Detroit’s reputation as the most economically challenged major city in the United States was validated during my first post-quarantine trip this month. The pervasive blight is horrifying. Even so, Detroit manages to host one of the biggest annual jazz festivals in North America. The 2021 edition of the four-day Detroit Jazz Fest will present icons including Herbie Hancock and Abdullah Ibrahim in September.
On September 12, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago is headlined by the innovative jazz-informed artists Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus and Thundercat. Even closer to home, the Iowa City Jazz Festival hosts the acclaimed up-and-comers Giveton Gelin and Immanuel Wilkins on July 3. The following weekend, dozens of jazz and jazz-adjacent acts including Lalah Hathaway and Roy Ayers will be featured at the Music at the Intersection festival in St. Louis.
An uninformed observer would think Kansas City- a much-ballyhooed cradle of jazz- is certain to outdo the endeavors of those Midwestern cities in 2021. Not so fast. Unless the yet-to-be-announced lineups of the Spotlight Charlie Parker initiative or the Prairie Village Jazz Festival break from their comparatively modest traditions, Kansas City won’t muster anything remotely similar for the foreseeable future.
The two most ambitious jazz-friendly ventures of recent years- the city-financed Open Spaces (2018) and the American Jazz Museum’s Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival (2017)- were artistic triumphs but financial debacles. The correlation between the two elements forced area promoters and attentive musicians around the world to relearn a difficult lesson about Kansas City.
Apologists excuse the failures with allegations of poor promotion, but the unfortunate reality is the local appetite for touring jazz musicians- especially artists with left-of-center inclinations- is extremely limited. Empty seats at Open Spaces’ jazz and jazz-related performances outnumbered patrons. About 75 people bothered to show up for Vijay Iyer’s headlining performance at Open Spaces. Less than 500 hundred people attended a set by Chick Corea at the Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival.
I’m reopening this old wound because I’m increasingly agitated by the necessity of leaving Kansas City to experience performances by all but a handful of the most significant artists in improvised music. I’ll save the 200 people in the same predicament a step by providing the cost of the cheapest round trip flights to each festival: Detroit, $140; Chicago, $155; St. Louis, $150; Iowa City, $325. Let me know if you’re interested in splitting the cost of a hotel room or two or three tanks of gasoline.