[Dixielandjazz] My Gratitude

[rahberry at comcast.net]

Fred and others,
According to the Social Security Death Index Jay McShann was born Jan. 12, 1916 and died Dec. 7 2006 in Kansas City MO.
  -- Rae Ann



 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Fred Spencer" <drjz at bealenet.com>
> 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
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> 
> 
> 
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