by Dean Hampton


JAM on the 'Net
According to kansascity.com, the JAM web site is now averaging over 7,000 visits per month. Which means that more and more people are finding their way to the KCJA's web pages. One of the major attractions is our growing list of links; from http://www.kansascity.com/kcjazz, you can travel to over 480 other jazz web sites. Which makes the JAM site one of the preeminent jazz locations on the Internet. (Hat's off, once again, to webmaster Brad Lucht.)

Jazz Central Station
One of my favorite web sites is Jazz Central Station (JCS). Yet JCS -- a site that hosts one of the largest collections of jazz information on the web -- has not yet found room to include detailed information about Kansas City in its "Destinations" section.

JCS Destinations include links to 12 "jazz cities." There are three additional cities listed that are not yet linked, and one of those is Kansas City. Each linked city's page includes a list of clubs and a list of radio stations that feature jazz. Here is what I found:

CITY	CLUBS	RADIO STATIONS
Los Angeles	265	9
San Francisco	57	5
New York	28	5
Philadelphia	23	4
Boston	22	5
New Orleans	22	4
Chicago	19	6
D.C./Baltimore	15	10
Cleveland	14	2
Atlanta	12	6
Cincinnati	9	4
Miami	8	2

Several of these listings are questionable. Is Miami a "jazz city" and Kansas City not? No way. And does Los Angeles really have 265 active jazz spots? No way. Only a small portion of those venues have regular live jazz (i.e. more than a couple of nights per week). Then there is the combined statistic that includes both Washington D.C. and Baltimore. The bulk of the clubs and stations are in Washington with very few in Baltimore, a city that was a real jazz drag for me several years ago during a near 90-day stay.

Jazz Central Station has evidently not taken a closer look at the thriving Kansas City jazz scene. In KC, there are almost 30 venues that feature live jazz on a regular basis. And this issue of JAM reveals a strong jazz broadcast presence in the area that includes at least six jazz radio stations. JCS has completely overlooked one of the nations jazz hot beds, and they must not have provided their correspondents with an accurate criteria for listing venues.

Jazz Central Station can be found on the Internet at: http://jazzcentralstation.com/

Jazz Radio on the Internet
During those few hours when there isn't any jazz to be found on KC radio stations, get to your computer, sign onto the Internet and do a quick search for Real Audio jazz. Using the Real Audio plug-in, you will hear FM sound quality and you will likely find an abundance of available jazz radio programs -- some live, others prerecorded. Some will cost you a few bucks to access, but many will be free.

In this case, good luck (and timing) is going online on a Saturday night when InterJazz is cybercasting live from the Blue Note in New York. To sit at a table at the club would cost around $30 for one set. On the 'net, however, it's like plugging in the radio, cranking up your surround sound speakers and: you're there! Enjoying the music of some of the world's greatest jazz musicians. (As I write, the featured artist is bassist Ron Carter.)

Interjazz also presents live chat sessions with top jazz artists. Using an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) plug-in, you can be online sending questions to and receiving answers from some of your favorite musicians, composers and arrangers. A few who have appeared on Interjazz in the past year include Bobby Watson, Clark Terry, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Maynard Ferguson. Interjazz can be found at http://interjazz.com/

Benny Waters & Jane Jarvis: An Ageless Pair
On March 6, 1997 the KCJA along with Unity Temple on the Plaza presented 95 year old sax master Benny Waters, and 81 year old pianist, composer and arranger Jane Jarvis in concert. While the audience was small, it was a powerful evening of hot jazz sounds. The audience was mesmerized. And while many may have expected music from the older set, with touches of frailty, what they got was an evening of exciting and entertaining jazz.

Benny and Jane, both members of the American Federation of Jazz Societies (AFJS) "Statesmen of Jazz," have played together frequently, but neither had worked with bassist Gerald Spaits or drummer Tommy Ruskin. With little more than a one hour rehearsal, the four came together, formed a single musical personality, and offered the enthusiastic crowd a stellar show. Two "living jazz history books" and two of KC's finest sidemen won over the audience with an evening of timeless jazz.

Behind the scenes, Benny and Jane were equally impressive. Jane flew in from Florida, Benny from New York. You would expect both to be tired after a long day's travel, but each were ready for whatever was to happen (like, for example, a KSHB-TV interview on 15 minutes notice).

While driving Benny from the airport to his hotel, I mentioned to him that I'd heard he'd had a great three-day 95th birthday party at New York's Birdland in January, an event that resulted in a future album for the Enja label. "Yeah," Benny said. "And after that, I went to New Orleans and recorded another one with some other guys. That one took a long time to do. Mine only took six hours!"

Having not been in Kansas City since the late 1940s, Benny was very curious about today's KC jazz scene. After I gave him a brief summary, Benny talked about what it was like when he last came through town with the Jimmy Lunceford band.

"We used to have thousands (of people) come to our gigs. There were dances in those days. We went everywhere. We even got two or three thousand people in Great Bend, KS. We'd get crowds like that in Wichita and in Oklahoma, too!"

When asked about retirement, Benny said, "I'm already retired. I'm not looking for work. I've quit working several times. But the one thing I have not done is quit practicing. I play every day for a minimum of an hour. And I don't practice the things I'm good at! I work on the things I'm not good at, or things I've never done before."

Benny Waters' future plans include a trip back to Europe this summer, and hopefully a trip to Japan with the Statesmen of Jazz in September. Several TV appearances are also in the works, and a CD release party will probably be scheduled for the fall.

Although I wasn't able to spend as much time with Jane Jarvis, she was just as fascinating to talk with. Jane had recently played the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival and had held several clinics associated with the festival. She and Lionel (one of her best friends), are currently working on jazz education projects together and are looking forward to next year's festival.

Jane spoke about how long she had been playing jazz and what got her interested in it.

"You don't learn to play jazz," she said. "You've either got it or you don't. I guess we do teach it today. But you've got to have it first. I don't remember not loving jazz and not being able to play it."



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