April Recap

Top Five Performances
1. Khatia Buniatishvili- Folly Theater
My review.
2. Matt Otto, Danny Embrey, Sam Copeland and Brian Steever- Black Dolphin
My review.
3. Tatsuya Nakatani & Assif Tsahar- 1900 Building
My review.
4. tenThing- Helzberg Hall
My Instagram footage.
5. Bill MacKay- Mills Record Company
My Instagram footage.


Top Five Albums
1. Anderson Paak- Ventura
My review.
2. Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan- Epistrophy
My review.
3. Caroline Shaw/Attacca Quartet- Orange
Yet another Big Ears Festival encounter.
4. Brooks & Dunn- Reboot
My review.
5. Angelique Kidjo- Celia
Afro-Cuban makeovers.


Top Five Songs
1. Reba McEntire- “Stronger Than the Truth”
The hard stuff.
2. Kevin Abstract- “Big Wheels”
Squeaky.
3. Randy Rogers Band- “Drinking Money”
Gonna spend it all in one place.
4. Lizzo- “Jerome”
I’d hate to be him.
5. Pup- “Scorpion Hill”
Dark thoughts.


I conducted the same exercise in January, February and March.

(Original image of Bill MacKay by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Durand Jones & the Indications at recordBar

I like alcohol, but I wasn’t drinking.  I like dancing, but there wasn’t room to move.  I like parties, but I felt as if I was crashing a sloppy frat kegger.  And while I possess unconditional love for old-school R&B, I could hardly hear Durand Jones & the Indications over the din of drunken conversations.  Saturday’s sold-out show at RecordBar was an enormous letdown.  Opening band Ginger Root never stood a chance.  A friend tweeted that “I’m not sure I’ll see a better live show in 2019.”  Well, the performance by the soul revivalist band wasn’t even the best concert I attended in the past week.  I rave about a quartet led by Matt Otto at Plastic Sax.  Last night’s appearance by the Norwegian brass band tenThing was also superior.  I posted amusing footage at Instagram.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Whoa

I watched surfers from a beachside dive while on vacation in San Diego yesterday.  The soundtrack was similar to the sounds I’d heard at multiple Southern California establishments this week.  Rather than irritating me as they do when I encounter them in my Midwestern home, new millennium reggae songs from the likes of  Rebelution, Sbid, Iration and Damian Marley tickled my ears in an unfamiliar way.  Otherwise subdued barflys banded together for a hearty singalong when the 311 hit “Amber” popped up on the playlist.  I may have joined in.


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I shared tracks by Deborah Brown, Matt Otto with Ensemble Ibérica, Samantha Fish, Lee Ann Womack, Future and Alejandro Fernández on a KCUR program titled “From Kansas City And Beyond, The Best Music Of 2017”.  Bonus: I made a case for Rich the Factor as my favorite Kansas City artist.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed Lonnie McFadden’s Live at Green Lady Lounge at Plastic Sax.

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Denise LaSalle has died.

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“Fast” Eddie Clarke of Motörhead and Fastway has died.

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Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries has died.

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The crossover gospel artist Edwin Hawkins has died.

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The press materials for Suss’Ghost Box imply that the New York group’s “ambient country” concept is groundbreaking.  It’s not.  Calexico, Bill Frisell and B.J. Cole are among the artists that have previously explored the Ennio Morricone-influenced terrain.  That observation doesn’t mean that I don't take enormous pleasure in Ghost Box.

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The albums Jack Antonoff produced for Lorde, Taylor Swift and his band Bleachers provided satisfying pop kicks in 2017.  Børns’ Blue Madonna offers a similar sort of immediate gratification.  Here’s “I Don’t Want U Back”.

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I intended to bail on Anderson East’s Encore until I recognized the opening lyric of the album’s fifth song.  His surprising cover of Ted Hawkins’ “Sorry You’re Sick” is a nice surprise.  Even so, does the world need another painfully sincere blue-eyed soul singer in the vein of Ray LaMontagne, Allen Stone and Amos Lee?  Here’s
“Girlfriend”.

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”Do you like it hardcore?” Yes, Fools Gold and Masayoshi Iimori, I do.

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Listening to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Wrong Creatures is the rock and roll equivalent of rewatching the anodyne John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club.  RIYL: the Black Angels, vinyl reissues of the Velvet Underground, the Kills.  Here’s “Little Thing Gone Wild”.

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The video for Inara George’s lovely chamber-pop song “Young Adult” is charming.

