Unofficial ‘capitals of cool’ jazz up any Mid-West sojourn

Growing up in a house where the record player was always on, blaring show tunes and Glenn Miller big-band hits, I learnt all I knew about the US from catchy songs.

I’m pretty sure my siblings and I were the only kids in our street dancing to Chattanooga Choo Choo. And as dad was a singer, who performed in clubs and talent contests, we knew his repertoire by heart, including Tony Bennett’s soaring ode to  San Francisco.

So when I fly into St Louis years later,  I can’t get a certain show tune – you know the one: sung by Judy Garland in the 1940s movie – out of my head.

Although the city is regrettably pronounced ‘Lewis’, not ‘Louie’, the song is apt, as I am meeting a friend there.

The city on the Mississippi River will be the starting point for a Mid-West sojourn. From St Louis, we head to Kansas City (KC), four hours away, and the two songs penned in its honour also do a loop in my brain.

While songwriters mined a fortune from the two cities in the past, music is very much alive and kicking today. St Louis is a blues town, with a hefty dash of rock’n’roll, while KC is labelled a US ‘cradle of jazz’ for its hard-swinging, bluesy type of jazz that dominated the clubs in the 1920s and ’30s. The two musical genres had their origin in the ‘Great Migration’, when African Americans left the South  en masse to seek a better life in northern and mid-west cities.

Along with music, both St Louis and KC love baseball, relish their barbecue (the cuisine, not the appliance) and have done an excellent job preserving and  re-imagining their grand railway stations.

After a visit to St Louis’s icon, the Gateway Arch, which curves to a summit of 192m on the banks of the Mississippi, we head to the National Blues Museum.

Opened by BB King’s daughter in 2016, it tracks the genre from its beginnings in the early 1900s to mainstream acceptance in the 1960s and onwards through exhibits, soundtracks and great photography.

Budding musicians can add embellishments and licks to tunes on a variety of digital instruments (I picked up the spoons to add a flourish to a song!). Although the self-guided tour takes just 45 minutes, I could easily spend a day there.

Later, we take a local train to the Delmar Loop: an entertainment precinct lined with bars and cafés and, in a prime position, a statue of Chuck Berry who was born in the city in 1926.

We lunch at Blueberry Hill café, whose walls are crammed with photos of owner Joe Edwards with luminaries including Jerry Lee Lewis, Joe Cocker and Bob Dylan, and poke our heads into the Duck Room, where Berry played, until his death in 2017.

One night, we have cocktails and canapes in the Grand Hall of Union Station – one of the best places I’ve ever had a drink. The former passenger train station was transformed a decade ago into a bar, hotel and stylish amusement palace, complete with aquarium, big wheel and fairground carousel.

We enjoy drinks under its 20m-high, barrel-vaulted ceiling on which laser shows are projected, including a fun rendition of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

It’s a prelude to an evening at the  St Louis ball park, Busch Stadium, where quite coincidentally the St Louis Cardinals are playing the Kansas City Royals.

Although seated in the lofty bleachers, out of the relentless summer heat, we can revel in the antics off-field (the Mexican waves and dancing) and catch glimpses of home runs 100m below.

Fortunately, the Cardinals win.

After three days, it’s “Kansas City Here We Come”, but not until we call into Sedalia en route and take in the Scott Joplin festival in full (ragtime) swing. Again, I thank my lucky stars that such an event – honouring a musician I’ve long admired – coincides with our road trip.

On arrival in KC, my first discovery is that the metropolis of half-a-million people sprawls over two states: Missouri and Kansas. We base ourselves on the eastern Missouri side, with all the attractions.

The second revelation is ‘barbecue’ and tales of the legendary sauces.

While Aussies think sausages and steak sizzling on a grill, barbecue is an entirely different proposition in the US, with  Kansas City styled as the ‘Barbecue Capital of the World’.

KC residents favour slow-cooked meat (usually brisket), seasoned with dry rubs and slathered in sweet, thick sauces with the added treat of ‘burnt ends’ or succulent off-cuts. We attempt to finish a huge sharing portion at the Country Road Ice House, with a mass of sides.

St Louis boasts a different style, where a special type of ‘square spare rib’ is grilled rather than slow-cooked and doused with a tangy sauce.

As barbecue is a revered art form in both cities, I’m not going to choose sides.

But if you really want to tuck in, KC’s newly opened, world-first Museum of BBQ is, theoretically, the place.

We do spend a day visiting two museums in 18th and Vine (an historic African-American district): the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Musicians including hometown boy Charlie Parker and Count Basie are venerated at the jazz museum, while artefacts on display include Benny Goodman’s shoes and Ella Fitzgerald’s sequinned ball gown. Film clips bring early eras to life and the Blue Room hosts concerts and jam sessions.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum gives voice to a forgotten chapter of baseball history: a time when colour bans prevented African Americans from playing in the major league. Exhibits include Storied: 22 videos of baseball history – and memorabilia such as mits and balls.

We round off our stay in the Mid-West with a stroll through KC’s Union Station: a 1914 Beaux Art building whose trains share the cavernous space with a planetarium, theatre and interactive science museum.

And at night, we slide into a red velvet banquette to listen to cool jazz at the Green Lady Lounge.

GETTING THERE

St Louis and Kansas City are about 400km apart. Driving takes four hours. Amtrak trains connect the two cities on a 5-hour-40-minute journey, for about $A64 one-way.

Stay:

St Louis – Drury Plaza St Louis at The Arch: druryhotels.com

Kansas City – The Hotel Savoy Kansas City: hilton.com/en/hotels/mkccnup-hotel-savoy-kansas-city/

More information: explorestlouis.com and visitkc.com