Jazz Beat: Tyrone Clark at the Blue Room

Tyrone Clark is a first-call Kansas City bassist. In 2014’s Prairie Village Jazz Festival, he backed both headline acts, laying a graceful yet energetic foundation behind singers Deborah Brown and Kevin Mahogany. He’s in the trio anchoring KCUR 89.3’s weekly 12th Street Jump series. But when he leads his own quartet, a different sound takes over. Spurred early in his career by KC jazz legend Ahmad Alaadeen, who pushed musicians to find their own unique voices, Clark embraces the music that surrounds him. His compositions are contemporary jazz meets sweet R&B and toe-tapping funk layered over a Kansas City sensibility. His bass builds under then drives a soloist. Friday night at the Blue Room, Tyrone Clark and True Dig features Clark with Charles Gatschet on guitar, Everett Freeman on piano and Michael Warren on drums.

Tyrone Clark and True Dig

8:30 p.m. Friday, November 11, at the Blue Room, 1600 East 18th Street ($10)