Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*KCJazzLark responds to The Atlantic's "Jazz District Authenticity Problem" essay. Hunter Long shares his take. Here's Tony Botello's reaction to the previous Plastic Sax post about the matter: "And if you listen closely, the sound of Kansas City Jazz can still be heard as it evolves, melds and influences hip-hop, R&B and so many other forms of music that are often overlooked by the critics and librarians who keep a constant vigil for Charlie Parker's ghost."

*Project H commissioned an excellent EPK for its new Become Light album.

*Sylvia Maria Gross of KCUR's KC Currents profiles Mike Corrigan's BAC Horn Doctor.

*The establishment of an "International Jazz Hall of Fame" is being considered in Chicago.

*The Majestic has a- wait for it- jazz calendar!

*Black House Improvisors' Collective is having "Fun With Gongs".

*Here's an EPK for the "Diverse Plays Michael Jackson" concept.

*Benny Golson's first set at the Blue Room was reviewed by The Star.

*Bob McWilliams reviewed Dave Pietro's appearance at Kansas City Academy.

*Los Angeles-based Mike Melvoin, an occasional collaborator of David Basse, has died. Basse hosted a tribute to Melvoin a couple months ago. Sue Vicory documented the occasion.

*T.J. Martley takes on Herbie Hancock's solo on Wayne Shorter's "Orbits."

*Last weekend's highly anticipated take on the Charlie Parker with Strings concept, a collaboration between Miguel Zenon and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, was reviewed by Howard Reich.

*Phonologotronic wonders if his ensemble will ever play the Blue Room.

*The American Jazz Museum will host a free "opening reception" and "jazz concert" related to a new Ella Fitzgerald exhibit with "remarks by Mayor Sly James and CEO Greg Carroll" on Friday, March 2, at 6 p.m.

*Tweet o' the Week: ChrisPhelan- KC great Bobby Watson doing a favor. Front of The Gem, 18th & Vine photo at Instagram

*Comment o' the Week: Anonymous- A trap huh? If it was a trap it was to get you to actually make a statement as opposed to more non-commital, tepid musings that seem to be the bulk of your writing. This write up and your response serve as perfect examples.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Kansas City's Counterfeit Jazz

The namesake of this blog is displayed in a case at the publicly-funded American Jazz Museum in Kansas City's Jazz District. The institution isn't located at the corner of 12th Street and Vine. The famous intersection no longer exists. Want to see Charlie Parker's childhood homes? They've also been leveled. Many of the most historically valuable properties in the Kansas City area are gone. Even though I openly mock the city's decision to spend $144,500.00 in taxpayer dollars on a plastic sax once played by Bird, I applaud the motives that inspired the purchase.

Rather than a case of too little and too late, I see the efforts described in Brandon R. Reynold's The Jazz District Authenticity Problem essay as a noble last-ditch effort to formally acknowledge and preserve a portion of what remains of Kansas City's formidable jazz legacy.

Patrick Jarenwattananon of NPR's A Blog Supreme encouraged Plastic Sax and KCJazzLark to respond to Reynold's piece with locally-based insights.

As Reynolds suggests, redevelopment at 18th and Vine has been halting. Before I offer my jazz-oriented explanation of why the the top-down approach to civic engineering has resulted in a disappointing amount of progress, I'd like to surprise longtime Plastic Sax readers by offering a heartfelt tribute to the American Jazz Museum.

Just last night a capacity audience packed the museum's nightclub for Benny Golson's second appearance at the Blue Room in less than a year. It was precisely the sort of event that could only transpire under the auspices of the American Jazz Museum.

While the museum's displays may not inspire repeat visits, its entertainment programming and outreach efforts have added immeasurably to my quality of life. I've met Randy Weston. I've experienced performances by brilliant musicians including Roy Ayers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lionel Loueke, Christian McBride and Nicholas Payton. I've attended panel discussions featuring underappreciated artists like Ben Kynard. I'm grateful that the museum continues to provide these invaluable opportunities.

I just wish more people recognized jazz's intrinsic rewards. Unlike barbecue, Kansas City's other ballyhooed gift to the world, jazz simply isn't attracting hordes of eager consumers in 2012. While the Blue Room has been a constant beacon of quality, the past few years have been tough ones for Kansas City's jazz fans and musicians. Even as the indie rock, hip hop and fine arts scenes have become all the rage, the jazz environment has endured a series of humbling setbacks. Unlike the infighting that's weakened support for the Mutual Musicians Foundation and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, most of the challenges faced by the American Jazz Museum aren't self-inflicted.

Kansas City's deep-seated racial divide is the other primary reason the Jazz District has failed to thrive. The town remains segregated. Last night's Benny Golson concert aside, a lot of people are simply unwilling to visit a part of town that they associate both with crime and with people of a different race. No amount of urban planning can rectify biases of that nature.

