Backbeat

LIVE ON

A recent trip to New York reminded me just how much Kansas City jazz has to offer.

BY NINA CHERRY

“THERE’S A COMMON MYTH that Kansas City jazz ended with World War II,” local jazz historian and author Chuck Haddix says.

While the narrative of the 1920s and ’30s in Kansas City is an exciting tale—that of a newly bustling,

“wide-open” town rife with Tom

Pendergast’s political regime and freeflowing liquor throughout Prohibition—it continues to permeate the image of Kansas City jazz nearly a century later. But Kansas City jazz is not a mere museum piece. It has been living, breathing, evolving and, most of all, thriving long past Pendergast’s reign or World War II. “We’ve always had a very vibrant scene, and we have one of the most lively scenes in the country today,” Haddix says.

Despite being far smaller than the other major jazz cities, Kansas City has live jazz of a high caliber every single night. This can be said of few other cities in the country today.

During a recent trip to New York

City, while exploring the clubs and strolling through the streets of

Harlem and the Village, I kept finding parallels between the jazz scenes— not in style but in quantity and quality. And as much as I profoundly enjoyed the NY scene and my evening at the Village Vanguard, I went home appreciating KC even more. Our jazz scene is world class, but it’s often overlooked, even by locals.

More plainly, KC’s jazz scene is slept on.

While artists like Bobby Watson, a living legend who made his homecoming back to KC over twenty years ago now, are renowned all around the world, most Kansas Citians don’t even bat an eye at the name, unfamiliar with much of Kansas City jazz beyond Charlie Parker.

Where is the interest in the music being created now?

From the early days of Bennie Moten and Mary Lou Williams to the eternally original Bobby Watson to the ultramodern yet irrefutably soulful Logan Richardson and every important figure in between, Kansas City has continually been home to innovators. Some of today’s trailblazers include, in addition to Watson and Richardson, Peter Schlamb, Eddie Moore, Adam Larson and Hermon Mehari. But no matter how “out of the box” the music of these luminaries may have seemed to some at the time, they remained deeply tied to the blues-heavy, unmistakable Kansas City style and tradition.

“We have to recognize that today’s artists on the scene are all an extension of the tradition,” Haddix says. “We need to celebrate and honor musicians that are on the scene today, too.”

THREE TO SEE

Three May shows that exemplify the cutting edge of KC jazz today

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Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7 with Julia Haile, Friday, May 6 at 9 pm, The Ship, 1221 Union Ave., KCMO

Eddie Moore, Sunday, May 8 at 6 pm, Corvino Supper Club, 1830 Walnut St., KCMO

Riff Generation, Friday, May 20 at 7 pm, The Medallion Theater, 300 E. 39th St., KCMO

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CURATING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

White Gold Celestial Rae Diamond Earrings, $5,700

SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND Dainty gold jewelry has been in for a minute now, and it’s likely not going anywhere—people are even getting lightweight chains fused on for permanent looks. But we’re seeing a lot more rhinestones and diamonds lately. The turn toward sparkle and glitter may have something to do with trends from the Y2K era coming back around: crochet, baguette bags and, especially, rhinestone earrings. And we aren’t talking about simple studs. Rhinestone earrings are here in a variety of forms. We like bling that dangles and drops, like these 18K White Gold Celestial Rae Diamond Earrings ($5,700) and 18K White Gold 57 Collection Diamond Matchstick Earrings ($15,080) from Tivol. —MARY HENN

White Gold 57 Collection Diamond Matchstick Earrings, $15,080

THE HAPPY MIDDLE

A local KC maker has partnered with artisans all over the world to create timeless footwear and redefine the idea of ‘luxury’.

BY MARY HENN

CYNTHIA SEYMOUR has always loved making things with her hands. After studying economics at UMKC, Seymour even went into baking before dabbling in shoemaking. It wasn’t until 2018 that she decided to move to Milan and study the craft of shoe pattern making and design. Now she is the founder and CEO of Saint Maur, a local footwear brand that is creating comfortable, quality clogs.

“I’ve always liked clogs,” Seymour says. “I find them comfortable—I’m not a high heel person. I’ve always found clogs to be the happy middle, where you get the height but still the comfort and safety.”

