This Weekend at the Blue Room — David Watson, Chris Hazelton & Big Luke's Debut
A trombone at Thursday noon, Big Luke's blues debut and the Doctor of Bebop on Friday, Chris Hazelton's album homecoming Saturday, and a French horn leading Monday's jam.
This Weekend at the Blue Room
August 6–10, 2026
Some weeks the Blue Room books a lineup; this week it booked a dare. Thursday puts a trombone on your lunch break — Brian Scarborough, voted Kansas City’s favorite on the instrument. Friday opens with a first (Big Luke & The Soul Disciples, the two-time Road to Memphis champions, on our stage for the very first time) and closes with a lifetime (David Watson, the 89-year-old scat master they call the Doctor of Bebop). Saturday, Chris Hazelton brings his brand-new Hammond B-3 album home with the exact band that recorded it. And Monday the jam session hands the bandstand to a French horn. Five nights, five sounds you can’t hear anywhere else in Kansas City.
This Weekend’s Lineup
Thursday, August 6
Jazz @ Noon: Brian Scarborough Quartet — 12 pm (FREE)
Friday, August 7
Indigo Hour: Big Luke & The Soul Disciples — 5:30 pm (5; AJM members free)
David Watson — 8:30 pm & 10 pm (10 per show)
Saturday, August 8
Chris Hazelton “In Rotation” Quartet — 8:30 pm & 10 pm ($10 per show)
Monday, August 10
Monday Night Jam Session: Loren Broaddus Quartet — 7 pm ($10; AJM members, musicians & students free)
Jazz @ Noon: Brian Scarborough Quartet — Thursday, 12 pm
Jazz @ Noon is the Blue Room’s free midday set, and this week it belongs to one of Kansas City’s true first-call horns. Brian Scarborough was voted KC’s Favorite Jazz Trombonist at the 2022 Jam Ambassadors Music Awards, won the American Trombone Workshop’s National Solo Jazz Competition, and has two acclaimed albums on Outside in Music — Plastic Sax called his debut “one of the most consequential acoustic jazz albums made entirely by Kansas City musicians in recent years.” You’ve heard him even if you don’t know it: he toured North America with Broadway’s Hadestown. Bring your lunch; the trombone is in good hands.
Indigo Hour: Big Luke & The Soul Disciples — Friday, 5:30 pm
A debut worth leaving work early for. Kansas City already knows this band — they won the KC Blues Society’s “Road to Memphis” challenge two years running and reached the semifinals of the International Blues Challenge on their first trip — but they’ve never played 18th & Vine until now. The sound is soulful blues first, pivoting on a dime into Motown, smooth jazz, R&B, and funk. Their motto: music from the heart that you can feel in your soul. Come early and say you were there the first time. $5; AJM members free.
David Watson — Friday, 8:30 pm & 10 pm
The Doctor of Bebop is in. David Watson spent four years tending bar at Philadelphia’s Showboat Jazz Theater, soaking up Miles, Coltrane, and Monk from behind the rail — until a bassist of Sonny Rollins fame told him to stop pouring and start singing. He turned pro at 34, cut his debut album at 61 with Dizzy Gillespie’s drummer and Sonny Rollins’ bassist behind him, and has been charming rooms ever since. Now 89 and a Kansas Citian by choice, he headlines Friday night with two sets of warm, nimble scat mastery. Living proof that bebop keeps you young. $10 per show.
Chris Hazelton “In Rotation” Quartet — Saturday, 8:30 pm & 10 pm
Saturday night is a homecoming. Chris Hazelton — Kansas City’s Hammond B-3 master, student of both KC organ patriarch Everette DeVan and the legendary Dr. Lonnie Smith — released In Rotation this spring on Cellar Live, and this is the band that made it: Brett Jackson on saxophones, Peter Schlamb on vibraphone, John Kizilarmut on drums. No guitar — organ and vibes share the front line, a combination Plastic Sax calls “an uncommon variant of the organ jazz tradition.” Billy Strayhorn, Lee Morgan, Hazelton originals, and a tip of the hat to DeVan himself, played where organ jazz lives. $10 per show.
Monday Night Jam Session: Loren Broaddus Quartet — Monday, 7 pm
The front line at Monday’s jam is one you almost never see: Loren Broaddus leads on the French horn, an instrument nearly nobody dares to swing. UMKC Conservatory-trained and two albums deep this decade — including this summer’s chordless horn-trio Blackout!! — he carries a family story built for this block: his father is a published poet whose books celebrate the Negro Leagues, and Monday the son hosts the jam a block from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Featured set at 7 pm, then the bandstand opens to whoever brought their horn. $10 general public; free for AJM members, musicians, and students.
A trombone, a debut, a legend, a homecoming, and a French horn. Only one address does weeks like this. See you at the Blue Room.
The Blue Room · 1600 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108 Full calendar and tickets: americanjazzmuseum.org/blue-room