JAM: August/September 2001 Issue: Hampton's Hot Licks

Dean Hampton

A&E's City Confidential:
The Steve Harvey Story

A&E City Confidential Film Crew
capturing the heart of KC Jazz

Saxophonist Steve Harvey seems to have been loved by all who knew him. In addition, most who played with him praised his ability and soulful soloing. "Steve was always cool," pianist Paul Smith recently recalled. "I remember him as a fine musician and fun to have on the bandstand."

Steve Harvey was murdered in Penn Valley Park in 1980. The whole story has never been told, but it is about to be. The A&E Channel's "City Confidential" team, consisting of producer Dave Wallach, photographer Eric Futrel, and soundman Ari Lioras, has been in Kansas City this summer filming for a show surrounding the death of Harvey. It will most likely be broadcast in October.

Wallach explained that City Confidential episodes usually cover a crime that has truly impacted the community in which it was committed. Each show begins by setting the community stage and by authenticating the culture of the area. It was my pleasure to escort the A&E crew through the jazz community on June 21, the night of the 20th Annual Jazz Lover's Pub Crawl. We made five stops: the Blue Room, the Grand Emporium, the Club at Plaza III, the New Point Grille, and the Phoenix. There were several other nights of filming jazz in the clubs including a late night jam at the Mutual Musicians Foundation. While we were at the Blue Room, saxophonist Logan Richardson was picked by the film crew to be the Steve Harvey look-alike. Many jazz artists who knew and worked with Harvey were interviewed for the show, as well as family and friends. Look for a firm airdate in the October/November JAM.

Quoting from A&E's web site, "City Confidential gets to the heart of the characters and the dark side that lurks in every American city."

Goodbye Gavin Jazz Charts
According to a message received via the Jazz Programmers Mailing List on Friday, July 13, the Gavin jazz charts are dead and gone. The email said, "Gavin announces that its Jazz and Smooth Jazz Charts are being discontinued."

Gavin collects "spin" information from radio stations. Their reports rate the top airplay albums by genre. Gavin's jazz data guru, Steve Meicke, who was laid off on the fateful Friday the 13th, said, "Every format and every department had cuts, but they decided to kill jazz altogether. I guess the bottom line was that jazz didn't bring in enough advertising to justify keeping it."
Jon Hart of station KCMW in Warrensburg offered his take on Gavin's downsizing, as well as the jazz scene's current troubles.

"The first thing to remember is that this is not a reflection on the artistic merit of the genre. It is a reflection of the weak economic model that bedevils most jazz enterprises in America. A majority of musical forms are generational. Musical tastes are often set in an individual's teen years. Jazz has not been a dominate musical genre for the young since the '50s. If you stop to do the math, jazz is predominately a 55-plus (age) format. Traditionally, older audiences are not active in their support by comparison to younger demos. The audience, regardless of any theories about its makeup, isn't buying compact discs, going to concerts, or supporting jazz radio stations. The loss of the Gavin chart is not the first loss for jazz, and it won't be the last. Yes, there are examples of successful jazz business ventures, but they are the exception. The point I'm trying to make is that jazz doesn't have the economic base that we all wish it had. But jazz doesn't need the general acceptance of a majority audience to validate itself as an art form. The important thing is to keep enjoying the music."

Karrin Allyson

Karrin, Coltrane and Ballads
Last fall, when I was pretty certain that vocalist Karrin Allyson would be re-recording the 1960s John Coltrane Ballads album for her seventh project with Concord Records, I decided to buy copies of the original as Christmas presents for a few friends who usually receive Karrin's albums (or those by other KC jazz artists). I knew I would not be revealing the significance of this until the May 22, 2001 release date of Karrin's Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane.

I recently found comfort in this thinking when I read a review of the album on Amazon.com. It said, "Potential buyers should realize that they don't have to pick between Coltrane's Ballads album and Karrin Allyson's tribute. It's not a competition. You should have them both."

It has been fun to watch Karrin's Ballads rise to the top of the jazz charts, including Billboard, Gavin, Amazon.com and CDNOW. On Gavin, Ballads has progressed from #27 to 13, 8, 7, 5, and in the final Gavin Jazz Chart on Wednesday, July 11, #4. Several jazz writers and critics have expressed their surprise at Allyson's bold decision to recreate the Coltrane masterpiece. Perhaps Alice Coltrane was most sensitive to this first-ever attempt. Allyson added her to the album thank-you's.

"I'm very grateful to Mrs. Alice Coltrane for her 'blessing' on this," Karrin told me recently. "I would not have done it without that and somehow feel that perhaps with hers, came John Coltrane's 'blessing' as well. Also, it was simply a pleasure singing these great songs with his spirit behind each of them."

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