Kansas City(1996)- User Reviews

The movie has great music, sounds like original tracks from Ben Webster, Lester Young. KC Jazz is more like swing and included the Bird, and is a great jazz style along with Norleans, Chicago, Memphis, New York, and St. Louis. Cleveland also with Robert Lockwood who I saw last year who's keeping on at 85. Toledo is trying to revive Hines Farm where a lot of the greats played, and where Ramona Collins sings at Murphy's.
I lived around KC for 6 years, and in the city for a year or two. Family members have lived there since the 20s, and were quite involved in business there. They managed to stay far away from people like Seldom Seen, but some of them used to hang out in the clubs there. We value the history of KC and the movie brings back vivid memories of what family members said and from living there. The movie seems very accurate.
Sure, a lot of the movie was about violence, however you can do something else while that's on. Read the paper, do a few dishes, clean the cat box. Nothing good about shooting people like they were rats, but KC has little of that anymore. All cities of any size have some of that. The movie helps us think about how we need to at least have empathy for people who live in the inner city. It also helps us value the genius of people like Webster, Young, Parker, and so many others.
The CD "The Best of Jazz Saxzophone" by Direct Source has a lot of the movie's music on it. Listen to Webster on Sweet Lorainne with a really good set of headphones. Wants you want to grab the woman and go out on the town, or whatever. Our family has a tradition of when we go down for the count playing 3 songs at the funeral. One will be by Bach, the second will be a Dave Mathews song, and the last of the 3 will be Sweet Lorainne by Webster.
Kansas City is a great place to live, despite extremes in weather. In the winter you can go 60 to 80 miles south on the weekend and get into a lot warmer weather. The Ozarks are an hour away. The Paseo mall area was I believe the first of its kind in the US, and there are great boulevards and parks. It's a great cruising city - if I only had my black dechromed lead sled with skirts. The ribs and jazz downtown are too good to miss. This movie is a great documentary on KC jazz, and about the history of the times.