Mike Moreland’s New Jazz Tune Gets Play Time
Johnson County Community College |
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| Mike Moreland |
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Kansas City’s Got Jazz, a new jazz composition by Michael Moreland, associate professor of music, Johnson County Community College, will have its official premiere at the Kansas City Youth Jazz annual spring concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St., Kansas City, Mo. Tickets are $10, available at the door.
Moreland, who plays back-up keyboard for the Wild Women of Kansas City,
composed his song in jazz-standard style as a tribute to Kansas City jazz. During a gig at Jardine’s, Kansas City, Mo., in January, Wild Women’s Lori Tucker sang the vocals for Kansas City’s Got Jazz while Moreland took to the keyboard. Leon Brady, well known Kansas City percussion player and educator, was in the audience.
After the set finished, Brady asked Moreland if he’d like to arrange the tune for a 20-piece big band, specifically the Kansas City Youth Jazz, a nonprofit jazz education program for students sixth-12th grade, for which Brady is now the executive and artistic director.
Moreland completed the arrangement and will conduct Kansas City’s Got Jazz at the group’s spring concert. Tucker, noted jazz, R&B, blues and gospel artist, will sing the vocals. “The lyrics will acquaint out-of-towners with Kansas City jazz – from past to present, from the Blue Room to Corporate Woods,” said Moreland, who teaches MIDI music and digital music production at JCCC. “The music has that ’40s-’50s classic jazz feel.”
Moreland compares Tucker’s vocal style to Ella Fitzgerald’s and thinks Tucker’s voice is a perfect fit for the smooth jazz and lyrics like “even the red robins sing the blue notes ’cause it feels so good.”
“I absolutely love it,” Tucker said of Kansas City’s Got Jazz . “I’ve been singing jazz more than 33 years, and I think Mike Moreland is one of the most talented songwriters around. There have been plenty of other songs about Kansas City, but this is one of the best.
“I knew I liked it when I sang it, and then the audience loved it too. The lyrics are memorable, and the tune is the type that, once you hear it, you hum all day long.”
Tucker said Brady was drawn to the song for one particular line: “When you’re out on the town in Kansas City, you’re hearing the sound of Kansas City’s past and the future of jazz.”
“Some of the best musicians in town were directed by Leon Brady at old Sumner High School. Now he’s teaching young people through his Kansas City Youth Jazz, young people who will go on to play all over the world. They are the future of jazz,” Tucker said.
For more information, contact Moreland at 913-469-8500, ext. 4251.
