© 1996 Fine Line Features. All rights reserved.

CAST

     Blondie O'Hara..............Jennifer Jason Leigh
     Carolyn Stilton...............Miranda Richardson
     Seldom Seen......................Harry Belafonte
     Henry Stilton.....................Michael Murphy
     Johnny O'Hara....................Dermot Mulroney
     Johnny Flynn.......................Steve Buscemi
     Babe Flynn..........................Brooke Smith
     Nettie Bolt...........................Jane Adams
     Addie Parker........................Jeff Feringa
     Sheepshan Red........................A. C. Smith
     "Blue" Green.......................Martin Martin		
     Charlie Parker..................Albert J. Burnes
     Pearl Cummings...............Ajia Mignon Johnson

FILMMAKERS

     Produced and Directed by...........Robert Altman
     Written by.........Robert Altman & Frank Barhydt
     Co-Producers......Matthew Seig & David C. Thomas   
     Executive Producer................Scott Bushnell
     Director of Photography.........Oliver Stapleton
     Editor..........................Geraldine Peroni  
     Production Designer...............Stephen Altman
     Costume Designer....................Dona Granata   
     Music Producer.......................Hal Willner 

HEY HEY CLUB MUSICIANS

     Tenor Saxophone.....................James Carter
                                          Craig Handy
                                         David Murray
                                        Joshua Redman
     Alto Saxophone.......................Jesse Davis
                          David "Fathead" Newman, Jr.
     Clarinet/Baritone Saxophone............Don Byron
     Coronet.................................Olu Dara
     Trumpet..........................Nicholas Payton
                                         James Zollar
     Trombone..........................Curtis Fowlkes
                                         Clark Gayton 
     Drums...............................Victor Lewis
     Piano.................................Geri Allen
                                       Cyrus Chestnut
     Bass..................................Ron Carter
                                    Christian McBride
                                         Tyrone Clark
     Guitar............................Russell Malone
                                       Mark Whitfield 
     Vocalist..........................Kevin Mahogany

For his 31st film, director Robert Altman revisits his birthplace, Kansas City, at the peak of its vitality in 1934. Located at the crossroads of America, Kansas City thrived under the rule of city bosses and organized crime. Gambling and prostitution were officially illegal, but freely available; and a new kind of jazz played 'round the clock in the raucous clubs around 18th and Vine. While the rest of the country was mired in the Great Depression, Kansas City not only prospered, it swung.

The action in KANSAS CITY occurs over the course of two days in 1934, on the eve of municipal elections. The Democratic political machine of boss Tom Pendergast gears up to get out the votes, using violence when necessary. Virtuoso jazz musicians match musical wits in all-night "cutting contests" at the Hey Hey Club. And scrappy Blondie O'Hara, portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh, simulating the tough-talking broads of her silver screen idol, Jean Harlow, kidnaps wealthy Carolyn Stilton (Miranda Richardson), the laudanum-addicted wife of an advisor to President Roosevelt.

Blondie's plan is to swap Carolyn for her small-time gangster husband Johnny O'Hara (Dermot Mulroney), who has been captured by big-time gangster, killer and club-owner Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte). Johnny has affronted Seldom by robbing one of the kingpin's wealthy gambling customers; worse, he has infuriated Seldom by committing the crime in blackface. Johnny is being held in the basement of Seldom's Hey Hey Club, where the music-loving gangster moves to the jam session going on upstairs.

While Seldom considers just how to dispose of Johnny O'Hara, Blondie O'Hara carts her captive, the genteel, opiated Carolyn Stilton, all over Kansas City. Once she tracks down Henry Stilton (Michael Murphy) and gives him the terms of his wife's ransom, Blondie must keep Carolyn out of sight. Inseparable for two days, these two very different women begin to understand one another as they head towards an inevitable, transforming conclusion.

KANSAS CITY contrasts the emotions provoked by the film's dual kidnappings with the exhilarating jazz of the all-night jam sessions, while being surrounded by the beauty, violence and joy of a unique time in American history. A cinematic riff on race, class, power and addiction, Altman calls KANSAS CITY "a jazz memory."

FINE LINE FEATURES is proud to present KANSAS CITY, a Robert Altman film, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson and Harry Belafonte. Written by Robert Altman and Frank Barhydt. KANSAS CITY had its World Premiere in competition at the 1996 Cannes International Film Festival.

About the Production

Throughout his remarkable career, Robert Altman has painted incisive portraits of a contradictory America: a place of purity and greed, of dogged corruption and heartbreaking idealism. In KANSAS CITY, Altman explores one of the most paradoxical places and times in American history. It is where he grew up.

"Boss Pendergast ran the political machine," recalls the director, who was born in 1925. "He used the same methods as the Italians in their area or the blacks in theirs. They all took care of their people; the system was perfectly corrupt. It was a wide open town where the law didn't apply." The city even ignored Prohibition; the liquor flowed and the signs advertising it never came down.

Kansas City was also a great town for music, with plenty of clubs and a flourishing red light district that paid musicians well. Altman's first exposure to jazz came when he was a child. "I had a black maid, Glendora. In the film, she is the woman greeted by Charlie Parker when he comes home through the back door. When I was eleven, Glendora sat me down in front of the radio and said, 'Now, listen to this. This is the best music there is.' It was Duke Ellington playing "Solitude." I remember every note of it." By the time he was fifteen, Altman was frequenting the city's jazz clubs.

Altman's vivid memories of the music of his youth was crucial to the development of KANSAS CITY. In 1987, while he was filming the Harold Pinter plays The Dumb Waiter and The Room, Altman and co-writer Frank Barhydt began working on a story about two women driving through a city one night. But the project remained unproduced and the script sat idle for a number of years. Then, while he was making Short Cuts, which he co-wrote with Barhydt, Altman pulled out the script about the two traveling women. He and Barhydt, also a native of Kansas City, decided to develop the story further by incorporating their hometown and its jazz scene.

Altman describes the milieu, "The jazz clubs weren't segregated, they sold drinks to anyone anytime. White people could go there, but they didn't very often. Movie theatres were a different story; black people had to sit in the balcony, whereas white people could go anywhere they wanted. In Kansas City, they often boasted about not being segregated, but Missouri was a Southern state like the others. The attitude was paternalistic, something like, 'Here, we treat our Negroes real well.'"

Running the black neighborhoods of KANSAS CITY is gangster Seldom Seen, played by Harry Belafonte. The character is based on a composite of local gangsters. Belafonte did his own research into this cold-blooded killer with an abiding love for jazz. "He was a killer, scum of the earth, but it's important to the piece that people see what he meant to that environment. Kansas City was run by gangsters." Unsentimental, mordant, and cruel, Seldom Seen is the rogue philosopher of KANSAS CITY, a black man in a unique position of power who casts an acute eye on the cultural and social landscape of Kansas City in 1934.

