Review: Abraham Inc.- Tweet Tweet

You can't force the funk.

I could happily listen to Fred Wesley play trombone all day. Unfortunately, the work of Wesley and the rest of the horn section are the only elements of Tweet Tweet I can fully endorse. On paper the 2010 album by Abraham Inc., an ambitious collective that includes Wesley and clarinetist David Krakauer, should result in "an all-out klezmer-funk dance party."

Instead, the result is the sort of musical novelty regularly featured at NPR. Here's the inevitable All Things Considered interview.

While I fully endorse the concept and intent behind Abraham Inc., it sounds like the self-conscious musicians are trying way too hard to merge klezmer, funk and hip hop. And the rapping is often embarrassing. Perhaps not coincidentally, the klezmer-based "Baleboste" is the album's best song. Abraham Inc. has dates booked in locations ranging from Iowa to France during the next twelve weeks. I suspect that many of my objections would evaporate in a live setting.

Good intentions don't always make for great music. Abraham Inc. is attempting to free my mind, but my ass won't follow.

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I reviewed the debut album of the People's Liberation Big Band of Kansas City for Ink.

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A new ECM label collaboration between Dino Saluzzi, Gidon Kremer and Andrei Pushkarev is right up my alley. Listen to excerpts here.

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Margaret Whiting has died.

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I realize I dissed Grace Potter's most recent album in this space, but I never tire of watching videos of her live performances. She's captured here having fun with her band on New Year's Eve. I dig her wig.

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Kansas City Click: Andre Watts performs with the Kansas City Symphony Friday and Saturday at the Lyric Theater.

Earl Klugh plays guitar at the Folly Theater on Saturday.

Shay Estes collaborates with Mark Lowrey Sunday at Jardine's.