7/18/2012
During Prohibition, the powers that be in Kansas City
tended to look away when it came to the jazz clubs in Kansas City – most of
which were situated along 18th and Vine streets. Jazz musicians
flocked from across the country and it was here, they say, jazz “grew up.” The
American Jazz Museum is the only museum in the country dedicated to the American
art form (this really surprises me) – by night it’s still The Blue Room jazz
club with live performers.
The museum is housed in a huge building it shares with
another museum on the Negro Baseball Leagues (from the days of when baseball
was segregated). There were several employees milling about looking bored, but
when I stood at the ticket desk for a couple of minutes no one paid any
attention to me. When we tried to enter the exhibit a woman in the gift shop
saw me and called me over to take my money - $10 a ticket.
We entered the first room of the museum which consisted
of kiosks with headphones where you could listen to famous jazz recordings.
Several of the headphones didn’t work. There were stools at some of the kiosks,
but not at all of them. That was ok. I was ready to move on to the actual
exhibits. “This is it,” Laura joked. Then I realized she wasn’t joking. This is
the whole museum. I just spent $20 to listen to some Charlie Parker songs I
could listen to at home. Patricia promised I’d see Louis Armstrong’s trumpet,
but it isn’t here. It’s just some random trumpet next to a picture of
Armstrong.
It took us less than fifteen minutes to do the museum.
Trying to have a good spirit about it, we went through again and really tried
to linger on the exhibits with a little more depth, but we couldn’t get more
than half an hour out of that.
To make matters worse, shortly after we arrived, lots of
people started showing up. Most people just walked into the exhibits without
paying. The same employees were around, but they didn’t look like they wanted
to be bothered.
I’m a big jazz fan, so this was extremely disappointing.
Jazz might be America’s greatest contribution to the culture of the world.
Nobody seems to care about that here.
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