"All of Belafonte's monologues were comments on the times," Altman adds. "For instance, Marcus Garvey, the black politician who wanted to send everyone back to Africa and even started a black shipping line, the Black Star. It was one of the hot topics of the time."

The hot radio program was Amos and Andy, which starred white actors portraying the title characters in blackface. "It swept America," says the director. "It was the most popular radio show of all time. Harry and I had been working on another project about Amos and Andy for some time, so a lot of our conversations and research were incorporated into KANSAS CITY."

Altman took many of the characters of KANSAS CITY from real life. Besides Seldom Seen, there is, of course, the young Charlie Parker and his mother, Addie. Addie Parker did indeed work at Western Union and owned her own home. Her son was a habitué of the jazz clubs, watching the musicians from the balcony. Carolyn Stilton, the laudanum-addicted political wife played by Miranda Richardson, is modeled on the mother of one of Altman's childhood friends. In the film, Carolyn relates to Addie Parker an anecdote about the painter Thomas Hart Benton, who was refused when he asked a black maid to let him paint her in uniform. The story is true.

Fiction, on the other hand, has been the formative influence for the character of Blondie, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. "Blondie learned how to behave by watching Jean Harlow in Platinum Blonde or Bombshell. She probably never had a gun in her hand before, so she was mimicking those characters," Altman emphasizes. "And that is the way Jennifer performed her part. I don't think there's a better actress working today."

Says Leigh of Blondie's outlandish plan to swap the kidnap victims, "She thinks of it as a trade because she really doesn't live in the real world. Her whole life has been informed by the movies. With Blondie, everything is a 'you're with me, you're against me' kind of thing." Altman gives his take on Blondie's devotion to Johnny, "Her fascination for him is almost a sickness."

Carolyn Stilton, however, is stuck in a big house and a lonely marriage and turns to opiates for comfort. "It's her way of tuning out," says Altman of the society matron's ever-present bottle of laudanum. "Because of the drugs, Carolyn is able to meander through a whole spectrum of emotions."

"It was kind of a leap in the deep end," acknowledges Miranda Richardson about her role, "but it felt like here was somebody who had the experience and was prepared to help me feel comfortable. I was getting nervous before working, but as soon as I started, it felt lovely."

The relationship between Blondie and Carolyn (whom Blondie dubs "Red") evolves over two days and a violent election. As Richardson notes, "These two unlikely women go on the road and it feels like they've been together forever, but it's a very short space of time. There are times when we're in sympathy with each other, other times when we're not in sync at all."

Tellingly, Carolyn never tries to escape, not even when Blondie falls asleep at Addie Parker's house. She chooses instead to chat in the parlor with Addie and her friends. Later, Carolyn (who initially thought her kidnapper was a manicurist) helps Blondie bleach her hair in preparation for Johnny's homecoming.

"Carolyn feels compassion for her captor and understands her," Altman says in discussing the women's complicated relationship. The film's images (a canary in a cage) and sounds (the final swells of Ellington's "Solitude") punctuate the story of their almost-friendship. "The whole idea was not to be too specific about it. It runs through feelings, moods, unspoken emotions. It didn't call for a literal interpretation but rather for a sort of ... jazz."

"I tried to write this film like jazz and I tried to shoot it that way. In other words, I have lines and there is a plot with definite suspense. There is a beginning, a middle with stopping points, and an ending, but in between, I let the actors go off on these riffs, just like they do in the music."

About Kansas City and Its Jazz

Jazz was born at the turn of the century in New Orleans, a town that created, fostered, lived, danced and breathed the music. Hundreds of musicians were employed in the clubs, honky-tonks and brothels of Storyville, the city's entertainment district. But in 1917, the Secretary of the Navy effectively closed down Storyville (he felt the good-time atmosphere distracted from the serious business of World War I), and the fun, the music and the jobs suddenly stopped.

Many of jazz's founding fathers, such as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet moved to Chicago for better work. Kansas City's music scene grew for many reasons. For the first half of this century, Kansas City was the crossroads of commerce for one-sixth of America. "To go anywhere from East to West, you had to go through Kansas City." explains native son Robert Altman, "So it became a depot for trains and stopover for planes." The best musicians traveling throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri headed for Kansas City, where band leaders would assemble players to take to the "territories" of the west, all the way to California. When the tour was over, the band would break up and often the musicians would stay in Kansas City.

Entering this mix was an unlikely catalyst, a man who hardly listened to music at all. "Boss" Tom Pendergast ruled Kansas City between 1926 (the year after Altman was born) and 1936, having in his pocket both the political machine and the racketeers, led by John Lazia. Although he was always in bed by 9:00 p.m., Pendergast made sure Kansas City never slept. It was a wide-open town of dance halls, nightclubs, honky-tonks, brothels and after-hours spots. The gangsters who ran the clubs and brothels respected jazz because it brought in customers.

Pendergast's policies kept the economy flowing through Prohibition, the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. The hard times that forced most of the nation's jazz clubs to close drew all the big-time musicians to 18th and Vine, Kansas City's music quarter. The infusion of these great players with Kansas City's own talents produced a jazz renaissance that rivaled New Orleans' founding years. At one time or another, Kansas City was home to jazz greats Count Basie, Bennie Moten, Jay McShann, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, and many more.

All this talent in one place, removed from the influences of New York's music and publishing worlds, resulted in a new style of jazz. The blues were urbanized, melodies were streamlined into infectious riffs and the beat was elevated to new levels of swing. This lighter, looser, more elegant variation of the big band style became the standard for an entire era of popular music. Today, when people talk of mainstream jazz, it's really Kansas City jazz they're talking about.

One Kansas City specialty was the jam session, with its all-night "cutting contests." No city engaged in these sessions with such enthusiasm and competitive spirit, with many jams divided into contests of the first, second and third class, like sporting events. For musicians like Lester Young and K.C. native Charlie Parker, the after-hours jam sessions became a way of life. Often their paid jobs were just extended warm-ups for the real business of the evening, which began when their regular gigs ended.

To capture the Kansas City sound that altered the course of jazz history, Altman and maverick record producer Hal Willner assembled 21 of today's best contemporary musicians, drawing from a wide spectrum of jazz styles. Among them: Christian McBride, Cyrus Chestnut, Don Byron, Ron Carter, Geri Allen and Mark Whitfield.

"That was one reason I wanted to do this film, to play with all these great players, as well as to become familiar with a period in jazz history." says Joshua Redman, the wildly popular and widely acclaimed jazz tenor saxophonist.

During their three-week jam session at Seldom's Hey Hey Club, these artists played the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Bennie and Buster Moten in a once-in-a-lifetime situation. Not that they're playing these classics as an archival situation. "If you listen to records like 'Lafayette' or 'Prince of Wails,' there's as much energy as any punk-rock record I've ever heard." asserts Willner. "We wanted to get the feeling and the flavor of that music, but not imitate it."

