Plastic Sax writes an exhaustive assessment of the decline of Kansas City Jazz. In terms of institutional fail he's probably completely correct.
But lets talk about music.
Consider:
Reach
Miles Boney
AND MARK LOWREY WITH HIS KICK-ASS NEW WEBSITE!!!
THESE ARE ALL LOCAL KANSAS CITY JAZZ INFLUENCED PERFORMERS KEEPING THIS TOWN'S MUSICAL TRADITION ALIVE WHILE OTHERS BEMOAN THE DECLINE OF AN ART FORM THAT'S BEEN DEAD SINCE THE BEATLES FIRST PERFORMED ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW!!!
I'll explain just a bit further . . . Music doesn't belong in a museum or even a bar district. Music belongs only to performers and their audiences.
I always feel like the "death of jazz" essay laments an iconic age that's never going to return. Time only moves forward. 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.
But lets talk about music.
Consider:
Reach
Miles Boney
AND MARK LOWREY WITH HIS KICK-ASS NEW WEBSITE!!!
THESE ARE ALL LOCAL KANSAS CITY JAZZ INFLUENCED PERFORMERS KEEPING THIS TOWN'S MUSICAL TRADITION ALIVE WHILE OTHERS BEMOAN THE DECLINE OF AN ART FORM THAT'S BEEN DEAD SINCE THE BEATLES FIRST PERFORMED ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW!!!
I'll explain just a bit further . . . Music doesn't belong in a museum or even a bar district. Music belongs only to performers and their audiences.
I always feel like the "death of jazz" essay laments an iconic age that's never going to return. Time only moves forward. 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.
"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."
ReplyDeleteI agree.
The problem with the jazz museum is that it mythologizes people who have only peripheral connections to Kansas City - Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, etc. I took visitors from out of town a couple of years ago who were amazed that the Kansas City jazz museum had so little to do with actual Kansas City jazz. The museum ignores or pays lip service only to scores of legendary locals. It's purely a third-rate operation. I could do better.
ReplyDeleteThe Black Baseball museum across the lobby, in stark contrast, is a beautiful, transformative place and deserving of its worldwide reputation. Just be sure you turn right as you go in, not left.
The problem with the district is not that there are not enough white people going down there. The problem is that there are not enough black people going down there. The whole thing is designed like a Disney attraction you could call "Harlemville." Popped down pristinely, smack in the middle of one of the most violent ghettos in the country. Sure! Build it and they will come. Just like Power & Light. Wrong. Stupid. Patronizing.
There are scores of young musicians of color who would gladly play for the public in the area, but for that what is needed are bars and joints, not high-priced home-style restaurants hoping to attract white folks. 18th and Vine has to become a place where you can go to hear young black, Latin, white and other musicians forge new identities in not only "jazz" but other new music as well, and for that, those communities have to support it first. Build THAT and they will come.
Better yet, turn it into a red-light district. Put in strip clubs and dirty bookstores. Hookers strolling the street while jazz is blaring forth from the storied storefronts. Just like it used to be. That would drive all the traffic to the area they could possibly want. Kind of like the French Quarter.
The jazz museum is destined to die on the, er...vine. All it's going to take is for one black-on-white murder - somebody attending a late show at the Blue Room - and what white patronage the place does have now will evaporate overnight. It's a house of cards with no fallback.