The 47th season of the Grundy County Friends of the Arts will begin on Thursday evening, Sept. 13 with “Bummer the Drummer & The Kansas City Streetband.”
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They will perform at the Ketcham Community Center on the North Central Missouri College campus, beginning at 7 p.m. with doors opening at 6 p.m. A program, sponsored by Trenton Rotary Club, will be offered at Trenton High School earlier in the day.
Glen Ward was born in Fayette 1947 where he studied music and learned to play the clarinet, saxophone and sousaphone at Fayette High School. Along the way, he also learned to play the drum kit, conga drums, the resonator bottleneck acoustic guitar (dobro) and the electric guitar, as well as the electric bass guitar. As fate would have it, the drum kit and conga drums turned out to be his instruments of choice, with his guitar work following a close second. In later years, when the drumming and singing came into being, he was tagged with the name “Bummer the Drummer.”
Bummer started touring in the mid-sixties at the time when “soul music” was taking the world by storm. He cut his formative teeth touring and playing the drum parts on covers of great soul artists like Wilson Picket, Don Covay, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding and the king himself, James Brown. After time spent in New York City, Columbia, Breckenridge, CO and Los Angeles, CA, Bummer returned to Kansas City in 1977, forming his own horn band (The Kansas City Streetband) consisting of guitar, bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet and trombone. Since “The Kansas City Streetband’s” inception, Bummer and the band have evolved into a dynamic “rock n soul” force that has toured all over the USA, playing nightclubs, concerts and music festivals. Bummer and his band have opened shows for blues guitar legends John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Albert King, etc.
In 2011, a Hammond B3 organ player was added to the group. Together they bring to the stage the kind of intensity and showmanship that can only be attained by years of touring and delighting audiences everywhere, playing the “in the pocket grooves”, “hard-driving blues shuffles”, “danceable upbeat funk” and some of the best “ballads” this side of heaven.
Today, “The Kansas City Streetband” members are Kathryn Ward (drums, congas, percussion, glockenspiel and vocals), Mike Fruin (trumpet and flugelhorn), Omar Bilal (bass guitar), Dan Reed (guitar), Matt Myler (trombone) and Jim Cunningham (Hammond B3 Organ, keyboards and vocals). Their collective biographies read like the “encyclopedia of musical talent” and are sure to only enhance the enjoyment of the group.
There will be no season tickets this year. Tickets will be sold at the door for this performance and for each program where there is a charge. The price will be $10 for adults. NCMC students with proper ID will be admitted free; students (12-18) will be admitted half-price; students/children (age 11 and under) will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult; and special needs groups will pay $5 each.
The Grundy County Friends of the Arts has received support, financial and/or in-kind, from the following businesses and individuals: Century 21 Smith and Associates/Troy and Cathy Smith; Church Women United; Dan & Carol Wilford; Friends of the Library; Carolyn Faden; Lois Elaine Hawker; Honey Creek Veterinary Hospital; Jane Infranca; Jim and Bev Whorton; Lakeview Restaurant and Motel/Ian and Ali Gray; Master Video/Buddy and Karla Hannaford; Muff Warehouse, North Central Missouri College; PAR Broadcast Group; Trenton Cinema/Jim and Maggie Bush; Trenton Republican Times; and Trenton Rotary Club. Financial assistance has also been received from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.