This Weekend at the Blue Room
October 8–12, 2026
“I grew up with The Blue Room,” James Ward told KC Studio, and his band has played the room since the late ’90s; Thursday at noon it opens the week. Friday, The Band Oasis plays Indigo Hour, then Omaha saxophonist Matea Jerković, who won the North American Saxophone Alliance’s Region 3 Jazz Competition in 2025, plays her first Blue Room shows. Frost Loya & Friends are back Saturday after their July debut, and Monday guitarist Tetsuya Nishiyama, whose trio won Outstanding Jazz at this year’s Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards, hosts the jam.
This Weekend’s Lineup
Thursday, October 8
Jazz @ Noon: The James Ward Band — 12 pm (free)
Friday, October 9
Indigo Hour: The Band Oasis — 5:30 pm ($5; AJM members free)
Matea Jerković — 8:30 pm & 10 pm ($10 per show)
Saturday, October 10
Frost Loya & Friends — 8:30 pm & 10 pm ($10 per show)
Monday, October 12
Monday Night Jam Session: Tetsuya Nishiyama — 7 pm ($10; AJM members, musicians & students free)
Jazz @ Noon: The James Ward Band — Thursday, 12 pm
James Ward is a Kansas City native. When the Associated Press came by the Blue Room in 2016, a Friday night with his band had the room standing-room-only by 8:40. Ward studied tuba at Florida A&M, has played bass with Marcus Roberts, Wycliffe Gordon, Russell Malone, and Patti Austin, and builds his own instruments by hand. In October 2025 he played three cities in China with Bobby Watson, pianist Charles Williams, and his son Jaylen on drums; the quartet also taught a masterclass. Free admission.
Indigo Hour: The Band Oasis — Friday, 5:30 pm
The Band Oasis has played the Blue Room since June 2024, most often right here at Indigo Hour. The band calls its music classic R&B, soul, jazz, and blues, and when Kansas City Parks booked it in May at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, the billing promised “noted R&B hits with a modern ‘twist.’” It’s the first set of a long Friday, with Matea Jerković to follow at 8:30. $5; AJM members free.
Start Friday with The Band Oasis →
Matea Jerković — Friday, 8:30 pm & 10 pm
In middle school, Matea Jerković’s band director came in before school to teach her the saxophone so she could join jazz band. She played tenor in Jazz I at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where that band performed with Paquito D’Rivera and Arturo O’Farrill, and in March 2025 she won the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 3 Jazz Competition. A professor at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga once challenged her to write a tune a week. This March her return to Trio Jazz Club in Sioux Falls sold out both shows. Back home she teaches at the Omaha Performing Arts Jazz Academy and runs the second jazz band at Elkhorn North High School. $10 per show.
Frost Loya & Friends — Saturday, 8:30 pm & 10 pm
Frost Loya has played lead guitar in The Frost Band KC since the band began, and KC Bier Co. described that band’s music as “a fusion of Latin jazz, R&B and classic rock.” Frost Loya & Friends made their Blue Room debut on July 25. Saturday they’re back with two shows. $10 per show.
Monday Night Jam Session: Tetsuya Nishiyama — Monday, 7 pm
Tetsuya Nishiyama grew up in Nagoya, Japan, and earned two degrees in jazz studies at Northern Illinois University, studying with Fareed Haque and Bobby Broom. He’s played the Green Mill and the Jazz Showcase and worked as a sideman for Buddy Guy, Roy Ayers, and The Emotions. In February his trio won Outstanding Jazz at the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards, where organist Mitch Towne’s Refuge, with Nishiyama on guitar on all seven tracks, won Album of the Year. Monday he hosts the jam: the featured set at 7, then the bandstand opens to whoever signed up at the door. $10; AJM members, musicians, and students free.
The James Ward Band Thursday, The Band Oasis and Matea Jerković Friday, Frost Loya & Friends Saturday, and Tetsuya Nishiyama at Monday’s jam. 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