March Recap

Top Five Performances
1. The Big Ears Festival
My capsule reviews of 30 sets.
2. Leikeli47- Encore Room
My Instagram clip.
3. Metallica- Sprint Center
My review.
4. Ryan Keberle & Catharsis- Mod Gallery
My review.
5. Eric Church- Sprint Center
My review.

Top Five Albums
1. Solange- When I Get Home
I no longer pine for new music from Erykah Badu.
2. Little Simz- Grey Area
A true boss.
3. Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom- Glitter Wolf
Delirious chamber jazz.
4. Willie Clayton- Excellence
Take me to the river.
5. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah- Ancestral Recall
Generational brilliance.

Top Five Songs
1. Townes Van Zandt- “Sky Blue”
Buried treasure.
2. 2 Chainz with Kendrick Lamar- “Momma I Hit a Lick”
I want it, I want it, I want it.
3. The Wild Reeds- “Moving Target”
Garage-rock perfection.
4. Zara McFarlane- "East of the River Nile”
New life for an Augustus Pablo gem.
5. Nick Lowe- “Love Starvation”
Pure pop for old people.

I conducted the same exercise in January and February.

(Original image of Dwight Andrews and Leo Wadada Smith at the Big Ears Festival by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Solange- When I Get Home

How I detested A Seat at the Table!   I didn’t hear what others claimed to like about Solange’s 2016 breakout album.  While I’ve admired Solange for more than a decade, I’m hardly a Stan of Beyoncé’s sister.  That’s why I’m enormously pleased to report that Solange has realized her potential with When I Get Home.  The new album equals or betters efforts by like-minded neo-soul and progressive jazz artists including the Internet, Flying Lotus, Robert Glasper and SZA.   While it doesn’t contain any so-called “bops” (ugh), When I Get Home represents everything I love about the current musical moment even as it recalls the seminal work of Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu.  And no, I haven’t watched the accompanying album-length video.


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I reviewed the first of Eric Church’s two concerts at the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed Norman Brown’s The Highest Act of Love at Plastic Sax.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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Bluegrass giant Mac Wiseman has died.

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Jazz guitarist Ed Bickert has died.

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Mark Hollis of Talk Talk has died.

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Drummer Andy Anderson has died.

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André Previn has died.  What a life!  I’ve long employed his solo piano improvisations as sublime background music.

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The jazz critic and producer Ira Gitler has died.

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Zara McFarlane’s four interpretations of Augustus Pablo’s “East of the River Nile” are positioned at the precise center of my musical wheelhouse. 

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Offset’s Father of 4 is so weak that I’m embarrassed for the rapper and for myself for intently listening to all 58 minutes of it.  Here’s “Quarter Milli”.

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Guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King are in thrall of Ornette Coleman on the thorny Love Hurts.  I love it, of course.  Here’s “Tomorrow Is the Question”.

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While attending the rock festival isn’t at the top of my bucket list, I’m consistently impressed by the scale of Rocklahoma.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Mark Eitzel- Hey Mr. Ferryman

Mark Eitzel has my number.  Not literally- we last spoke in the ‘90s.  Yet his new album Hey Mr. Ferryman resembles a musical narration of my inner voice at 3 a.m.  Like Eitzel, I’m a fifty-something American whose life was changed by the music of Frank Sinatra, Sonny Rollins and Joe Strummer.  ”The Last Ten Years”, the opening track of Hey Mr. Ferryman, is loaded with zingers like “I saw the bartender’s love- I saw it in her yawn.”  The songs in which Eitzel banters with Jesus, dreams of slow-dancing in a kitchen and paints a portrait of a forlorn man who “gets grumpy trying to keep hope alive” hit uncomfortably close to my dilapidated home.


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I reviewed Winter Jam at the Sprint Center.

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I pondered the enigmatic Erica Joy on KCUR.

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I wrote an extended concert preview about Eric Church’s return to the Sprint Center.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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An anti-rap editorial in The Sedalia Democrat was inspired by a KCUR segment based on my advocacy of a song by the Popper.

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John Wetton has died.

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Delbert McClinton doesn’t give a flip on Prick of the Litter.  And that’s a good thing.  The new album is RIYL Dan Hicks, constructive indifference, Leon Russell.

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Boosie’s fatalistic ”Crabs In a Bucket” is my new theme song.

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Into the Blue, an EP by a trio led by the teen jazz pianist Emily Bear, is an exercise in tedious formalism.  RIYL: Joey Alexander, hype, Bill Charlap.

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Kehlani’s SweetSexySavage is RIYL Janet Jackson, generic R&B, Jhene Aiko.  Here’s “Distraction”.

