Blame It On My Youth

My Twitter feed was inundated with posts about Kind of Blue and Time Out for International Jazz Day yesterday.  Refusing to play into the hands of cynical marketers and self-serving institutions, I didn’t write any replies.  Yet the clickbait posts soliciting answers to questions like “which jazz records changed your life?” prompted me recall becoming a discerning jazz enthusiast in the 1980s.  Then, as now, my ears were open to all genres, so jazz albums had to be just as exciting as groundbreaking music by the likes of the Clash, Prince, Public Enemy and Talking Heads.  The ten albums on the following list that I purchased as new releases in the 1980s met that standard.  Without these titles in my life during that formative decade, I may not have made a lifelong commitment to jazz.

1. Jack DeJohnette- Special Edition (1980)

2. Pat Metheny- 80/81 (1980)

3. James Blood Ulmer- Free Lancing (1981)

4. Miles Davis- Decoy (1983)

5. Wynton Marsalis- Black Codes (From the Underground) (1985)

6. John Zorn- The Big Gundown (1985)

7. Ornette Coleman- In All Languages (1987)

8. Henry Threadgill- Easily Slip Into Another World (1988)

9. Bobby Watson & Horizon- No Question About It (1988)

10. Chet Baker- Plays and Sings from the Film “Let’s Get Lost” (1989)

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

(Original image of the Tennessee Theater at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: C.J. Boyd at Psychfest

I was the first paying customer through the door at the 2013 edition of KC Psychfest.  I was excited to see the kickoff set by C.J. Boyd.  I was also eager to soak up the same sort of positive vibes emitted at last year's inaugural event.  The energy was so welcoming that I wasn't the least bit perturbed that Boyd's performance was delayed.  (I got the impression that he and the organizers were waiting for the blinding sun streaming through the west windows of the event's "HQ" to go down.)  Boyd played loop-based drones that sounded like Mike Watt on a Charles Mingus bender.  And yeah, he was as good as that combination of references implies.


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I'd like to think that I immediately began goofing on Jim Morrison's vocals and lyrics the first time I heard "Light My Fire."  Yet Morrison's effort is kept credible by those astonishing keyboards.  When I went through my obligatory Doors phase as a teen, I was more attracted to the sonic feel of "Touch Me," "Peace Frog" and "Soul Kitchen" than the vocalist's bellowing.  I never bought into the mystique of the Lizard King, but I really dug the feel of the band.  Ray Manzarek's subsequent production work with bands like X indicated that he truly "got it."   (He's captured here performing with X last year.)  Manzarek died yesterday.

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House producer and vocalist Romanthony has died.

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I harp on the "where's-the-audience" theme for the umpteenth time in my review of one of last weekend's performances by the Matt Otto/Alan Ferber Quartet.

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Here's a free KC Psychfest 2013 sampler.

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WBGO captured the Miguel Zenon Quartet last week at the Village Vanguard.

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Why, yes, I am tantalized by the prospect of another groundbreaking Kanye West album.  Thanks for asking.

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I'll make time for this week's new releases by Airbourne, JC Brooks & Uptown Sound, Daft Punk, Bob James/David Sanborn, French Montana, The National and Darius Rucker as soon as I get my fill of Tap: John Zorn's Book of Angels, Vol. 20 by Pat Metheny.

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Kansas City Click: Oklahoman John Fulbright returns to Knuckleheads on Tuesday.

Greg Enemy is part of Wednesday's bill at the RecordBar.

Antiseen plays Thursday at Davey's.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)