Museum-Quality Music in Kansas City

Kansas City, as anyone who experienced Robert Altman’s movie of the same name knows, was a hotbed of jazz in the ‘20s and ‘30s. The launch point for the bands that toured throughout Texas and the Southwest, it was a magnet for young musicians eager to perform with, among others, the influential ensembles led by Bennie Moten, Alphonse Trent, Andy Kirk, Jay McShann and, above all, Count Basie.

The music scene in Kansas City was energized by the fact that from 1928 to 1939 the city was virtually wide open, largely unaffected by Prohibition or the Depression, its speak-easies, bars, honky-tonks, dance halls and taverns flourishing under the control of the powerful Pendergrast political machine. The continual demand for entertainment resulted in the emergence of a wave of gifted young jazz artists, among them Ben Webster, Lester Young, Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker and dozens of others.

Kansas City is now recognizing its central role in jazz history--in many ways as vital as New Orleans, Chicago and New York--with the establishment of the country’s first jazz museum. The Kansas City Jazz Museum opens Sept. 6 in the heart of the city’s newly restored 18th & Vine Street District, an area once frequented by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker, among others.

Included in the museum’s exhibits are personal effects of Armstrong, Ellington, Fitzgerald and others, including Parker’s famous acrylic saxophone, which was purchased for the museum by Kansas City Mayor Emanuel Cleaver.

The revival of the 18th & Vine area, with its corollary association with jazz, “celebrates America,” says Rowena Stewart, 18th & Vine Authority executive director, “and a time when people of color took their creative skill and God-given talents and fought discrimination and segregation. By revitalizing this area, it also reminds us that . . . music and sports can become a catalyst for change.”

The museum’s opening will be preceded by a full-scale gala on Sept. 5, featuring Tony Bennett, Milt Jackson, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Jay McShann, Kevin Mahogany, the Pat Metheny Trio, Dianne Reeves and David Sanborn.

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Dueling Fests: Two major festivals will once again compete for fans of New Orleans, swing and mainstream jazz over Labor Day weekend, today through Monday.

The third annual West Coast Jazz Party at the Irvine Marriott will feature organist Jimmy McGriff, saxophonist Scott Hamilton and trumpeter Jack Sheldon--returning to action after a bout with cancer--leading his Jazz Orchestra. Info: (714) 724-3602.

The Los Angeles Sweet & Hot Music Festival at the LAX Marriott also includes Sheldon, leading an all-star jazz celebrity roast. Special guest artists among the 225 musicians, scheduled to offer 180 performances, are trombonist Conrad Janis and singers Banu Gibson and Herb Jeffries. Info: (310) 641-5700.

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Listen Here: The innovative course in music understanding created last year by Wynton Marsalis and Sidney Harman, a veteran audio expert, is kicking off its second season with an expanded tour schedule. The program, which makes master class-style, interactive presentations to classes of 100 to 150 students, will present Marsalis, Betty Carter and Bobby McFerrin in 13 cities around the country.

In each of the cities, the touring artists will make their presentation at a key school, with four programs at other schools made by local performers. In addition to the presentation, each school will be given a state-of-the-art Harman sound system, a CD player and a basic CD library.

McFerrin’s Los Angeles program takes place on Sept. 11 at 11 a.m. at the 32nd Street/USC Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School. Four succeeding performances will be made by saxophonist Buddy Collette on Sept. 16-19 at Dahlia Heights Elementary, Washington Irving Middle School, Walnut Park Elementary and Walter Reed Middle School. Info: (212) 977-1100.

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The Bar’s Open: After a month’s hiatus for renovation, including upgrading the sound and lighting systems, Catalina Bar & Grill, one of the Southland’s major jazz venues, reopens on Tuesday. According to owner Catalina Popescu, the new interior is designed to “enhance a warm and inviting atmosphere” in which to hear jazz. The opening-week act will be the Zawinul Syndicate.

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Free Music: The Hermosa Beach Arts & Crafts Festival, which runs today through Monday at Pier and Hermosa avenues, features a variety of free jazz each day on the stage at Hermosa and 11th. Info: (310) 374-9773. . . . Saturday, Alhambra’s Pedrini Music will have an open jam session at its free afternoon jazz concert, 1:30 p.m. . . . On Thursday, the Yellowjackets make a free concert appearance in the final program of the Santa Monica Pier Twilight Dance Series, 7:30 p.m. . . . Also on Thursday, singer Dwight Tribble performs a free program in the Summer Nights at MOCA series, which takes place at California Plaza, 5 p.m.