Events of Thursday, August 19, 2010

          Awakened this morning in Independence, Missouri by a loud, obnoxious train, we sleepily but hurriedly got up and drove to Kansas City, home of the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. After buying our tickets, we decided to visit the American Jazz Museum first. This museum, located at 18th and Vine, is where jazz happened in Kansas City. Kansas City is considered by most as the birthplace of jazz. Since all of us in the Taylor family like jazz, we knew we were going to enjoy our visit. In this museum, we enjoyed listening to jazz, learning about jazz performers, and especially watching the “Soundies”. Soundies were mini movies that a person could play on a jukebox like device. This way people could see the jazz performers they loved and see the new jazz dances that were all the rage. Soundies are how people outside of St. Louis heard jazz and saw jazz dancers. A very forward thinking man started collecting soundies soon after they came on the scene and upon his death they were all donated to the Kansas City American Jazz Museum.

          Watching the soundies was a lot of fun. Mom was coming back from the restroom and heard this boisterous laughter coming from a corner of the jazz museum. She rushed over and found her kids laughing over soundies that were, she had to admit, hilarious. Just a few of the things we were laughing over included a dramatic song with ballet dancers called Flamingo, a song where a lady and gentleman sang a song called Bli- Blip, in which they did funny dances and made funny expressions with their faces, and a video of a crazy piano player who moved his head up and down madly and then stopped suddenly with his eyes wide open.

          At the American Jazz museum we also had the chance to listen to the different instrument groups that make up a jazz band and their role in the music. Caitlin and Ben especially enjoyed the interactive exhibits in which they played with different versions of a melody, such as original melody, accented notes, changed-up rhythms, slight variations, and extensive variations. At a similar exhibit, we experimented with mixing music, toying with reverberations, volume, pan, and other features of any particular instrumentalist.

          After lunch, we toured the American Baseball museum, which we rated top notch. We liked learning that there was both a Jim Taylor and Benjamin Taylor on various teams in the Negro Baseball League. We watched impressive and inspirational movies about the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues. We were surprised to hear our favorite Abbot and Castello show about the names of baseball players, called “Who’s On First” playing on an old fashioned radio. Look it up and listen to it sometime; it’s hilarious.

          Finally we headed for St. Louis. We set up our beds while driving and went to bed, before we could see the St. Louis RV Park, and, especially, its swimming pool.