One of the highlights of KANSAS CITY is the recreation of the fabled cutting contest that went on when Coleman Hawkins (Craig Handy), then on the road, stopped in Kansas City to take on Lester Young (Joshua Redman) and Ben Webster (James Carter). Watching from the balcony is the young Charlie Parker (Albert J. Burnes), who avidly studied the musicians creating history in Kansas City's clubs.

Altman assigned the musicians famous personalities to refer to, rather than be confined by. "Bob wanted our personalities injected into the scenario." explains Handy, who acts like a pro during the cutting sequence. "That's what gave this music originality back then. He wanted real performances by real people."

Geri Allen, who beautifully evokes the spirit of pianist Mary Lou Williams, agrees. "This was wonderful because we were able to be ourselves, to be involved in the music the same way we would in a club or a concert hall. It was like living the music actually on stage, and the film is running at the same time."

Harry Belafonte began his career as a jazz singer in 1948, when he got a job as an intermission singer at New York's Royal Roost. For his first show, he sang "Pennies From Heaven" backed by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. His love for the music is strong as ever. "To be with some of the greatest jazz musicians today, mulating their predecessors, playing their history with such integrity, it's like I've come full circle. There's not a thing about this music I don't remember and don't revere. All of it, it's home!"

Says Altman of his KANSAS CITY dream team, "They are all leaders and we threw them all together. It really is a jam session and we got it on film. I will never see anything like the music experienced here again."

Interview with Robert Altman

How far does the project KANSAS CITY go back?

It goes back to the time I was filming the Harold Pinter plays, THE DUMB WAITER and THE ROOM. This was when Frank Barhydt and I wrote a script for an hour-long teleplay. The story was about two women going through a city one night. But the project remained unproduced and the script sat in a trunk for a number of years. Then at the time of SHORT CUTS, I remembered it and pulled it out. We expanded it into a feature by setting the story in Kansas City and its jazz scene. Frank and I both happen to be from Kansas City, though he is a generation younger. I used to shoot industrial films for Calvin, his father's company. I sent him back there to do research; he advertised in the newspapers and we were able to conduct interviews with a number of the period's survivors.

Are there autobiographical incidents or characters in the story?

All the peripheral characters are based on real people. Seldom Seen was a real gangster who carried his money in a cigar box, always had his thugs around him, and died at the venerable age of 98. Harry Belafonte also used his uncle Lenny as a model; he was a gangster who ran numbers in Harlem. Addie Parker was actually Charlie Parker's mother; she worked at Western Union and owned her own house. The social worker is called Nettie because that was my grandmother's name. At the time, I was ten years old and I knew those ladies as they were part of my immediate milieu. In some ways, the Stilton character evokes my father, and Carolyn is patterned after the mother of a kid I grew up with. I knew then that she was on something, but I didn't know what it was. Thus there are quite a few personal memories in KANSAS CITY, but considerably glamorized and romanticized.

Do you remember clearly the clubs and musicians that you liked at the time?

By the time I was fifteen I was hanging out in those jazz clubs. It was the beginning of swing and I was there for the action. I spent a lot of time in that world. I knew everybody, I felt welcome. I listened to Julia Lee, Baby Lovett, Bill Nolan, Jay McShann, and many others who were not known yet but became famous later.

It seems that Kansas City in the thirties held the same fascination over America as Las Vegas did in the seventies. Wasn't it the magical city where the American dream was supposed to come true?

In a way. It had to do with the city being the center of the country. To go anywhere from East to West you had to go through Kansas City, so it became a depot for trains and a stopover for planes. For musicians it was the crossroads. There was an enormous red light district. The whorehouses were flourishing and the musicians who played there made good money. A jazzman could make twice the money there than on any other gig. There was a lot of work for them. So all those musicians ended up in Kansas City. This was where the bands would be put together and travel through what they called the territories - throughout the West, all the way to California. Back in Kansas City, the band would break up and guys would get stuck there. That's what happened to Count Basie, for example. That led him, after Bennie Moten's death, to take over the great band known as The Blue Devils. Bennie died prematurely in 1935 when he had his tonsils taken out. The doctor, who was one of his friends, nicked an artery. A lot of the stories in KANSAS CITY are based on fact.

Were the clubs in Kansas City segregated in any way?

The jazz clubs weren't segregated. They sold drinks to anyone anytime. White people could go there, but they didn't very often. As kids, we were most welcome. Movie theatres were a different story; black people had to sit in the balcony, whereas white people could go anywhere they wanted. In Kansas City, they often boasted about not being segregated, but Missouri was a southern state like the others. The attitude was paternalistic, something like, "Here, we treat our Negroes real well."

Politically, wasn't Kansas City one of the Democrats' fiefdoms?

Absolutely. Boss Pendergast ran the political machine. He used the same methods as the Italians in their area or the blacks in theirs. They all took care of their people; the system was perfectly corrupt. During Prohibition, they didn't even take the signs down; they just kept selling alcohol. It was a wide open town where the law didn't apply.

Did the Italian and black gangs divide up the city?

They just didn't go into each other's territories. And each group had its favorite weapons: the Italians had all the guns, while the blacks could only use knives. It goes back to the way blacks coming out of slavery used music. They weren't allowed musical instruments, so they learned tap dancing. They developed their own rhythms because they had no other choice.

Proportionally, was the black population in Kansas City higher than in other major American cities?

No, but we didn't know much about it at the time. No one paid much attention because they didn't think there was big money involved. What happened in Kansas City is similar to what happened in Harlem after the Civil War, when blacks moved into one area and created their own community. There was a brief explosion of poetry, music and literature. A lot of interesting things went on, but they were ignored as long as blacks remained confined to their area. They came out in their maids' uniforms. The anecdote that Miranda Richardson tells about Thomas Hart Benton is true. Benton wanted to do the portrait of a black maid, but she wouldn't let him paint her in her uniform and that was the end of it.

When you were writing the script, did you know precisely how the jazz would fit in the story?

No , they were done totally separately. The musicians were assembled, and the numbers selected, only after the script was written. It is in the editing that I tried to find a balance between the musical rhythms and the story's moods. There is one number though, the last one, "Solitude" by Duke Ellington, which I had planned to use early on. The idea of having a bass duet came up because I wanted to maintain the mood for the end of the film.

There are striking counterpoints throughout. For instance, the duel of saxes between Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins is followed by the assassination of Blue Green, the cab driver. We segue from euphoria to horror. We soar to a musical high only to fall into the ugliest reality. Is this contrast something you orchestrated when you were editing?

We shot two cutting contests and we kept the best one, of course. I don't remember where it was inserted in the script, but in the editing it found its place immediately. It was a five or six minute duel, so it became an act break in the piece. But I think it is the joke that serves as a counterpoint more than anything – that awful racist joke Harry Belafonte is telling while they are all stabbing the cab driver and laughing. That's what is shocking to me, everyone getting their cut on him and joking about it.

