Welcome to a new edition of the Neon Jazz interview series. We catch up with veteran jazz pianist, composer, and educator Mike Pagan to talk about the upcoming 2025 Lee’s Summit Jazz Festival happening on Saturday, June 28th, at The Bridge Space in downtown Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

A proud 20-year resident of Lee’s Summit, Mike shares why this festival’s growing reputation pulled him in—and how it feels to be performing in his own community. With over 200 gigs a year, Mike is one of the hardest-working cats in jazz today. His latest project, Paganova, blends fresh arrangements with classic jazz spirit and will take center stage at the fest.

🎶 We dig into:

• What to expect at the 2025 Lee’s Summit Jazz Festival

• The creation and sound of Paganova

• Mike’s deep ties to the Kansas City/Lee’s Summit jazz scenes

• Gig life, community, and what’s next

🎟️ Get festival tickets & info: https://www.bridgespace.us/jazz

🎹 More on Mike Pagan: https://www.michaelpaganmusic.com/

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Joe Dimino Podcaster/Artist

Joe Dimino has been writing & creating in a variety of capacities since his college days at the University of Missouri-Kansas City somewhere around 1993. If you are keeping score, that would be about 29 years+. It all began at UMKCs University News as a Sports Writer & turned into a myriad of expressive avenues. Inventing poems, art, video & audio has always been in the proverbial cards.