A Hole in the Middle of the Map

At 2 a.m. on Easter I'll be in a basement in Westport listening to the jarring attack of Acid Mothers Temple. The experimental Japanese band will be the last of over 75 acts scheduled to perform at this week's Middle of the Map festival.

The inspired rock and electronic-oriented three-day event is the brainchild of a handful of passionate, hard-working music lovers. Although only one of the bands performing at the eight participating venues has enjoyed an actual hit, the second edition of the festival is almost assured of being a commercial success. Sponsors include a brewery, a professional sports franchise, a car dealer, a law firm and several distilleries. The institutional support is a reflection of the organizational prowess of the festival's planners.

What if the entirety of Kansas City's jazz community worked together to create a similar event? My experience at the Portland Jazz Festival in February showed me what's possible in a metropolis that's just 10% larger than Kansas City. I caught a sold-out performance by Enrico Rava and well-attended sets by a couple regional acts. Spread out over nine days, the event also included appearances by the duo of Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo, Bill Frisell, Charles McPherson, Charlie Hunter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roy Haynes, the Jazz Passengers, Vijay Iyer's Tirtha, Ben Williams and dozens of Portland-based musicians.

By incorporating everything that's already happening on the Kansas City jazz scene over a two-week span, a new festival would complement rather than undercut existing programming. The Prairie Village Jazz Festival, Jazz In the Woods, Rhythm & Ribs and Jazz Winterlude are terrific events that receive my enthusiastic support. The new concept would be an all-encompassing city-wide jazz festival that could take place at Johnson County Community College, Kansas City Kansas Community College, UMKC, the Folly Theater and Helzberg Hall. Established jazz venues would also be a crucial part of the mix.

In addition to Kansas City-based talent, performers might include the likes of Brian Blade, David Sanchez, Medeski Martin & Wood, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, the Soul Rebels, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Cuong Vu, Flying Lotus and Matana Roberts. Kansas City's event could be timed to pull in artists performing at the annual Chicago Jazz Festival.

Ambitious? Sure. But with Kansas City's jazz scene undergoing an artistic renaissance, the time is right to think big. And Kansas City boasts several established institutions that should be able to provide logistical support. In addition to Bobby Watson's jazz program at UMKC, fine collegiate programs are thriving at JCCC, KU, KCKCC, Ottawa and UCM. Prominent area institutions include the American Jazz Museum, KC Youth Jazz, the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the Jazz Ambassadors, the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, the Folly's jazz series and the Artists Recording Collective. Perhaps most importantly, many locally-based musicians might be compelled to call in favors. Heck, there are even a couple jazz bloggers who might be eager to get their hands even dirtier.

All of these organizations and musicians are already doing great things. If they pooled their resources for an annual event, everyone would win. I'm assuming, of course, that the dysfunctional and ruthlessly territorial reputation of a few of these entities is unmerited. Furthermore, I'm operating under the assumption that there are at least 2,500 people in the Kansas City area willing to purchase tickets to hear serious music performed by the world's most important jazz-based artists.

If you share my enthusiasm for returning Kansas City to the center of the jazz universe for a couple weeks every year, let's talk it over on Sunday morning. You can find me here. A note to smart alecks- I realize that I riffed on a similar proposal eleven months ago. And no- this post is not an April Fools' Day gag.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

On the Corner: Notes on Thursday's Tribute to Miles Davis at Crosstown Station

Outlandish ideas involuntarily bum rushed their way into my oversized noggin during last week's tribute to Miles Davis.

After I plopped myself down in the first row of folding chairs at Crosstown Station (about 125 people sat or stood behind me), I became completely immersed in what looked like a theatrical production. As a variation of the Kansas City Sound Collective (I reviewed its May 12 performance here) reverently performed familiar material associated with Miles Davis, I composed dialogue for nonexistent actors to recite between each selection.

With the addition of an acting component, I could easily see these excellent musicians performing the same material in a traveling theatrical production about the life and music of Miles Davis. It was that good. The only downside? Intermission didn't come until 11:30 p.m. I couldn't stick around for the electric set.

(Image of Matt Chalk, Andrew McGhie and Hermon Mehari courtesy of Michael Byars.)

An Immodest Proposal

I've written extensively about the vast disparity between the size of the audience for "new" jazz and the quality of the music being performed in Kansas City. Too many times the musicians on stage outnumber the members of the audience. That's not right. And I wish someone would do something about it. In spite of the following exercise in futility, that person isn't me.

Here's my dead-on-arrival idea. I propose a three-day multi-venue "new jazz" festival featuring left-of-center jazz by (mostly) Kansas City-based musicians. I've given the ambitious event the working title of Curtis Got Slapped. Are you with me so far?

It's not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Just last month thousands of music fans purchased tickets to the inaugural Middle of the Map festival in Kansas City. The accomplishment was all the more remarkable because the rock-based event lacked any big stars. (Of course, it's all relative. Appearances by festival headliners Cursive, for instance, attract a few hundred people. That's not much in the rock world, but it'd be a huge for a jazz act.)

