they call it the place wherejazz lives.we'll visit the american jazz museum. also steve roling looks backon almost a decade at the helm of the health care foundation ofgreater kansas city. and the best barista in the world is right here in town andpouring us up a macchiato.it's call coming up next on the local show. principle funding for thelocal show provided by francis
hip hop dance classes kansas city mo, family foundation, frederick andlouise hartwig family fund,kauffman foundation, health care foundation of greater kansascity, johnson county communitycollege, john and effy spees memorial trust, bank of americatrustee, richard j. sternfoundation for the arts, commerce bank, trustee, and kcptmembers.thank you.
â hello.i'm nick haines. and i'm randy mason. welcome once again to the localshow.for nearly two years now our perform arts series inconjunction with kc studiomagazine has taken us all over town to share stories about someof the metro's best music,theater, dance, even pup pets. this time we're headed to 18thand vine and the american jazzmuseum, but wait a minute. you might say, that's not aperforming aren't venue, is it? not exactly, but while there is obviously a whole lot aboutthe music's past you candiscover at the museum, it's also a place that puts a lot ofenergy into celebrating itspresent.
through education andresearch at america's jazzcrossroads, 18th and vine. it's a really great place thatsort of wraps under its umbrellafour really important areas. greg carol, professionalmusician, and greg carol, artsadministrator, both keep the tools of their trade close athand at the jazz museum'supstares offices. the patience and persistence ittakes to master the viber phonehas a lot in common, he says with the skills required to keepan operation like this relevantand engaging. we've had a great time intrying to determine, okay, howdo we use the space, what do we want people to see.we want people to know about thekansas city narrative. we think that's important.we want people to know about thegreater jazz narrative.
we want people to see the visualart piece in's multidimensions.we want people to see abstracts so they can get inside the musicfrom an abstract perspective.we want them to see moving things. movement has come to themuseum recently in a very big way thanks to a jazz fan fromohio named john baker.he collected over a million feet of, you guessed it. jazz film. so far only the tip of the iceberg has been restored anddisplayed, but the impact ofthese iconic images is hard to deny. a lot of times you read aboutjazz or you may hear the music, but until you see it, you're notreally positioned in that time,and so when you can see films as early as 1929, for example,bessie smith singing st. louieblues, you're in that space,
you're in that time, so you canconnect with what's happeningsocially at the time, what's happening musically and howpeople are interfacing.and you can see how the music evolves as time goes by whereyou begin to see integration.you see musicians of color playing with white musicians.you see women playinginstruments that are not the typical stereotype or they'renot just invokeal roles.you see instrumentalists. so you see how the history ofmusic is sort of evolving infront of the lens. you know, we have anopportunity in this space toinspire people to want to listen to the music.you might have someone thatcomes through this space. they may be a baseball fan, andtheir own destination might beto go to negro leagues baseball
museum, which is another greatasset.and they may see these photos and be inspired to say, i wantto learn a little bit about thismusic. let me go to the blue roomtonight.that sparks the inspiration that maybe encourages them to go onto amazon and download cds ofjazz artists. the blue room, the living labwithin the museum complex wherelive jazz and more pours from the stage over 200 nights ayear. you know, the museum is committed not only to the musicbut to per -- experts of themusic. we spend $150,000 a yearsupporting artist fees just inthe blue room alone, not counting the work in thefestival or performing artsseries.
