Kansas City Jazz Museum
18th and Vine, KCMO

I have visited the new $27M KC Jazz Museum a few times at the restored 18th&Vine district and would like to tell you about it. I’m hardly a jazz afficionado, relatively young and not a musician so please pardon my parochial views – I just simply dig jazz and seem to be one of the few who actually listens to the music at the clubs. The museum inspired me enough to write about it.

The museum is located just east of downtown Kansas City in a partially restored, partially new building and shares the complex with the most excellent Negro Leagues Baseball museum. Across the street is the restored GEM theatre which used to be a Black movie house years ago but is now featuring local/national jazz acts.

Entering the museum complex door exposes a large foyer with access to other entrances: The “Duke Ellington Room”, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a small theatre room that shows baseball films, the main entrance to the jazz museum and a jazz souvenir shop called the “Swing Shop”.

The “Duke Ellington Room” (actually a room for rotating temporary exhibits) has a traditional museum feel to it with a few Duke related items (music scores, etc.) and touch screen video monitors – and of course his music.

The Ellington room is a one-year display on loan from the Smithsonian and you can tell the Smithsonian Institute designed this room with its traditional stuffy feel and fabricated displays – fortunately they were not involved with the design of the main jazz museum.

The main Jazz Museum entrance ($6) on the other side of the foyer funnels down a hall into a small theatre. A 10-15 minute film interviews Lena Horne, Max Roach (he and Quincy Jones were involved with the museum development), Jay McShann and a few others reminiscing about the past and discussing what jazz means to them. The film includes many shots of KC’s jazz history as well. My first visit I skipped this but watched it the last couple of visits and was impressed with the message the film intends to get across – carefully demonstrating what jazz “is”. I would recommend skipping this and going back to it after getting your fill on the rest of the place. The film should have been a closure to the visit rather than the first impression.

The exit of the theatre room leads to an open space that has a more welcomed modern museum feel to it. The emphasis is on music via dozens of listening stations rather than “artifacts”, but there are several things on display. Given that the museum needs to appeal to the masses somewhat, I think it has a nice balance to it. The selection of music at the listening stations is fantastic.

Each station features a style of jazz or a particular artist; mainly Parker, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Armstrong and styles such as Bop, Big Band, Swing, Contemporary, etc. With headphones and about 7-10 selectable tracks at each station, a companion booklet briefly describes each track and points out the unique styles of the particular artist or idiom. All tracks are complete, fortunately not excerpts. There are also mixing stations which are kind of cheesy but it basically teaches a bit of the basics of jazz sound.

Items on display include Parker’s plastic sax (which I heard was a gift, he played it once, hated it and tossed it away), Ella Fitzgerald signature glasses and glittery dress, Armstrong’s famous handkerchief, and things like original club contracts, musician union cards, old vinyl’s, old recording equipment and jazz album cover art as well (from an artist that had an influence on Warhol). One of Parker’s contracts has terms of $160 but doesn ’t state how many appearances. Unfortunately there were not as many Bird items on display as I would’ve liked due to the uncooperative and defunct Parker Foundation whom apparently disagreed with the museum curators. I believe they didn’t like the idea of a museum complex shared with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

One corner contains several signs from past KC jazz clubs including my favorite – Milton’s. If I can side track a bit… Milton’s was the first jazz club I visited in 1986 when I was 21. The building was shortly after condemned and later torn down so I didn’t get a chance to experience as much of the legend of what Milton’s was all about. What I do remember (and I don ’t think I’m embellishing) is the impression it left. A smoke filled dark bar - so dark you couldn’t see the 7’ bouncer’s head. Bare dim light bulbs dangling for the asbestos wrapped wiring, tiny tables with chairs below the knees, the couch in the back with no legs, the tiny stage perfect for an acoustic trio, the beatnik wannabe patrons... and the massively trippey acoustic jazz!! It be gone now. :-) This summer I was at a local arts fair and saw a painting of Milton’s façade done by a local artist. I was very excited and grabbed a print immediately.

