Award winning drummer returns to Hannibal roots with one-night performance on Sunday

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Matt Kane, award-winning drummer, jazz musician, composer and bandleader, returns to his Hannibal roots this weekend for a one-night performance.

Kane recently released his fourth album “The Other Side of the Story,” featuring entirely original compositions.  

To celebrate this milestone with his hometown, Matt Kane, along with pianist Brant Jester and bass player Bob Bowman, will showcase songs from the album at 6 p.m. on Sunday at the Hannibal Arts Council.  

On his website, Kane coins himself as “a guy who grew up surrounded by corn fields in Hannibal, Missouri, idolized Tom Sawyer, and played his first gig as a teen aboard a riverboat on the Mississippi.” 

After he graduated Hannibal High School, Kane moved to Kansas City with a scholarship to the UMKC Conservatory of Music. By his freshman year, Kane was performing five nights a week alongside Blues vocalist Lori Tucker.

He moved on to play with The McFadden Brothers, Ida McBeth and became the drum chair in Ahmad Alaadeen’s group. Alaadeen was a fixture in the Kansas City jazz scene, and gained wider recognition in the 90s. 

New York City was next on his roster, moving on in pursuit of bigger dreams he “scrapped and scraped his way into another respectable scene as a tenacious musician” 

Kane reports on his website that he wants his music to bring connection. “I want people to feel the rhythm in their bodies. He believes that playing with other musicians creates an energy that is not about one, but all—and that energy extends to the audience. That connection is what it’s about.”

Kane says the journey from Hannibal, Kansas City and to New York City made him the man he is, but the Midwest remains part of him. “There’s a lot of space out there in the Midwest; cornfields, plains, the Ozarks, rivers and lakes. All of that stays with you. I grew up on the Mississippi River, it’s a major part of who I am. It’s something that keeps moving, yet it’s always there.  That’s who I am.”

Kane’s previous album, Suit Up!, featuring Dave Stryker and Kyle Koehler, was named one of the top 50 jazz recordings of 2013 by JazzTimes magazine and featured on XM Radio. 

Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for Hannibal Arts Council members, and free for students. Tickets can be purchased until Friday from noon-5 p.m. at the Hannibal Arts Council at 105 S. Main, or until Sunday at hannibalartscouncil.eventbrite.com.