INTERVIEW by JOEL NICHOLS
The Heartbeat of The City. That is how Executive Director Rashida Phillips describes the American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine in KCMO. She took the reins over two years ago. As the museum celebrates 25 years of keeping the music playing, Rashida is focused on the future. Was music a part of your life growing up in St. Louis? My mother was a teacher. My father was a postal worker and served in the Air Force. They listened to Motown and a little jazz. That music came to all of the kids. My older brother was in a boy band back in the day, and my younger brother is a music producer in Atlanta now. In high school, I was a jazz diva. I just fell in love with that music, the stories, especially the songs from the 1940s. The voice is the original instrument. From the moment we come out of the womb, music helps to soothe us. Music will also push us forward. There’s a literacy there that’s so important. It’s so universal. For you, jazz was the sound that resonated? I had folks coming to me saying, “Why don’t you sing pop or do R&B?” and I thought, well, we’ve got folks doing that. Somebody has to carry the torch for jazz. I thought, this is music that I could jump into and sing for the rest of my life. Kansas City is a good place to land for a jazz singer like yourself, then. Jazz would not be what it is without the Kansas City imprint. This place really became a launchpad for so many legendary careers … Basie, Bird, Mary Lou Williams. If they didn’t cut it here they wouldn’t be able to cut it anywhere. Something that was made here really came together and expressed this American ideal. Music has always served so many purposes. When you think about civil rights or you think about protest songs, it’s music that gets you through a moment or a movement.
74 | TODAY KANSAS CITY | SUMMER 2022
