Guest Artist Spotlight: Havana to Ipanema

If you don't already know them, allow me to introduce you to our two phenomenal guest artists for our Havana to Ipanema: KCJO Plays Latin Jazz! concert, 3/7 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Trumpeter Stanton Kessler has been a Kansas City mainstay for 30+ years. Alongside other projects such as HoraceScope, Parallax, and Passport, his group The Sons of Brasil has been devoted to playing a creative, engaging fusion of jazz and Brazilian music. Equally focused as an educator, Stan’s influence on the KC music scene is undeniably on the level of some of legendary musicians our city has produced. To say that saxophonist Adam Larson is a brilliant soloist, bandleader, composer, and educator would be selling him short. A with-honors graduate of the esteemed Manhattan School of Music, Larson has combined prodigious talent with hard work to cultivate a career overflowing with the highest accolades jazz has to offer. Along with his extensive performing career, including 5 acclaimed albums, Larson is a tireless educator of jazz, saxophone, and beyond, including 2 published books and a countless list of masterclasses, clinics and associations with institutes of higher learning. Please join us on March 7 as we host these two singular personalities, and delve into the beauty, fire, and infectiousness of Latin Jazz from the Caribbean to Brazil!