How many times have you heard this—or said it yourself—when leaving a great concert by a touring musician: Why can’t we get more shows like this here?
Kyle Knoke, a graphic designer and concert promoter found himself asking that question and decided to answer it by creating the Midwest Jazz Collective, a consortium of 13 clubs and presenting organizations that will bring Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III to BOP STOP March 25 and BLU Jazz+ the following night.
For musicians based in New York, Europe is almost more accessible than the Midwest. Excellent rail service makes travel between tour stops relatively easy to schedule and navigate, and those cities are closer together than anything on the New York-to-Chicago-to LA axis.
Based in Central Wisconsin far from the action, Knoke might as well have been in Europe. So he brought European geography to the Midwest, creating a circuit of clubs from Cleveland to Kansas City, none more than a three-hour drive apart.
It’s a bold idea and time will provide proof of concept, but Knoke’s choice of trumpeter/vocalist Benny Benack III to captain the Collective’s maiden voyage was a shrewd one.
“I knew that he’s brave and fearless, and I knew personally that he would roll with whatever came out of this Collective tour, and I knew that he would be a good spokesperson,” Knoke said on a video call. “So These clubs said, ‘Okay, we’re game. Let’s make it Benny.’”
At just 33, Benack is a triple threat with solid instrumental chops, a suave vocal delivery and an ingratiating stage demeanor. But what sets Benack apart, as NEO audiences have come to know, is the effortlessness with which he inhabits his dual role, not as a nostalgia act, or any act at all, but rather as a birthright nurtured in the deep and specific musical culture of his hometown of Pittsburgh. And he has the genealogy to prove it.
“I like to think I’m carrying on a tradition, but putting my own spin on it,” Benack said by phone last week. “My grandfather played with Tommy Dorsey, my dad’s a saxophonist — so it’s in the blood. But you can’t just imitate the past. You have to honor it and move it forward.”
Moving jazz forward in the Midwest is Kyle Knoke’s mission right now and he’s chosen himself as the MJC’s ride or die. Literally. He’ll be at the wheel of the van on every leg of the 13-stop, 20-day, 2,300-mile tour. And he’ll act as tour manager overseeing logistics, accommodations and the thousand other details that all but the most exalted jazz musicians are left to handle themselves.
It’s a big ask, but Knoke isn’t sweating it. “I’m one of those kind of people who don’t think things through, to be honest. I’m like, Oh, that seems like a good idea. Let’s do that,” Knoke admitted. “I like doing what I’m doing, [and] if quarterly the Midwest Jazz Collective can somehow give a beautiful, rich experience to an established or emerging jazz artist and make them feel like the Midwest did right by them, knowing that that happened, it would be great joy.”
For more about Knoke and the MJC, read B.D. Lenz’s excellent profile at AllAboutJazz.com.
Benny Benack III with Tyler Henderson (piano), Caleb Tobocman (bass) and Charles Goold (drums), Tuesday., March 25, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Tickets $25, available here. and Wednesday., March 26, 8 p.m., BLU Jazz+, 47 E. Market St., Akron, Tickets $35, available here.
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
Red beans and ricely yours,
jc