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New Stravinsky!  The world premiere recording of the recently rediscovered “Chant Funébre” by Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra on Stravinsky: Chant funŠbre; Le Sacre de Printemps is a swirling mind-bender.

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Umphrey’s McGee’s It’s Not Us is a typically frustrating affair.  The jam band is best during noisy freakouts that evoke King Crimson’s Discipline.  The group is intolerable when it sounds like a third-tier version of the Police.

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I’m invariably delighted on the rare occasions when I encounter a music enthusiast who is even geekier than I.  Cole Cuchna pores over every note and lyric of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on the second season of his Dissect podcast.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Más Música

I went to Mexico with the intention of rejuvenating my mind and resting my ears.  It didn’t work out.  I spent my evenings at a beach festival that showcased the folkloric music and dance styles of Latin America.  I caught dozens of amazing performances by ensembles from Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Costa Rica and various Mexican states while sipping on dollar beers.  The rest of the music I heard was involuntarily imposed on me.  The hits that blasted in almost every public space drove me to distraction.  I must have heard Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito,” Juan Gabriel’s “Queiro,” the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and Toto’s “Africa” a dozen times apiece.  Por qué?


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I spent the last three nights at Ink’s Middle of the Map Fest.  I reviewed a concert by De La Soul, Talib Kweli, Ro Ransom, Stik Figa and the Indyground crew on Saturday.  I admired Jason Isbell and Strand of Oaks on Friday.  I critiqued Erica Joy, the Uncouth, 34 and Jaenki on Thursday.

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I examined the 1975 in a preview of the band’s concert at Starlight Theatre.

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I praised Ibérica, the beguiling new album by Matt Otto and Ensemble Ibérica, at Plastic Sax.

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

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

I Am a Small Axe

Managers at an area tavern invite luminaries to spin records at their establishment.  I considered angling for an engagement until I attended one of the functions.  The volume was absurdly low and I seemed to be the sole patron who was listening.  Even so, I recently created a playlist that’s heavy on groove-based jazz, funk, Latin boogaloo, vintage R&B and neo-soul that I might someday employ in a different setting.  In other words, my mix sounds a lot like a compilation of the music of David Axelrod.  The multi-dimensional artist died on February 5.


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I reviewed a concert by Datsik, Crizzy and Virtual Riot.

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I wrote extended concert previews about Chief Keef and Gaelynn Lea for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I reviewed Matt Otto’s latest album at Plastic Sax.

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

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The Menzingers’ After the Party isn’t for me, but many of my pals will fully embrace the strong album.  RIYL: the Hold Steady, balding punks, the Get Up Kids.  Here’s ”Lookers”.

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The self-titled duet album by Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile is insufferably precious.  RIYL: fake folk, Yo-Yo Ma, grad school.

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Ballrogg’s Abaft the Beam is RIYL Elliott Carter, “free chamber Americana,” B.J. Cole.  Here’s ”Block and Tackle”.

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My high hopes for Nate Smith’s Kinfolk have been doused.  RIYL: Laura Nyro, limpid neo-soul, Lizz Wright.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Mark Chesnutt- Tradition Lives

I grew increasingly frustrated as I watched Mark Chesnutt perform with Lorrie Morgan and Joe Diffie at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in January.  My subsequent review was positive, but I longed to be transported to a proper Chesnutt concert at a honky-tonk in his home state of Texas.

Rather than gripping a notepad and a penlight, I wanted to hold a longneck in one hand and the waist of my dance partner in the other.  My daydream of careening across a dance floor to “Brother Jukebox” was heavenly. 

Tradition Lives, Chesnutt’s first album in six years, is filled with sturdy country songs about drinking, cheating and heartbreak.  “So You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore,” an ode about a breakup with booze, is my favorite track. 

The veteran traditionalist has no use for crossover pop moves or for the sort of arty innovations that made Sturgill Simpson a sensation among the NPR set.  Yet formalism doesn’t seem stodgy in the hands of Chesnutt.  I favor hip-hop, jazz, metal and R&B these days, but hardcore country like Tradition Lives will always sound like home to me.


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I reviewed Twenty One Pilots’ sold-out concert at the Sprint Center.

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I wrote an extended preview of Flight of the Conchords’s show at Starlight Theatre for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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

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I continue to drive the Matt Otto bandwagon at Plastic Sax.

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Marc Meyers reports that jazz pianist Don Friedman has died.

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”How Many” is Miguel’s response to recent events.  (Tip via BGO.)

