What Rabbath Wrought

I've long viewed my enthusiasm for European improvised music with suspicion.  François Rabbath's astounding performance at Park College earlier this week helped me realize that my love of projects like Dan Nicholls' new album Ruins is more than a pretentious affectation.

Through both his innate brilliance and his willingness to disregard established conventions, the Syrian-born and Paris-based Rabbath creates music without boundaries.  (Here's my review.)

Why then, I asked a colleague last night, don't more area musicians follow his lead by ignoring the formal mandates of the classical, folk and jazz worlds?  My friend brought me back to earth by suggesting that most professional musicians in Kansas City are forced to make their livings by playing music that conforms to established forms.  He's right.  I suppose that playing "Someone To Watch Over Me" in a cocktail lounge night after night might extinguish the creative spark.

In addition to being free from the American cultural mandate to swing, many experimental European musicians are also immersed in international folk and classical traditions.  And that's how a restless music obsessive ends up listening to At Home, the new album by Polish trumpeter Maciej Fortuna, as he folds laundry in Kansas.


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I reviewed Friday's concert by Matchbox Twenty, the Goo Goo Dolls and Kate Earl.

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I reviewed Dave Alvin's debut at Knuckleheads.

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Toshi Seeger has died.

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KCPT chats with Kerwin Young.

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Here's footage of Radkey performing at the Bottleneck this week.  ("Maybe the Misfits...")

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An Olathe man was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer outside a Chief Keef concert in Oklahoma City.

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I hadn't clued in to Lake Street Dive until a dude at last month's Los Lobos concert raved about the band. 

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Confession time- I actually bought Ellen Foley's Spirit of St. Louis album in 1981.  Here's the video for the cringeworthy lead track.

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A person I don't know intended the following Facebook comment as a compliment to both bands: "Jethro Tull was the Radiohead of the '70s."  I concur (for entirely different reasons).

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge- Twelve Reasons To Die

I watched Safe House, a solid action flick starring Denzel Washington (and featuring Rubén Blades) on cable earlier this week.   It was little different than dozens of organized crime, complex caper and government conspiracy movies I've enjoyed.  I could see how it was going to play out within the first fifteen minutes.  I didn't mind.  Familiar formulas can provide solace. 

I feel much the same way about Twelve Reasons To Die, the new collaboration between Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge.  With amusingly self-referential lyrics and a sound that deliberately evokes Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly and Isaac Hayes' Shaft, it's at least as good as Ghost's 1996 2006 classic Fishscale. 

The narrative is… Oh, who am I kidding?  This album has my name written all over it- of course I love it.  Anyone who shares my affection for the Wu-Tang Clan and early '70s blaxploitation soundtracks will adore Twelve Reasons To Die.


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Scott Miller of Game Theory and the Loud Family has died.

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Jeneé Osterheldt wrote a fine profile of Kerwin Young.

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Steddy P. already knows that I don't like his video for "Vacay".

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My former coworker Glenn Jones sure can play guitar with emotional authority.

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The Haxan Cloak's Excavation is every bit as as good as critics have suggested.  RIYL: Tangerine Dream, narcotics, seances.

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Curses!  Just when I thought my feelings for the Three O'Clock had been permanently suppressed, a new compilation has revived those undesirable pangs of nostalgia. 

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Iggy Pop has jokes.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

It Serves Me Right To Suffer

News of Jimmy Dawkins' passing caused me to reflect on my relationship with the blues. 

During the last big blues scare I avidly consumed the music.  I frequented gigs by the likes of Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Little Hatch and Jimmy Rogers and avidly kept tabs on the new release schedules of labels like Delmark Records. 

Money is tighter these days and I have to deal with the real-life challenges faced by most adults.  While I have plenty of reasons to embrace the blues, the form no longer holds much interest for me.  Am I a loathsome bandwagon-jumper or has the quality of the blues scene diminished?

Soul and R&B-oriented acts like Linda Shell & Her Blues Thang and Bobby Rush excepted, I'm not inclined to spend a Friday night at a club listening to a blues band.  Even acclaimed outliers don't stir me.  Most of the blues I listen to for pleasure was recorded before 1970.

It serves me right to suffer.


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Dave Douglas reconfigured my DNA earlier this week.  Here's my review of his appearance at the Blue Room.

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Mac Lethal is in cranky old man mode on "Late 20's & Early 30's.  I like it, but I'll be even happier when he starts complaining about 1099s and mortgage deduction paperwork.)

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Here's an update on Kerwin Young's affiliation with Public Enemy.

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KJHK filmed an in-studio session by Fourth of July.

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Kvelertak is my favorite thing right now.

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I pray that I never outgrow my love for sleazy rock albums like Too High Too Kross by the Dirty Fences.

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This Is The End, Beautiful Friend is a set of the "silent final grooves of records" available at the Free Music Archive.  RIYL: vinyl, noise, mixtapes. 

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Teena Marie- Beautiful

Two years after her premature passing in 2010, I continue to mourn Teena Marie.  The posthumous album Beautiful was released last week.  Rolling Stone provides the project's backstory. 

Beautiful is about what longtime fans might expect.  Late in her career, Marie wasn't attempting to replicate the upbeat funk of big hits like "Square Biz".  Instead, Beautiful contains mostly ruminative love songs.  Innocuous and unobtrusive but consistently pleasant, Beautiful would provide ideal background music at an upscale salon.

The two best tracks- "Rare Breed" and "Definition of Down"- don't match any of her career highlights, while the limpid "Carte Blanche" and "Wild Horses" should have been left in the can.  An embarrassing production choice spoils "Maria Bonita."

Completists won't regret the need to acquire Beautiful, but casual fans who already own a Marie compilation or a couple of her prime albums aren't missing out.


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Last weekend's performance by Julian Lage and Jorge Roeder at Yardley Hall is my concert to beat in 2013.  Here's my review.

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I reviewed Bloc Party's concert at Liberty Hall on Sunday.

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UMKC's Kerwin Young will be on hand when Public Enemy is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.

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My new favorite time-suck is the archive of a defunct Midwestern music publication called The Note.  Check out the amateurish  advertisement for the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour.

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I'll stop listening to the "melo-death" of Aether Realm only after you pry the flanged mace from my cold, dead fingers.

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Pantha du Prince's new Elements of Light album is like a groovy Tubular Bells.  Here's a taste.

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Larry Rosen, co-founder GRP Records, explains how the promising concept of smooth jazz became a "sad joke".

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Mixed Blood Majority's new album is released today.  Watch Lazerbeak perform his magic here.

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When (my) worlds collide: Bargain Bin Blasphemy is hilarious.

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Kansas City Click: Gravity A headlines at the RecordBar on Tuesday.

The Kill Devil Club features Steve Lambert on Wednesday.

Inspectah Deck appears at the Riot Room on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)