In the 1920s, Kansas City brought about a few developments that would eventually change the landscape of popular music in the world,...

“Onward and upward.” This is something the great Bobby Watson used to say when leaving a conversation or a rehearsal. The mindset of...

Photographs by Suzanne Frisse One of the things about jazz that has always deeply moved me is the heritage; the cultural inheritance...

Mamba Mentality: To be on a constant quest to try to be the best version of yourself.

Bobby Watson would tell his students at UMKC about “the jazz way” of things. He’d relate proverbs from the legendary Art Blakey, like...

Hi folks! It's been a heck of a spring, for sure. On behalf of the band, I just want to say that we can't wait to get back onstage and...

Hi, I’m Clint Ashlock, and I’m the artistic director of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. As you maybe know, we usually put on concerts at...

If you don't already know them, allow me to introduce you to our two phenomenal guest artists for our Havana to Ipanema: KCJO Plays Latin...

by guest writer Stanton Kessler Latin music has always been around us. Every Latin American country has its own special brand to...

Greetings from the Big Easy! I’ve been at the Jazz Education Network conference in New Orleans this week, and it has been a fantastic...

It’s already November! As we near the holiday season, we here at the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra would like to extend joy and love and, of...

Cab Calloway. Bessie Smith. Lena Horne. Duke Ellington. For a couple decades starting in the 1920s, these legendary performers put on some

During the 2019-2020 KCJO Concert Season, we’re going to bring in some pretty big time guest artists, for their first time sharing the stage

“And now, the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart.. ...the melody haunts my reverie, and I am once again...

If they ask me, I could write a book About the way you walk and whisper and look I could write a preface on how we met So the world would...