John Burris Jr.

I love jazz because of its present and historical part of the African American culture in Kansas City that is exported to the universe. I was first exposed to jazz primarily from my parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, school teachers... on and on. I met jazz cat Raymond Ice, my grandfather before I knew myself. My uncle Ervin Brown is a Kansas City area musician and plays many instruments, most notably the guitar. He has performed with many well known artists and is still going strong. The best show I ever attended was; well I'm now old and forgetful. There were so many performances... My advice to new listeners is to keep your ears open. There's so much history that is jazz. I was just digging on Sadao Watanabe's Birds of Passage during my morning run. I bought the tape back in 1989. It still has the magic!