Creative City KC marks International Jazz Day by fulfilling 88-year-old’s concert dream

By Tod Palmer

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — There will be a special guest in the crowd Wednesday as Creative City KC marks International Jazz Day with the Celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the Count Basie Orchestra concert at 7 p.m. at the Music Hall in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

Creative City KC Executive Director Anita Dixon-Brown went above and beyond to make 88-year-old John McKergow’s dream to hear the Count Basie Orchestra come true.

“I was shocked, amazed, very humbled at the gesture,” McKergow’s daughter, Tracey Ostebo, said. “Certainly, there’s just not a lot of those sorts of lovely touches of humanity in this day and age.”

Ostebo traveled from California to Austin, Texas, where her dad lives, then flew into Kansas City earlier Wednesday at the invitation of Creative City KC — with an assist from Joe Dimino, who founded and hosts the “Neon Jazz Radio Show” and podcast.

“My dad and I listen to Joe Dimino’s podcast, ‘Neon Jazz Interviews,’ and we’ve loved it for over a year and a half now,” Ostebo said. “We’ve been listening together.”

Ostebo and McKergow watch the podcast on YouTube together via FaceTime. “Neon Jazz” has become a touchstone for them both.

“My dad has always loved jazz; he’s grown up loving it,” Ostebo said. “Count Basie is his favorite. When I reached out to Joe, I just wanted to say, ‘Hey, thank you for this great podcast you’ve been sharing with the world and with my dad and I.’ It was something that really has been touching for us.”

Ostebo’s message was really touching for Dimino, too.

“After that email I got, she replied and said he was the biggest Count Basie fan in the world, so I’m like, ‘Huh, what if, so I get a hold of Anita?” Dimino said.

Dixon-Brown didn’t hesitate, according to Dimino: “Anita came back and said, ‘Absolutely, no matter what, we’re doing it. This is just too good to be true. We have to get him here.”

Creative City KC, which is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and stewards Kansas City’s designation as the only UNESCO City of Music in the U.S., paid to fly McKergow, who has dementia, and Ostebo to Kansas City from Texas, put them up in a hotel for the night and will roll out the red carpet for the 90th anniversary concert.

Before the trip, Ostebo shared a video of McKergow tapping his foot as he enjoyed a grainy video of a Count Basie Orchestra performance.

“That was it right there,” Dimino said. “You can just feel the spirit. … When you get that bug, that’s what he was doing. He was exuding that whole love, and it’s just stretched into a lifetime, — 88 years long, and he still loves it.”

Basie founded the Count Basie Orchestra in 1935 in Kansas City, so it was fitting to mark nine decades of jazz excellence for International Jazz Day.

“It’s the biggest celebration of jazz in North America,” Dimino said. “We are the only Creative City of Music — Kansas City is — in the entire country, so this is the focal point.

By going above and beyond with Dimino’s “hairbrained idea,” one of Count Basie’s biggest fans gets to be at the show.

“When I realized it could happen, I welled up,” Dimino said.

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