that's another some hundredthousand dollars. so the museum is committed to showcasing the music, and wehave to be, because the artists,the musicians are our living exhibition.they allow us to bring to lifewhat you see visually in this space, and so we have to providethat commitment.i think we have to provide the commitment because that's theway that you sustain the musicinto perpetuity. i wonder what ten storieshome, what warriors owe on histoes. the spoken word has found ahappy home here, too.the blue room's tuesday night poetry jams spring a lively mixof old and young all ready totake their verbal turn at the mic. it's important as we developeducation programs that we're
not just myopic.we can't just develop musicprograms for music-minded kids. so the spoken word pieceallows us to take another pathin connecting people who might not be connected to musicthrough it.spoken word is also a very popular art form in kansas city,so we've built here through thegreat work of glenn north, our resident, poet and manager,we've built a really strongeducation and jazz portrait. and when we land and catchour break, we'll picnic. when it comes to building an audience, that old adage, you'vegot to grab them when they'reyoung, is ever on greg carol's mind.you can see it in action withtheir jazz story telling program, filling the atrium withmusic and movement whileteaching a few lessons along the
way. people think museums, meaningeverything in it is created by people that are dead.that's kind of what people boildown to a museum. really that's why we say in ourbi-line that american jazzmuseum where it lives. jazz just met its 100 year mark,so really jazz is still in theevolutionary process, although, yeah, to young folk or folksoutside, it seems old.but many derivatives of jazz are popular music that we listen totoday, like hip-hop, like rockand roll, like gospel. those were all born out of jazz. you can buy a jazz recording,but it's not the same as going and seeing and listening to ajazz performance.there's something so special about that that draws you moreinto the music.and because we're fortunate to
have a beautiful space, in factit's award-winning space.the magazine said this is one of the 12 top jazz clubs in theworld.that's a huge, huge vote of confidence in the jazzcommunity, that this is theplace to be. i often tell people i wearthree hearts.the middle heart is the jazz artist, the musician.that middle heart is what drivesthe other two, the executive and the educator. i feel fortunate that i'mable to come and oversee an organization like this that hasso many moving parts to it butthat also is really, when you boil it down, it's all aboutthis.it's about the music, right? that's all it's about. yet when you really boil itdown, it's about how do we keep
the legacy of jazz strong inkansas city through this greatincubator we have called the american jazz museum.it's a great gig. a couple quick notes about the museum.the festival formerly known asrhythm and ribs will be back this year with a new name onsaturday, october 12th.now simply called kansas city's 18th and vine jazz festival. the other is a big newexhibit coming from the smithsonian called americansabor, latinos in popular music.it opens on august 1st. the head of one of kansascity's largest foundations ispacking up the boxes and clearing up his office afteralmost a decade in charge. steve roling is winding down as ceo of the health carefoundation of greater kansascity and an announcement on his
successor is imminent.created in 2002 by the sale ofthe former meth midwest hospitals to for-profit medicalchain hca, the foundation hasgiven out more than $160 million in grants throughout the metro. with assets of more than$400 million, it's the metro's fourth largest foundation.joining us now is the man whohas basically been there since the beginning and is now hangingup his hat, steve roling. steve, thank you so much for being with us.you know, when you, first ofall, did announce back in december that you were going tobe leaving, there was a quote inthe kansas city star that said, it's a great job, it's afabulous job, it's a wonderfuljob. so remember for me why it wasthat you are leaving again. all of those things are true,
nick.all of those things are true.i have the most wonderful job in kansas city.however, about a year or so ago,i got my medicare card. you don't understand that.but i got a little medicare cardin the mail. when you turn 65, you get amedicare card, and that startedmy wife and i thinking, we both work pretty hard.my wife teaches at umkc in thenursing school, nurse practitioner's program, works inthe doctor's office.i work quite a few hours, nights and weekends.we both do.we are now new grandparents, so we started thinking about, is ittime to start slowing down.our health is fabulous, a lot of energy, a lot of passion, and wehad a lot of friends who didn'tretire until one of those things
started to wane, particularlytheir health, and they startedto slow down. we didn't want to do that.we wanted to slow down while westill had our health, passion, energy.i hope to do something later inmy career. john -- i don't know if it'sgoing to be full-time orpart-time. i don't know if it's going to bevolunteer or serving on boards,but i still want to be active in the community. but you've done a whole wideswath of different things. the last decade, head of thehealth care foundation.you were the head of social services in the state ofmissouri.you're the former publisher of the business journal.you could go back to journalism. i could.
i could.but one of the best things aboutbeing a publisher is you have editors and salespeople andcirculation people that do allthe hard work and your job is to kind of keep it all going andtry to help them take it to thenext level. well, you've been the fourthlargest foundation here inkansas city. it's been amazing to me when yougo over to your offices, as wehave, because we have been blessed as being one of thegroups that has been funded bythe health care foundation over the years, that you are in avery modest building there onthe pioneer college campus of the metropolitan communitycolleges.just east of prospect avenue on 18th street there, very, verymodest, you live in a verymodest office there.
