Jazz Beat: Bram Wijnands Trio, at the Majestic Friday and Saturday

The downstairs jazz club in the Majestic thrived as a speakeasy during Prohibition, a favorite place for politicians to imbibe. An atmosphere of illicit elegance remains. On Friday and Saturday nights, that room is energized with the barrelhouse piano of Bram Wijnands, recalling the days when booze, jazz and sin put Kansas City on the map as the “Paris of the Plains.” Wijnands’ rollicking boogie-woogie style, with the left hand playing rhythm and the right hand exploring the rest of the keys, dances around and through the blues and jazz standards, evoking joyous delight. The Kansas City of the 1930s is never coming back, but you can still get a taste of how it felt.