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KC Jazz Photographer Dan White

Bassist Milt Abel
Photo: Dan White
Bassist Milt Abel

Dan White has documented the jazz scene in Kansas City for more than two decades. A new exhibit in the Changing Gallery at the American Jazz Museum displays 50 of White's black and white photographs, along with anecdotes from interviews.

By Laura Spencer

Kansas City, MO – For more than two decades photographer Dan White has been creating portraits of musicians like Jay McShann, Milt Abel, Art Jackson, Myra Taylor and Queen Bey. White says he fell in love with jazz during a trip to New Orleans while in college. And when he moved to Kansas City in the early 80s, he met a number of older musicians going to jazz clubs and the Mutual Musicians Foundation. White says taking photographs became his contribution to preserving Kansas City?s jazz heritage.
A new exhibit in the Changing Gallery at the American Jazz Museum displays 50 of White?s black and white photographs, along with anecdotes from interviews. Dan White talks to Laura Spencer about some of the musicians he?s met and his approach to the work.

 

Laura Spencer is staff writer/editor at the Kansas City Public Library and a former arts reporter at KCUR.
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