How did you cast Harry Belafonte? Were his strange monologues partially improvised?

Belafonte was cast from the start. He wrote most of his lines, including the racist joke. All of his monologues were kind of comments on the times. Seldom Seen makes fun, for instance, of Marcus Garvey, the black politician who wanted to send everyone back to Africa and even started a black shipping line, the Black Star. It was one of the hot topics of the time. The whole Amos and Andy thing. It swept America. It was the most popular radio show of all time. Harry and I had been working on another project about Amos and Andy for some time, so a lot of our conversations and research were incorporated into this picture.

Did you ever think back to THIEVES LIKE US? In touching upon the Great Depression you were already using the radio as a counterpoint, notably through impassioned speeches by Roosevelt and Father Coughlin.

It was almost the same year: THIEVES LIKE US was 1936; KANSAS CITY takes place in 1934. Radio was a big thing then, it started the phenomenon of mass communication; entertainment and political rhetoric started coming over the radio first. I am comfortable with that period because I have researched it thoroughly. Yet I never thought consciously about THIEVES LIKE US.

Couldn't Blondie and Johnny be the urban cousins of Kecchie and Bowie in THIEVES LIKE US?

But Johnny is a hood, an amoral guy. Blondie's fascination for him is almost a sickness. He got her pregnant, but he didn't want the baby, so she got rid of her child. She would do absolutely anything for him, whereas Johnny wouldn't hesitate if Seldom asked him to kill Blondie. He doesn't love her. He uses her and that is why, toward the end, you come to see this poor woman as a victim.

The character of Carolyn is superbly ambiguous. Miranda Richardson's performance suggests that she is probably more aware, more calculating, than she looks. She recalls the kidnapped heiress of James Hadley Chase's NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH.

Carolyn uses laudanum as her escape from that world. It's her way of tuning out. Yes, like Mrs. Miller! Hence the image of the canary at the end, the idea of the cage. She feels compassion for her captor and understands her. The whole idea was not to be too specific about it. It runs through feelings, moods, unspoken emotions. It didn't call for a literal interpretation, but rather for a sort of ... jazz. Because of the drugs, the character was able to meander through a whole spectrum of emotions. She didn't have to be consistent in her behavior.

Miranda Richardson's interpretation emphasizes the class element. Blondie has crossed the social barrier just as Johnny crossed the racial barrier.

They venture out of their territory and they don't know how to deal with those things because they have no experience. The idea of the kidnapping is perfectly silly, although kidnappings were rather common then ... at least until the Lindbergh case. After that, kidnapping meant capital punishment.

Your characters watch too many movies. To them, the cinema is always a lure or a trap.

To Blondie, it sure is. And that is the way Jennifer Jason Leigh performed her part. Blondie learned how to behave by watching Jean Harlow in PLATINUM BLONDE or BOMBSHELL. She probably never had a gun in her hand before, so she was mimicking those characters. Her personality was formed through the movies. This happens everywhere. There is not a policeman alive who did not learn how to behave as a policeman from watching films or reading crime stories.

Has jazz played a significant part in your personal development?

Yes, it has because I was exposed to it early on, particularly "Solitude." I had a black maid, Glendora. In the film, she is the woman greeted by Charlie Parker when he comes home through the back door. When I was eleven, Glendora sat me down in front of the radio and said, "Now listen to this. This is the best music there is." It was Duke Ellington playing "Solitude." I remember every note of it. This is my first memory of swing music and Kansas City was a big place for it then. Radio absolutely helped push it along across the country. Now jazz is starting to grow again because there isn't anything to replace it. Rock'n'roll is dead, rap is dead, there's a big void, so a lot of kids are starting to listen to jazz. Thanks to them, sales of jazz records are soaring.

Jazz teaches you to be yourself, to shun conformism. As an art form, it calls for mavericks.

Yet you are not out there offending people. Everybody is in the same mood, the rhythm is the same for all. It's an art where we all have something to share.

You filmed Bill Nolan Quintet Minus Two in the opening scene of your first feature film THE DELINQUENTS, which took place in Kansas City, 1955.

That's right, Bill Nolan and Julia Lee! The whole film was shot in Kansas City. I am not too fond of that picture because United Artists added a narration, ridiculously moralistic, without even telling me.

Was jazz still flourishing in the Kansas City of 1955?

Julia Lee was still there playing clubs, and so were Baby Lovett and other survivors of the thirties. Many places still had big bands in the style of The Blue Devils or Clouds of Joy. We had Lester Young playing at high school graduations. Jazzmen played wherever they could get a gig. There was not a lot of entertainment in all these small provincial towns, so they would often be hired to play one night. Afterwards, they would all go to the musicians' union or a club and jam the rest of the night away.

Could the young Charlie Parker observing the jam sessions be an alter ego of the young Robert Altman? He seems to be intent on capturing the soul of this music in order to express it in his future compositions.

That's where they'd send the kids, to the balcony. We'd be up there, just like Charlie Parker. I considered developing his character a little more. I naturally thought about Charlie's famous humiliation where he got up to play and Jo Jones threw the cymbal at his feet. But I didn't want to go into the personal drama of Bird. Did you know that his father worked on the railroad? At that time, the best job a black man could have was a pullman or a chef. Harry Belafonte's father was a cook on the railroad; that's how Belafonte became such a great cook.

At what stage of the shoot did you organize the jam sessions?

About halfway through, I went to Hal Willner, who put the SHORT CUTS music together for me, and we made a selection of the best jazz players from two or three different schools. Except for Joshua Redman and Christian McBride, they hadn't really played together before. Redman is supposed to be Lester Young. The guy who plays Coleman Hawkins, Craig Handy, performed with Charlie Mingus. Mingus' widow suggested him to me; he has real charisma. David Murray, James and Ron Carter are hotshots. So is the drummer Victor Lewis who plays Jo Jones. Geri Allen worked really hard at being Mary Lou Williams and re-creating her style. Surprisingly, they were all very good actors, too. They succeeded in creating a consistent character. They all have an act, even if it meant, like Clark Gayton, smoking a joint throughout the session!

How free were the musicians to improvise?

The music was not all charted, really. There was a little rehearsing, but the arrangements weren't finalized when we started filming. I wanted this to be a real jam session. There is not one note of music that is not live here. It was all recorded in that club. You'll be able to experience the whole event in the musical documentary that I just finished, which is narrated in part by Harry Belafonte. Its title is "Robert Altman's Jazz '34, Remembrance of Kansas City Swing."

When does your editor become involved in the process?

From the first dailies on. Geraldine Peroni has been terrific. I don't know what I would do if I lost her. We edited very fast, it came together very quickly, which is an indication to me that it's correct. When it takes forever, it generally means there are problems I haven't solved.

You rarely called on jazz in your previous pictures?

