If each of the voluntary and paid boosters of Kansas City prone to making proud declarations about the town’s jazz history actually enjoyed the music, the area jazz scene would be far healthier. Plenty of Kansas Citians like the concept of jazz. Far fewer actually listen to it. Numbers tell the story.
Kansas City isn’t among the top five markets for the homegrown jazz heroes Charlie Parker, Logan Richardson. Bobby Watson or We The People at the leading music streaming service Spotify. And the monthly Spotify audience for a significant portion of the locally based artists covered by Plastic Sax is less than 50. (Kevin Morby, a Kansas City based indie-rocker who performs at the 400-capacity recordBar, has 1,433,000 monthly listeners.)
Viewership for free livestreams of Kansas City jazz artists is similarly anemic. I scrutinized the public indifference to the publicly funded Jazzy Jamdemic. Yet they’re still at it. I was one of 15 viewers of a concert at the Gem Theater when I tuned in on October 3. Support for the astoundingly pristine livestreams at Black Dolphin is also woeful.
The crisis wasn’t caused by the pandemic. I’ve long been accustomed to attending jazz performances at which there are more people on stage than in the audience. Locally based musicians aren’t the only ones afflicted by the scarcity of organic patronage. Proper jazz festivals in Kansas City repeatedly fail in part because less than 1,000 people are willing to pay more than $25 to hear instrumental jazz. Consequently, Kansas City is a no-go zone for all but a few of the artists who regularly perform in Chicago, Denver and St. Louis.
Last week at Plastic Sax: the belittling snub sparking this series. Next week: an analysis of media coverage, musical illiteracy and artistic hubris.