Nick Hmeljak Quartet at the Blue Room
About this Event
If you want to know where Kansas City jazz is headed, keep an eye on Nick Hmeljak. Last July the trumpeter and composer led a night of what the long-running KC jazz chronicle Plastic Sax called "energetic hard bop with vigorous integrity" — and when the year wrapped, that same publication ranked it the #1 Kansas City jazz performance of 2025, over every other bandstand in town.
Hmeljak earned his jazz studies degree at Middle Tennessee State, then moved to Kansas City in 2023, drawn by the roots of the music's history — and by the chance to learn from KC heavyweights like Adam Larson and Stan Kessler. The city noticed: this summer the Charlotte Street Foundation named him to its two-year studio residency, one of only five performing artists selected from 167 applicants. His debut album, ALIVE, arrives this fall.
On the bandstand he brings hard-bop firepower in the Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard lineage — trumpet out front, tunes that move, a rhythm section pushed to keep up. He also leads Open Channel, the forward-thinking collective that has turned heads at the Kansas City Winter Jazz Fest and the Prairie Village Jazz Festival. For this Blue Room date, it's the quartet: two full sets in the city's most storied jazz room, from a player betting his future on Kansas City.
Two shows: 8:30 pm and 10 pm. Admission is $10 per show.
The Blue Room, 1600 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108. Saturday, August 1 — shows at 8:30 pm & 10 pm.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 12.51
