It was in the clubs and juke joints of Missouri’s two largest cities that jazz and blues came of age.
Musical masters such as Charlie Parker, Count Basie and Big Joe Turner defined the sounds of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, playing to the crowds of Kansas City’s 18th and Vine District.
In St. Louis, jazz steamed into town aboard riverboats from New Orleans, blended with Scott Joplin’s ragtime melodies and was further refined by blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta to create a style known as St. Louis Blues.
Those days are long gone, but the traditions they fostered are alive and well in the wealth of musical offerings to be found in both cities.
In St. Louis, the house where Scott Joplin—who became known as the “King of Ragtime”—lived with his new bride has been turned into a museum chronicling his life and music and the history of ragtime in the city. Next to the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site a reconstructed turn-of-the-century bar and gaming club known as the New Rosebud Cafe is available for group events.
South of downtown, Soulard, one of the city’s most historic neighborhoods, grew up around the Anheuser Busch brewery. Today it is a center for blues and jazz clubs, including Hammerstone’s, which is located in a circa-1884 building and hosts groups of up to 90 on its patio.
To see the city from another angle, groups can enjoy jazz on a paddle wheeler cruise down the mighty Mississippi on the Tom Sawyer or the Becky Thatcher, both of which can host dinners and receptions.
On the other side of the state, the American Jazz Museum tells the tale of the music that made Kansas City famous, with photos, album covers and memorabilia highlighting the lives of jazz legends Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Charlie Parker. The museum’s event-ready Blue Room, a re-creation of one of the city’s hottest jazz clubs of the 1930s, is a museum by day and a jazz club by night.
Groups can also enjoy jazz and get a feel for Kansas City history at The Majestic Steakhouse, located in a circa-1911 downtown building that was once a saloon and bordello and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Also on the National Register of Historic Places and located downtown, The Phoenix Piano Bar & Grill was built in 1888 in the Garment District. Today, crowds pack the venue to hear jazz and blues. It can accommodate groups of up to 80 people.
Jardine’s Restaurant & Jazz Club, located in an old brick building near Country Club Plaza, is an intimate music venue that is also available for private groups of up to 80 people.
