A jazz great and St. Charles native, Cunningham tours internationally. Once in a while, though, he still comes home to play a show at The Sheldon.

Commentators over the years have remarked that a country’s psyche can be understood by observing the popular arts. As one who is heavily involved in the arts (music, photography and writing), I have been observing this very closely. When we look at the characters played out in films, in television and in popular music, we see something that tells us about what we really are. While there are exceptions, we rarely find an educated person in any comedy or drama who is not an object of derision.

When I wrote “City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973,” based on oral histories of the musicians that actually were there at the time, I found a number of myths that have been rooted deeply in the St. Louis psyche. I want to deal with two of them here.