Joe Cartwright: Presenting the Best of Kansas City Jazz

When Joe Cartwright and I met for lunch at the Fairmont recently, he had just found out that his contract with the hotel had been extended. Joe was obviously happy, especially about the Fairmont Sunday Best of Kansas City Jazz series that has been his baby and a most welcome addition to the regular Kansas City jazz offerings. It's been a good few years.

"It has been four years, actually," says Joe. "They started having jazz on weekends at first, but it's expanded to an every night thing more recently."

In fact, the Fairmont has stepped up in the last couple of years to fill a void in town. While some venues have closed or changed music policies, the hotel's commitment is continuing and expanding. In the past year, the Fairmont has added vocalists Angela Hagenbach and David Basse on week-days in addition to the weeknight lineup. This gives Kansas City three rooms with a seven-day jazz policy: Jardine's, The Majestic, and the Fairmont's Oak Bar.

To be sure, the Fairmont is not a perfect music room. It's a room with many purposes. It's as much a meeting place for locals and a retreat for guests as it is a jazz room. The room is in constant motion. But, the sound is good, the piano is fine, the bar well-stocked, the food good and varied, and every Friday through Sunday you can hear Joe with his trio and guests. The music is very, very real. Usually, the comfortable seating closest to the band is where the music fans sit, more or less oblivious to the activity around them while they enjoy what truly is the best of Kansas City jazz.

It's a high-profile gig, featuring one of the higher-profile musicians in the city. Add this to his regular duo appointments at the Majestic on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and occasional gigs at Jardine's and the Blue Room and one can see that Joe keeps very busy. "I have been fortunate to maintain a full performance schedule for many years. That can be attributed to business acumen, experience, and a little luck," said Joe. Not to mention a sparkling piano and some deep relationships throughout the Kansas City jazz community.

A New CD

Joe's busy schedule in March presented the perfect opportunity to record his latest CD, Soul Eyes, in ideal conditions. There was time to work out the material and a concentrated period of recording. The CD was recorded live at three different locations over four days this past March: in the Oak Bar at the Fairmont, the Topeka Performing Arts Center, and the Kansas Public Radio studios. (Soul Eyes is reviewed in this issue). "Bob (Bowman) and I have been playing every Tuesday at the Majestic, so we had the chance to develop some of the newer material before the recordings," Joe stated. "Plus, recording live over a couple of days, we had the chance to record this set of material several times and choose the best. We took three tunes each from the Fairmont and Topeka, and the last cut was from KPR."

"The biggest challenge was the portion we recorded at Kansas Public Radio," said Cartwright. "Recording a live radio broadcast is a difficult proposition. David Basse, the host of KPR's "The Jazz Scene," and Chubias Smith, their staff engineer, did a great job. But the real challenge was the timing. There are station breaks that have to happen at certain times. Sounds easy, but it's kind of hard to pull off. I tried to end the last tune right at the top of the hour, but they had to cut it. We were off by 10 seconds."

"The Topeka Performing Arts Center recording was of very high quality. Todd Strait recommended the engineer (Luke Stone). He had engineered some live recordings for Interstring."

Music is a discipline, and it is apparent that regular listening is part of Joe's. "I listen to music every day, if I can, but sometimes life gets in the way," he related. "It can be new music or older music that I haven't heard before. It's part of my continued growth." It was of course through records that he first developed his love for jazz. "Brubeck and Peterson were the early heroes. Later I got into some other pianists, like Les McCann, who were doing some different things rhythmically." You can hear these influences in Joe's style. He leans toward being two-fisted, like Brubeck and Peterson, and the rhythmic variety is apparent in most sets he plays. There are soulful tunes, bossa novas, Afro-Cuban influenced numbers, and more straight-ahead fare. And, he'll find some unique ways to incorporate different rhythms to tunes to make them fresh, like the soulful backbeats on "Love Walked In" from the CD.

"Les McCann is a real hero, also," Joe continued. "His music is a kind of crossover between R&B and jazz, especially the "Live at Montreaux" recording he did with Eddie Harris. When I first heard that recording in the early 70's, I could really relate to it. I was having trouble grasping the eighth note bebop improvisational style, and McCann's piano style was more accessible to me."

The heavy listening also contributed some tunes to Soul Eyes. "'Dreamsville' is a tune I became aware of from a Dave Grusin album called Two for the Road, which was a Mancini tribute," Joe added. "Thanks to Rod Fleeman for contributing the lead sheet from his book."

"I think I first became aware of Pat's (Metheny) "Always and Forever" on a Roy Hargrove album Moment To Moment. It was just beautiful. I also recorded it with Mike Metheny on his CD, KC Potpourri," said Cartwright. " It's been in my book a while now, and I've gotten increasingly comfortable with it. It is also very sentimental to me. When my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer three years ago, we were planning music for her funeral, and I suggested 'Always and Forever.' The sentiment is appropriate, and she really loved the song, so I played it at her funeral."