that was a deliberate effortfrom the start even though yourassets were more than $400 million. nick, that was chosen by theoriginal board, and i congratulate them for that.the board said if our mission isto help the uninsured and underserved, and if that's whatwe're going to do, then weshould not be in places other than in a place that we look outthe window and we see our targetaudience. i look out my window, and i seea bus stop, and it is full ofpeople. so on a january morning, snow,rain, sleet, there are familiesthere trying to get their kids to and from day care or schoolon the bus so they can get towork. i come to work every day, drivedown spros -- prospect, drivedown troost, down some of the
streets.that's where we should be.if you're going to be a foundation that cares for thepoor and uninsured, we are inthe poorest zip code of kansas city, and i applaud our boardfor making the decision to putus there. when you look back at thatlast decade, what would you sayhas been the biggest accomplishment for you? when i worked at the kauffmanfoundation, i worked there for 11 years, and i was honored towork for them when mr. kauffmanwas still active and alive. i had the opportunity to workdirectly with him for a coupleyears before he became ill, and mr. kauffman said over and overagain, money didn't solveproblems, people solved problems.and his message to us loud andclear was, money can do so much,
and the foundation, that's ourrole, but the real heroes arethe people that you give the money to, because they're theones who take care of the poor.they're the ones who take care of the elderly.they're the ones who take careof the uninsured, and they are the real heroes.don't get confused that justbecause you give them a little money you're doing anythingspecial.what you're doing is you're enabling other people who arereally the heroes of thecommunity to do something hopefully magically, magical totake care of the people in thecommunity. we feel that we are honored towork with the nonprofits weworked with. when you look back then, youthink you've got all of thismoney, so $400 million in
assets. almost up to five now. so you've had that money, and you thing, wow, we can make abig difference here in thiscommunity, make major change in the area of health care.you're right there in the centerof the city. war there disappointments whereyou said, good lord, even withall that money, we still weren't able to make the difference iexpected when i took this job? the year we started out in 2005 was the same year that themissouri legislature and thegovernor at that time, governor blunt, decided to cut medicaidbenefits from 100% of povertydown to 19% of poverty. so if you're a female or a malewith two or three kids, if youmake more than $300 a month, you're too rich for medicaid.and so about the time those cutshappened is when the foundation
came in to our region, and sowhile we invest about$20 million a year into the poor and the uninsured, $20 millionis a lot of money, but for whatthe state lost and what the nonfor profits and poor peoplelost in their medicaid cuts, wedidn't break even. we tried to be helpful, tried topartner.mr. cade taught us, 2 plus 2, if it only equals four, you're notdoing your job.so we tried to partner with others, tried to leverage ourmoney.bring in national funders, other local funders, but there areproblems, hopefully you can saywe made some impact, but you can also say that some of the healthoutcomes for our community arenot better. in fact, they might be worse.obesity and some of the healthoutcomes that relate to obesity
are frankly worse now than theywere. while we in the nonprofit world, and public television ispart of that, work quite hand inhand with foundations and get to see your role quite closely,most people in kansas city,though, have very little involvement whatsoever withfoundations.when i see the work of a ceo of a foundation, i think, gee,that's an easy job.he's got all that money and all he has to do is give it away.what is the hardest job aboutbeing the head of a foundation whose really only job it is togive money away, steve? well, that's not my only job. when i took the kauffmanfoundation job, i went to mydad, and i said -- my dad is now deceased.i said, dad, i got this new joband work for the kauffman
foundation, and he knew whomr. k was, so he thought thatwas pretty fun, and he said what does the foundation do, and isaid we give away money.back then, he was smoking, and he goes, is that all you'regoing to do is give away money?god, what happened? how is that a job?do they actually pay you to dothat? nick, it's harder than it looks.if you care about outcomes, ifyou care about results, if you care about the people you serve,we since the beginning haveprobably received 410 to 15, $20 million in requests,probably over 3,000 requests.we funded about 167, $170 million.we say no, unfortunately, morethan we say yes. and so that's hard.saying no is difficult. instead of doing a big event
where you have a banquet orsomething for your retirement,your retirement is at the kauffman stadium at a baseballgame.that sums you up. you are a low key kind of a guy.i have to say, as somebody whohas gotten to know you over the years, you are very unego 'tis'tis -- unego advertise i -- kidof person. what you don't know about me,nick, i grew up kind of awannabe athlete, and so i thought some day i was going tobe playing at kauffman stadiumor busch stadium in st. louis. i was a pretty good baseballplayer when i was young.and so somehow karen found that out.she knew that i obviously likedbaseball. so the opportunity to have anevent at kauffman stadium is --you know, it's baseball, but
even more important, it'smr. kauffman.mr. kauffman had a dramatic impact on my life.i only got to work with him acouple years, but he was a special, special person, and sohaving an event at his home awayfrom home, his stadium is very meaningful to me. well, we appreciate you, andwe wish you well in your retirement.steve roling, ceo of the healthcare foundation, thank you so much for being with us. thank you, nick. well, anyone who knows me atall knows that i am seldom foundwithout a cup of coffee close by. that is exactly right.so you can imagine randy's reaction when he saw that alocal man had been named theworld's best barista.