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If I manage to embrace the distortion that makes speakers sound as if they’re blown out, Mike Dillon’s Functioning Broke might become one of my favorite jazz-based albums of 2016.  RIYL: Steve Reich, Elliott Smith covers, early Keith Jarrett.

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I get choked up by Allen Toussaint's cover of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” at the conclusion of his lovely posthumous album American Tunes.

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In 2014, I suggested that Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron resembled "a poor man's version of Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city."  The rapper's new  Blank Face LP sounds like a bankrupt response to To Pimp a Butterfly.  The project also has the dubious distinction of housing “That Part”, arguably Kanye West’s worst-ever feature.

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The messy mix on the reissue of Van Morrison’s ...It’s Too Late to Stop Now doesn’t spoil the fun.

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Hiromi’s Spark is RIYL: bombast, Rush, being buried by notes.

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BadBadNotGood’s IV is mildly disappointing.  RIYL: Mulatu Astatke, hype, John Klemmer.

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At his best, Kenny Garrett is among the most essential living jazz musicians.  He’s astoundingly awful at his worst.  Do Your Dance! runs the gamut.  RIYL: John Coltrane, embarrassingly amateurish cover art, middle school talent shows.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Céu- Tropix

Summer has arrived.  I first felt the supremely relaxed sensation that I associate with the combination of sunburn, sangria and a refreshing evening breeze when I encountered ”Perfume do Invisível”, the opening track of Céu's Tropix.  She mixes campy lounge music with contemporary electronic grooves on the intoxicating new album.  Tropix sounds as if Seu Jorge, Beck and Elis Regina passed out on inflatable rafts in the same Brazilian swimming pool.


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I reviewed Matt Otto’s Soliloquy for KCUR.  There’s a corresponding audio feature at the link that doubles as a case study in Asperger syndrome.

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I wrote an extended preview of Gary Clark Jr.’s concert at the Uptown Theater.

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My review of a concert by Pablo Ziegler’s Quartet for New Tango is posted at Plastic Sax.

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Gato Barbieri has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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For the Imperfect, For The Dilligent, the latest effort from the Kansas City duo BLKFLANL, is RIYL: J Dilla, backpacks, Madlib.

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Have I no shame?  I’m horrified by my affection for Babymetal’s Metal Resistance.  Here’s ”Karate”.

(Original image of Concón by There Stands the Glass.)

Where Are We Now? Music Midway in 2013

Best Albums (Spotify playlist)
Thanks to seamless streaming services, I've listened to over 225 new releases in their entirety during the first six months of 2013.  These are indeed "the days of miracle and wonder."

1. Pat Metheny- Tap: John Zorn’s Book of Angels, vol. 20
2. The Grisly Hand- Country Singles
3. Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge- Twelve Reasons To Die
4. Kvelertak- Meir
5. Kanye West- Yeezus
6. José James- No Beginning No End
7. Mark Lowrey- Tangos for 18th Street
8. A$AP Rocky- Long Live A$AP
9. Barbara Hannigan and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France- Dutilleux: Correspondances
10. Fidlar- Fidlar
11. Joe Lovano & Us Five- Cross Culture
12. Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba- Jama Ko
13. Baptists- Bushcraft
14. Rudresh Mahanthappa- Gamak
15. George Strait- Love Is Everything
16. Bill Frisell- Big Sur
17. James Blake- Overgrown
18. Cherokee Rock Rifle- Ta-Li
19. Terri Lyne Carrington- Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue
20. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds- Push the Sky Away
21. Soweto Kinch- The Legend of Mike Smith
22. Alaturka- Yalniz
23. The Haxan Cloak- Excavation
24. DJ Muggs- Bass For Your Face
25. Pat Metheny- The Orchestrion Project


Best Singles (Spotify playlist)
My car may not have heat or air conditioning, but it has a radio.

1. B.o.B- "We Still In This Bitch"
2. Janelle Monae- "Q.U.E.E.N."
3. Justin Timberlake- "Suit & Tie"
4. David Bowie- "Where Are We Now?"
5. Marc Anthony- "Vivir Mi Vida"
6. Tamar Braxton- "Love and War"
7. Pusha T- "Numbers On the Boards"
8. José James- "Trouble"
9. Black Sabbath- "God Is Dead?"
10. Kutt Calhoun- "I Been Dope"
11. Charlie Wilson- "My Love Is All I Have"
12. Robin Thicke- "Blurred Lines"
13. Ashley Monroe- "Like a Rose"
14. Chris Brown- "Fine China"
15. Florida Georgia Line featuring Nelly- "Cruise (Remix)"
16. Carlos Vives- "Como Le Gusta a Tu Cuerpo"
17. Alice In Chains- "Stone"
18. Future- "Karate Chop (Remix)"
19. Kelly Rowland- "Dirty Laundry"
20. Rittz- "Switch Lanes"
21. Ms. Jody- "Still Strokin'"
22. Kenny Chesney- "When I See This Bar"
23. Dr#ke- "Started From the Bott#m"
24. Frank Turner- "Recovery"
25. Deftones- "Swerve City"


Best Shows
I've taken in 163 performances during the first six months of 2013.