It's hard to use jazz in film. It doesn't hide itself, it's too present. It worked in KANSAS CITY because it was what the film was about in a funny way. The story was constructed like a piece of jazz. I see the film as being spherical rather than linear; its structure is essentially musical. It's a slim story and the dialogue between the two girls is like jazz riffs. They weren't talking about what was happening to them. There were more like a saxophone player going off and blowing his thing.

(Excerpts from an interview recorded in Malibu on March 1st by Michael Henry and published in the May 1996 issue of "Positif" in France)

About The Cast

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Blondie O'Hara)

Perhaps the foremost chameleon in motion pictures, Jennifer Jason Leigh has submerged herself in roles that range from an unhinged wallflower to a wily career gal, from an apprehensive teen to a self-destructive singer. She has been uncompromising in her willingness to present characters who aren't immediately sympathetic or even categorizable.

This is Leigh's third project with Robert Altman, who has known the actress all her life. She first worked with him on Short Cuts, followed by Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, which Altman produced.

Leigh scored critical accolades in her film debut as the reluctant virgin in Amy Heckerling's Fast Times At Ridgemont High. She has explored dark psychic terrain in such films as Uli Edel's Last Exit to Brooklyn and Barbet Schroeder's Single White Female; and has reinvented herself for roles in period films such as Joel and Ethan Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy and Alan Rudolph's Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Recently, she won praise for her work in Georgia, which was written by her mother Barbara Turner. Among her other credits are: Rush, Flesh + Blood, and Dolores Claiborne.

The New York and Boston Film Critics cited Leigh as Best Supporting Actress for her work in Miami Blues and Last Exit to Brooklyn; the National Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics awarded her Best Actress for her portrayal of Mrs. Parker. This year, the New York Film Critics and the Montreal Film Festival named her Best Actress for Georgia.

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH FILMOGRAPHY

TELEVISION FILMS

Miranda Richardson (Carolyn Stilton)

Miranda Richardson first startled audiences in Mike Newell's Dance With a Stranger, in which she played Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. Subsequent roles have confirmed her as an actress of consummate ability and consistency. In 1992, with rave reviews for all three of her performances in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, Mike Newell's Enchanted April and Louis Malle's Damage, the question was which would be singled out during awards season. The New York Film Critics cited her work in all three films in naming her Best Supporting Actress; she received a Golden Globe for Enchanted April, and was nominated for an Oscar for Damage. In 1995 she received a second Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actress, for her portrayal of Vivian Haigh-Wood, the wife of poet T.S. Eliot, in Brian Gilbert's Tom And Viv.

Though primarily known for her dramatic roles, Richardson is also a gifted comedic actor, as evidenced in British television series such as Blackadder and Absolutely Fabulous.

MIRANDA RICHARDSON FILMOGRAPHY

Harry Belafonte (Seldom Seen)

Harry Belafonte has been called the consummate entertainer. His distinguished career spans motion pictures, television, Broadway, recordings and concerts.

Born in Harlem and raised in Jamaica, Belafonte first supported his acting studies as an intermission singer at the Royal Roost, a famed New York nightclub, where his backup band included Max Roach, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. His world of jazz changed when he discovered The Village Vanguard and folk music. Watching artists like Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White and Pete Seeger, Belafonte found the art form that became his ultimate expression.

A succession of club appearances led to his first Broadway appearance in the musical John Murray Anderson's Almanac, for which he won the Tony Award. A recording contract with RCA followed and, in 1955, against all advice, Belafonte recorded his third album, Calypso, which became the first album to ever sell over one million copies. It contained the Top 5 hit "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," which was re-used to delightful effect in the 1988 Tim Burton hit film, Beetlejuice.

In 1953, Belafonte made his motion picture debut in Bright Road, opposite Dorothy Dandridge. He again starred opposite Dandridge the following year, in Otto Preminger's film version of Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones. His other films include Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow; The World, The Flesh And The Devil; Uptown Saturday Night; Island in the Sun (for which he co-authored the title song), and the recent White Man's Burden with John Travolta. In 1960, Belafonte produced and starred in a stunning musical epic for television called Tonight With Belafonte, for which he won an Emmy.

Belafonte's concert tours have been worldwide sellouts since 1956, and his charismatic live show was captured on the double-album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall. He has also been instrumental as a patron and supporter of black musicians, including acclaimed South African singer Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela.

Harry Belafonte has dedicated his life to humanitarian and civil rights causes, working with President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. He believes that his work for human rights and his artistic pursuits give him the basis for a most productive and balanced life. In 1985, he played a central role in organizing the USA For Africa famine relief recording of "We Are The World." Belafonte has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1987.

HARRY BELAFONTE FILMOGRAPHY

Michael Murphy (Henry Stilton)

One of Hollywood's finest character actors, Michael Murphy has worked with some of film's leading directors. Among his many feature credits are Tim Burton's Batman Returns, Oliver Stone's Salvador, and Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously. He has acted in six previous feature films directed by Robert Altman (including McCabe And Mrs. Miller, Nashville and M*A*S*H), as well as Altman's television projects The Caine Mutiny and Tanner '88. Murphy is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Jill Clayburgh's unfaithful husband in Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.

Dermot Mulroney (Johnny O'Hara)

Dermot Mulroney has been praised for his work in a wide range of mainstream and independent features. Among the former are Copycat, with Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver, How To Make An American Quilt with Winona Ryder and Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda. His independent films include Tom DiCillo's acclaimed comedy Living In Oblivion, which Mulroney also co-produced, and Marc Rocco's Where The Day Takes You. Additional credits include Longtime Companion, Young Guns, and the HBO film Long Gone (for which he received a Cable ACE nomination). Mulroney recently completed work on the upcoming Trigger Effect, with Elisabeth Shue, and is currently filming My Best Friend's Wedding, opposite Julia Roberts. His band The Low and Sweet Orchestra will release their debut album through Interscope Records this year.

Steve Buscemi (Johnny Flynn)

An incredibly busy actor, Steve Buscemi has built his career by portraying a wide variety of remarkable characters. He first won acclaim for his sensitive performance in Parting Glances; since then, his many feature credits include the recent Fargo by the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs, Alexandre Rockwell's In The Soup, Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, and Tom DiCillo's Living In Oblivion. Buscemi plays a transvestite taxi dancer in Alexandre Rockwell's upcoming Somebody To Love. He has written, directed and is starring in the upcoming film Tree's Lounge. Buscemi can also be seen in John Carpenter's soon to be released Escape From L.A.

Brooke Smith (Babe Flynn)

An accomplished stage actress, Brooke Smith has also acted in many feature films, including The Silence of the Lambs, Last Summer in the Hamptons, The Night We Never Met, Mr. Wonderful and The Moderns. She played Sonya in Andre Gregory's Victory Theatre production of Uncle Vanya, and she reprised the role in Louis Malle's highly praised Vanya on 42nd Street. Smith wrote, produced and directed the award-winning short film Sheeps Meadow, and is currently directing a feature-length documentary on a Chicago bluesman.

