Saturday Afternoon At Jardine's

They must have been considered hot tickets forty years ago.

The dames in their sixties and seventies were clustered up front to catch the action at Jardine’s weekly jazz jam session Saturday afternoon. Their highballs of yesteryear had mostly been replaced with iced teas. Aside from these enthusiastic ladies and the musicians who performed for them, the room was almost empty.

It’s a shame, because Luqman Hamza was Saturday’s "special guest." He’s been kicking around Kansas City for over sixty years. He’s now among the world’s best first-generation cabaret artists. His reading of "Skylark" was the most moving I’ve encountered. Hamza is the subject of today’s post at There Stands the Glass.

Bassist Gerald Spaits and drummer Tommy Ruskin anchored the session. Two young female vocalists stood out among dozen people who dared to sit in. The pretty singer pictured here delivered a sexy "Besame Mucho." In a few decades, she’ll have earned the right to sit down up front.