Jay McShann: Goin’ to Kansas City (Stony Plain)

On September 10, 2003, eJazzNews published John Taylor’s review of Goin’ to Kansas City, an album by pianist and singer Jay McShann on the Canadian label Stony Plain (SPCD 1286), recorded in Kansas City when McShann was in his eighties. Taylor heard a lively record rather than a farewell. The album was later nominated for a Grammy; McShann died three years later, in December 2006.

What the review said

Taylor began by noting that, at McShann’s age, the project could be heard as a summing-up of a career that went back more than seventy years: a founding figure of Kansas City blues and jazz, a contemporary of Count Basie and the bandleader who gave Charlie Parker his first big break. Yet he found too much exuberance on the record to treat it as a postscript.

He singled out solo readings of “Trouble in Mind” and “When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” which he heard as reflective and poignant, and livelier versions of “Nasty Attitude,” a tune McShann wrote with his former singer Walter Brown, “One Woman’s Man,” “Doo Wah Doo,” “‘Fore Day Rider” and “Ain’t Nobody’s Business.” According to the review, producer and guitarist Duke Robillard and a Kansas City bass and drums team played on about half the tracks, Maria Muldaur joined McShann for a duet on “Confessin’ the Blues,” and the pianist Johnnie Johnson shared “Kansas City” and “Some Kinda Crazy.” Taylor admitted McShann’s fingers and voice showed some wear, but called the album both a delightful listen and a historical document: “Essential on both counts!”

The album

The CD has 18 tracks. Besides the music, it includes a short studio conversation between McShann and Johnson and a long interview with McShann recorded at his home and piano, conducted by Stony Plain founder Holger Petersen. Taylor quoted Petersen’s liner notes: when McShann made his first record, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, bebop and Chicago blues did not yet exist. It was McShann’s third album for Stony Plain, after Hootie’s Jumpin’ Blues (1997) and Still Jumpin’ the Blues (1999), both also made with Robillard.

The musicians

McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on January 12, 1916, and in 1987 was named an NEA Jazz Master. Robillard founded the band Roomful of Blues and later played with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Muldaur is the singer of “Midnight at the Oasis,” a hit in 1974. Johnson was Chuck Berry’s longtime pianist and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Petersen has hosted blues programs on CBC Radio and CKUA.

What happened next

Goin’ to Kansas City was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 46th Grammy Awards. Johnnie Johnson died in April 2005. McShann died in Kansas City on December 7, 2006, at 90; eJazzNews reported his death the same day (see the 2006 obituary of Jay McShann). Robillard and Muldaur are both still living. For other players in the same tradition, see our guide to the greatest jazz pianists.

Sources

• MusicBrainz, “Goin’ to Kansas City,” Stony Plain SPCD 1286, 2003, accessed October 2026.
• Recording Academy, “Jay McShann,” Grammy nominations, accessed October 2026.
• National Endowment for the Arts, “Jay McShann,” accessed October 2026.
• “Jay McShann,” “Duke Robillard,” “Maria Muldaur,” “Johnnie Johnson” and “Holger Petersen,” Wikipedia, accessed October 2026.
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “Johnnie Johnson,” accessed October 2026.

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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