My list of must-see museums in Kansas City during my visit in July included the American Jazz Museum. It’s located in the 18th and Vine historic district, an area of Kansas City noted for its contributions to jazz. The museum is small but its colorful exhibits hold many treasures from the days when jazz was king in KC.

I’m a fan of many genres of music, including swing from the 1930s and ‘40s (I enjoy doing the Lindy Hop every now and then). I remember seeing my parents do the jitterbug in the living room to Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (no relation) when I was a kid and I guess it rubbed off on me, although I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time.

Inside the museum, I stared longingly at the displays of black-and-white photographs, original sheet music, flyers for jazz shows, instruments such as Charlie Parker’s saxophone and a bunch of other artifacts belonging to legends Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker, trying to envision what it was like to hear them perform live. I was drawn like a moth to a flame to the display of glowing neon lights from local nightclubs of that era such as Milton’s Tap Room and the Top Hat Grill. The museum also has listening stations; if you’ve never heard Ella Fitzgerald sing, I strongly suggest popping on some headphones to see what you’ve been missing.

I also stopped in The Blue Room; part of the museum by day, its empty round tables displaying records, matchbooks and ephemera from the heydays of jazz, it’s transformed into an intimate jazz club by night, the same tables marked by water droplets from cocktail glasses. Another part of the museum is the Gem Theatre, which hosts live jazz performances for larger audiences in a refurbished 1912 silent movie house just across the street. The building itself is pretty cool; its baroque-style façade provides the backdrop for a large red and yellow neon marquee circa the 1940s flaunting the theater’s name.

The American Jazz Museum is at 1616 E. 18th St.; phone (816) 474-8463. Admission is $8; $3 (ages 4-11). The Blue Room is open Monday through Saturday evenings for live performances, and the Gem Theatre presents live shows throughout the year in its “Jazzin’ at the Gem” concert series.