Late Night with Mark Pender - the "Love Man" plays (next to) Kansas City Live

Mark "The Love Man" Pender is in town for his annual August visit while "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" is off. And he played last night in what is undeniably Kansas City's freshest jazz venue, the rooftop lounge above Bice Bistro at the Power & Light District next to the Sprint Center downtown.

After eating at the Cafe Burger next door -- sadly, one of the very few locally-owned joints on the AEG compound -- I walked up two flights and met Mark, who brought the whole gang: his mom, wife Francoise, son Matthew, cousin Barbara. Brother Tom Pender arrived later and took up the guitar in the second set.

David Basse was our host and moderator, as he is every Wednesday night, singing over the tight rhythms of Ken Lovern and the OJT. Temperatures were in the mid-70s, there was a full moon out ... a perfect night for three sets of R&B and jazz. Mark sang a lot, including the title track to his forthcoming CD release from his studio session with Jay McShann (see my previous story to hear a clip).

A documentary filmmaker was there, shooting most of the first set. Her name's Sue Vicory and she's already got a full website up for her project with clips. She's planning to have the film out in 2009.

Across the street at "Kansas City Live," the official corporate public square of Power & Light, there was a noisy concert going on most of the evening. But once Ken pushed his fingers onto the Hammond B-3, it was like nothing else was playing for miles.

I took pictures on my camera phone; some of them even turned out!

By the way, while looking up the Hammond B-3 organ, I found this nifty video from Canadian TV of Paul Shaffer leading an "organ summit" of four organs -- a shot of B-12 you might say -- performing the Jimmy Smith classic "The Cat":