1. Bobby Rush- Living Room at Knuckleheads
2. Mary J. Blige- Sprint Center
3. The Grisly Hand- Take Five Coffee + Bar
4. Rakim- Riot Room
5. Julian Lage and Jorge Roeder- Yardley Hall
6. Grizzly Bear- Uptown Theater
7. Diana Krall- Midland Theater
8. Volbeat- Penn Valley Park
9. Dave Douglas- Blue Room
10. Limp Bizkit- Granada
11. The Appleseed Cast- Riot Room
12. Making Movies- Yardley Hall
13. Kurt Elling- Gem Theater
14. They Might Be Giants- Crossroads KC
15. The Matt Otto/Alan Ferber Quartet- Westport Coffee House
16. Sweet Honey In the Rock- Muriel Kauffman Theatre
17. Gov't Mule- Uptown Theater
18. James Carter- Folly Theater
19. A Celebration of the Poetry of Langston Hughes with Vinson Cole- White Recital Hall
20. People's Liberation Big Band- RecordBar
21. Elena Urioste and Gabriela Martinez- Folly Theater
22. Diverse with Tony Tixier- house party
23. C.J. Boyd- Psychfest HQ
24.  Eliane Elias- Folly Theater
25. Jason Isbell and 400 Unit- Crossroads KC

(Original image of Regina Carter and Yacouba Sissoko at the American Jazz Museum on April 4 by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Kanye West- Yeezus

Yeezus, the relentlessly jarring new album by Kanye "I Am a God" West, is brilliantly profane and alarmingly vulgar.  And I love it.

The album sounds as if the tapes from all of Rick Rubin's productions were put into a blender and reassembled randomly in order to provide West with something interesting to rap over.  A constant barrage of sonic shards reminiscent of Danzig, LL Cool J, Lords of Acid, American Head Charge, Johnny Cash and the Mars Volta make Yeezus an avant-garde art project.  Needless to say, I don't hear a single.

Not only is West angry, he seems to be inspired by intoxicants.  A dizzying drug album, Yeezus could be considered an angry response to Frank Ocean's equally groundbreaking Channel Orange.  Yeezus is the next logical step in West's nearly unprecedented artistic quest.  The album affirms his status as the most vital artist in popular music of the last ten years. 


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Mary J. Blige and Kem are the recipients of the most positive concert review I've ever written.

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There Stands the Glass reader Gary Shindler wrote an accurate review of Blue Öyster Cult's appearance at Old Shawnee Days.

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The Kansas City Dance Festival is June 28-29 at the Spencer Theater.

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Here's a 78-minute performance by Don Byron's New Gospel Quartet.  RIYL: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Steve Coleman, Duke Ellington.

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The disturbing video for Poliça's "Tiff" is almost unwatchable.  I don't want to hear anyone wonder why Poliça isn't more popular.

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I just got around to listening to Jimmy Herring's impressive 2012 instrumental album Subject To Change Without Notice.  RIYL: John McLaughlin, Steve Morse, Widespread Panic.

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The kids in internet sensation Unlocking the Truth are delightful.

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In addition to Yeezus, this week's new releases include albums from Billy Bang (his final session), Kenny Barron, Beady Eye, Bester Quartet, J. Cole, Donna the Buffalo, Bill Frisell, High On Fire (two live albums), Locash Cowboys, Maysa, Delbert McClinton and Glen Clark, Mac Miller, Kelly Rowland, Sigor Ros, Wadada Leo Smith, Eddie Spaghetti and Valient Thorr.

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Kansas City Click: The Czar Bar hosts Steady Breather on Monday.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band plays Crossroads KC on Tuesday.

Duke Robillard appears at Knuckleheads on Wednesday.

Gloriana entertain in the Power & Light district on Thursday.

Matt Otto returns to the Blue Room on Friday.

(Original image 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.)