Concert Review: The Mavericks at Knuckleheads

I anticipated that I'd be a part of a coterie of a few hundred nostalgic fans of The Mavericks as I drove to Knuckleheads last Thursday.

After all, the concert was competing against two free high-profile country shows.  Charlie Daniels was playing the kickoff concert of the Flatlands Music Festival.  Outlaw Jim and the Whiskey Benders were on the KC Live! stage at the Power & Light District.  Who'd be willing pay an exorbitant amount of money ($40 in advance and $45 day of show) to see a band that peaked almost twenty years ago when free entertainment was on tap?

It turns out that Kansas City is home to over 1,000 moneyed alternative country fans who probably wouldn't be caught dead at a Charlie Daniels show and wouldn't feel comfortable patronizing the Power & Light District.

And man, these people loved the Mavericks.   Trampoline may be one of my favorite albums of all time, but I couldn't begin to join the majority of the audience in singing along to most every song Thursday.  This rough fan footage captures the atmosphere.

I'd attended a couple of front man Raul Malo's solo performances in recent years, but I hadn't seen the Mavericks since a 1990s gig at Guitars & Cadillacs.   The recently reunited band was supplemented by a horn section, an accordionist and two or three additional multi-instrumentalists.  The large band played over two hours.

Yeah, I got my money's worth.  Here's Tim Finn's proper review.


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Miranda Lambert won me over at the Flatlands Country Music Festival.  Here's my review.

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Ray Dolby has died.

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Patrick Neas interviewed Joyce DiDonato in advance of her performance in "The Capulets and the Montagues" at the Lyric Opera.

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Here are videos for Tech N9ne's "Dwamn" and Krizz Kaliko's "Night Time".

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Jim James participated in Lawrence High School's Classroom Sessions program.

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Roscoe Mitchell's Not Yet is RIYL: Anthony Davis, John Cage, Anthony Braxton.

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Essential Tremors,  the new album by J Roddy Walston & the Business, is RIYL: Jack White, Jerry Lee Lewis, Led Zeppelin.

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I dig British hip-hop.  The Menagerie's "Are You Serious?" is RIYL: The Streets, Dizzee Rascal, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

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A recent 70-minute performance by the Dave King Trio is streaming at YouTube.

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Roy Smeck shreds.  (Via There Stands the Glass reader Phil.)

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This week's new releases of special interest to There Stands the Glass include Avicii, Bill Callahan, Carcass, Todd Clouser, Elvis Costello & the Roots, Crystal Stilts, Kenny Garrett, Garland Jeffreys (!), Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Mark Lanegan, the Del McCoury Band, MGMT, MMG, Nightmares On Wax, Gregory Porter, Sidi Touré, Why?, Windhand and the 1975.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Terri Lyne Carrington- Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue

When you get into popularity then you're talking about money, not music. -Duke Ellington

Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue is the sort of high-concept album that music geeks adore.  In a nutshell: three of today's most accomplished jazz musicians reinterpret a classic jazz album with bold political perspectives and contemporary sounds.  I applaud the audaciousness of the project.

A core group of drummer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington, bassist Christian McBride and pianist Gerald Clayton employ a few additional likeminded musicians and a slew of provocative spoken word samples about economics.  The original Money Jungle- a 1963 collaboration between Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach- merely implied what Carrington and her cohorts make explicit. 

The risk of a project of this nature is that the wealth of ideas could easily outshine the music.  That's not the case here.  The album is consistently entertaining.  Its sole fault is that two or three of the piano trio tracks more closely resemble the Ray Brown Trio than the legendary original Money Jungle assemblage.  There are worse things, of course, than hearing McBride emulate his Ray Brown.

Clark Terry's slurry scat on "Fleurette Africain” is just as articulate as the sampled monetary quotes from figures including Martin Luther King, Jr., Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ron Paul and Condoleezza Rice that are sprinkled throughout the album.   The neo-soul of "Backward Country Boy Blues," featuring vocalist Lizz Wright, is superior to most of Esperanza Spalding's disappointing Radio Music Society.  Mainstream jazz fans may object to these updates, but Carrington's versatility is in line with the progressive inclinations of Ellington, Mingus and Roach.

It's difficult not to interpret Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue as a commentary on today's dismal jazz economy.  This is an essential album made by some of the biggest names in jazz.  Yet it only stands an outside chance at breaking into sales of five figures.  Only a handful of critics have yet to even acknowledge the album's existence.  Amazon's current sales ranking of the February 5 release is #1,178. 

The album closes with Herbie Hancock reading the Ellington quote posted above.  Was Ellington right?  Or was he making a self-serving excuse for the diminished role jazz plays in American culture? 


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I reviewed performances by Willy Moon, Shiny Toy Guns, the Beautiful Bodies and IAmDynamite at the Midland last Friday.

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The KC Cypher Series just got real.  The latest episode features Stik Figa, Riv Locc and Young Fate. Ron Ron (at the 7:37 mark) makes the most interesting appearance. 

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Flatlands Country Music Festival anyone?

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Here he goes again- Mac Lethal's "I Gotta Pee But I'm Too Comfortable To Get Up".

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RCA is pawning off 29 Van Cliburn discs for $80.  EMI is selling 11 Boris Christoff discs for $35. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…"

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I don't care what anyone says- I think Frank Ocean's weird Grammy performance was brilliant.

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The very existence of a hopelessly esoteric new release from Arhoolie Records fills me with joy.  The Wall Street Journal offers perspective.

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Last night I dreamed that I was married to the daughter of Irma Thomas.

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Kansas City Click: Ex-Cult are Tuesday's headliners at the RecordBar.

Lonnie McFadden performs at WestChase Grille on Wednesday.

Carrie Rodriguez returns to Knuckleheads on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)