The lighting was good. The drinks were expensive. Someone had gone to considerable trouble to make the room look effortless.
My name is Frank Bond. I’m a writer and violinist. London came first. Samoan roots complicated the map. Music took me through Europe, North Africa, Polynesia and the United States. Kansas City is the present assignment.
A musician learns to arrive before the audience. You see the room being prepared, the people doing the work, and the small adjustments that make an evening appear inevitable. Later, in a hotel bar or a ballroom, you recognise the preparations.
These field reports follow money, reputation, pleasure and the curious business of belonging through grand hotels, cheap bars, ballparks and less advertised corners of Kansas City.
You needn’t know the place. A good room tells you how to behave. An interesting one gives you reason to wonder why.
Two reports are available:
DANGER AND REPUTATION
Danger doesn’t lurk. It advertises.
LUXURY AND STATUS
Somewhere between philanthropy and football, Kansas City shows its hand.
Next: The City After Midnight. The musicians, workers and late kitchens that keep the place running after the audience has left.
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