It's precisely fans of indie rock acts like Cursive that I'd like this festival to reach. The music featured at CGS will be more appealing to fans of TV On the Radio than to fans of Stan Getz. Perhaps by presenting these alternative jazz acts in a semi-coherent fashion, Pitchfork-obsessed hipsters will realize that they've been missing out on a compelling scene.

Here's my proposed schedule for CGS. (Rather than drag unsuspecting venues into this theoretical discussion, I changed the names of the clubs.)

Midtown Depot, downstairs stage
Thursday
800 Mr. Marco's V7
1000 NewEar
1200 Quixotic featuring Brandon Draper (conceptual jazz-oriented collabo)

Friday
800 Snuff Jazz
1000 BCR
1200 Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Saturday
800 Logan Richardson
1000 Bobby Watson's 29th Street Saxophone Quartet (reunited for GGS!)
1200 The People's Liberation Big Band


Midtown Depot, upstairs stage
Thursday
800 Andrew McGhie Quartet
1000 Loren Pickford (triumphant return)
1200 Mark Lowrey with Drums

Friday
800 Harold O'Neal
1000 CrossCurrent
1200 Alaturka

Saturday
800 Popes of Dope
1000 Mike Metheny
1200 Battle of the Big Bands: Clint Ashlock's New Jazz Order vs. Dirty Force Brass Band (The concept: Ashlock's band, seated, and DFBB, marching, alternate selections in a vicious cage match.)


Gardens on the Plaza
Thursday
800 Shay Estes and Mark Lowrey
1000 Matt Otto Quartet
1200 Sir Threadius Mongus

Friday
800 Charles Gatschet
1000 Jerry Hahn
1200 Black House Improvisors Collective

Saturday
800 Chris Burnett
1000 Roger Wilder Quartet
1200 Diverse

Vinyl Pub
Thursday
800 BeardKCrazy
1000 Hearts of Darkness
1200 The Dead Kenny G's

Friday
800 This Is My Condition
100 Phonologotron
1200 Mouth

Saturday
800 Miles Bonny
1000 Mark Lowrey vs Hip Hop
1200 Garage a Trois

Just look at all that talent! And I left out a lot of excellent artists. KC, as my rapper friends like to say, is the town. Tickets prices, artist compensation and promotional efforts will have to be worked out by a much better person than me. Good luck with that.

(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.)

The Show-Me Jazz Showdown

Brad Mehldau, the jazz musician of the moment, has a four-night residency this week at St. Louis' Jazz At the Bistro. The pianist then plays Columbia on Sunday. There's no Kansas City date.

It often seems like St. Louis has more to offer jazz fans than its cross-state rival. To help determine if St. Louis really is a superior jazz town, I've broken the question down into five categories.

Major caveat: It's been a couple years since I've been to "The Lou," and I've spent a total of about 100 nights in the city. And while I really like St. Louis, I live in Kansas City by choice.

1. LIVE JAZZ Edge: St. Louis
I adore the intimacy of the Blue Room, the consistency of Jardine's, and the beauty of the Folly. St. Louis's venues include Jazz At the Bistro and the Sheldon. St. Louis' festivals break the tie.

2. HISTORY Edge: Tie
Both cities are rightfully proud of their jazz legacies. There's no point in arguing about Miles versus Bird or the World Saxophone Quartet versus Bobby Watson.

3. RETAIL AND RADIO Edge: St. Louis
Jazz experts abound at St. Louis music dealers Vintage Vinyl, Euclid Records and Webster Records. Kansas City no longer offers anything of the kind. KWMU, KDHX and WSIE fill St. Louis' airwaves with jazz. KKFI gives Kansas City ten hours of jazz programming a week. It's no contest.

(Edit- The staff of Vinyl Renaissance disagrees with my assessment. And sure enough, they list some prime vinyl at their site. I look forward to visiting their Shawnee store. Maybe I'll make it out on "Record Store Day," April 19.)

4. INTANGIBLES Edge: Kansas City
The American Jazz Museum, the Blue Room and the Mutual Musicians Foundation are unique to Kansas City.

5. JAZZ TALENT Edge: To be determined
Rather than smugly insisting that Kansas City dominates this category, I'll propose a novel concept. What if representative artists of each city were to trade dates? Better yet, a group of Kansas City musicians- say Bobby Watson, Megan Birdsall, the Jazz Disciples and Chris Burnett- might play together in St. Louis as "The Kansas City All-Stars." Meanwhile, St. Louis might send Hamiet Bluiett, Erin Bode and the Kennedy brothers to Kansas City. Jazz fans and musicians in both cities would benefit.

So which city wins? I'll let Don Denkinger decide.

(Image of Jazz At the Bistro's calendar by Plastic Sax.)