Time, however, has a a way of changing such perceptions. And there are reasons to be hopeful. Thanks in large part to Bobby Watson's work as the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, dozens of promising young musicians are bringing fresh ideas to the scene. I'll pit Kansas City's top two dozen jazz-based musicians against the talent pool of any North American city other than New York, New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles.

I have to believe that enthusiastic audiences will eventually embrace the relevant, #BAM-friendly music being performed by these young innovators. Hopefully, the proper infrastructure will be in place in the Jazz District when that day finally arrives. Kansas City's Jazz District may then seem less like a contrived counterfeit and more like the authentic article.

(Original image of sign at 18th & Paseo by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

The retro-swing act Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform in the Kansas City Symphony's pops series Friday and Saturday, February 24-25. When they encounter this crowd-pleasing ensemble, many nostalgic listeners express a desire to hear more music from "the good ol' days." The most active local band with a similar sensibility is Grand Marquis. This footage gives a sense of the band's approach. Grand Marquis have seven performances scheduled in the Kansas City area next month.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*An essay published by The Atlantic is titled "The Jazz District Authenticity Problem."

*Hearne Christopher reports on possible progress at the location once occupied by Jardine's.

*Behind the Music: Jazz Discharge.

*Diverse appeared on a morning news broadcast on Fat Tuesday.

*Chuck Berg reviewed a concert by Tim Doherty's Nine + One.

*Sue Vicory is uploading unedited interview and performance segments related to her documentary Kansas City Jazz & Blues; Past, Present & Future at her YouTube channel.

*KCJazzLark compiles quotes about Kansas City's jazz heyday.

*The 2012-13 season of the Harriman-Jewell Series includes a Bobby McFerrin concert.

*A blogger posted a photo of Fat Tuesday's parade. (Via Tony's Kansas City.)

*Miguel Zenon's new Charlie Parker-inspired project is examined by Howard Reich.

*Two Kansas City-area musicians participated in a poll about jazz musicians' income.

*Bob Brookmeyer's Kansas City Revisited album has been reissued on vinyl.

*The Kansas City Kansan provides an update on KCKCC's jazz program.

*Tweet o' the Week: TheMajesticKC- MARK LOWREY JAZZ TRIO OPEN JAM SESSION COMING TO THE MAJESTIC JAZZ CLUB EVERY SUNDAY EVENING STARTING IN MARCH. Starting March 4, 5PM-9PM.

*Comment o' the Week: Anonymous- … I love hearing about how much you sacrifice for jazz, with your wife, kids and job with the KC Star. Try dedicating your life to playing it rather than criticizing it from a proudly un-learned point of view. THEN talk to us about sacrifice. Jesus.

*From KU School of Music: The KU School of Music is pleased to present the 35th Annual KU Jazz Festival on March 2-3, 2012, featuring notable guest artists Donny McCaslin (saxophone), Alex Sipiagin (trumpet) and Randy Klein (piano)… Evening concerts are open to the general public. On Friday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence High School Auditorium, saxophonist Donny McCaslin will be featured with the KU Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band… Saturday, March 5 features trumpeter Alex Sipiagin in concert with KU Jazz Ensemble I, under the direction of Dan Gailey, Director of Jazz Studies at KU. This performance also takes place at Lawrence High School Auditorium at 7:30… Tickets to this year's evening concerts are free. Details are available here.

*From JCCC: Students and faculty from the Music and Theatre Department at Johnson County Community College will perform several concerts in March. The concerts are free and open to the public. All of them will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Carlsen Center in Polsky Theatre... March 7 –JCCC Jazz Night will feature the "For Musicians Only" Community Jazz Ensemble, which is the special guest for the concert; the JCCC Midnight Blues Jazz Choir and the JCCC Midnight Express Jazz Ensemble. A wide variety of jazz styles will be performed.

*From Take Five Coffee: Introducing Take Five Second Set: Saturday night we have Brandon Draper's jazz quartet in our usual time slot, but it will be followed by Miles Bonny in the first ever Take Five Second Set. Saturday, February 25. 11pm Miles played music for Take Five's grand opening back in 2010. We are elated to have him back to host the first of an occasional series of Second Set shows. We're going to open up the room for a 21-and-over crowd and keep the coffee and martinis and the music flowing until 2 in the morning. Brandon Draper is going to stick around and join Miles in this inaugural Take Five event. Bonny's "second set" is scheduled to begin at 11 p.m.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Review: Enrico Rava at the Portland Jazz Festival

"I think jazz is the most beautiful music when it's good," Enrico Rava said in an interview before his concert Saturday at the Portland Jazz Festival. "When it's not good, it's the most horrible thing in the world."

Amen, brother.

Sometimes I wonder why I allow jazz to be such a major component of my life. There's not much money in it. My passion for the music isolates me from most of my friends and family. And I love other genres, so I don't really "need" jazz.

Yet it's not true. That's why this Kansan traveled 1,800 miles to attend Rava's concert. Hearing Rava didn't just affirm my commitment to jazz- the experience overwhelmed me with gratitude for having the good fortune to take in such insightful brilliance.

