixth Glass from Boulevard Brewing.

All Too Soon is the seasoned work of a consummate swing-based jazz vocalist. 

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

The Cost of Free Jazz

I was initially pleased when I learned that admission fees would be waived for the 2013 edition of the Jazz Winterlude festival, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts about the matter.  It's no secret that the audience for jazz is declining.  Could the plethora of free concerts featuring top-tier talent be part of the problem?

Jazz Winterlude's new policy will almost certainly ensure larger audiences for the annual event at Johnson County Community College.  The exciting young guitarist Julian Lage and the Kansas City-based veteran vocalist Deborah Brown are two artists who stand to benefit from the additional exposure.  But at what cost? 

It's safe to say that the only exposure many people receive to jazz performances comes during well-promoted free events such as Jazz Winterlude, Jazz in the Woods and the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.   Do these otherwise excellent festivals devalue the music?  Or does their accessibility translate into larger audiences for jazz performances with an admission charge?

Five hundred people were willing to pay $50 apiece to hear Gary Burton and Chick Corea at the Gem Theater last night.  And 1,000 people shell out $40 or $50 to see each of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra's concerts.  A $7 cover charge doesn't deter a few hundred people from attending Tim Whitmer's monthly concerts at Unity on the Plaza.  That's the good news. 

The bad news is that Folly Theater (1,050 seats) was at half capacity for a spectacular outing by Pat Metheny and his all-star band three weeks ago.   I'm told that Bobby Broom recently played to a disturbingly small house at the Blue Room.   The audience for last weekend's concert by Delfeayo Marsalis and Sean Jones wasn't close to capacity.  And cover or no cover, an unhealthy portion of gigs by locally-based jazz artists are woefully attended. 

Or maybe it's just a jazz thing.  Over 14,000 aficionados of country music filled the Sprint Center last night for a concert headlined by Eric Church.  His fans paid nothing to see Church at Santa-Cali-Gon Days, Country in the Woods and the KC Live stage in the Power & Light district in recent years.  Yet Church is capable of attracting scores of fans willing to invest a minimum of $37.50 in a ticket to see him again.

I'll continue to ponder this conundrum as I enjoy tonight's free concert by '80s pop star Sheila E. 

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

The Marketing of the Irish

I marveled at the sight of teeming masses Friday at Kansas City Irish Fest. Organizers expected to top last year's attendance of 100,000 during the three three-day event.

How did this happen? Why does a city closely associated with the role it played in the development of jazz lack a major jazz-based festival even as an Irish-themed event attracts massive crowds? The answer, of course, is complicated. Kansas City has a long history of defunct jazz festivals.

Kansas City Irish Fest wasn't always a big deal. I recall attending a modest affair in a Westport parking lot about a dozen years ago. Organizers have dealt with a few setbacks, but the festival continues to grow. I attribute a large part of its success to organic support from the close-knit Irish community. I repeatedly had to fend off eager volunteers Friday. The event's organizers are also brilliant, hardworking and efficient. Take a look at their Thorough. Social. Media. Presence.

Don't tell me these tactics don't pay off. With ticket prices of $5 on Friday and $15 on Saturday and Sunday, the festival clears over a million dollars in gate receipts. It doesn't hurt that the festival boasts one ringer. Kansas City-based band The Elders can easily attract over 1,000 dedicated fans for its one-off concerts. There's just no equivalent on Kansas City's jazz scene.

Before addressing why the local jazz community can't capture the "luck" of the Irish, I'd be negligent if I didn't mention a few existing efforts. The American Jazz Museum presents the Rhythm & Ribs festival next month. I'm a big fan, but this year's version is a one-day event that has a '70s funk band and a blues legend as its top-billed performers. Jazz Winterlude and the Prairie Village Jazz Festival , both Johnson County, Kansas, events, are excellent showcases of top locally-based talent. Jazz In the Woods draws a big crowd for its lineups of smooth jazz and pop.

I support all four events, but where's the Kansas City festival with James Carter, Ornette Coleman, Robert Glasper, Charlie Haden, Vijay Iyer, Pat Metheny, Sonny Rollins and John Scofield?

Regular readers of Plastic Sax already know my answer to that vexing question. The potential of another serious top-tier jazz festival in Kansas City is buried under the seemingly insurmountable burdens of audience indifference, preconceived bias and a disjointed jazz community. There's no need for me to address the first of these issues at length. I write it about it with predictable frequency at Plastic Sax. Kansas City's best jazz musicians regularly perform for audiences of less than two dozen enthusiasts. Even fewer attended Charlie Parker's gravesite service last week. Recent performances by both The Bad Plus and Ernie Andrews were woefully under-attended.

Semi-professional provocateur Nicholas Payton digs into my second point in an essay he published last month. It doesn't matter if the subject is Coleman Hawkins or Anthony Braxton- the negative baggage attached to the word "jazz" has become exceedingly oppressive. Irish music, on the other hand, is a blank slate for most Americans.

Finally, the jazz community is divided. The lack of grassroots support means that area jazz musicians and jazz presenters must turn to foundations, corporations and government entities to merely subsist. With so many groups competing for dollars, the jazz landscape has become a political minefield.

Our best hope, at least for the foreseeable future, is that one of the festivals mentioned above will evolve into a top-tier jazz event. Until then, Kansas Citians can be content with hosting one of the world's most successful Irish festivals.

(Original image of Kansas City Irish Fest by Plastic Sax.)

Joe Who?

I'd already heard a lot of great music in 2011, but Joe Lovano's concert Saturday at the Folly Theater topped it all. Startlingly innovative, Lovano and his Us Five band demonstrated that jazz still contains entire universes of untapped potential. (It's astonishing how much I concur with this review of the concert.)

Only about 400 people attended. Empty seats outnumbered patrons. And a significant portion of them, displeased by Lovano's aggressive approach, walked out. The Folly Theater's failure to utilize free promotional tools continues to disappoint me, but the problem is far more complex than that.

I was rattled by the reaction I received when I shared my excitement about Lovano's concert with friends during the previous day's First Friday celebration. One owns a record label. Another specializes in music marketing. A third books bands. A fourth works in radio. Not one of them had even heard of Lovano. He may lack the charisma of his frequent collaborator Esperanza Spalding, but within the jazz world, Lovano is a giant. When one of jazz's most important and compelling artists doesn't even register as a blip on the radar of music professionals, jazz is in a world of hurt.

Why the disconnect?

It's not the economy or competition from other forms of entertainment. Three rock-oriented concerts- Bright Eyes at the Uptown Theater, Three Days Grace at the Midland Theater and Henry Rollins at the Record Bar- drew capacity audiences the same night as Lovano's appearance. I have to believe that a least a few hundred fans at those events would also be attracted to the adventurous new sounds produced by Lovano. Rollins, for instance, issued a Matthew Shipp album on his 2.13.61 record label.

I realize, of course, that I'm preaching to the choir. I spotted several of Plastic Sax's 37 readers at Lovano's concert. Even so, it's come to this- jazz is so far removed from music's mainstream that active consumers of rock and hip hop have virtually no awareness of vital artists like Joe Lovano.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Doing Something Mean To It

During the fascinating pre-concert discussion at the Folly Theater on September 25, a member of The Bad Plus defended his complicated relationship with jazz. He and his two band mates, he explained, had developed their passion for jazz in an entirely organic fashion. No one introduced them to the music. Instead, their innate curiosity led them to the genre.

I came to jazz in much the same fashion. And like the men in The Bad Plus, I retain my love of popular music. I don't trust any musician under the age of forty that hasn't listened to Kanye West's new album. It's disingenuous for contemporary musicians to insulate themselves from the culture at large. I don't necessarily want jazz musicians to emulate West's music, but they at least owe it to themselves and their audiences to know the score.

Crosscurrent, a Lennie Tristano-inspired band, perform at Jardine's tonight. Its music is excellent. Because a few of the band's members bear a faint resemblance to these caricatures, the band- at least in their current form- are unlikely to find a big audience. Crosscurrent's insistence on purity, while admirable, is confining.

I'll always prefer the guys who come from a background and mindset more akin to my own. A prominent Kansas City-based jazz musician, for instance, was a member of '90s rock band Grumpy. It wasn't a great band, but the musician's music today is undoubtedly richer for that experience.

Crossing Over on a Rising Tide

A prominent Kansas City jazz musician once told me that every ambitious blues and rock musician secretly aspires to play jazz. Only their current lack of skill, he suggested, prevents them from performing the music. I doubt the accuracy of his conceit, but what if he's right?

