*Tim Finn praises Kansas City's homegrown talent in an excellent essay. Karrin Allyson, Mike Dillon, Jeff Harshbarger, Hearts of Darkness and Krystle Warren are mentioned in Finn's piece, but that's obviously just a small fraction of the area's jazz and jazz-related talent. In the spirit of Finn's piece, I'll suggest that infrequent Plastic Sax readers shouldn't hesitate to catch international stars like Joe Lovano and Christian McBride when they come to town, but they should also know that the Kansas City Jazz Calendar is loaded with listings for performances by some of the world's best jazz musicians.
*Recipients of The Pitch's 2011 music awards included Heart of Darkness, "Best Jazz Ensemble," and Mark Lowrey, "Best Jazz Solo Artist."
*The largely forgotten career of Blind Boone is revisited by KCUR's KC Currents.
*Megan Birdsall's ongoing medical problems are summarized by KCJazzLark.
*This year's Charlie Parker Jazz Festival includes appearances by Toots Thielmans, James Carter, the Archie Shepp Quartet and Anat Cohen. As thousands of New Yorkers celebrate jazz royalty in Tompkins Square Park, a few dozen Kansas Citians will congregate for a graveside service at Lincoln Cemetery.
*Chris Burnett is the interim Marketing/Communications Manager at the American Jazz Musuem.
*A Logan Richardson gig in London is reviewed by The Financial Times.
*Shay Estes (pictured above) is in and the Ukrainians are out at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival. The Prairie Village Post has the story. (Tip via PF.)
*The forthcoming We Always Swing season in Columbia, Missouri, is very impressive.
*The new owner of Overland Park's Intentions promises that her venue will feature live jazz two nights a week.
*Mary Lou Williams: The Next 100 Years, a new album by the New York-based Virginia Mayhew Quartet, was released yesterday.
*Here's a set of video uploads from last weekend's gig at Davey's featuring Alaturka and Malachy Papers.
*Additional video from the recent Black On Both Sides event at the Blue Room was recently uploaded to YouTube.
*St. Louis Jazz Notes reports that Joe McPhee, Matthew Shipp and John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quartet are among the acts scheduled to perform in the 2011-12 season of St. Louis' New Music Circle.
*Chicago-based critic Howard Reich reviews a Charlie Parker-inspired performance by Donald Harrison, Jr.
*Tweet o' the Week: thesoundkc: Hosting a late night, multi-genre PARTY!!!!!!! on Saturday, August 27th at the Firehouse on Troost! Great DJs and bands lined up. No cover!!!
*From Jim Mair: WHAT: The Kansas City High School All Star Jazz Ensemble. WHO: The best of the best from both sides of the state line. WHEN: For ten weeks beginning Wednesday August 7 from 6:30 to 9:30pm WHERE: ...Kansas City Kansas Community College. COST: $90. Director: Hermon Mehari... Please have any interested students contact Jim Mair 913-288-7149.
*From Jim Mair: The 2012 edition of "The Kansas City Jazz Summit" will be held April 25-27. In short, The Kansas City Jazz Summit will cater to Middle School and High School Jazz Bands, Jazz Combos and Jazz Choirs. We will have three categories and three performance sites all at KCKCC. More information is available here.
(Original image of Gerald Dunn, Shay Estes and Matt Otto performing August 11 at the Blue Room by Plastic Sax.)
Bill, the item you mention about New Music Circle's upcoming season attributed to Jazz St. Louis actually was published on St. Louis Jazz Notes (which is where the link goes)...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, Dean, and thanks too for your excellent work in St. Louis.
ReplyDelete