"The Best of Kansas City Jazz"

While the Fairmont gig was initially Friday and Saturday, the hotel wanted to expand to the weekdays. "They wanted to expand by a night, so I submitted a proposal to management. I thought they needed more of a drawing card for a weeknight, so I proposed the Fairmont Thursday Best of Kansas City Jazz series, featuring a different artist every week with my trio. Once people got used to the format and we maintained the high standards set by the guest artists, I felt we would generate a loyal audience. It has worked pretty well.

"I also thought that this was a novel concept for Kansas City jazz. We have many world-class jazz artists that need to be heard. This includes musicians that jazz fans may be unfamiliar with. A good example would be trombonist Paul McKee. He's relatively new in town, and you don't get a chance to hear him often in clubs.

"Plus there are the selfish motives, like it gives me a chance to play with these great artists!"

The series had been on Thursday nights until this fall, when it was moved to Sunday evening. "We've tried to find a good time slot. If you do it too early, you run into football. And it's Sunday, so most people don't want to stay out too late. So we've settled into the 7:30 to 10:30 time that fits in between."

The list of players who have been Joe's featured guests is impressive. "All the artists have several common traits that qualify them as the 'Best of Kansas City Jazz,' states Cartwright. "They are masters of their instrument, they have established their own unique voice as a jazz artist, they have distinguished themselves as representatives of Kansas City jazz through their recordings and performances on the national and international stage, and despite all their accolades, they all retain a humility that is refreshing."

Of course, for this kind of gig to be successful, there needs to be a balance of a little preparation but not so much as to hurt the freshness. "Preparation for the Best of Kansas City Jazz Sunday Series is minimal," says Joe. "At the least, the guest artist and I get together just prior to the hit and come up with a list of tunes that we might like to call during the performance. At the most, guest artists will send me their song list and any specific arrangements that they would like to play in advance. Too much advance planning tends to disrupt the spontaneity. As seasoned professionals, we rely on a common body of knowledge with regard to tunes and arrangements. It is this element that makes what is ostensibly a 'jam session' gig sound like a rehearsed performance."

While I've heard some great sessions that have included Danny Embrey, Will Matthews, Mike Metheny, and Duck Warner, there have been too many that I have inexcusably missed. Fortunately, many of these evenings have been recorded by Chris Crabtree, who also engineered the Fairmont portion of Soul Eyes. In fact, 12 different evenings have been recorded, about 24 hours of music. From this, a Best of Kansas City Jazz CD release is planned.

"Getting a single CD from this large body of recorded material will be a challenge, and will require much editing," says Joe. " I'd like to have all the artists that we have recorded represented on the CD, but we will have time constraints. You don't want to edit so much that the improvisation suffers. It's a challenge. I'm actually optimistic about the prospect of issuing more than one CD."

Joe's upcoming Best of Kansas City Jazz lineup at the Fairmont is promising. Saxophonist Doug Talley will be the November 28th guest. Kim Park will bring in his alto sax and flute on December 12th, and guitarist Jake Blanton, the fresh guitarist who is a member of the Westport Art Ensemble, is scheduled for December 19th. We can expect vocalist Lisa Henry to bring her energy and warmth in the near future, also. This, along with the Oak Bar's fireplace, are sure bets to cure any potential winter blahs.

While Sunday's Best of KC series has been extended though March, the Friday and Saturday dates continue through June. These are some long nights for Joe, since the music starts at 5 pm with Joe's Fairmont Trio. The Cartwright Quartet then plays from 8:30 until 12:30. Fridays feature percussionist Gary Helm, while Saturdays Stan Kessler brings his trumpet and flugelhorn. Gerald Spaits and Ray DeMarchi complete the rhythm section for these evenings. "Gerald is perfect for this ensemble. He understands the ensemble dynamic and is right at home whether soloing or laying down the foundation. Ray has been a pleasure to work with. He has a propulsive style of drumming and his positive stage demeanor really helps to sell the band and what we are doing. Musicianship is always the key, but as you get older you learn that the ability to get along with your colleagues is also important. You accept each other's idiosyncrasies, and get on with the important thing, which is making music."

Joe makes no bones that he'd like to get out of town more often. He is working on a gig in Denver for the spring, for example. And of course there is the Topeka Jazz Festival in May. "I will be sending a number of copies of Soul Eyes out to radio stations and to jazz magazines, and possibly do some advertising in these magazines as well. This should raise the profile some."

"Best of Kansas City Jazz" is as much a mindset as anything. An attitude, if you will. Part of it is what Joe and his colleagues have to say musically. But being the "best" also includes doing things that elevate our best musicians, making sure that appropriate stages are provided to those who deserve it. When this happens, the stature of the entire jazz community rises. What Joe does to assure that our best are regularly given appropriate visibility is, too, a "Best of Kansas City Jazz" success story.

--Roger Atkinson

RETURN TO DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005 MAIN INDEX


© Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors 1996-2004. All rights reserved.