Dance music dominates the 18th & Vine Jazz & Blues Festival

Meshell Ndegeocello performed Saturday at the 18th & Vine Jazz & Blues Fesitval in Kansas City.SUSAN PFANNMULLER/SPECIAL TO THE STAR

BY BILL BROWNLEESPECIAL TO THE STAR
10/12/2014 8:31 AM  10/12/2014 9:00 PM
Horace Washington’s funky flute work on an exuberant reading of Herbie Mann’s “Memphis Underground” shortly after noon on Saturday set the tone for Kansas City’s 18th & Vine Jazz & Blues Festival. After Washington transformed the performance of a band billed as the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz into a robust party in the Blue Room, dance music continued to play a central role at the event.

Although Gregory Carroll, the American Jazz Museum’s chief executive officer, claimed that “this is all about jazz here at the American Jazz Museum” as he introduced trumpeter Roy Hargrove, his claim wasn’t entirely accurate.

Plenty of terrific jazz was offered at the daylong event, but the wealth of danceable sounds heard on four stages made the festival all the more appealing.

Midnight Star, the headlining act on the primary outdoor stage, faithfully re-created “Freak-A-Zoid” and other 1980s R&B dance floor hits for an audience of more than 1,500. Members of locally based Latin folk-rock band Grupo Aztlan repeatedly encouraged an audience in the Gem Theater to dance.


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