Seymour sees clogs as a shoe style that appeals to many people of varying ages, styles and cultures. What’s cool about her clogs, she says, is “part of them are handmade by a maker in Cameroon.” Seymour has connected with a handful of artisans from all over the world. While all of her shoe designs are done here in Kansas City, Seymour partners with makers in places like Abuja, Nigeria, and León, Mexico, to create shoe patterns and prepare the upper pieces of her designs. Then those pieces are shipped back to the US and assembled in Saint Maur’s KC-based studio.

“It’s been remarkable meeting different artisans who share the same passion,” Seymour says. “They’re not just people who are hired. I really feel like they’re my partners and my collaborators. For me, it’s important to uplift BIPOC voices and artists and to tell people the story of how their shoes are made.”

Seymour’s own story is inspired by a range of cultures and backgrounds. While she spent most of her life in western Kansas, her father’s family is from the Bahamas and her mother is from South Korea. Seymour’s husband is from Italy, and his family has supported her shoemaking by putting Seymour in touch with Italian shoemakers and craftspeople. Most of Saint Maur’s leather is supplied from Italy, and Seymour has been using a lot of vegetabletanned leather because the production process is environmentally friendly. (She’s doing research on using European vegan leather.)

Right now, you can find Saint Maur’s shoes at local pop-up events for KC makers and artisans and see her designs on Insta (@saintmaur_kc).

Seymour is also working on making sandals, which she hopes to release in time for the warmer months, and she’s finishing her website (saintmaurkc.com) to sell her shoes directly.

“I think Kansas City is having a sort of fashion and art renaissance where people are buying more local handmade goods,” Seymour says. “In places like Italy, that’s always been there. But I think we are seeing more of that here now, and it’s really exciting.”

What inspired you to become a therapist? I became

FAVORITE SPOTS

Sway Salon in Roeland Park

“Kristen Asher is my stylist there—I have to give her a shoutout.”

The Bar “I live right up the street from The Bar in Mission. My husband, my dog and I sit on the patio there all summer.”

Finefolk

“Finefolk is my favorite boutique in the city. I go to Leslie for all my media styling. Her taste is curated—I love it.”

UNSTUCK

An Overland Park trauma therapist just launched a new book about feeling stuck and finding a way forward.

BY MARY HENN

“A HOT MESS OF A DISASTER” is how trauma therapist and author Britt Frank describes her former self. After recovering from addiction and her own mental health issues, Frank decided to go to graduate school at KU and become a therapist in her midthirties. Now, she has her own private practice in Overland Park.

In addition to running her own practice, Frank gives lectures on healing and trauma work at different events and festivals like the Kansas City Wellness Consortium.

Frank just launched her new book, The Science of Stuck, in which she contemplates burnout and dissatisfaction, feelings heightened in our post-pandemic world. After fifteen years of studying and researching therapy techniques, trauma and selfhelp books, Frank decided to compile a single book with basic tools meant to help people move out of feeling stuck in life.

We talked to Frank about writing The Science of Stuck, becoming a therapist, techniques for becoming unstuck and a few of her favorite spots in Kansas City. a therapist because I was a hot mess of a disaster throughout my twenties and into my thirties. And then I got better. And after I started to get better, it was like, “Oh, my God, if people knew just a few things about the brain, they’d know things can change.” I had this huge life pivot from what I was doing to going to grad school and becoming a therapist in my mid-thirties. Becoming a therapist was sort of the outpouring of my own journey to sanity, so to speak.

In The Science of Stuck, you talk about easy-to-use techniques that helped keep you afloat when you were facing your own struggles. What are some of those techniques, and how did they keep you going? It’s not magic. It’s not like, “Hey, smell this essential oil and all of your problems will be gone.” You don’t need giant shifts to get unstuck. The little micro-changes that we’re all capable of making today, we’re so quick to write off. I hear this every day. “Well, yeah, I went for a fiveminute walk, but it’s not like I did a marathon.” But if you don’t start counting the small wins, you’re not going to get to the big changes. We’re all so concerned with getting to the end. And the book is really about the bridge between where you are and where you want to go.

Just knowing a little bit about the brain can help us make small changes. If you’re feeling like you’re procrastinating, exposure to cold is a really good way to get your system out of stuck. The problem isn’t in our thinking; the problem is in our bodies. We get stuck because our bodies do physical things that keep us stuck. So if you know how to work with the body, you can start to create space to make better choices.

The book talks about mental health not being a mental process, but a physical one. I think many people would push back against that notion. Can you explain what you mean? People get mad at me about that one. And I’m the first to say that I’m a drug addict, I’m in recovery from eating disorders, I have clinical depression, and I take psych meds. So I’m certainly not saying that anyone’s symptoms are fake or that pain is not real.

