The American Jazz Museum is a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

in the historic

18th and Vine district 18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. In mathematics * Eighteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. ...

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. The museum preserves the history of American jazz music, with exhibits on

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and se ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

and others. Nested within the museum is a fully functioning jazz club, The Blue Room, which holds live performances multiple nights a week.

Collections

One of the significant items on display is the Graphon alto saxophone played by Charlie Parker at the famous January, 1953 Massey Hall concert in Toronto with

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...

, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Bud Powell. In addition to the many historical exhibits visitors can learn about different styles and rhythms of jazz at the multiple listening station exhibits. Another major component of the museum is the historic Gem Theatre directly across 18th Street. The museum is a Smithsonian Affiliate.

The Blue Room

The museum includes an exhibit of a working jazz club, designed to look like a 1930s nightclub and named after the Street Hotel's Blue Room, which was famous in the 1930s and 1940s in the segregated district. During that era, jazz clubs were open 24 hours a day. The Museum's Blue Room has interactive exhibits, a bar, and hosts live performances multiple evenings every week. The entrance to the Blue Room is directly at the corner of 18th & Vine streets.

Youth programs

The museum runs youth cultural programs.

Background

The museum opened in 1997 and is in a building that also houses the

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is a privately funded museum dedicated to preserving the history of Negro league baseball in America. It was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri, in the historic 18th & Vine District, the hub of Afri ...

Budget crisis

Since 2017, the museum has been addressing a budget crisis. The museum received a bailout from the city to cover a budget shortfall of $445,872 from the cost of the May 2017 Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival. As of 2017, the City Council is reviewing a proposal to transfer the oversight of the museum to the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department by spring 2018. In April 2018, Museum Management Consultants produced a report that recommended the museum refresh staff and board members, and temporarily close to regroup. The recommendation to close has been widely criticized by both the city and the Museum. As a result of the report, the Museum's Director, Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner, agreed to step down in May 2018 after serving as the director since January 2016. The Board downsized from 23 members to 8.

References

External links

*
American Jazz Museum
feature
The Local Show
(season 4, episode 2), PBS. Aired 18 July 2013, retrieved 5 March 2018.
The Street Hotel and the Blue Room photographic archives at Black Archive

18th and Vine photographic archives at Black Archive
{{authority control Jazz organizations Museums in Kansas City, Missouri Music museums in the United States History museums in Missouri Smithsonian Institution affiliates