JAM: December 2001/January 2002 Issue: Hampton's Hot Licks

Dean Hampton

The Year in Review
Every December I like to reflect on the past 12 months and look at the scorecard. Was it a good (or bad) time for jazz in KC? What were the pluses and minuses of the year? What have we covered in JAM and most particularly in this column?

2001 has been a year of high and low notes, certainly more so than any year since I joined the Jazz Ambassadors 12 years ago. Here are just a few keywords and phrases from 2001 that will give you an idea of the extremes:

Ken Burns, Bobby Watson, the Folly Jazz Series, the Battle of the Saxes, Eldar, MP3, the KC Jazz Workshop, the Blues & Jazz Festival, the Jazz Lover's Pub Crawl, Milt Hinton, Pat Morrissey, Sonny Kenner, Oliver Todd, KCMW, Napster, the Gavin Report... Many highs, and some unfortunate lows.

Perhaps the real value of looking at this list is to take the pulse of KC jazz today in anticipation of what may happen tomorrow. At best, the resultant answer is guesswork, much like the kind that goes into reading the stock market. Hidden under our keywords are corporate mergers, downsizing, labels that are dropping artists, and the many problems related to 9/11.

Despite all the minuses, however, jazz is alive and holding its own. Even though, on the national scene in 2001, we lost some giants. R.I.P. Milt Gabler, Susannah McCorkle, Billy Higgins, John Lee Hooker, Chico O'Farrill, Joe Henderson, Harold Land, Flip Phillips, Manny Albam, Etta Jones and Tommy Flanagan. A toast to each for their lifelong contributions to the music.

More Toasts (and Roasts) for 2001
On the local jazz radio scene, we lost a very important station this year. And that's the roast. However, for the time KCMW was on the air, it deserves a toast for presenting more locally produced jazz than any other station.

Also on the plus side, KCUR, KANU and KKFI had better fund drives than expected this fall. A huge toast to those who pledged their support, whether you gave just a few bucks or thousands. It all counts. I hope that I can toast these same stations in December 2002 for getting the message that we do support jazz radio -- and for adding more jazz programming! At a minimum, at least one station should add nationally broadcast NPR shows such as "Jazz Set," "Jazz Profiles," Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz," "Jazz from Lincoln Center," and Billy Taylor's "Jazz at the Kennedy Center." With the exception of "Piano Jazz" on KANU, none are currently available in the Kansas City area. How sad!

A huge toast to Ken Burns. Remember all of the controversy earlier this year? The CDs produced from his 19-part series are still selling well. And people new to jazz are still learning about the music from them. Also, the PBS web site for the series (www.pbs.org/jazz/) still provides some of the best educational information on the net. Jazz made great gains in 2001 because of the Ken Burns "Jazz" series.

A roast: Corrupt CDs. What is a "corrupt CD?" If you go to fatchucks.com, Fat Chuck will tell you all about it. These are the music CDs that either: 1) Prevent you from copying for personal use, or 2) prevent you from playing on any computerized device (i.e. computers, DVD players, game consoles like Play Station, MP3 players, consumer CD duplicators, high-end stereo equipment and car CD players). Word has it that Universal will start coding such CDs sometime in 2002. Fat Chuck's web site lists known corrupt CDs from many labels. Personally I think the list is partly inaccurate, and the idea of this restriction represents the overkill side of the Napster revolution, which, for the most part, is dead.

A toast to A&E's "City Confidential" for covering the Steve Harvey story. According to David Basse, who previewed the show, Kansas City jazz is well represented and shines throughout this very touching story. Be sure to watch it on the A&E Channel on December 12. And check local listings for time. Better yet, attend the premiere of "City Confidential: The Steve Harvey Story" at the Uptown Theater. See "News and Notes" in this issue for the details.

One last roast. Each year the KC Jazz Ambassadors count on commitments for lots of help in the form of volunteer time and efforts. This roast goes out to those very few who have dropped the ball, hidden the truth, quit in midstream, and/or hung us out to dry. (And I'm am not talking about those who had to leave for important personal reasons. We toast them for their efforts for as long as they could help, and we wish them the best in the future.)

A very special toast goes to our president, Dr. John Leisenring. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with him this year. In the face of more adversity than anyone should have to endure, John has been there, getting things done and picking up the pieces when the chips were down -- and always with a smile (that no doubt was covering a frown and some tears) and an eagerness to build and look ahead.

Also, to the JAM staff: what a ride this year has been! You've each done a great job. I love you all!

But the biggest toast goes to our members and many volunteers who help make this organization and the KC jazz community click. Your thousands of hours and dollars go a long way toward making Kansas City a top notch jazz town.

All the best to each of you for 2002.

Nice Spread!
One of the more encouraging things to happen to the local jazz scene lately is the noticeable increase in coverage by The Kansas City Star. Longtime jazz writer Joe Klopus is now the author of a weekly column called "Jazz Town" that appears on Fridays in The Star's "Preview" section; Robert Folsom is contributing reviews of local CDs and major jazz concerts; Steve Penn has dedicated several of his regular columns to KC jazz in general and 18th & Vine in particular; and political correspondent (and KC Jazz Ambassador) Steve Kraske occasionally finds time outside of his regular beat to discuss the KC scene in print.

Most recently Kraske complied a cover story for the Sunday Star Magazine (Oct. 7, 2001) in which such area artists/bands as Bram Wijnands, Al Pearson, the Dunn-Freeman Mix, Lisa Henry, Hal Melia, Luqman Hamza, Doug Talley, Interstring, Kathleen Holeman, The Scamps, Joe Cartwright, Sons of Brasil, Everette DeVan and Alaadeen & Group 21 were given well-deserved recognition. Kraske's "KC Jazz 101" was a nice spread. And it served as another sign that things are looking up when it comes to much needed ink for jazz in the metro.

A Holiday Tradition
For six years and counting, bandleader and bari saxophonist Kerry Strayer has taken good care of the music at the annual Plaza Lighting Ceremony, a Kansas City Thanksgiving tradition. The event for 2001 was scheduled to take place just as this issue of JAM was going to press, but we thought you'd like to see a photo of last year's band. Front row, left to right: Greg Briggs, Gerald Dunn, Barry Springer and Earlie Braggs; back row, left to right: Strayer, Lisa Henry, James Albright, Wayne Hawkins, Mike Thompson and Jimmy Dykes. Says Strayer, "We've had a number of guests on the show over the past six years, including Karrin Allyson, Angela Hagenbach, Lisa Henry, Kelley Hunt, Kevin Mahogany and Ida McBeth. It's always a great way to start the holiday season."

-- Mike Metheny

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