Monday Night Jam Session: Stan Kessler Quartet at the Blue Room

In 2016, Stan Kessler's band Force Five held the second and fourth Monday of every month at the Green Lady Lounge, playing uptempo jazz and originals written for that band. "Few jazz musicians in Kansas City have created more bands than trumpeter Stan Kessler," The Pitch wrote that year. "And those bands aren't one-and-done ensembles."

The count goes back to the 1970s, when he played in the rock-and-soul Rhythm Kings. In the 1980s he formed Eightball, an eight-piece jazz, funk, and fusion group, and the dance band Baby Leroy; in the 1990s he also played in three salsa bands. The Sons of Brasil, the Brazilian jazz band he co-founded in 1991, is still one of his groups. His 2018 album Skywatcher featured three newer bands: Playground, Crossroads Quartet, and Parallax. KCUR noted that Parallax is powered by two drummers.

Monday his quartet plays the opening set, and then the bandstand belongs to whoever signs up at the door. "I try to play music that people will want to hear," he told KCUR in 2018, "but also that musicians want to play." When Plastic Sax named him its 2013 Person of the Year, he said the recent crop of young players left him "even more excited and inspired" than the Kansas City jazz legends had.

The Blue Room, 1600 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108. Monday, November 23, 2026, at 7 pm. $10 general admission; complimentary for AJM members, musicians, and students.