Jane Adams (Nettie Bolt)

Educated at Juilliard, Jane Adams has a substantial film resume in addition to her stage credits. Among her feature credits are Father Of The Bride II, I Love Trouble, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Single White Female, Vital Signs and Light Sleeper. On Broadway accolades include a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for Featured Actress in An Inspector Calls, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her debut in Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet.

Jeff Feringa (Addie Parker)

Jeff Feringa, born in Macon, Mississippi, was an anesthetist and anesthesiology instructor for 17 years before she decided she wanted to become an actress. Her acting studies with Milton Katselas led to roles in television series such as L.A. Law, In Living Color and many key daytime dramas. She was recently seen in the film Dangerous Minds. She has also acted in several Los Angeles theatre productions.

A.C. Smith (Sheepshan Red)

A.C. Smith has appeared in a number of feature and independent films, but considers KANSAS CITY to be his debut. A trained stage actor with many credits, Smith performed in the Broadway national touring company of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. He is a native of Chicago.

Martin Martin ("Blue" Green)

Born in Kansas City, Martin Martin spent three years writing, acting and directing for the "East Side Comedy Shop" of the Renegade Theatre of Lawrence, Kansas.

Albert J. Burnes (Charlie Parker)

Albert J. (Jason) Burnes is a high school student at Kansas City's Paseo Academy for the Performing Arts, where he has participated in several plays and musicals.

Ajia Mignon Johnson (Pearl Cummings)

Ajia Mignon Johnson is a student at Kansas City's Lincoln College Preparatory Academy and a National Honor Society inductee.

About the Filmmakers

Robert Altman (Producer/Director/Screenwriter)

Throughout his extraordinary career, Robert Altman has surprised, entertained and challenged audiences with vibrant, freewheeling films that stretch the boundaries of the medium.

He has created films with enormous casts (Brewster McCloud, Nashville, A Wedding, etc.) as well as ones with a solitary cast member (Secret Honor); he celebrated male camaraderie in M*A*S*H and California Split, and sensitively explored women's' consciousness in Images, Three Women and Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. He has revitalized genres like the western (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), the detective movie (The Long Goodbye) and the biographical film (Vincent & Theo); and his source material has spanned comics (Popeye), theater (Streamers, Fool For Love), opera (Aria) and contemporary politics (Tanner '88).

Altman's insight into actors and acting is legendary. His movies have launched the film careers of Shelley Duvall, Keith Carradine, Lily Tomlin, Jeff Goldblum, Sally Kellerman, Louise Fletcher, Michael Murphy and Cher. He has also been applauded for the technical innovation of his multi-layered soundtracks and artful use of the zoom lens. While his subjects and themes have been diverse, he has often cast an irreverent eye on the institutions, mores and foibles of American life.

Altman began his career making industrial and documentary films at the Calvin Company in his native Kansas City, and then moved on to direct television in the sixties. In 1970, his black comedy M*A*S*H was an international hit and he was on his way to his long and distinguished film career. More recently, he has made the box office hit The Player, for which he won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film Short Cuts, for which he received his fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Director.

ROBERT ALTMAN/TELEVISION

FILMOGRAPHY

TELEVISION FILMS

PRODUCER

CAREER HONORS

Frank Barhydt (Screenwriter)

A native of Kansas City, Frank Barhydt co-wrote the screenplay for Altman's Short Cuts, adapting and interweaving nine short stories and one poem by Raymond Carver. Barhydt was also Altman's co-writer on Health and Quintet, and was associate producer on Tanner '88.

Oliver Stapleton (Director of Photography)

Oliver Stapleton has been the director of photography on many highly praised films, including Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears, The Grifters, The Snapper, and The Van. He also shot Michael Hoffman's Restoration, along with Peter Medak's Let Him Have It, Taylor Hackford's documentary Hail, Hail, Rock And Roll, and Julien Temple's Earth Girls Are Easy. He recently completed shooting One Fine Day starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.

Geraldine Peroni (Editor)

Geraldine Peroni made her debut as editor on Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo, followed by Tom DiCillo's Johnny Suede, Shirley Sun's Iron and Silk and Altman's The Player, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Her continued collaboration with Altman includes Short Cuts, Ready To Wear (Pret-A-Porter), and most recently, Kansas City. Previously, Peroni edited short films and worked as an assistant editor on numerous films, including Altman's O.C. and Stiggs and Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ and New York Stories. Presently, she is editing the upcoming film Michael, directed by Nora Ephron and starring John Travolta.

Stephen Altman (Production Designer)

Stephen Altman has designed the look of several of his father's films, including Sam Shepard's trailer park drama Fool For Love, Vincent & Theo, The Player, Short Cuts and Ready To Wear. He was the production designer on such stylistically arresting films as Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark, Brain Gibson's What's Love Got To Do With It and George Armitage's forthcoming Grosse Point Gross.

Dona Granata (Costume Designer)

Dona Granata has designed the costumes for feature films, television and theatrical productions. Among her many feature credits are Paul Bartel's Scenes From The Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and Lust In The Dust, and the upcoming Love Is All There Is directed by Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna. Her television productions include the CBS series It Had To Be You starring Faye Dunaway and directed by David Steinberg, the movie David's Mother, starring Kirstie Alley and Stockard Channing and the American Playhouse movie Mrs. Cage with Anne Bancroft, both of which were directed by Robert Allen Ackerman. Her work has been seen both nationally and internationally in operas and stage productions. She recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut designing The Makropulous Case starring Jessye Norman. Her current project is Robert Altman's Wild Card.

Hal Willner (Music Producer)

Hal Willner produced the acclaimed modern jazz soundtrack for Robert Altman's Short Cuts, featuring singer Annie Ross. He is well known for conceiving and producing a series of records which feature interpretations of the works of Nino Rota, Thelonius Monk, Kurt Weill, Walt Disney and Charles Mingus, assembling a diverse roster of artists from Keith Richards to Sun Ra, Betty Carter to Bonnie Raitt. He has produced albums for William S. Burroughs, David Sanborn, Marianne Faithfull and Gavin Friday, as well as the Carl Stallings Project of Warner Bros. cartoon music. His film work includes Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer's Candy Mountain, and three Daffy Duck features. He was music consultant on the films Heavy Petting and Diane Keaton's Heaven. Willner has worked as a staff music producer at Saturday Night Live for the past several years, and he was also music producer for 20 episodes of the innovative music series Night Music with David Sanborn in 1989-90.