Max Weinberg, perhaps best known as Bruce Springsteen's longtime drummer, led a swinging big band at Jardine's last night. Both The Star and The Pitch reviewed Weinberg's second set.

Weinberg, of course, is hardly the first rock-oriented musician to cross over to the jazz world, but it's possible that a tidal wave of similar stylistic shifts is on the horizon. Current members of arty indie rock acts like Arcade Fire and Radiohead, improvisation-happy jam bands like String Cheese Incident and Widespread Panic, and roots-oriented hip hop acts like Mos Def and the Roots may very well wind up playing jazz-based music a decade or two from now. Here in Kansas City, it's entirely conceivable that local luminaries including members of the Roman Numerals and Tech N9ne could shift to jazz as they age.

Would this trend be a rising tide that lifts all boats? Or would dedicated jazz musicians who have spent years battling for gigs at the limited number of jazz-friendly venues be squeezed out of work? For the sake of my musician friend, I certainly hope it's not the latter.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Classical Gas

I cringe every time I hear the tired claim that "jazz is America's classical music." It sounds more like a publicist's slogan than an evidential artistic claim. Still, I couldn't help thinking about jazz as I attended two classical concerts last weekend.

The Harriman-Jewell Series gave away tickets to a "Discovery" concert featuring two musicians, both still in college, performing Beethoven, Prokofiev, Webern and Enescu. About 1,000 people- half of whom were under the age of fifty- took in the free concert. Both the quality of the performance and the size of the audience were impressive.

The jazz equivalent would feature a pair of promising students from the Berklee College of Music interpreting compositions by Ellington, Monk, Coleman and Zorn. Could a free concert of that nature fill the Folly Theater? And who would fund it?

The next day I caught the third of the Kansas City Symphony's three weekend performances. Their takes on Sibelius and Stravinsky were outstanding. It's too bad more weren't on hand to experience it. In spite of a massive media blitz that included billboards, print and radio advertising, a YouTube channel, Twitter messages and deeply discounted tickets (I paid $20 a ticket but should have held out for a buy-one-get-one-free promotion), the balcony where I sat was less than a third full. I couldn't see the entire floor of the Lyric Theater, but I spotted plenty of empty seats.

I don't envy the task of trying to sell a cumulative 4,000 or so tickets for each Symphony program. In spite of the excellence of the Kansas City Symphony (I'm a huge fan), demand for orchestral music in Kansas City seems severely limited. The symphony, however, can rely on the enormous sponsorship of many of Kansas City's moneyed elite. They're even financing a beautiful new venue.

What's it all mean for the jazz community?

There's clearly a young audience willing to take a flier on experimental music when the price is right. Additionally, there are hundreds of citizens who make significant financial contributions to the symphony. They don't, however, necessarily wish to attend the concerts. Is it possible that these same privileged people might have an affinity for jazz? And would the Kansas City Symphony benefit by beginning to incorporate jazz into its programming?

Jazz is, after all, "America's classical music."

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Why Isn't Tech N9ne a Jazz Musician?

Tech N9ne would have probably been a great jazz musician. Born in Kansas City 36 years ago as Aaron Yates, he's carved out a successful career as a hip hop headliner.

David Cook might have made a strong George Benson-style guitarist and vocalist. Instead, the Blue Springs-bred rocker achieved fame via American Idol.

Plastic Sax believes that many of Kansas City's most talented musicians might have made significant contributions to the jazz world had they chosen to work within the genre. Tech N9ne's creativity and intelligence, for instance, seem ideally suited to jazz.

I don't mean to imply that jazz is superior to hip hop or rock; I believe that great music exists in all styles of music. Yet it's disheartening to consider that neither Yates nor Cook had probably given any serious thought to jazz. But even if they're closet jazz freaks, both men knew that deliberately selecting a life in jazz would be a sacrifice in potential upside earning power. It's a luxury few can afford.

The biggest living star in jazz, Wynton Marsalis, was born into the music. The same is true for Bobby Watson, one of Kansas City's leading jazz figures. Perhaps the most exceptional local exception is Eldar Djangirov. And he had to come to Kansas City via Russia to make it happen. The long odds are such that each Harold O'Neal seems like a minor miracle.

Unless it regains a substantial audience, jazz's losses will continue to be country, hip hop and rock's gains.

(Rock image by Plastic Sax.)