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 MAYOR EMANUEL CLEAVER © 1996 Mike Metheny JAM talks with the Mayor of Kansas City about 18th & Vine, harmony in a jazz town of difference, and that $140,000 saxophone.
EC: I was introduced to music via an old wooden box radio in Waxahachie, Texas. My family didn't have a television until I was 13 years old which meant that our entertainment was derived primarily from the radio. And when you are a small kid growing up in a house where your young parents are listening to the music they prefer, jazz, blues, and to a lesser degree gospel were the music forms I heard most. JAM: Any particular jazz musicians you remember hearing? EC: My mother loved Nat King Cole; my father loved, and still loves, Big Joe Turner. JAM: Did you ever play a musical instrument? EC: I started out playing the Sousaphone as a 9th grader in high school. But I traded it in for shoulder pads my sophomore year. It just wasn't "cool" to be a football player and then march around with tassels and a funny uniform (laughs). JAM: Who have been some of your favorite musicians over the years, jazz or otherwise? EC: Jose Feliciano, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Burrell, and numero uno: Wes Montgomery JAM: After a rough day at the mayor's office, what music do you listen to to relax? EC: I listen to the new jazz station in Kansas City... JAM: 106.5? EC: Yes. That is what is on in my car every evening. During the morning it's KCUR; in the evening it's jazz. JAM: We have to ask this: How would you respond to those who have been critical of the decision to spend $140,000 on the plastic saxophone Charlie Parker once played? EC: One of things we all don't have is vision. And the capacity to anticipate. I made a decision -- at 4:00 in the morning -- to purchase that horn, and I have not spent one single minute regretting it. Just think about it: how in the world could Kansas City -- a major American city and the largest city in the state of Missouri -- allow the only known musical instrument of its most well known son end up in a museum in Japan? ...And by the way, that horn, if it were to be sold now, is already worth more than $200,000. JAM: In recent years, we've had the Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors, the Kansas City Jazz Commission, the Charlie Parker Foundation, the Mutual Musicians Foundation, the 18th & Vine Authority, the GEM Theater organization, BEU and the 18th & Vine Festival, the Blues & Jazz Festival committee... Some of these organizations have not always gotten along. How can there be more harmony in the Kansas City jazz community? EC: Dr. Rowena Stewart -- the executive director of the 18th & Vine Authority -- has devoted the first four months of her work in Kansas City to the development of a cooperative spirit with all of the entities you just named. The 18th & Vine area -- which is currently under construction -- will have its optimum success only if we can establish some common ground for the jazz musicians and jazz enthusiasts. It appears that we are well on the way to doing just that. "The 18th & Vine area -- which is currently under construction -- will have its optimum success only if we can establish some common ground for the jazz musicians and jazz enthusiasts. It appears that we are well on the way to doing just that." -- Mayor Emanuel Cleaver JAM: Why is it so important that this area be restored? EC: The history in and around 18th & Vine is so deep and rich that is almost has an aroma. You can almost smell the history when you walk up and down that area. And like most historic districts in this country, 18th & Vine was ignored for the better part of three decades. I think with the writing of the book Roots by Alex Haley, and the subsequent motion picture, African-Americans all over the country began to look back at the places and the roots from which they came. An inextricable part of Kansas City's backward glance is 18th & Vine. It was the local Mecca for music, culture, economics, religion... and to some degree, it was the headquarters for the African-American intelligentsia. On Sundays, for example, debates were held at the Centennial United Methodist Church at 18th and Woodland, and the old-timers tell us that it was standing room only. Remember, the people who were down there then were people like Roy Wilkins -- who headed the NAACP and then was an editor with The Call (newspaper) -- Joe Louis, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Eartha Kitt and Ella Fitzgerald. It was a rich area! And we are now bringing that era back so that our generation can develop an appreciation for it. JAM: How do envision 18th & Vine ten years from now? EC: Ten years from now 18th & Vine will be one of the top tourist attractions in the lower Midwest. I have no reservations about saying that. And part of the reason will be the release of the motion picture, "Kansas City." JAM: Is it true that you had a hand in luring Robert Altman to town for last year's filming? EC: Well, I hope I had a small role there. Of course Robert Altman is a (Kansas City) native, and it was not as big a selling job as it might have been (to get someone else here). But I think he understood my (main) question which was this: How can you make a film about Kansas City in Cincinnati? Or some of the other places they were looking at? So we were successful at getting him to come here. One of the things I did, quite frankly, was to line (him) up with opportunities to sit down and dialogue with some of the oldtimers in our community; people who knew the legendary mobster called "Seldom Seen," who knew Charlie Parker, who played with Count Basie's band... There just wasn't a better place for (the filming) to happen than here. And the movie is going to be one of the best things that's ever happened to jazz in this country. JAM: It has been an honor speaking with you Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. EC: Thank you. RETURN TO JUNE/JULY 1996 MAIN INDEX ------------------------------------------------------------------------ © Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors 1996-2001. All rights reserved. |
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