Scott Bushnell (Executive Producer)

Scott Bushnell has served as producer or associate producer on many of Robert Altman's films since 1974, as well as overseeing the casting and costumes on all his productions. She received her initial designing experience with regional theatres in the East, then expanded into producing when she moved to San Francisco where she organized an acting school for the American Conservatory Theatre. Her credits with Altman include Thieves Like Us, Nashville, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Three Women, A Wedding, A Perfect Couple, Health, Popeye, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Streamers, Secret Honor, Fool for Love, O.C. and Stiggs (also production designer), The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, Aria ("Les Boreade"), Tanner '88, Vincent & Theo, The Player, Short Cuts andReady To Wear (Pret-A-Porter). She served as associate producer on three films produced by Altman: Alan Rudolph's Welcome to L.A. and Remember My Name and Robert Benton's The Late Show. She was executive producer on Rudolph's Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.

FINE LINE FEATURES

Fine Line Features' upcoming releases include: Steven Baigelman's FEELING MINNESOTA, starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz; David Cronenberg's CRASH, starring James Spader and Holly Hunter; Trevor Nunn's TWELFTH NIGHT, starring Helena Bonham-Carter, Richard E. Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, Ben Kingsley and Imogen Stubbs; Keith Gordon's MOTHER NIGHT starring Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, Alan Arkin and Kirsten Dunst; Charles Matthau's THE GRASS HARP, starring Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, Jack Lemmon and Nell Carter; and Scott Hicks' SHINE, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, Sir John Gielgud and Lynn Redgrave. The company has approximately 40 features in active development.

About the Musicians

James Carter (Tenor Saxophone)

James Carter has been heralded as one of the most exciting musical arrivals of the past 25 years. Carter's musical approach embraces the entire spectrum of jazz, along with hip-hop, funk, rock, blues, Carl Stallings' orchestral music for Warner Bros. cartoons, even Chinese opera. His 1995 album The Real Quietstorm was the only jazz recording to make the Village Voice "Pazz & Jop" list of the year's best musical offerings. Carter's new Atlantic Jazz release, Conversin' With The Elders, is a series of impromptu dialogues with venerated artists like trumpeter Lester Bowie and Harry "Sweets" Edison (who played with Billie Holliday, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra). Carter has also recorded with classical singer Kathleen Battle and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Craig Handy (Tenor Saxophone)

Applauded for the strength, wit and finesse of his playing, Craig Handy's recording history is prolific and he has recorded two critically acclaimed albums as a leader, Split Second Timing and Introducing Three For All + One (both on Arabesque). Handy's lyrical tenor has also been displayed on records by Betty Carter, Roy Haynes and The Mingus Dynasty. He has toured with renowned jazz artists such as Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis and Nat Adderley, and is also an alumnus of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Other credits include scoring the Bill Cosby television movie and series, The Cosby Mysteries.

David Murray (Tenor Saxophone)

David Murray is a composer, saxophonist and bass clarinetist. His awards include: a Grammy; a Guggenheim; The Bird Award; The Jazzpar Prize; and The Village Voice Musician of the Decade, 1980's. Dubbed "The Jimi Hendrix of the Tenor," Murray's solos soar through an extended dynamic range. Current projects include scoring a Broadway musical about Satchel Paige and writing for his big band, now in their second year of Monday night shows at New York's avant jazz club, The Knitting Factory. Murray's other working groups include his octet and the seminal World Saxophone Quartet. He has recorded nearly 200 albums as a band leader, with 300 original compositions and suites.

Joshua Redman (Tenor Saxophone)

Since his self-titled debut was released in 1993, composer/bandleader Joshua Redman has been at the forefront of the jazz resurgence of the 90's. Fluent in both tenor and soprano saxes, Redman's communicative, passionate style has won him a loyal following and critical recognition. Rolling Stone's "Critics Poll" named him Jazz Artist of the Year for both 1994 and 1995, on the heels of his acclaimed CD's Wish and Moodswing, respectively. Redman has been a sideman on albums by a wide range of artists, including Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner, Milt Jackson, Quincy Jones, Me'Shell Ndege'Ocello and US3. In 1995, Redman released a double-live CD, Spirit of the Moment, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard. He has just completed a new album scheduled for release in September of 1996.

Jesse Davis (Alto Saxophone)

A native of New Orleans, Jesse Davis studied with Ellis Marsalis at the city's Center for Creative Arts. He went on to study music in New York and in 1991 released his debut album as leader, Horn of Passion. Praised for his lightning technique and the maturity of his sound, Davis is comfortable with standards and bebop, and has won recognition for his original compositions. His other albums as a leader are As We Speak, Young at Art and High Standards, all on Concord Jazz. Davis has performed on albums by many leading jazz artists, among them Clark Terry, Kenny Barron, Benny Carter and Illinois Jacquet.

David "Fathead" Newman (Alto Saxophone)

Since 1950, David "Fathead" Newman has been playing alto sax with a wide array of influential artists, among them Buster Smith, Ornette Coleman, T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner. From 1952-1962, he was part of Ray Charles' innovative band, playing r&b, jazz and gospel. Newman released his debut album as a bandleader, Ray Charles Introduces Fathead Newman, in 1959 and has recorded dozens of albums since. He has also played on records by such artists as Aretha Franklin and Cornell Dupree and was a featured artist on Natalie Cole's Unforgettable, Jimmy Scott's All The Way, and Herbie Mann's The Family of Mann. Newman's latest album for Kokopelli Records is Mr. Gentle, Mr. Cool, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Don Byron (Clarinet/Baritone Saxophone)

Deeply involved in the most adventurous circles of the New York music scene for the past decade, Byron has garnered international recognition as the foremost innovator on jazz clarinet. His three solo recordings on Nonesuch Records have been critically acclaimed, from his startling 1992 jazz debut Tuskegee Experiments, to his most recent Afro-Caribbean influence Music For Six Musicians. Perhaps his most well known recording thus far is the 1993 release Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz, a tribute to the klezmer bandleader, Yiddish humorist and popular parodist of the 1950's, which landed him a feature in The New York Times Magazine and a spot on The Tonight Show. Byron has recorded and performed extensively in collaboration with a wide range of artists, including Bill Frisell, Living Colour, Cassandra Wilson and John Zorn, among others.

Olu Dara (Cornet)

An unabashed entertainer, Olu Dara combines musical chops with humor, warmth and style and has established himself as a wholly original talent. Dara currently spends most of his time composing and performing in collaboration with artists in other disciplines like dance and theatre. He has worked extensively with choreographer Dianne McIntyre and has won two AUDELCO awards for the plays A Tale Of Madame Zora and Ascension Day. Dara received a Drama Desk nomination for outstanding sound design/music for the play Let Me Live by OyamO. Goree Crossing, an opera Dara wrote with librettist Paul Carter Harrison, will premiere later this year. Dara leads two bands, the Okra Orchestra and Natchezsippi Dance Band, both of which draw on his Natchez, Mississippi background to create a danceable mix of blues, jazz, gospel, r&b, Caribbean and African rhythms.