especially when i heard thatto win the award you basicallyhave to brew and serve a world class cub o joe while giving thebest speech of your life. papa -- the barista in question is pete licata, qualityassurance manager for parisibrothers coffee. randy and browser justin bondfound him working the counter inunion station. you're right in the midst ofa lot of stuff going on. well, there is a lot of repetitive motion, a lot ofmuscle memory, things like that,going on with this. ⶠthere you go. thank you. this is exproas owe. i won the world baristachampionship.it's top honors of all the
people competing in this type ofcompetition in the entire world.so for me to be able to say that you're the best in the world atsomething was almostunfathomable, and now it's something that i have to thinktwice about before i say, yeah,i did. is this some of the tricks ofthe trade to take away the worldcup? as far as latte goes, this ismaybe not the best latte that'sever existed. i have a 12-ounce decaf carmellatte. were you training as an adolescent for this? no, definitely i was not. so they didn't send you to coffee camp? no.we actually have that now. we have ba -- barista camp wherepeople can go and take classes. not in your day?
years ago working at a placecalled pt's coffee actually.that company was really, really focused on the quality aspectsof coffee, the details andmaking everything really, really well.i got a lot of foundationaleducation and really learned a lot about it and was really verypassionate about the coffee.at one point, i thought i was going to move, and i was lookingfor options and differentthings. i just kind of advanced myselfin some way.the opportunity came in hawaii to go to honolulu and work for acompany out there.i got to work with coffee farms out there, and i got to learnhow to roast and improve myskills. in 2011, i had gone to the worldcompetition, which was inbogota, and that was a great
opportunity.i got second place in thatcompetition. i felt like i had piqued in myskills and whatever else.but some of it i had been shooting for for a long time.so this year was my seventh timecompeting, seventh year competing.it was the first time i feltlike i made a presentation that really brought all of these.i was introduced to a farmer,and then i was talking about our roaster at parisi coffee,because i got to work side byside with him, looking at the roasting profiles.and then i also introduced kindof miff sell, called myself the voice of the coffee, because i'mthe interaction point.i took all of these components, these three elements of coffeeproduction and how it's made andkind of wrapped it back around
into the speech, but also playedinto the drink.the different aspects of the drink also represented what eachof these people had done withthe coffee and what they represent and how they affectit. you know, i don't have to compete again, which is a reliefand kind of a conundrum at thesame time. what do you do, you know? you are retiring, right?did i see that? it's like you're going out atthe top of your game, as theysay. i think that's a great idea. describing yourself as adiplomat, is that a stretch? i don't think so.you're going and meeting andyou're representing a lot of other people, you know, aroundthe world, but also seeking outnew relationships and bringing
people together in a lot ofways. and so i think that could be described as a depp --diplomatic type of role, amission. which probably makes youremployers pretty happy.i assume they thing this is a pretty cool thing. i'm sure they are, yeah.they've been very proud and very supportive. quality assurance manager.is that a regular title in the beverage world? i think so, especially incoffee it's becoming a much more common title.you know, mostly just becausethe quality aspect of the coffee is really an important part ofwhat the coffee company does.it's important to have a person who is in that position who isdouble-checking, making sureeverything is as good as it can
be or should be. how about making me one ofthose macchiatos? i think we can do that.it's expresso, double, a littlemilk. randy's first macchiato, goodmoment. youel -- you elevate yourself on a world stage, and globallypeople are looking up to younow, but ultimately, it's still largely about serving peoplegreat coffee in a cafe.it's just the simple things of giving someone a drink andhaving them say, like, yeah,this is really nice. there you go. pete has also been developingsome other interesting beverages.i got to tell you his la vendorvendor -- lavender lemonade is a surprisingly tasty summer drinkto chase that macchiato. well, whatever you're
drinking, our time is up forthis edition of the local show.we'll see you next week. thanks for watching. principle funding for thelocal show provided by francisfamily foundation, frederick and
louise hartwig family fund,kauffman foundation, health carefoundation of greater kansas city, johnson county communitycollege, john and effy speesmemorial trust, bank of america trustee; richard j. sternfoundation for the arts,commerce bank trustee; and kcpt captioning provided by caption associates, llc www.captionassociates.com
