The sounds of hard-swinging bebop have echoed through Kansas City's 18th and Vine District for nearly a century. Now, that history is being passed down to the next generation through the American Jazz Museum's Jazz Academy.
"Once you get the jazz bug, you have it for life," Clarence Smith, the Jazz Academy manager at the American Jazz Museum, said.
The academy brings together students of all backgrounds, united by a shared love for a genre deeply woven into Kansas City's identity.
"Kansas City just played an important role in the development of jazz," Smith said.
Smith pointed to some of the genre's most iconic figures who called the city home.
"Count Basie lived here prior to that for several years and when they left Kansas City, they took with them what we think of as the Kansas City sound," Smith said.
Smith also highlighted the neighborhood's connection to one of jazz's most transformative figures.
"Charlie Parker who grew up in this neighborhood — who snuck out of his house at nighttime to go listen and hangout with all the music and musicians in this area and eventually he is going to go on to become the founder of what we call modern jazz, which is bebop," Smith said.
That history is not lost on the academy's students. Kenyi Yoyo, a Kansas City Jazz Academy student who plays alto saxophone, said the weight of the district's legacy is something he feels every time he performs there.
"This is just such a historic landmark for jazz, especially 18th and Vine — from Lester Young playing down here, Benny Moton — all of those big cats, you should really think about jazz when you came down here just based off of them," Yoyo said.
For Yoyo, jazz is more than a musical style.
"It's a different feeling. There's no other feeling like jazz," Yoyo said.
"Jazz is a feeling — it's a language for people," Yoyo said.
Fellow student Steven Reynolds traces his connection to music back to childhood.
"My dad tells me a story I used to walk around my house all the time banging on pots and pans — doing all that but I was doing it in rhythm, so they bought me a little mini tykes drum set and then they bought me a real drum set and I was playing that up," Reynolds said.
For Reynolds, the instrument offers something words sometimes cannot.
"Sometimes I can convey emotions musically sometimes than I can with words," Reynolds said.
Student Tallulah Hoeft's path to jazz runs through her family.
"My grandparents are jazz musicians and my grandpa is a saxophone player — I've always looked up to him. I would be at their gigs every Friday," Hoeft said.
At the Jazz Academy, students learn more than notes and keys. The program's central focus is teaching them to make the music their own.
"Our primary purpose with jazz academy is to teach students how to improvise better — that's the most important characteristic of jazz," Smith said.
Smith acknowledged the challenge that comes with that goal — and why it is worth it.
"It's challenging, but on the other side of it, the reward is this incredible music where people express themselves individually — that's the beauty of it," Smith said. "The journey to get there is most definitely worth it."
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