18th and Vine
In 1917, twenty-five African American musicians joined together to form Musicians Protective Union Local No. 627. The support offered by the new union enabled many of them to turn their music into full-time careers by helping secure fair contracts and working conditions, and allowing them to put down roots in Kansas City instead of working as itinerant musicians. In 1929, the union was officially incorporated and purchased an apartment building at 1823 Highland Avenue, which the union converted into its headquarters. The union thrived, in 1958 creating the Mutual Musicians Foundation to manage the building and other union assets. Though Local 627 was forced to merge with the white musicians union, Local 34, in 1970, the Mutual Musicians Foundation remains a social club and living museum, a testament to Kansas City's rich musical history and the power of labor organizing.
The American Jazz Walk of Fame was established on August 23, 2014 when the tradition of honoring jazz artists began under the influence of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. Every year, a committee of musicians selected one or more musicians and dedicated a medallion in their honor in the sidewalk in front of the American Jazz Museum and the historic Gem Theater. Over the years, these medallions have formed a "Walk of Fame" within the heart of the 18th & Vine Jazz District. The medallion dedication ceremony has become an annual event, with celebrated jazz musicians performing in nearby venues to honor new inductees.
Built in 1912, the Gem Theater, originally named the Star Theater, served Kansas City's African American population as a “silent movie palace” (VisitKC). It was renamed the Gem Theater in 1913 and soon became an “established fixture” in the 18th & Vine district. Eventually, the theater switched from movies to live performances before falling into disrepair after the 1960s. However, unlike many other architectural landmarks of 18th & Vine's jazz age, the Gem Theater escaped the razing that took place in the 1970s and 1980s as part of urban development projects. In the 1990s, the theater was renovated in a process that removed much of the original interior to make space for a modern performance venue.
Since opening in 1997, the American Jazz Museum has offered a blend of traditional museum experiences centered on artifacts and interpretation along with performances and educational programs. The museum is located in the 18th and Vine Historic District, and its exhibits and programs are centered on the historical and artistic contributions of the musicians who lived and worked in this part of Kansas City. The museum includes interactive exhibits and educational programs that are connected to the Blue Room, a working jazz club with nightly performances that are open to all. The Museum also operates the neighboring Gem Theater, a historic 500-seat performing arts center. In addition, staff work closely with area music educators and Mutual Musicians Foundation, a union that dates back to 1917. As a Smithsonian Affiliate, the American Jazz Museum also presents music-related exhibits from the Smithsonian Institute.
A modern landmark within the historic 18th & Vine district, The Blue Room Jazz Club is connected to the American Jazz Museum and showcases some of the most significant jazz musicians. A museum by day and hopping jazz club at night, the Blue Room blends music and entertainment with history and is a favorite for many residents of the Kansas City metro area. Established by Reuben and Ella Street as part of the Street Hotel (or "Street's," as it was known) in the early 1920s, the Blue Room became one of the most important venues in the geography of Kansas City jazz. The original Blue Room and the hotel that housed it were located just a few steps west of the current Blue Room. That historic building was razed in the 1980s and is now home to Soiree and several other businesses.
Located at 1822 Vine Street, the Eblon Theater was Kansas City's first African American owned and operated theater. 1The club was constructed in 1922 with a Spanish colonial facade and seating for up to 1,000 patrons1. The Theater opened in 1923 as a venue for vaudeville and motion pictures. In 1933 the Eblon Theater closed and the Cherry Blossom club opened up in its place.1
This eighteen foot statue commemorates the life and career of Charlie Parker, one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. Parker grew up in Kansas City and played at many Vine Street nightclubs before pursuing a musical career in New York and California. He is widely considered to be one of the creators of bebop. The statue features Parker's head tilted downward, eye shut, and lips pursed as if he were playing the saxophone. At the base of the status, an inscription reads "Bird Lives" a reference to Parker's nickname and his long-lasting legacy.
The largest of the many dance halls and events spaces in Kansas City's African American community in the 1930s and 1940s, Paseo Hall opened in March of 1924 when legendary band leader Bennie Moten took over the management of the formerly white-only Dehoney’s Dance Academy. Kansas City's leading jazz musicians all played here, along with touring musicians like Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. Paseo Hall was the location where Musicians Local 627 held their famous battles of the bands, which raised the funds necessary to purchase the building at 1823 Highland, which continues to serve as a live music venue. Following the trend of jazz clubs that faced closure in the late 1930s, Paseo Hall closed in 1938, and the building was purchased by St. Stephens Church.
