By Steve Bergsman

Kansas City, a lovely city of fountains and distinctive architecture, is best known for its decidedly unruly contributions to American traditions — swing jazz and barbecue. Those two phenomena are not unrelated; indeed, the music and the meats "feed" each other.

Since I've already committed to food metaphors, let's start with the noted cuisine of the city, Kansas City barbecue The problem is that there are more barbecue joints in this town than anywhere else in the country, so how do you decide which is the one for you? Let me suggest the KC Barbecue Tours, run by a firecracker of a young woman named Bethanie Schemel.

This is a fun, educational joy ride through the grand tastings of what Kansas City has to offer. You begin for lunch at the most famous barbecue establishment in the city, if not the country, Arthur Bryant's. This establishment, opened by Arthur Bryant in 1946, might have stayed a Kansas City secret, but in 1974 a New York writer named Calvin Trillin wrote a Playboy magazine article about the place, calling it the best restaurant in America. It's now a touchstone of American cuisine, and everyone from politicians to celebrities to everyday folks end up there. Even President Barack Obama has stopped in to taste its great ribs and unique slaw.

From Arthur Bryant's the bus tour heads to the smallest eatery on the circuit, LC's Bar-B-Q. With just 10 tables and a smoker that looks like it has been around since Jesse James came through Missouri, LC's was my favorite simply because the "burnt ends" and fries were unbelievably tasty. LC's is a beat-up place in a beat-up part of town, but outside in its sliver of a parking lot were Jaguars and Range Rovers. The uptown crowd always knows where the best food can be found.

Speaking of uptown, the third stop was in the chi-chi Country Club Plaza part of town, and the Jack Stack Barbecue was full modern with white table linens and a wine list. The "crown" ribs were a deep dive so big and juicy it was like taking in a week's worth of beef in one sitting.

The final stop at just about mealtime was another Kansas City tradition, Gates Bar-B-Q, which has now expanded to a few outlets across the city. It was here I had to break from the ribs, opting instead for the smoked turkey.

So what does barbecue have to do with swing jazz? Legend has it that a man named Henry Perry wandered into Kansas City from Tennessee and began smoking meats in an alley the way folks had done it back in his home state. The only difference is that he added his own sauce and would only cook over oak and ash woods. He was so popular that he expanded to an old streetcar that was located one block south of the rambunctious 18th and Vine district of clubs, bars, honky-tonks and late-night music halls. Kansas City was a segregated town from the 1920s to the 1940s, and for fine food, the African-American musicians who played at all the bars and clubs, such as Count Basie and Charlie Parker, would send out for Henry Perry's barbecue.

In 1940, Perry died and his protege, Charlie Bryant, took over the business, still feeding the jazz and bluesmen who played the clubs on Vine, from 12th to 18th. Charlie eventually passed the business to his son, Arthur Bryant.

Another import to Kansas City was a style of music influenced by the ragtime beat made famous in New Orleans. When the music called jazz reached Kansas City, the hometown musicians added a blues base and re-created the jazz sound into swing because it made people want to get off their chairs and dance. Locals Count Basie, Bennie Moten, Jimmy Rushing, Charlie Parker and Big Joe Turner made swing, jazz and jump blues popular across the country.

Most of the famed Kansas City clubs (at their peak it is said 50 cabarets crowded 12th to 18th streets) are gone, but the music isn't. I sat down with local jazz musician Lonnie McFadden, who told me he is busier today than ever before. McFadden is jazz royalty. His father, James McFadden, was a tap dancer who worked with Billy Eckstein and Jay McShann. Lonnie is old enough to remember meeting Big Joe Turner and Step Buddy Anderson, who introduced Charlie Parker to Dizzy Gillespie.

The area is now a historic district anchored by a cultural center housing the American Museum of Jazz and the Negro League Baseball Museum. I met Lonnie at the Blue Room of the Museum of Jazz, a good venue to catch modern jazz. Across the street from the cultural center is the Gem, a historic theater, but the real treat is about a block away at 1823 Highland, the home of the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

This historic 1930s building was the home of Musicians Local 627, which organized all the African-American musicians in Kansas City at that time. The building is filled with nostalgia, probably the most important being a picture of the more than 100 musicians in the labor union when the building was dedicated. Notice down in front above the banner stand three key players of the time, Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing and Bennie Moten.

I was told that back in the heyday of 18th and Vine dozens and dozens of musicians came to the building after the clubs closed, and the space was so jammed with players that the after-hours exuberances came to be known as jam sessions. By the way, the building has the only after-hours liquor license in the state of Missouri: On Friday and Saturday nights the music starts at 1 a.m. and goes all the way to 5 a.m.

I asked Lonnie what makes Kansas City jazz different and he told me, "It's the beat that makes people want to dance."

Well, whatever works at 3 in the morning.

WHEN YOU GO

KC Barbecue Tours: www.kcbarbecuetours.com

Arthur Bryant's: www.arthurbryantsbbq.com

LC Barb-B-Q: www.lcsbarbq.com

Jack Stack Barbecue: www.jackstackbbq.com

Gates Bar-B-Q: www.gatesbbbq.com

Lonnie McFadden: www.lonniemcfadden.com

American Jazz Museum: www.americanjazzmuseum.org

Mutual Musician's Foundation: www.library.umkc.edu

For something nontraditional, I stayed at the Ameristar Casino Hotel, www.ameristar.com/kansas-city.

Steve Bergsman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.