Deborah Brown and Bobby Watson to collaborate on live album recording at Folly Theater this Friday

Bobby Watson performing at the Gem Theater in 2018. // Photo Courtesy of Nicole Bissey

Jazz singer Deborah Brown first met saxophonist Bobby Watson at Belgium’s Jazz Middelheim Festival in the 1980s, though she was an admirer of his work long before. While the two have toured extensively together for the past 15 years, this Friday will be their first time recording a live album as a duo, accompanied by a big band at the Folly Theater. The show, called This is Kansas City, will be presented by the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra as the final concert in its Conversations in Jazz 2023-2024 season.

A live album recording carries a unique set of challenges for performers. With improvisation being one of the central elements of jazz, Brown and Watson will have to give themselves up to chance with only one shot to capture the magic on tape. It’s risky, but Watson says this is what makes the music so special.

“Risks and taking chances, that’s what it’s all about,” Watson says. “I live in that zone all the time. That’s the fun of it.” 

Both artists have a considerable history with Kansas City. Brown cut her teeth on the city’s jazz circuit at a young age, performing regularly around town as a teenager. Watson, too, grew up in the city, and though he relocated to New York in 1975 to begin his professional career, he eventually returned to teach at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance from 2000 to 2020. 

Brown says this concert presents a rare opportunity to see two Kansas City jazz mainstays sharing the stage in their hometown.

“What makes this concert unusual is that we both grew up at a time where we could listen to the legends of jazz music and play with people from that era,” she says. “The fact that we have survived that, and that we have combined experience, helps the audience feel something from the era of jazz.” 

Brown recalls attending local shows organized by the Charlie Parker Academy of the Arts during her youth. She says these concerts—often featuring jazz titans like Ella Fitzgerald and the Count Basie Orchestra—were highly formative for her musical development, and that she hopes to similarly inspire young musicians with concerts like this. 

“We owe it to the young people, and to the people in the city,” Brown says. “It’s a tradition in KC, and we need to continue to pass that on in our unique way.”

This is Kansas City is May 17 at 8 p.m. at the Folly Theater. Tickets can be purchased here.