Paseo West
This historical marker pays tribute to a former intersection within one of the most bustling communities in Kansas City in the early and mid-20th century that was immortalized by the 1959 hit "Kansas City" by Wilbert Harrison that was covered and adapted by musicians from Little Richards to the Beatles. The song references a prior era when this area hosted some of the leading jazz clubs, theaters, and dining spots in the city, a "wide Open" period of pre-Depression era Kansas City immortalized by ragtime composer Euday Bowman's 12th Street Rag in 1914." Bowman's song inspired numerous additional songs about Kansas City, including "Kansas City," written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952 and made popular by Wilbert Harrison in 1959. The intersection was no longer the city's hot spot for music and entertainment by 1959, and it no longer exists following urban renewal programs of the 1970s that replaced this section of Vine Street with an urban green space. While 12th and Vine may be a memory, the history of the area is kept alive with this memorial space designed to resemble a piano and treble clef, a nod to the still-popular song that expresses excitement to be "going to Kansas City" for its women and wine and plans to "be standing on the corner of Twelfth Street and Vine."
Businessman and jazz promoter Joe Glaser operated this small live music venue from 1928 to 1935. During those years, the small but lavishly decorated club hosted the leading bands in Kansas City from Charlie Parker to Bennie Moten. The club was open to all patrons, and given its small size, was closer to being truly integrated than the larger clubs that restricted African Americans to the balcony.
Downtown
Now a parking lot for the Kansas City Police Department, this was the site of one of the 12th Street Reno Club which was operated by Tom Pendergast. One of Kansas City's leading jazz clubs of the 1930s and home to influential bands like the Count Basie Orchestra, this was one of the most successful jazz clubs during the era when Kansas City's jazz scene thrived under the "protection" of the political machine that dominated the city. When "Boss" Tom Pendergast was sent to prison and reform elements took control of Kansas City, the club closed. But starting in 1931, patrons could see jazz legends such as Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Hot Lips Page, and Mary Lou Williams perform. This was also the location of experimental radio broadcasts that shared the unique form of Kansas City jazz with audiences nationwide. Like many other establishments in the city, the Reno Club was segregated, with the main floor being reserved for white patrons while African Americans were seated in the balcony.
Built in 1920 for the Gate City National Bank and designed by the Kansas City architectural firm of Keene & Simpson, this historic structure blends two designs found throughout the downtown area. The first three stories incorporate large corniced pillars and other features typical of bank headquarters, while the upper stories resemble the design of some of the neighboring skyscrapers erected during the early twentieth century. The bank occupied the first floor and leased the upper floors to the Women's City Club and various commercial firms. Among the Women's Club's many activities, it created a "Milk Station" that fed otherwise malnourished babies using donated breast milk. A major renovation project that began in 2011 saw the conversion of the historic bank and office building into the Ambassador Hotel, which opened in 2012. The hotel is the home of Lonnie's Reno Club, a live music venue that pays tribute to one of Kansas City's historic jazz clubs where Count Basie, Charlie Parker, and many other musicians performed.
The Jenkins Music Company Building in Kansas City, Missouri, was originally constructed in 1911-1912. The building was built to serve as the general offices, retail headquarters and the wholesale division of the prominent musical instrument and music publishing firm, the Jenkins Music Company, founded in 1878 by John Wesley Jenkins, Sr. During the 1890’s, the Jenkins Company became one of the largest manufacturers of guitars and mandolins in the world and one of the most distinguished publishers of sheet music in the nation. The structure was designed by locally-based architectural firm, Smith, Rea & Lovitt, especially by the firm's senior partner, Charles A. Smith. It is a significant example of unaltered, Modernistic-style commercial architecture, combining Late Gothic Revival and Art Deco decorative elements. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
In 1964 the Kemper Foundation commissioned artist Elizabeth Powers to create “Jazz Musicians,” an outdoor public art installation for the north facade of the 811 Main Street building. Artist Elizabeth Powers was a Kansas City native who earned a degree at the Kansas City Art Institute and exhibited at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. At the time of the commission, the artist was living and working in her sculpture studio in Florence, Italy.In preparation of the commission, Powers sketched Kansas City jazz musicians playing in local night clubs. The trumpet man was inspired by watching and listening to Emmett Finney, and the bass player was inspired by Milt Abel, although neither are formal portraits. While the commission is symbolic of Kansas City’s strong jazz tradition, it also serves as a memorial to Lt. David Woods Kemper, James M. Kemper’s son, who passed away in World War II.
This mural of Kansas City jazz musicians is located on the east wall of the historic Phoenix Building which was constructed in 1888 and a contributing property within the Garment District which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The most striking feature of this historic three-story Neo-Romanesque building is the cast iron arch at the 8th street entryway. Since 1990 the first level of the former hotel has been home to The Phoenix, a live music venue that offers nightly jazz. In 2002, the city named the section of 8th Street from Broadway to Central as “Scamps Alley" in honor of an iconic jazz band with Kansas City roots dating back to the Great Depression.
