This Blows
OK, people, this thick meat patty needs something explained. Why the hell isn’t anyone busting his butt to save the Mutual Musicians Foundation?
One of the coolest goddamned things about this city faces extinction. A brief recap: One night in September, with no shortage of real crime to investigate, two Kansas City, Missouri, vice detectives called on the Mutual Musicians Foundation near 18th Street and Vine. For decades, music lovers and night owls have gathered in the old union hall to party with off-the-clock musicians jamming until the wee hours on weekends.
Beer was sold at these events, even though the foundation didn’t have a liquor license — much less, permission to serve until 5 a.m.
Upon their visit, the cops detected the obvious. To their credit, they didn’t arrest anyone or start swinging axes. Instead, they told Foundation manager Betty Crow that the club had to stop serving alcohol in exchange for “donations” collected in a halfhearted effort to comply with the law (“Jazz Jam Crashers,” October 26).
Now the foundation serves soda and chips. But jazz cannot live on Baptist fare.
Finding a remedy won’t be easy. The foundation could apply for a tavern license, but then everybody but the clean-up crew would have to scoot at 1:30 a.m., which sort of defeats the purpose of an after-hours club.
Kansas City Police Sgt. Brad Dumit, who runs the vice unit, tells the Strip that the cops were just doing their job. Some soulless jackass probably squealed on the foundation, and Dumit had to act. “If we get a complaint, we’re going to go check it out,” he says. “I can’t sit and say, ‘That used to be Grandma Josephine’s place … and they’ve been in business for years, and we’ve never gotten a complaint. Let’s just not go out on this one.'”
Dumit’s explanation makes this sad sirloin long for the days when some white-haired captain at the cop shop would take the complaint out of his subordinate’s hand, say he’d look into it personally and then burn it in an ashtray in his office.
After all, the jam sessions are one of the last authentic reminders of Kansas City’s history as a 1930s jazz capital. The city purports to celebrate this heritage, but it’s usually done in clumsy or meaningless ways. The American Jazz Museum is an insult to both jazz and museums. The fake storefronts along 18th Street and Vine are an embarrassment. The rest is mostly clip art: “Hey, find me a picture of a guy blowing on a sax for this visitors’ guide I’m putting together.”
Disheartened by official Kansas City‘s indifference to the foundation’s predicament, this pissed-off porterhouse called around to ask city leaders what they were doing to make things right. Mostly, the Strip heard silence.
City Council members who represent the 3rd District, which includes 18th Street and Vine, didn’t call back. They have their reasons, we suppose. Troy Nash doesn’t talk to the Pitch because of a long-standing grievance. Saundra McFadden-Weaver has the excuse of being brain-dead.
We figured someone at the NAACP, a foundation neighbor, might have an opinion. “What is that?” a receptionist asked when the Strip inquired about the foundation. We left a message with Ms. Clueless but haven’t heard back.
We’re also still waiting to hear from Denise E. Gilmore, the executive director of the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation, the district’s nonprofit landlord. Maybe she was upset with Eric Barton‘s story about the JDRC tapping an unheralded Ohio businessman to serve as the area’s master developer (“Done Deal,” September 14). Hey, good luck with those storefronts!
We also called JDRC board member Deron Cherry. In addition to being a former Chiefs player, Cherry is a beer distributor and a member of the Alcoholic Beverage Advisory Group, which counsels the city’s Regulated Industries Division. Cherry told the Strip that he missed the advisory group’s November 6 meeting when it discussed the foundation’s plight. Not that he would have been much help.
“It wouldn’t be a JDRC issue,” Cherry said of the foundation. “That’s a city issue, with respect to liquor licenses.”
With myopia like that, is it any wonder that 18th and Vine is more of a concept than an actual destination?
We sent an e-mail to the press person at the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association, but no one has replied. Here’s a guess, though: The visitors bureau has done nothing, just as it did nothing in 2005 when legislation proposed by state Sen. Matt Bartle (R-Prissytown) threatened Missouri’s nudie bars. Hey, brainiacs, some conventioneers like to get loaded and look at boobs after they check into their hotel rooms!
The Mutual Musicians Foundation’s best hope is state legislation that would allow it to sell alcohol. The Strip called state Sen. Yvonne Wilson, whose district includes 18th and Vine, to see what she was doing. She was not in the loop. “I have not been approached about helping them,” she said.
The district’s state representative, Sharon Sanders Brooks, told The Kansas City Star this summer that the 18th and Vine project was “the No. 1 concern of my constituents.” Yet, like Wilson, she was taking a passive approach. An assistant said that Brooks hadn’t heard anything about the foundation, other than what was reported in the paper.
Sigh.
We did get a response from Sean O’Byrne, the vice president of development at the Downtown Council. O’Byrne said in an e-mail that he hadn’t taken action. “But now that you mentioned it, I SHOULD,” he wrote. “That’s just crazy.”
O’Byrne went on to describe how, in 2000, he took a delegation from an international conference to the foundation. They arrived at 3 a.m. and left well after sunrise. “It was the highlight of the entire weekend, and an experience they will never forget,” he wrote.
That’s what the Strip’s sayin’! Hell-ooo, anyone?
Sure, the city has more pressing concerns than a lawbreaking juke joint. But the fact that no “leader” has jumped up to solve the problem is just another example of the quiet incompetence that permeates this town.
In the meantime, the Mutual Musicians Foundation is accepting legitimate donations. The address is Historic Jazz Foundation, P.O. Box 270612, Kansas City, MO 64127. Checks will help cover the costs of the foundation, which also serves as a social club and a rehearsal hall. It’s the least we can do, until someone in charge wakes the hell up.
