18th and Vine in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

 is internationally recognized as one of the cradles of jazz. Along with New Orleans's Basin Street

Basin Street

Basin Street or Rue Basin in French, is a street in New Orleans, Louisiana. It parallels Rampart Street one block lakeside, or inland, from the boundary of the French Quarter, running from Canal Street down 5 blocks past Saint Louis Cemetery...

, Beale Street

Beale Street

Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...

 in Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, 52nd Street in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

's Central Avenue

Central Avenue (Los Angeles)

Central Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare in the central portion of the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. Located just to the west of the Alameda Corridor, it runs from the eastern end of the Los Angeles Civic Center south, ending at Del Amo Boulevard in Carson...

 - the 18th and Vine area was a midwife to the birth of a new style of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

. Like the spicy barbecue

Kansas City-style barbecue

Kansas City barbecue refers to the specific style of slow smoked meat that evolved from the pit of Henry Perry in the early 1900s in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City barbecue is slow smoked over a variety of woods and then covered with a thick tomato and molasses based sauce.The Kansas City...

 for which Kansas City is so widely noted, the jazz that evolved in the 18th and Vine district was likewise distinctive. Simmered in the blues, Kansas City's jazz

Kansas City Jazz

Kansas City Jazz is a style of jazz that developed in Kansas City, Missouri and the surrounding Kansas City Metropolitan Area during the 1930s and marked the transition from the structured big band style to the musical improvisation style of Bebop...

 was a riff-based sound fueled by jam sessions in the district's crowded clubs. A list of the musicians who worked and made their home in the historic district reads like a veritable Who's Who of Jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 is likely the most noted modern jazz musician to come from Kansas City. However, many notables call the city home or got their start in this significant jazz scene.

Located just east of Downtown Kansas City

Downtown Kansas City

Downtown Kansas City is the central business district of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. It is located between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; and from the Kansas–Missouri state line east to Troost Avenue as defined by officials of the...

, it is the Kansas City metropolitan area's

Kansas City Metropolitan Area

The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...

 historic center of African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 culture. It has been the focus of more than $30 million of civic investment since the late 1980s, but the district's redevelopment has struggled. http://www.pitch.com/2006-09-14/news/done-deal/

In the 1990s, parts of the film Kansas City

Kansas City (1996 film)

Kansas City is a 1996 film, directed by Robert Altman, and featuring numerous jazz tracks. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, and Steve Buscemi starred. The film was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...

were filmed there. Façades left from the movie remained on most of the dilapidated buildings until the end of the 1990s. Today, the 18th and Vine district includes the Mutual Musicians Foundation

Mutual Musicians Foundation

Kansas City’s Local 627, the African-American Musicians Union, founded in 1917, and known as the Mutual Musicians Foundation, still stands in Kansas City, Missouri's historic 18th and Vine district at 1823 Highland Avenue....

, the Gem Theater, the long-time offices of African-American newspaper

African American newspapers

African American newspapers are those newspapers in the United States that seek readers primarily of African American descent. These newspapers came into existence in 1827 when Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African-American periodical called Freedom's Journal...

 The Call

The Call (Kansas City)

Kansas City The Call, or The Call is an African-American newspaper founded in 1919 by Chester A. Franklin. It serves the black community of Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas.-Founder :...

, the Blue Room jazz club, the American Jazz Museum

American Jazz Museum

The American Jazz Museum is a jazz museum in the United States. Located in the historic 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri, in a building also housing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, it preserves the history of the American music: jazz. The museum features exhibits on Charlie...

, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded in 1990 in Kansas City, Missouri.-History:The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded in 1990 by a group of former Negro Leagues baseball players, including Kansas City Monarchs outfielder, Alfred Surratt, Buck O'Neil, and Horace Peterson...

, restaurants and apartments. The district is also home to the Historic Lincoln Building which served as a hub of professional and business activity in the Black community. The building was restored in the early 1980s by the Black Economic Union of Kansas City, and continues to serve this purpose today.

Real estate developer Sherman Dreiseszun

Sherman Dreiseszun

Sherman W. Dreiseszun was a banker and real estate developer who built Kansas City's two tallest buildings as well as several shopping malls throughout the Midwest.-Early life:Dreiseszun was the son of Polish immigrants...

, who would build Missouri's tallest building One Kansas City Place

One Kansas City Place

One Kansas City Place is the tallest building located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, bounded by 12th Street to the north, Baltimore Avenue to the west, and Main Street to the east...

, was born in the neighborhood at 1734 Prospect in 1922.

External links

• Web site for the African-American newspaper The Call, which is located in the historic district
• "18th & Vine: Streets of Dreams," a more detailed history of jazz in this area that also references jazz songs that mention 18th & Vine
• Brief overview of the district from Preservation Issues
• http://www.beukc.org Website for the Black Economic Union and the Historic Lincoln Building
• http://www.kcjazzdistrict.org Website for the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation

See also

• List of neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri