Kansas City entered into blues history in the1940s when local musicians Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner were recording a style of music called jump blues, which later provided the foundation for rhythm and blues and, eventually, rock and roll. Īlthough Kansas City is known primarily for its distinctive jazz style, the city has also played an important role in the history and perseverance of the blues. Learn more and register at Venues to hear live jazz within walking distance or a short cab ride away from the Kansas City Convention Center include The Phoenix Jazz Club, The Majestic Steakhouse, Jardine’s Restaurant and Jazz Club, and The Blue Room (adjacent to the American Jazz Museum). (Enjoy a catered reception and tour of American Jazz Museum and the adjacent Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on Wednesday, June 2. The American Jazz Museum opened in this district in 1997 with a mission of celebrating Kansas City's jazz heritage. The city's jazz clubs were concentrated in the 18th and Vine neighborhood, the cultural center of the area's African-American community. This hard-swinging, bluesy transition style was bracketed by Count Basie, who in 1929 signed with the Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra, and Kansas City native Charlie Parker, who ushered in the bebop style in the 1940s. Kansas City's own style of jazz developed during the 1930s and marked the transition from the structured big band style to the improvisational style of bebop. Jazz and its close relative, the blues, remain central to Kansas City's identity today. "While New Orleans was the birthplace of jazz, America's music grew up in Kansas City."Īs this quote from a popular Kansas City tourism Web site attests, the city and its musicians played a major role in the development of this uniquely American musical form. Add your own Kansas City live music recommendations and club reviews as comments! Thanks to Michael Hernandez of Park University and the 2010 Local Arrangements Team for this contribution. The Horseshoe Lounge was demolished in the latter half of the 20th century, but the legacy of her influence continued in the generations of Kansas City musicians that followed.This post is the second in a series exploring all that Kansas City, Missouri (the location of NAFSA’s 2010 Annual Conference & Expo) has to offer. Bettye also mentored youth and supported musical education through her support of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation until she passed away in 1977 after an extended battle with cancer. Her vocals and piano skills paired with Milt's bass skills led to sold-out performances throughout Kansas City as well as national performances. The duo, who would later be married, took the Kansas City music scene by storm. Bettye Miller met Milt Abel at the Horseshoe Lounge, which was located at 3243 Troost Avenue, and the pair formed a professional partnership that grew the Kansas City sound. Jazz musicians in Kansas City shaped the genre in the 1920s and 1930s, and area artists like Bettye Wilson Miller contributed to the "modern jazz" movement from the 1950s to the 1970s. Bettye Wilson Miller, The Horseshoe Lounge (Demolished) in 1971 the site was demolished and replaced by a car dealership. 4ġ5. The popularity of the Pla-Mor ballroom declined in the 1940s as suburbanization drew populations out of the city and ballroom entertainment became less attractive. The ballroom permanently closed in 1951 with other attractions at the Pla-Mor complex following soon after. The legendary Kansas City venue opened on Thanksgiving 1927 to a crowd of 4,000 patrons who came out to dance to the sounds of the Jean Goldkette Orchestra.1 The Pla-Mor was home to more than music, and the complex claimed to be the largest indoor amusement center in the country in the 1920s, offering a bowling alley and billiards room underneath the ballroom and an ice hockey rink next door.4 In 1931 the Pla-Mor complex added the largest swimming pool west of the Mississippi.4 During its heyday the Ballroom welcomed jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra. The Pla-Mor Ballroom was a popular jazz venue and entertainment complex that operated from 1927 to 1951.
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