But it’s important to know that you have a nervous system. We drive around our lives in these bodies, and for many of us, it’s like being in a car and not knowing where the brake is.

If you don’t know that your nervous system has something called a freeze mechanism, the symptoms of freeze can look like clinical depression, but it’s not the same thing. And the symptoms of being stuck in flight [or fight] are going to look like a panic disorder, but it’s not a disorder.

It’s often that a nervous system that is stuck will present as a mental illness. And there’s no stigma or shame in having a mental illness. But it’s really helpful to know that your body has a gas pedal and a brake pedal. And if you don’t know that your brake pedal is stuck to the floor, that’s gonna look like depression. Mental health is not just all in our minds.

A BROOKSIDE BACK-TO-BASICS

A century-old home in Brookside gets a ‘Down to Earth’ renovation with organic materials, clean neutrals and the help of Cicada Company’s Tara and Kyle Davis.

BY DAWNYA BARTSCH | PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATE SHEETS

CONVERTING A THREE HUNDRED-POUND WATER trough into a bathroom sink was just one of the challenges that made the renovation of this Brookside home truly one to remember. “We, along with the homeowners, wanted to make a statement in the powder room,” says Tara Davis of Cicada Company, the design and construction firm behind the renovation. “Luckily, Kyle can figure out how to build anything,” she says of her husband and business partner Kyle Davis, who turned the small but hefty drainless trough into a useable sink. The stone sink definitely makes a statement. The Davises, who co-founded the Cicada Company, worked diligently with the homeowners of the century-old structure in Brookside to keep the integrity of the house while making it unique, modern and livable. “To me, this project is a mixture of the old and new, and much of the inspiration comes from using organic materials,” Tara says of the two thousand square-foot house. She and her husband worked within the home’s original footprint but modified the floor plan to fit a more modern lifestyle, such as turning a hallway into a pantry. The result is a comfortable and clean space that honors the home’s history with many original details left intact throughout the house, such as glass doorknobs, doors, interior trim and wood floors. They nicknamed this house “Down to Earth” because of the neutral colors, layers of textures and use of organic materials throughout. In this case, the homeowners contacted the Davises before they purchased the house and asked the design duo to take a look to see if they thought it had potential. “The homeowners really liked the location, but it didn’t have enough bathrooms and a few other things, so they didn’t think it would work,” Tara says. “But I said, ‘We can add bathrooms.’” “We walked through it, the layout was great,” Kyle says. “It had great character. We knew we could successfully renovate this home.” The complete renovation also consisted of all-new plumbing, electrical wiring and insulation. It is very important to the integrity of the project that all aspects of an older home be upgraded, Kyle says. “We don’t want to put all this work into just making the surface look good.” The homes need to function, too.

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LIVING ROOM The clean white plaster walls in the living room contrast with the home’s original dark brown trim. Although many of the home’s traditional elements were left untouched, the Davises decided to completely redo the living room’s painted brick fireplace.

“We framed out and built a new façade over the old fireplace and created a little wedge,” Kyle says. The result is an organic, almost sculpturallooking centerpiece for the living room that blends in with many of the organic furniture and art choices.

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2 POWDER ROOM The Davises chose to paint the small guest bathroom a Burnt Sienna shade to make it pop and stand out from the paler, more neutral colors of the rest of the home while still keeping with the house’s natural feel and rustic elements, such as the rough-edge stone sink.

To install the garden trough turned sink, Kyle custom-designed metal brackets that seem to cradle the fixture and bolted them into the wall studs directly behind the sink to secure it into place. To make it functional, he also had to drill a hole and create a drain. The warm and worn brass faucet was originally just a spigot that a garden hose would attach to with an on and off valve. To make it work for the bathroom, Kyle installed plumbing in the wall that creates the perfect warm temperature. So without any adjusting and with just one twist of the spigot knob, pleasant lukewarm water is released, just right for washing hands. 3 KITCHEN Although they worked completely within the original floorplan, the Davises made several modifications to open the kitchen up and make it more functional, including removing a wall and turning a hallway into a pantry.

A natural light wood color similar to the hardwood floors was chosen for the kitchen cabinets, and textured subway tiles in varying natural colors were installed vertically for the backsplash. The Davises chose brass hardware that will develop a natural patina over time.

“We want a timeless and durable design that will age well,” Tara says.