LEAVING KANSAS CITY
For jazz musicians, ticket to success leads elsewhere
By CALVIN WILSON - The Kansas City Star
Date: 09/06/99 22:15Arrogance is one thing, accuracy quite another. The former may help explain why, in two new books, Kansas City's contributions to music in general and jazz in particular are either glossed over or outright ignored.
Any moron can tell you that Kansas City has contributed significantly to the jazz world. From Count Basie and Charlie "Bird" Parker to Pat Metheny and Kevin Mahogany, ours is a record of which to be proud. But those contributions get short shrift in both the appropriately titled Jazz for Dummies and The Rough Guide to Music USA.
These tomes can only accelerate the movement of Kansas City jazz artists to places more likely to be noticed by the scribblers of the book world. Places like New York, Chicago and ... Denver?
Yes, Denver.
The Dummies book, penned by Dirk Sutro as part of the series that began in 1991 with "DOS for Dummies," indeed includes Denver in a chapter called "Catching Real Live Jazz." It supposedly provides information about the national club scene but overlooks Kansas City, except for a passing nod.
Dummies acknowledges Kansas City only as "the heart of old big band territory and Charlie `Yardbird' Parker's birthplace," making no mention of the local club scene. Jazz venues are specified for such predictable destinations as Chicago, New York and New Orleans, as well as such questionable places as Denver and Cleveland.
"Cleveland?" said Angela Hagenbach, a local jazz singer and promoter. "I just don't see that as a jazz city at all. Obviously the author is a dummy."
In The Rough Guide to Music USA, part of the youth-friendly travel-guide series aimed at bare-bones travelers, author Richie Unterberger purports to present readers with a guide to America's varied musical heritage. The guide, which Unterberger says is as much musical history as travel book, includes chapters on music scenes from New York to Seattle but omits Kansas City.
These exclusions could strike some people as simply further examples of the arrogant disdain with which so many outsiders view the Midwest. There can't be anything out here other than cows, wheat fields and three-legged dogs, can there?
Mike Metheny, a trumpeter whose brother is New York-based guitarist Pat Metheny, said both authors "need to come here and go to the clubs and hear some of the really good players."
"It's frustrating to be living here and to know that Kansas City is perceived that way elsewhere, as not being on a par with New York or Chicago or L.A., as not being up to speed," said Mike Metheny, who is editor of Kansas City Jazz Ambassador Magazine, a bimonthly publication that chronicles the local scene.
Whether playing in clubs or in hotels, local jazz musicians can be relied upon to convey the city's swinging, blues-based jazz style. Some of them are among the finest jazz artists anywhere, and they appreciate Kansas City's laid-back, low-stress environment.
"There are a lot of musicians here who are very daring musically, but they choose to stay here because the lifestyle is slower," said Kansas City-based singer Lisa Henry, who in 1994 took second place in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in Washington. Her latest album is "Live From 18th and Vine."
"Kansas City has been a wonderful and supportive place for me to grow," Henry said. "And I think that's important."
Pianist/bandleader Jay McShann has chosen to live in Kansas City for much of his life, despite that, given the high esteem in which he is held as a musician, he could have resided just about anywhere.
But through the years the city also has lost many artists to other places. Recently one of the city's more popular jazz vocalists, Karrin Allyson, has expressed her desire to explore opportunities elsewhere, specifically in New York. "I don't expect to be gigging every night," Allyson said. "But I think it presents opportunities that wouldn't be presented in Kansas City or anywhere else, for that matter."
And Kevin Mahogany, who lives in Kansas City and who has been hailed in the national media as one of the most dynamic new male jazz singers of the last decade, rarely performs here anymore, although he is scheduled to appear at the Uptown Theatre on Sept. 17.
As revered as the Kansas City's jazz reputation is, outsiders often perceive the contemporary scene as lackluster.