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Bell Biv DeVoe’s Three Stripes is a barely passable reunion.

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Miles Mosley’s Uprising is RIYL Snarky Puppy, bluster, Al Kooper’s Blood, Sweat & Tears.  Here’s a live version of “L.A. Won’t Bring You Down”.

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Code Orange’s excellent Forever is RIYL chaos, the concept of metal version of Crass, throwing bricks.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Yelena Eckemoff- Blooming Tall Phlox

Transfixed by the 98-minute album, I listened to Blooming Tall Phlox twice before researching the backstory of the unheralded but startlingly brilliant new release.  I discovered that each of the selections is intended to evoke a different scent that Yelena Eckemoff recalls from her childhood in Russia.  Whatever.  I’m far more interested in the ingenious arrangements and stellar playing of Eckemoff and the young band of Finns who realize her vision.  The cringey album trailer doesn't reflect the project's dazzling qualities.


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I suggest at Plastic Sax that a reading by poet Hanif Abdurraqib ruined jazz for me.

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I reviewed a disappointing Alexis y Fido concert.

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I reviewed “I Got Rhythm” at Quality Hill Playhouse.

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I featured A La Mode on my weekly segement on KCUR.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I wrote an extended concert preview about Eric Church’s return to the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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Maggie Roche has died.

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Overend Watts of Mott the Hoople has died.

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Jaki Liebezeit of Can has died.

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Butch Trucks has died.

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Kid Koala’s wondrous Music To Draw To: Satellite is RIYL floating, Björk, dreaming.

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Cherry Glazerr’s Apocalipstick is a rockin’ good time.

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Nicky Jam’s new album Fénix goes on forever.

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Bash & Pop’s quaint Anything Could Happen is RIYL: Pleased to Meet Me, Keith Richards’ solo career, Isolation Drills.

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Craig Taborn’s Daylight Ghosts has that new ECM smell.

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Wells Fargo’s Watch Out, an archival release by an obscure rock band from Zimbabwe, is RIYL the Faces, electric guitars, Jefferson Airplane.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Paolo Nutini at Knuckleheads

Sometimes you get what you pay for.

I jumped at the chance to catch a free show by the male version of Adele at one of my favorite venues on Saturday. 

Realizing that the room housing the primary indoor stage would reach capacity quickly, I showed up at Knuckleheads 75 minutes early.  As Paolo Nutini and his band conducted a sound check, I waited in line outside with a couple hundred shivering people.  I was the only member of the queue without a canned food donation.  The event was apparently promoted by 90.9 The Bridge as a charitable benefit, but I rarely listen to the station.

After buying a PBR man-can for $3.50, I secured a seat at the back of the room and immediately sensed trouble.  Everyone around me was in the celebratory mood associated with holiday weekends.  No one was talking about Nutini.

Sure enough, half of the people in attendance didn't even acknowledge Nutini and his band when the 55-minute show began.  After 15 minutes of not being able to make out individual songs, I fought my way to the front.  A generous friend found room for me at a prime table 20 feet from the stage.  I still couldn't hear. 

I sensed that  Nutini's sound crew created a lush mix that would have been ideal if no one was talking.  Yet chatter overwhelmed the music.  Two bros squeezed next to me were talking about "locking down" women, whatever that means.

While I couldn't make out individual instrumentation, Nutini's voice occasionally rose above the din.  His recordings don't lie.  Nutini is a superb singer who has staked out a prime territory between Otis Redding and Maxwell.

At least, that's what I think I heard.


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I reviewed Slipknot's return to the Sprint Center.

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I list the Top Jazz Albums of 2014 at Plastic Sax.

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Ensemble Ibérica is releasing a new album next week.

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Teddy Dibble conducts a show-and-tell with the face-themed album art in his vinyl collection.

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Ottomans, the new album by Hidden Pictures, was released today.   RIYL: Crowded House, smart pop, OK Jones.

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Bobby Keys has died.  I have a vague recollection of once seeing him perform as a member of Johnny Copeland's band.  Is that possible?

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"Elvis Presley Blvd" is the best song on Rick Ross' entertaining Hood Billionaire.

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I finally got around to listening to Eric Church's The Outsiders.  Like the little girl with the curl, when it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid.

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How did I overlook Broken Ankles, the 2014 collaboration between Freeway and Girl Talk?  "Lived It" is excellent.

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The Art of Conversation, the highly praised duet album by Kenny Barron and Dave Holland, is exquisite.  RIYL: tony clubs, New York City, elegance.

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I'm not feeling De La Soul's new song "The People".

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Syleena Johnson's Chapter 6: Couples Therapy is RIYL: Lalah Hathaway, heartache, Jill Scott.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)