Now home to the Majestic, the historic James Fitzpatrick Saloon Building was erected in 1911 and was one of many entertainment venues connected to the infamous Pendergast political machine. The structure is a contributing property of the Garment District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A landmark institution related to the history of Kansas City jazz that hosted musicians such as Count Basie and Charlie Parker, this building has been at the epicenter of the city's growth from the early 1900s, when that was centered on the downtown area to the 21st century which has seen a resurgence and return of businesses and residential spaces in the urban core. From its jazz era origins to the emergence of the garment industry and the resurgence of downtown, this historic building is representative of the overall history of Kansas City.
The Gayety Theater operated at this location, the SE Corner of 12th and Wyandotte, from 1909 to 1935. The theater was constructed at the site of meatpacker A.W. Amour's former mansion and showed movies and also hosted musical performances and the occasional burlesque performance. Many of the leading jazz musicians performed here during the 1930s. The College Inn nightclub operated in the budling in the 1940s and the building was demolished around 1950 when the Muehlbach Hotel (now part of the Marriott) expanded.
31st Street to the Plaza
The Pla-Mor Ballroom was a popular jazz venue and entertainment complex that operated from 1927 to 1951. 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 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. in 1971 the site was demolished and replaced by a car dealership. 4
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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 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. The duo, who would later be married, took the Kansas City music scene by storm. Her vocals and piano skills paired with Milt's bass skills led to sold-out performances throughout Kansas City as well as national performances. 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. 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.
Milton Morris opened a jazz club at this location in 1934. Blues and Jazz singer Julia Lee was called by the local media the “Princess of the Boogie Woogie” and was known for her husky, throaty voice. She played piano and sang in her brother George E. Lee's Orchestra from 1920 to 1934. Lee was known for her straightforward piano style, and the easy, heartfelt way of singing. In a professional career that spanned four decades, Lee built a national reputation as one of the great female blues singers of all time.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, one could regularly listen to future American Jazz Walk of Fame inductee Jay McShann at this location which was home to the Century Room. American Jazz pianist, vocalist, and bandleader James Columbus “Jay” McShann had a music career that spanned over 60 years and is credited with the creation of the distinctive Kansas City jazz sound through swing music and big bands. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on January 12, 1916, Jay McShann was passing through Kansas City, Missouri in 1936 when he decided to stay after securing a regular gig at the Monroe Inn on Independence Avenue. During the next three years, he formed a small group, then a big band, which soared to national prominence and bolstered McShann's career along with Charlie "Bird" Parker and vocalist Walter Brown.
Demonstrating the continuity between the jazz that made Kansas City famous in the 1930s and the performers of the latter half of the century, Ida Mae McBeth was a vocalist who was inducted into the American Jazz Walk of Fame in 2017. For nearly 20 years, she McBeth regularly played here at Jardines, a club that opened in the 1990s and operated until 2011. McBeth was known for her captivating, elegant, mystifying and delightful music. Ida’s musical style is so unique that it is hard to classify. Over the years, her repertoire has included pop-style ballads, jazz and blues, show tunes, funk, R&B, gospel and well-known standards.
Real estate developer Clair Martin opened the Plaza Tavern in 1932, a popular gathering spot within the Plaza's Triangle Building that was known for live music performances. In April 1938, Martin booked Jay McShann's seven-piece jazz band, marking the first time that African Americans performed in the Country Club Plaza. The club was only open to white patrons, but following the large crowds who flocked to see McShann's well-known band, Black performers would not be welcome as patrons, but they were hired to entertain the all-white audiences, including eighteen-year-old saxophonist Charlie Parker who joined McShann's band that summer. Very few Kansas City music venues or clubs were integrated, although there were several "black-and-tan" clubs that permitted white and African American patrons in separate sections. In addition, the area from 12th Street to 24th Street and Paseo to Prospect was home to over a dozen jazz clubs that catered to the city's Black community.
A malt shop that was frequented by the University of Kansas City students, the Kangaroo was established by Abby Abercrombie and Bill Buffe in 1938 to offer a venue for UKC students who lacked a Student Union at that time. The Kangaroo offered a live music jam session on Thursday afternoons that attracted KCU students and Southwest High School students and included a variety of musicians who earned money by playing gigs, including the up-and-coming local saxophonist Charlie Parker. Parker would become widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century, but in 1938, he and other members of Jay McShann's band performed here when they weren't entertaining crowds at the larger venues with their bandleader. The 1939 University yearbook included a collage of images from jazz scenes, including a photo of an 18-year-old Charlie Parker playing at the Kangaroo. The university was segregated at that time, and the Kangaroo was open to white students. The photo is the only known image of Parker playing the alto saxophone in Kansas City prior to his move to New York and international fame.
This Tour is a Multi-zone Tour.
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Starting with the Mutual Musician's Building, this trail includes landmarks related to Kansas City's iconic jazz history. Highlights of the tour include current and former jazz clubs, the American Jazz Museum, and the American Jazz Walk of Fame. More stops will be added to this trail soon.