I laughed out loud throughout Rava's 95-minute performance. Rava- like European ECM-affiliated artists Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal- is someone I never thought I'd get a chance to see. (I was devastated when Dave Holland canceled his appearance in Kansas City last year.) So aside from concerts by Pat Metheny, I rarely get an opportunity to discover how the ECM sound works in a live environment. It turns out that the translation from a Manfred Eicher studio production to the stage isn't insurmountable.

The dramatic dynamics of Rava's band Tribe were hilarious. Rava frequently deferred to young trombonist Gianluca Petrella. The bandleader clearly believes Petrella can do no wrong. He's right. The aggressive trombonist is redefining the instrument. Pianist Giovanni Guidi, on the other hand, seemed regularly incur Rava's wrath. Unlike Rava, I liked almost every one of his ideas. Bassist Gabriele Evangelista is just a kid, but drummer Fabrizio Sferra managed to keep everyone together. He's fantastic. And Rava? He plays like the logical extension of Bix Beiderbecke and Miles Davis. Genius.

The sheer audacity of the concert gave me another reason to keep smiling. Rava and his band felt no obligation to swing. While the quintet frequently referenced Dixieland, the Count Basie Orchestra of the '30s and early bop, these acknowledgements served to offer context for the sound of 2012. Nothing- not Die Antwoord, Crystal Castles or the Weeknd- is more relevant than the music Rava played Saturday. Incredibly, only about ten people in the capacity audience of 300 at the gorgeous and acoustically perfect Dolores Winningstad Theatre walked out during Rava's performance.

I had a feeling I wasn't in Kansas (City) any more.

(Oregon Music News took proper photos. The site also offers a podcast of the pictured pre-concert interview conducted by Tim Duroche. Original image of Rava and Duroche by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Benny Golson

Saturday's appearance by Benny Golson at the Blue Room qualifies as a potential "kicking-myself concert." That's my name for important gigs I fail to attend. Maybe finances are a concern- Saturday's show is $25. Or maybe there's something else going on- I'd also love to see Bloodstone inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame or George Strait croon "Amarillo By Morning" at the Sprint Center on Saturday. And then there's the pitiful excuse of being too tired to go out. Well, I'll end up kicking myself if I don't make it to the Blue Room on February 25 to see the 83-year-old composer of "Whisper Not." Golson's all-star accompanists are pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Carl Allen. (Plastic Sax recently published an excellent Frank R. Hayde interview with Williams.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*"I like jazz but I didn't really like performing it," Krystle Warren tells the Australian. "That's why I left Kansas City." The full story is here. (Registration required.)

*A Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kansas is doing research on a project titled “Weird Bodily Noises: Race, Gender, and Alternative Jazz History in Kansas City”.

*Pat Metheny won the Grammy award for, ahem, Best New Age Album for What's It All About at Sunday's ceremony.

*KCJazzLark misses Jardine's.

*Whither Jardine's? Hearne Christopher provides another update.

*The Star provides a review of Roy Ayers' concert at the Gem Theater.

*KCTV offers a report on the status of the John Baker film collection at the American Jazz Museum.

*The new incarnation of the Black House Improvisors' Collective will be a full-on big band.

*The Prairie Village Jazz Festival has a new chairman.

*"He's one of the most intense people you will ever meet," George Colligan notes in his appreciation of frequent Kansas City performer Rob Scheps.

*A new three-song EP by funk/jazz/techno/jam act Mouth is streaming at Soundcloud.

*Robert Trussell curates a fine playlist of Kansas City jazz and blues clips at YouTube.

*Libby Hanssen recalls a People's Liberation Big Band's performance of John Cage's "4'33"."

*Jacob Fred Odyssey will issue a series of demos and remixes from Plastic Sax's #1 album of 2011.

*Miles Bonny provides a neo-soul valentine.

*Here's an update on St. Louis' new blues museum.

*Tweet o' the Week: NextOnTCM- The jazz band's leader gets mixed up with gangster in '20s Kansas City. #TCM

*Plastic Sax Comment o' the Week: tjjazzpiano- Listen to any of the Bill Evans' Trio live records (especially the 1960 Birdland Sessions). Those audience members weren't exactly whispering behind the performance of arguably one the greatest piano trios ever. I'm not saying I don't despise the noise too, but it certainly isn't a recent epidemic.

*From the Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts: The GRAMMY Museum's Music Revolution Project, a new education initiative developed by The GRAMMY Museum has been announced by Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum... Scheduled to debut as a pilot program in Kansas City, Mo. in June 2012, The GRAMMY Museum's Music Revolution Project will offer talented youth the opportunity to engage in musical discourse and performance with other peers from across the country, spurring innovative ideas within the realm of American music. Read the entire press release here.

(Original image of the Will Matthews Quartet performing at Jazz Winterlude by Plastic Sax.)