Prairie Village, KS (RestaurantNews.com) The third annual Prairie Village Jazz Festival takes place on Saturday, September 8, 2012 in Harmon Park, at 77th and Mission Road, in Prairie Village, Kansas. Admittance to the festival is free.
The first festival, in 2010, drew an audience of 7000 fans to Harmon Park. Last year’s event was rained out after the second act. With dual headliners of internationally renowned vocalist Karrin Allyson and saxophone star Bobby Watson, this year’s festival promises to be the biggest yet.
The Prairie Village Jazz Festival is presented by BRGR Kitchen + Bar, and hosted by the Prairie Village Municipal Foundation and the City of Prairie Village. Proceeds from the event go to Heartland Habitat for Humanity.
The Schedule
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.: Diverse
Hermon Mehari, trumpet, Ben Leifer, bass, Brad Williams, drums
4:20 – 5:20 p.m.: Rich Wheeler Quartet
Rich Whjeeler, tenor saxophone, T.J. Martley, piano, Bill McKemy, bass, Sam Wisman, drums
5:40 – 6:40 p.m.: Mike Metheny Quartet
Mike Metheny, trumpet and flugelhorn, T.J. Martley, piano, Gerald Spaits, bass, Todd Strait, drums
7:00 – 8:00 p.m.: Megan Birdsall Quartet
Megan Birdsall, vocals, Wayne Hawkins, piano, Bob Bowman, bass, Matt Leifer, drums
8:20 – 9:20 p.m.: Bobby Watson Quartet
Bobby Watson, alto saxophone, Chris Clarke, piano, Curtis Lundy, bass, Michael Waren, drums
9:40 – 10:55 p.m.: Karrin Allyson Quintet
Karrin Allyson, vocals and piano, Bob Sheppard, tenor saxophone and flute, Rod Fleeman, guitar, Gerald Spaits, bass, Todd Strait, drums
Prairie Village Jazz Festival History and Mission
On September 11, 2010, a group of community volunteers and jazz lovers began a local tradition of providing a free festival to Prairie Village and area friends of jazz. More than 7000 people in attendance filled he hill in Harmon Park next to the Prairie Village municipal campus.
The vision of the Prairie Village Jazz Festival is to celebrate jazz music with the residents of Prairie Village and the surrounding areas of Kansas City. The jazz festival will stimulate awareness and promote appreciation of jazz music – one of America’s original art forms – by bringing free live entertainment to the community. This creative, energetic and culturally enriching event is presented in partnership with the Prairie Village Municipal Foundation and the City of Prairie Village.
About Heartland Habitat for Humanity
Serving Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties in Kansas and Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, Heartland Habitat’s mission is to build simple, decent homes and communities in partnership with God’s people in need while following biblical principles. Celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2012, Heartland Habitat has built or rehabbed 240 homes for local families. A Brush With Kindness is Heartland Habitat’s newest program, focusing on minor exterior repairs for home owners in need. For more information about Heartland Habitat or to sign-up to participate on a volunteer crew, visit www.heartlandhabitat.org or call 913-342-3047.
Contacts
For more information, contact Prairie Village Jazz Festival Chairman Jack Shearer at 913-208-2299 or jrsii@sbcglobal.com, or Talent Coordinator Larry Kopitnik at 913-433-6302 or kcjazzlark@gmail.com.
Biographies of the Performers
Karrin Allyson
“She’s been described as a “musician’s musician,” and for once the overused term actually makes sense – a complete performance by a complete artist – one of the jazz world’s finest.” — Don Heckman, The Los Angeles Times.
Music lovers and critics around the world have been marveling at the range of this extraordinary musician. Over thirteen albums, Karrin has moved with ease and authority from the Great American Songbook of Gershwin and Porter to the Great American Jazz Songbook of Duke and Thelonius and Miles and Dizzy. She has jet-setted to Rio and Paris and swung back home to pick up Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Webb. What unites this wide world of music is Karrin’s warmth and depth. She’s not just singing a lyric, she’s telling you her story. And then that becomes your story. You hear the music from the inside out.
Karrin lives in New York, but began her recording career with Concord Jazz while living in Kansas City. Karrin currently spends two days out of three on tour, playing the major jazz festivals, concert venues and clubs of the U.S. and making repeated tours overseas.
Bobby Watson
A saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator, Bobby Watson grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. But he earned his “doctorate” on the bandstand as musical director of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. The group, created in 1955 by the late legendary drummer who died in 1990, showcased a rotating cast of players, many of whom, like Watson, would go on to have substantial careers as bandleaders in their own right.
After completing his four-year-plus Jazz Messengers tenure, Watson became a much-sought after musician, working with jazz artists including Max Roach, Louis Hayes, Branford Marsalis, and Wynton Marsalis. All told, Watson has issued some 30 recordings as a leader and appeared on 100-plus other recordings.
Watson returned to Kansas City in 2000 as recipient of the first endowed chair at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. Appointed as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies, he continues to serve as the Conservatory’s Director of Jazz Studies.
Megan Birdsall
Megan Birdsall has been a featured Kansas City songstress since she was sixteen. In 2007, while preparing an album of jazz standards, she was diagnosed with a degenerative arthritic jaw condition that required reconstructive surgery to move her jaw off her windpipe. A life-saving surgery left her with no guarantees that she would ever sing professionally again. Yet she returned to the jazz stage to professional acclaim, with fellow musicians recognizing her as one of Kansas City’s premiere vocalists. And she has since toured Europe with Diverse trumpeter Hermon Mehari and has released a folk-based album of original compositions.
Mike Metheny
Trumpet/flugelhorn soloist Mike Metheny is a native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. He has appeared on numerous jazz recordings as a sideman and has released ten albums as a leader, from “Blue Jay Sessions” (1982, Headfirst Records) to “60.1” (2010) and “Old Wine/New Bossa: Selected Tracks” (2011) on Mike’s 3 Valve Music label.
Since 1983 Mike has been one of the few trumpeters to regularly perform on EVI (electronic valve instrument), a trumpet synthesizer with with an eight octave range and many dimensions and musical possibilities.
Today, Mike is a freelance performer, educator and music journalist in the Kansas City area and is the current chairman of the Metheny Music Foundation.
Rich Wheeler
Rich Wheeler has been a professional saxophonist and saxophone teacher in the Kansas City area for the past 10 years. Rich has performed across the US and Europe, and can be heard in Kansas City with the Rich Wheeler Quartet, The Brandon Draper New Quintet, The Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, and Alaturka. Rich can also be heard on numerous albums, including recording dates with New Vintage Big Band, Boulevard Big Band, and the self-titled album from the Brandon Draper Quintet.
Diverse
In winning the 2008 Origin Records / Gene Harris Jazz Festival Competition, Diverse proved to be a creative and dynamic musical powerhouse. Beating out 10 other original groups from across the country, Diverse opened for Roy Haynes’ “Birds of a Feather” band at the Gene Harris Jazz Festival and was awarded a deal to record an album of original music on Origin Records. In their current trio grouping, trumpeter Hermon Mehari, bassist Ben Leifer, and drummer Brad Williams possess a fearless approach to creating and performing, and aspire to expand the jazz demographic, garnering increased appreciation from younger audiences for the music.
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