A Plastic Sax Party

This is so cool!

B.A.C. Horn Doctor, an Olathe company mentioned here earlier this month, has restored a Grafton saxophone similar to the $144,500 instrument on display at the American Jazz Museum.

In this video, Gerald Dunn auditions it in the presence of Charlie Parker's controversial plastic sax.

In addition to Dunn, the Horn Doctor staff filmed Loren Pickford and Bobby Watson playing the instrument. All three men make the plastic sax sound great.

Related videos are available at the Horn Doctor's YouTube channel.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*The Pitch reports that Gi Gi's Jazz Inn, a jazz club on Troost, has opened. Aside from Jason Harper's story, the venue has no web presence.

*All About Jazz published an extensive interview with vocalist Deborah Brown.

*The Star reports that The Majestic is "temporarily closed." The downtown venue featured jazz nightly.

*Subtitled "A Father's account of his history of jazz in Kansas City," Then appears to be a personal jazz-oriented documentary. As Vimeo is buggy for me, I haven't been able to view much of it. (Tip via Tony's Kansas City.)

*The author of The Daily Record bemoans the fact that he can attend a free jazz festival featuring the likes of Dave Brubeck and Dr. John in Jacksonville but not in Kansas City.

*The excellent lineup for the 17th annual Charlie Parker festival has been announced. Alas, it's in New York City.

*Two prominent local scribes, Tony of Tony's Kansas City and John Mark Eberhart rave about Dave Stephens' recent appearance at Jardine's.

*The Star's piece on Alacartoona is a mandatory reading for all area musicians.

*The Star offers an in-depth story about the ongoing drama at KKFI.

*Our friend Lee brought this jazz radio news to our attention.

*Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is playing The Blue Room on July 11. Stefon Harris returns to Kansas City in January.

*According to this this Pitch piece, The Blue Room attracts quite a crowd for its monthly poetry slams.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Chris Burnett Makes It Happen

Plastic Sax readers know that I regularly point out that most Kansas City jazz musicians fail to properly market themselves. Just last month I highlighted two outstanding promotional videos by local rappers in an effort to motivate the jazz community.

Chris Burnett is an exception. He aggressively promotes both his work and the Artists Recording Collective on a variety of social media platforms. And now he has a new video to show off.

I don't particularly care for the aesthetic values of the video, but that's not the point. What's important is that Burnett made it happen.

A technical note from the video's creator is instructive: "I made this music video with nothing but Digital Juice Videotraxx HD and SD. It took more time to render the clips (about 60 of them) than it did to cut it together."

Who's next?

Now's the Time: Logan Richardson

While it ranked as my 17th favorite concert of 2008, Stefon Harris's November performance at the Folly Theater occasionally risked becoming overly cerebral. Each time things became a tad too flighty, the work of saxophonist Logan Richardson steered the proceedings back toward terra firma. His somewhat menacing presence seemed to ground Harris' band. Richardson is featured at Jardine's Tuesday and Wednesday, May 26-27. (EDIT: He'll also be at The Blue Room on Saturday, May 30.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Chris Burnett recently notified friends and fans that his 2007 album streams free at LaLa.com. Plastic Sax is a fan of the service. There's at least a week's worth of Kansas City jazz- from Count Basie to Pat Metheny to Megan Birdsall- available at the site. I'm listening to Doug Talley's Kansas City Suite at LaLa.com at this very moment.

*Road trip! St. Louis Jazz Notes reports that Sonny Rollins will perform in St. Louis on September 19. And a thoughtful Plastic Sax reader just sent me a link to the impressive schedule for the Chicago Jazz Festival.

*Jazz bassist and Big 8 basketball legend Wayman Tisdale has died.

*Sue Vicory provides an update on her Kansas City jazz and blues documentary.

*The Kansas City Kansan files a report about this summer's Kansas City Kansas Street Blues Festival.

*Pat Metheny appears on the new Gary Burton release. Too bad about the Peter Max album art.

*Corky Carrell's photographs of The Mingus Big Band's recent performance at The Gem Theater are posted at Present.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

It's a New Day

I caught Esperanza Spalding at The Folly Theater Saturday night. I more or less concur with the guy who wrote this rave review of the concert.

Spalding, 24, served notice that the game has changed.

With breathtaking versatility- the performance included straight-ahead jazz, crossover pop, fusion, avant-garde edginess and forays into the sounds of Brazil and Argentina- Spalding demonstrated that a jazz-based musician can engage a diverse audience if he or she displays enthusiasm, charisma, and most importantly, immeasurable talent.

Musicians in Kansas City's jazz community need to step up or be left behind. There's no shortage of local talent or innovation- but the ability to combine those elements into a forward-thinking concept is largely absent.

The sixty-plus set that has propped up the local scene for decades won't be around much longer. Only a handful of jazz hermeticists, Plastic Sax among them, will be eager to consume the music in its purest forms in ten years.

Spalding understands that she's competing directly against Bjork, Ben Harper, Alicia Keys and Radiohead. She accepts that challenge without compromising her art.

Spalding proved Saturday that it's possible to blaze a new trail in which jazz might find an artistically and commercially bright future. Are you going with her?

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Esperanza Spalding

I'm holding out on you. My thoughts about Esperanza Spalding will first appear in another forum. Joe Klopus provided a fine preview of her Saturday show at The Folly Theater.