[Dixielandjazz] My Gratitude
Fred Spencer
drjz at bealenet.com
Wed Jan 9 18:55:56 PST 2008
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
Kansas City...and All That's Jazz. The Kansas City Jazz Museum. Kansas City.
Andrews McMeel, 1999. vii, 120pp., illus.
This profusely illustrated "museum" book tells the tale of a city where a
unique, "all day and night" style of jazz was created. Kansas City was the
"swinging town of the 1930s when jazz musicians in the hundreds played clubs
and dances all over town." They were encouraged in their efforts by "Boss"
Tom Pendergast, the city's corrupt mayor. The famous--Count Basie, Charlie
Parker, Mary Lou Williams, Lester Young--and the not-so-famous--Chauncey
Downs, Charlie Green, Frank Miller, Bob Wilson--jammed with each other and
any outsiders who dared to challenge them. "Kansas City Jazz. A Photographic
History" illuminates two-thirds of the book. One picture is of Pha Terrell,
Andy Kirk's male vocalist, who was often branded as a woman because his name
was pronounced "Fay". Pictures of marching bands and a Works Progress
Administration (WPA) band show two jazz combinations that were shared by
Kansas City and New Orleans (see NEW ORLEANS, Rose and Souchon).
"The Kansas City Scene" is described in an interview "with the veteran
pianist and band leader, Jay McShann, who was "Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on
January 12, 1909." Other sauces say with equal authority that he was born on
January 12,1916.(Birth records in Oklahoma are closed to public inspection
so the correct birthdate may be difficult to establish).
The Kansas City Jazz Museum is now known as The American Jazz Museum. Other
books about Kansas City include Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest
(Ross Russell, University of California Press, 1973); Goin' to Kansas City
(Nathan W. Pearson, Jr., University of Illinois Press,1987); Kansas City:
Jazz From Ragtime to Bebop, A History (Frank Driggs and Charles Haddie,
Oxford University Press, 2005)
.Jazz museums in New Orleans and New York (Howard E. Fischer. Jazz Expose:
The New York Jaxz Museum and The Power Struggle That Destroyed It (Sundog,
2006) have closed.. A projected one in Charlottesville, Virginia never
materialized.
----- Original Message -----
From: <LRG4003 at aol.com>
To: <drjz at bealenet.com>
Cc: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 6:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] My Gratitude
> Larry Walton wrote...
>
> "Do they do anything at the Jazz museum? I would think they would have
> something going on there.
> Larry
> StL"
>
> In response to your query Larry, the jazz Museum has an excellent
> (acoustically speaking) Jazz Club called the Blue Room. Here's a little
> more about the
> facility, club calendar, etc. _http://www.americanjazzmuseum.com/_
> (http://www.americanjazzmuseum.com/)
>
> As museums go I would say it is probably more interesting to the
> non-player.
> Some artifacts, history, etc.--but the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,
> next
> door is much more entertaining.
>
> As for the Room, during my visits there it tends more to the "polite" type
> of club as opposed to a more raucous setting. And the music skews more
> modern, with an occasional foray into blues-inflected jazz
> (Ida McBeth) and some old style K.C. swing (The Scamps). Outside of
> local
> concert venues it is the primary stopover point for any high profile
> national
> jazz coming through town---Joey DeFrancesco plays there for example and
> saxaphonist Bobby Watson who now teaches Jazz at the Univ. of Mo. K.C.
> appears
> there, but there is no Dixieland and only a small percentage of OKOM. It
> is
> true however, that after gigs,
> musicians start popping into the Foundation for jams that go to sunrise.
> That much, at least maintains the K.C. tradition.
>
> There is really only one, consistently high quality dixieland group
> playing
> regularly in town---the New Red Onion Jazz Babies and a handful of
> offshoots
> in ragtime and other related styles.
>
> How about St. Louie? And where would anybody suggest these days is the
> top
> location for dixieland beyond New Orleans?
>
> K.C. Clarinet
>
>
>
>
>
> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.
> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>
More information about the Dixielandjazz
mailing list