Back to the museum… Another open room contains computers with web based access to information but I haven’t checked it out yet because I’ve been drawn to something near it -- one of my favorite things in the museum – The 18th&Vine Jazz Library. It’s basically a touch screen driven 100+ CD changer with images of each CD insert. But it’s the fantastic selection and variety of jazz that makes this stand out (though I wish it had more information about each recording or at least the artist). My last two visits I spent over an hour at this booth with 4 stations. CD’s include Art Blakey, Max Roach, Chet Baker, Marsalis, Miles Davis, past Blue Devils, Parker, Bennie Moten, Basie, Hawkins, Elridge, Monk, and basically a nice collection of known contemporary and not so well known musicians (at least not known by this relative neophyte).

The most unusual attraction in this museum is the real jazz club built in that is supposedly a replication of a past KC jazz club. The club, called The Blue Room, has somewhat of a cold feel to it but is a favorite of many visitors and is actually opened 5 nights a week featuring live jazz. It is supposedly the first major museum in the world with a bar. When the bar is not open, visitors can still enter and see a few interesting things. (On one visit when the club was closed, a jazz pianist also visiting decided to hop on stage and put on an impromptu performance for us.) In the club there are about 100 pictures of past jazz greats and forgotten bands that had KC ties, fascinating matchbooks from dozens of old KC jazz clubs and union member cards with their addresses. Walter Page’s address is on his card, which is less than a mile away. (The story of the battle between Moten and Page is fascinating to me – see www.kcjazz.com).

But the first thing I noticed in the club on my first visit was a restored jukebox near the bar. I looked at it and saw musicians like Billie Holiday, Bird and Diz, Monk, Hawkins and Roy Elridge, Miles Davis and others. I was tempted to push a button not knowing if it was a display or what. I decided this was an interactive museum and I can go ahead and push a button. I selected Bird n Diz doin, ‘Hot House’. Bingo... music played! I walked around, looked up.. WOW.. It’s a VIDEO jukebox! It was displaying videos of each of these tunes on the wall (about 4’ by 6’). I was a bit zoned out over them because it was the first time I’ve seen most of these musicians in action. The way Monk’s foot slides on the floor as he plays. The happy-go-lucky look on Hawkins face as he enters the room to jam with Roy Elridge. I could feel Miles Davis’ soul more so than just through headphones. I checked them all out (about 10) and dug every one of them – on every visit. I intend to view them all again on every future visit.

Well that’s the bulk of my impressions of the museum. If you manage a visit and are a jazz nut with someone who is not, try to make another visit alone. There’s much to appreciate about the museum that doesn’t come across the first time or if rushed. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is also fantastic ($8 for both museums). I saw people coming out of there with watery eyes. My throat was a little tight coming out of there as well.

Also check out a couple of the clubs just a block down the street. The entire 18th&Vine area is being restored and it has a ghostly feeling to it walking around the area. Facades still exist from Altman's, "Kansas City" movie. Most of the 2-3 dozen KC clubs are now Downtown and in Midtown but two others at 18th&Vine include Mardi Gras (Sat afternoon jamz; Bird, Basie, Miles, Monk played it) and The Foundation. The Musical Musicians Foundation is an absolute must visit for the jazz purist who digs the raw scene. It’s the musicians union, about 70 year old and is where the musicians would gather – current musicians still gather there after their gigs. Parker grew up in the neighborhood and peeked in the windows to watch jams of perhaps Moten, Basie, Young, Hawkins, McShann, etc. Jams still run at The Foundation on weekends starting around 2AM - often till past dawn.

My first visit to The Foundation, I was taken upstairs by one of the organizers of a jazz meeting I was attending (thanks Mike!). It’s a larger room that has a community hall feeling to it – much different than the grandma’s kitchen feel of the lower level. Buckets were capturing the water from the slightly leaky roof of the partially dilapidated building that will hopefully soon be restored as well. He took me to a closet that had an old warped piano painted… BLUE! (can you say Blue Devils?) He said that Count Basie used to play on this piano. That was more exciting to me than any item in the museum! It was like being in the bedroom of an artist and seeing the paintbrush used on his most famous painting sitting on an easel.

Bob Daniel
rad@earthling.net

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