Jazz Beat: the People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City

The People’s Liberation Big Band is home again. For more than seven years, on the first Sunday of each month, a big band unlike any other in Kansas City took the RecordBar’s stage. In most such outfits today you’ll hear five saxophones, four trombones and as many as five trumpets. The instrumentation of PLBB mimics a classic 1930s Kansas City big band, with just four sax players and four brass, for a lighter, more nimble sound. But that’s as far as the 1930s jazz mimicry goes: PLBB’s music is instead progressive, sometimes outlandish, yet always accessible thanks to the wit and the spirit of play under director Brad Cox. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the ensemble includes some of this city’s most talented musicians, who also have written or arranged nearly every number in a given set. When RecordBar took a hiatus, the PLBB was temporarily without a regular home. Now the bar is back, and, on Sunday, so is this powerhouse act.

The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City

8 p.m. Sunday, December 4, at RecordBar, 1520 Grand ($5)