KANSAS CITY MUSEUMS AND ALL THAT JAZZ; A NEW 50,000-SQUARE-FOOT MUSEUM COMPLEX AND PERFORMANCE FACILITY HOUSES KANSAS CITY JAZZ MUSEUM, THE NEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL MUSEUM, VISITORS CENTER AND THE GEM THEATER.(ARTS & TRAVEL)

Byline: Eddie Robinette STAFF WRITER

It's all in Lester "Duck" Warner's eyes, the way they look to the past as he describes how he remembers 18th and Vine: "I remember my mother bringing us down here. All the people in the street, going in places, music coming from everywhere."

Duck is in his early 50s. So he's remembering the early 1950s, the beginning of the end for the total jazz scene in Kansas City, a scene that began in the '20s and produced legendary musicians, legendary bands, and a musical offering that would become so universally identified with America that many people don't even think of it as jazz - swing.

"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing . . ."

And, while some white folks came for the music, 18th and Vine was mostly a black experience. That black experience is the focal point today for what is being called a "revitalization of African American Culture" by Kansas City officials. They've spent $26.3 million dollars to construct a 50,000-square-foot museum complex and performance facility that …