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Dave now has 23 CD’s as a leader and over 50 as a sideman. Since then he has had a whirlwind international career of recordings and club and festival dates. He soon joined organist Jack McDuff for a two-year tour followed by a ten-year stint with the legendary Stanley Turrentine. To date he has appeared on over 70 CDs.ĭave Stryker grew up in Omaha and moved to New York City in 1980. The New Yorker said of him, “There is little Mahogany cannot do.” That tells it all.ĭave Stryker – Whether you’ve heard guitarist Dave Stryker fronting his own groups or as a featured sideman with Stanley Turrentine, Jack McDuff, or Kevin Mahogany, you know why critic Gary Giddins calls him “one of the most distinctive guitarists to come along in recent years.” He has also been singled out as a Top Ten Guitarist and a Rising Star in Critics and Readers polls in Downbeat Magazine. With 11 CD’s as a leader and more as a sideman, Kevin has become one of the outstanding vocalists in jazz. He has since released albums on Enja, Warner Brothers, Telarc and finally on his own label, Mahogany Jazz. In1993, Kevin released his debut album Double Rainbow. After graduating, he returned to his roots in Kansas City and its music scene. At Baker University, he formed his own vocal jazz choir. By 1970, a 12 year-old, Kevin was playing the baritone sax and working professionally with Eddie Baker’s “New Breed Orchestra.” By his senior high school year, he discovered he was a singer. Please stay tuned for more details.Kevin Mahogany – With his gift for bebop, ballads, blues and swing Kevin Mahogany’s talents bloomed early. The 2023 Kansas City Jazz Summit and Basically Basie Competition will be open for in-person performances based on the Covid-19 situation at the time of the event. The "Basically Basie" competition is more about determining which band embraced the "study" of the repertoire and demonstrated their "findings" the most thoroughly and effectively on stage. All of the bands that enter this competition are outstanding and reflect the outstanding leadership provided by their directors. The judges are not trying to decide which is "the best" band. The band director then puts all those parts together paying particular attention to dynamics, feel, balance, blend, intonation, articulation and time.īands who accept this challenge and are able to display the evidence of their due diligence on stage are usually the most successful. This puts much onus on each individual musician to do their homework to be able to emulate their part in the score as well as their solos. We hope that each band, as an ensemble, but additionally each individual band member, embraces the challenge of dissecting the composition and studying the interpretation of the artists' who originally performed the music. The point of making "Basically Basie" a competition is to give bands the motivation to delve deeply into their chosen repertoire. Particularly with bands here in Kansas City, we feel it is important that our students understand, appreciate and take pride in the unique jazz legacy that many musicians, but particularly Count Basie, bestowed on our town. The "Basically Basie" competition is modeled after the "Essentially Ellington" competition in which bands select approved repertoire and work toward emulating the style and spirit of the music as closely to the original performances and recordings as possible. There is also a non-competitive category (Summit) that allows bands to showcase their own unique style and personality. Bands are judged on their ability to capture the essence of the Kansas City style as best exemplified by the Count Basie Orchestra. The festival highlights Kansas City's rich jazz heritage through the "Basically Basie" Jazz Heritage Competition. The Kansas City Jazz Summit provides an educational performance opportunity for middle school, high school and college jazz bands, combos and jazz choirs and takes place in April each year at Kansas City Kansas Community College.