So much so, it seems, that author Unterberger opted to leave Kansas City out of his Music USA guide altogether. Not that it was his intention to slight the city, he said in a phone interview. It was just that, to keep the book as portable as possible, he had to limit it to cities and regions he determined to be essential.
"As far as New York, that's a no-brainer," Unterberger said. "And Nashville and Memphis, you couldn't leave those out." According to Unterberger, leaving Kansas City out was "a significant omission, among other significant omissions, a judgment call."
The other significant omissions, he said, included the go-go scene in Washington, which Unterberger apparently places on a par with the musical contributions of Charlie Parker and Count Basie.
If you're asking what "go-go" is, MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide describes it as "Washington D.C.'s homegrown funk variant" and a "cowbell ringing, call-and-response family jam." Go-go's greatest cultural impact came in 1988 with "Da Butt," a tune performed by the band E.U. on the soundtrack to Spike Lee's film "School Daze."
It's tempting to chalk the Dummies and Music USA snubs up to ignorance and move on. But when one considers that books can have a real impact on the way a place is perceived, the fact that neither author could properly acknowledge Kansas City is troubling.
It's not the first time Kansas City jazz has been ignored in recent years. In 1995 Down Beat magazine, arguably the most-respected jazz periodical in America, published an article about burgeoning jazz scenes in cities from coast to coast that also overlooked the city of Basie and Bird. The omission was particularly notable because Kansas City in the last decade has nurtured some of the more exciting newcomers on the jazz scene, including Mahogany and Allyson. After performing extensively in New York and Europe, both are now covered regularly in newspapers and magazines nationally.
Unfortunately for local fans, such success has a downside, as performers they have come to love and can hear for the cost of a beer seek their fortunes elsewhere. Although Allyson still lives here and continues to appear in local clubs, she has long been preparing for a move to New York.
"I just got so busy traveling that I didn't have time to do it," said Allyson, whose latest album is "From Paris to Rio" (Concord).
Her desire to move, she said, is largely motivated by her need to grow as an artist. Unquestionably when it comes to working with imaginative artists who explore a range of jazz styles, New York is hard to beat. Obviously the city also is a place where little-known artists can become overnight sensations.
Mike Metheny, who left Kansas City in the 1970s to take part in the Boston jazz scene but returned 10 years ago, said the experience had an enduring impact on his approach to music. "At that time, it was something I needed to do," he said. "Sometimes you have to go where there's an intense level of virtuosity, a situation where you can learn by osmosis."
Vocalist Allyson's desire to become a New Yorker isn't entirely based in the need for musical growth. Too often, she said, Kansas City audiences don't give jazz artists the attention they deserve. Sometimes, the singer said, spectators carry on loud conversations during performances and become indignant when an artist objects.
"I'm notorious in this city for asking people to be quiet," she said. "But it's not to be a snot. It's because we're working, and the more you listen, the more you'll get out of it." Some club owners, she said, have been sympathetic, placing "Please Be Quiet" signs on tables.
But the fact is, few people have ever gotten rich by presenting jazz purely as an art form and not as background music. In Kansas City, clubs that ask for even the smallest cover charge often meet with resistance from customers. As a result, some jazz artists who really want to stay here but also can't ignore the possibility of better opportunities elsewhere, get frustrated and move out of town.
The jazz artist who is generally considered Kansas City's greatest, saxophonist Charlie Parker, did much the same thing when he left the city in the 1940s to seek his fortune in New York. And, indeed, Basie accepted the invitation to New York extended by impresario John Hammond in 1936.
"There's been this migration away from Kansas City since Charlie Parker left," Metheny said. The notion that jazz artists stay here just long enough to hone their chops, then move on, "has been in place for a really long time," he said.
Ultimately, singer Henry said, deciding whether to stay or go is a matter of deciding what kind of life you want and what you're willing to do to attain it. For the time being, she's staying.
To reach Calvin Wilson, Arts & Entertainment writer, call (816) 234-4362 or send e-mail to cwilson@kcstar.com
All content © 1999 The Kansas City Star
