Now's the Time: Béla Fleck and the Flecktones

Victor Wooten’s outing at the Madrid Theatre in 2017 was one of the year’s most energetic jazz-adjacent performances in Kansas City.  (Plastic Sax reviewed the concert.)  The audacious bassist returns to Kansas City on Monday, July 9, as a member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones for a show at the Uptown Theater.  The concert is one of hundreds of gigs listed at The Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

Now's the Time: Joe Jackson

The unexpected musical detours taken by the British pop star Joe Jackson introduced millions of people to the music of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Louis Jordan.  The enthusiastic jazz, swing and jump-blues aficionado performs at the Uptown Theater on Friday, June 23.

Now's the Time: Marcus Miller

While the DMS name doesn't work for me, I'm rather partial to everything else about the combination of George Duke, Marcus Miller and David Sanborn. If I'm going to listen to so-called smooth jazz, I'd like it to come from these guys. They perform together Monday at The Uptown Theater.