Nicholas Payton (Trumpet)

Applauded for his focused sound and muscular tone, Nicholas Payton is considered by both critics and musicians to be a master of New Orleans-style jazz trumpet. He has been frequently compared to the ultimate trumpet player, Louis Armstrong . Payton has been performing since the age of eight and is a veteran of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program. His latest album for Verve, Gumbo Nouveau, features Payton's interpretations of the classic New Orleans jazz tunes he grew up with.

James Zollar (Trumpet)

James Zollar is a native of Kansas City, who grew up amidst the city's rich funk-jazz scene of the 1960's. He began playing trumpet at age 12 and studied with several masters in California, including Woodie Shaw and Jimmy Cheatham. He has played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy; he is also a member of the Don Byron band, Music For Six Musicians; The David Murray Big Band and Murray's Octet. Currently, Zollar is working with Ray Charles and the Illinois Jacquet Big Band.

Curtis Fowlkes (Trombone)

Curtis Fowlkes is co-leader of The Jazz Passengers, a New York ensemble whose potent and rollicking combination of music and comedy has taken them from cult status to festival stages around the world. The Jazz Passengers have recorded six albums, the latest of which is Jazz Passengers In Love, produced by Hal Willner and featuring vocals by Jimmy Scott, Mavis Staples and Deborah Harry, among others. Fowlkes was a member of John Lurie's group, The Lounge Lizards from 1984-89, and appears on three of that band's albums. He will also be heard on the upcoming Sheryl Crow album; last year, he appeared on the Get Shorty soundtrack. Fowlkes continues to work with the Big Apple Circus, where he began playing in 1980.

Clark Gayton (Trombone)

A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Clark Gayton is the founder of the group Neatherealm, whose two LP's have explored styles from jazz to reggae to classical. Gayton, a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, has also performed in the Broadway shows Jelly's Last Jam and Black & Blue, and has backed up the great Al Green on the television series New York Undercover. Among the ensembles he has played with are the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Max Roach Brass Quintet, and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. His other album credits include Queen Latifah's Black Reign. Currently, Gayton is performing on Sting's world tour.

Victor Lewis (Drums)

A professional drummer since the age of 15, Victor Lewis is a rock-steady percussionist and seasoned composer. He has worked with everyone from tenor giants like Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz to fusion and pop-jazz innovators Earl Klugh and Carla Bley to vocalists Abbey Lincoln and Janis Siegel. Lewis' compositions have appeared on albums by David Sanborn and trumpet great Woody Shaw. He has recorded several albums with Horizon, which he co-leads with saxophonist Bobby Watson, and he has been a mainstay in the Kenny Barron Quintet since that group's inception. Lewis has also recorded albums under his own name, including with his working group, a quintet that has included Christian McBride.

Geri Allen (Piano)

A composer and pianist, Geri Allen plays jazz that manages to be disciplined and unpredictable; Musician magazine judges her to be "easily the most provocative current creator of music for the small jazz ensemble." Her 1994 Blue Note album, Twenty-One, a collaboration with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, featured Allen's interpretations of standards like Tea For Two, as well as her original compositions for jazz trio. In addition to her own recordings, Allen has recorded with the legendary vocalist Betty Carter and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. She is the 1996 recipient of the Jazzpar Prize, an international award managed solely by the jazz community.

Cyrus Chestnut (Piano)

A pianist with a firm foundation in gospel and blues, Cyrus Chestnut has been widely praised for his improvisational ebullience, musical depth and technical expertise. He has released three albums as a band leader on Atlantic Jazz: Revelation, The Dark Before The Dawn, and the recent Earth Stories. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Chestnut began his professional career working with Jon Hendricks, Terence Blanchard and Wynton Marsalis. He spent two years playing with the legendary vocalist Betty Carter, and has recorded with numerous artists, including Kathleen Battle on the Sony Classical release, So Many Stars.

Ron Carter (Bass)

With more than 2,000 albums to his credit, Ron Carter may be the world's most recorded bassist. He is easily among the most respected and original. In his 30 year career, he has performed with a range of artists, from Eric Dolphy to Lena Horne, James Brown to Bill Evans. He was a member of Miles Davis' fabled quintet from 1963 to 1968, along with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wayne Shorter, and he also broke ground as a bassist leading a jazz quartet. In 1988, Carter won his first Grammy for his instrumental composition "Call Sheet Blues," from Bertrand Tavernier's film 'Round Midnight. He won his second Grammy in 1994 for the jazz record of the year, "A Tribute to Miles." In addition to performing, composing and arranging, Carter lectures and teaches; he is currently a Distinguished Professor of Music, heading the Jazz Department at the City College of New York and is on the board of directors of the Harlem Jazz Music Center.

Christian McBride (Bass)

Time magazine has called Christian McBride "the most promising and versatile new bassist since Charles Mingus." He has appeared on over 100 recordings with such musical luminaries as Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Joshua Redman, Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner, Kathleen Battle, Betty Carter, David Sanborn, and many, many more. As a leader, his debut album, Gettin' To It, spent over 20 consecutive weeks on the Billboard jazz chart. Subsequently, he was awarded "Jazz Artist of the Year" (1995) by The Gavin Report. Christian's follow-up album for Verve Records, entitled Number Two Express, was released in April of 1996. The new CD features six of Christian's original compositions.

Tyrone Clark (Bass)

Born in Chicago, Tyrone Clark has been playing professionally since the age of 18. He has toured Japan and the United States, playing with such artists as Ahmad Aladden, Hank Crawford and Eddie Harris.

Russell Malone (Guitar)

A self-taught player, Russell Malone has been singled out as a musician to watch by guitar legend Les Paul and critic Leonard Feather. He spent two years with master jazz organist Jimmy Smith and was part of Harry Connick Jr.'s orchestra.

He has also performed live with Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Clarence Carter, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Peabo Bryson, The Winans and Patti

Austin. He has recorded three CD's under his own name, and has recorded with Diana Krall, Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., Gary Bartz, and Stephen Scott.

Mark Whitfield (Guitar)

Mark Whitfield has proven himself to be a tremendously talented jazz guitarist, with the ability to accommodate bop and blues into his virtuoso playing. The Boston Globe called him a "standout jazz guitarist," praising his Verve debut album, True Blue, as "sublime." His second release on Verve, 7th Ave. Stroll, is a tribute to his New York experience, as he formerly lived in New York and continues to work, record and play there. Whitfield wrote seven of the eleven compositions included on the album. He has also recorded on albums by Nicholas Payton, Jimmy Smith, Ray Brown, Carl Allen, and Courtney Pine, among others.

Kevin Mahogany (Vocalist)

Possessed of a rich baritone voice and impeccable timing, Kevin Mahogany can sing ballads and blues, gospel and jazz with assurance and emotion. A native of Kansas City, he studied music, English and drama at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. His self titled Warner Bros. debut CD is due out at the end of June. Previously, Mahogany released three critically acclaimed CD's: Double Rainbow, Songs And Moments, and You Got What It Takes, all on the Enja label.

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