Kansas City’s longtime jazz entertainer Lonnie McFadden opens a downtown supper club
Kansas City jazz singer, trumpeter and tap dancer Lonnie McFadden has performed in Kansas City and internationally for nearly 50 years.
But this will be the first time he takes the stage at a club bearing his name.
Lonnie’s Reno Club is scheduled to open Thursday on the lower level of the Ambassador Hotel Kansas City.
The first time McFadden was paid to perform he was 7-years-old and he joined his father and 6-year-old brother on stage for a comedic intro, a quick song — “Hey, Look Me Over!” — and a two-minute tap dance at the Hotel Muehlebach.
He was 16 years old when he started making it a career and has spent the last decades performing locally and worldwide. That was until the COVID-19 crisis put musicians out of work for weeks as concert halls, restaurants and bars temporarily closed.
In June, the Ambassador asked him to come down and look at the new outdoor nightclub they had opened in their parking lot at 1111 Grand Blvd. He started playing on Saturdays, just until his regular bookings started up again.
But the hotel was so taken with him, they turned an event space into a club. McFadden and his trio will perform Thursday through Saturday nights.
McFadden is teaming up with Paul Coury, founder and CEO of Coury Hospitality, which has 11 hotels under its umbrella, including the Ambassador. The club will offer its own food and beverage menu crafted by executive chef Bryant Wigger of the American Reserve, the hotel’s restaurant.
For dinner and the show the cost is $85 per person. That includes a champagne toast and three-course dinner.
The first course is a choice of Caesar salad, shrimp cocktail or roasted bone marrow. Entrees include a choice of chicken Cordon Bleu, butternut squash risotto, scallop Meuniere or steak Diane. And for dessert there is either chocolate mousse or Bananas Foster.
The club’s name also is in homage to the Reno Club.
The legendary Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm played at the Reno Club, 602 E. 12th, in 1935, according to The Kansas City Star’s archives. He soon left for greater fame in New York.
But the Reno Club gig was an important turning point in Basie’s career as it was those broadcasts that caught the ear of John Hammond and others and launched Basie on his way to national prominence, said Vincent Pelote, senior archivist and digital preservation strategist, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Per social distancing guidelines, capacity will be reduced to 40 people at tables six feet apart. Customers will be required to wear masks.
It opens at 6:30 p.m. with the show running from 8 to 11 p.m. After 9 p.m. customers can come in just for the show for $25 and can order such classic cocktails such as Manhattans and Sidecars.
“I’ve been going down daily to practice and make sure everything is right,” McFadden said Wednesday. “It just really hit me this morning that I will be performing at a club that is named after me. I have been doing this for almost 50 years and I’ve never had anything like this. So many emotions. I’m extremely thankful.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.