I'm Trying To Keep My Faith: The Top Albums, Songs and Concerts of 2016

I made only one music-oriented trip in 2016.  I traveled to Atlanta to attend an ill-fated Kanye West concert.  Yet as these lists indicate, my ears weren't jilted at my home in Kansas City.

The Top 50 Albums of 2016

1. Kanye West- The Life of Pablo
2. Chance the Rapper- Coloring Book
3. Hélène Grimaud- Water
4. Logan Richardson- Shift
5. Rich the Factor- Smile
6. Rihanna- Anti
7. Jóhann Jóhannsson- Orphée
8. David Bowie- Blackstar
9. David Murray, Geri Allen and Terri Lyne Carrington- Perfection
10. Miranda Lambert- The Weight of These Wings

11. Maxwell- BlackSUMMERS’night
12. Nels Cline- Lovers
13. Danny Brown- Atrocity Exhibition
14. Childish Gambino- Awaken, My Love!
15. Pat Metheny Unity Group- The Unity Sessions
16. Kevin Gates- Islah
17. Amina Claudine Myers- Sama Rou
18. Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle- Kings & Queens
19. Savages- Adore Life
20. Joyce DiDonato- In War & Peace: Harmony Through Music

21. Adrian Younge- Something About April II
22. Kendrick Lamar- Untitled Unmastered
23. Leonard Cohen- You Want It Darker
24. Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom- Otis Was a Polar Bear
25. The Conquerors- Wyld Time
26. Walker Family Singers- Panola County Spirit
27. Kvelertak-Nattesferd
28. Rokia Traoré- Ne So
29. Anderson Paak- Malibu
30. Céu- Tropix

31. A Tribe Called Quest- We Got It From Here...
32. Willie Nelson- For the Good Times: A Tribute to Ray Price
33. Exmortus- Drive Forth
34. BJ the Chicago Kid- In My Mind
35. Corinne Bailey Rae- The Heart Speaks In Whispers
36. Shirley Collins- Lodestar
37. Sumac- What One Becomes
38. Elliot Galvin Trio- Punch
39. Run the Jewels- 3
40. The Weeknd- Starboy

41. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds- Skeleton Tree
42. Kandace Springs- Soul Eyes
43. Ingrid Laubrock- Serpentines
44. A$AP Ferg- Always Strive and Prosper
45. Young Thug- Jeffery
46. Volbeat- Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie
47. Drake- Views
48. Willie Nelson- Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin
49. YG- Still Brazy
50. The Grisly Hand- Hearts & Stars


The Top Five Reissues and Archival Releases of 2016
1. Charlie Parker- Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes
2. Urgent Jumping: East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics 1972-1982
3. Soul Fever: Afro Funk, Disco And Boogie: West African Disco Mayhem!
4. Miles Davis- Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5
5. Gov’t Mule- The Tel-Star Sessions


The Top Five EPs of 2016
1. T.I.- Us Or Else
2. Sarah Borges- Good and Dirty
3. Spoek Mathambo- Badimo
4. Chris Bathgate- Old Factory
5. Vince Staples- Prima Donna


The Top 50 Songs of 2016
1. Kanye West- “Ultralight Beam”
2. Anderson Paak- “Come Down”
3. Andre Williams- “Bury Me Deep”
4. Chance the Rapper- “Same Drugs”
5. Joe- “Our Anthem”
6. Danny Brown- “Really Doe”
7. Tedeschi Trucks Band- “Anyhow”
8. Miike Snow- “I Feel the Weight”
9. BJ the Chicago Kid- “Church”
10. Krizz Kaliko- “Didn’t Wanna Wake You”

11. Anthony Hamilton- “Ain’t No Shame”
12. T.I.- “40 Acres”
13. A Tribe Called Quest- “Kids...”
14. Rihanna- “Love On the Brain”
15. Sarah Borges- “Tendency to Riot”
16. Childish Gambino- “Redbone”
17. Frank Ocean- “Pink & White”
18. Parker Millsap- “Heaven Sent”
19. The Pretty Reckless- “Oh My God”
20. Kvelertak- “1985”

21. Boosie Badazz- “Cancer”
22. 21 Savage- “No Heart”
23. Babymetal- “Karate”
24. Rich the Factor- “Got ‘Em For Cheap”
25. Schoolboy Q- “That Part (Black Hippy remix)”
26. 5 Seconds of Summer- “Girls Talk Boys”
27. Descendants- “No Fat Burger”
28. YG- “Why You Always Hatin’?”
29. Agoraphobic Nosebleed- “Not a Daughter”
30. Jamie Lidell- “I Live to Make You Smile”

31. Kevin Gates- “Thought I Heard (Bread Winner’s Anthem)”
32. Phantogram- “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore”
33. Regina Belle- “He’s Alright”
34. Miranda Lambert- “Ugly Lights”
35. 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne- “Bounce”
36. Margo Price- “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)”
37. Mayhem Lauren- “Badmon Ting”
38. Volbeat- “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown”
39. Various Blonde- “All Bases Covered”
40. Soul Revival- “If You Ask Me Again (I Do)”

41. Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal- “Parts of a Man”
42. Famous Dex- "I Get the Drip From My Walk"
43. Shirley Caesar and Anthony Hamilton- “It’s Alright, It’s Ok”
44. Maxwell- “Lake By the Ocean”
45. Solange- “Don’t Touch My Hair”
46. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- “Bolo Tie”
47. Psychic Heat- “Anxiety Eater”
48. M.I.A.- “Visa”
49. Car Seat Headrest- “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales”
50. Allen Toussaint- "American Tune"


The Top 50 Shows of 2016
1. Maxwell and Mary J. Blige- Sprint Center
2. Chance the Rapper- Midland theater
3. Lee Fields and the Expressions- The Granada
4. Aida Cuevas with Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles- Yardley Hall
5. Bonnie Raitt- Midland theater
6. Florence + The Machine- Providence Medical Amphitheater
7. Marilyn Maye- Quality Hill Playhouse
8. Exmortus- Aftershock
9. Tortoise- The Granada
10. Stephonne Singleton- Tank Room

11. Adia Victoria- Riot Room
12. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band- Sprint Center
13. Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle- Tank Room
14. Twenty-One Pilots- Sprint Center
15. Goddamn Gallows- Riot Room patio
16. Dolly Parton- Sprint Center
17. Steven Wilson- Folly Theater
18. R. Kelly- Sprint Center
19. Be/Non- Scottish Rite Temple
20. The Who- Sprint Center

21. Lamb of God- Midland theater
22. Chic- Starlight Theatre (opening for Duran Duran)
23. Christian McBride Trio- Folly Theater
24. Tedeschi Trucks Band- Midland theater
25. Pablo Ziegler and the Quartet for New Tango- Polsky Theatre
26. Les Arts Florissant- Helzberg Hall
27. UFO- VooDoo
28. Logan Richardson- Blue Room
29. Lianne La Havas- Uptown Theater (opening for Leon Bridges)
30. Dwight Yoakam- Uptown Theater

31. Roy Ayers- Blue Room
32. Diana Reyes- Barney Allis Plaza
33. Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom- Blue Room
34. Elle King- Midland theater
35. Matt Villinger- Orion Room at the Green Lady Lounge
36. 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne- Sprint Center
37. Maarja Nuut- Westin Kansas City at Crown Center
38. Toni Braxton- Sprint Center
39. Midori with the Kansas City Symphony- Helzberg Hall
40. Matt Otto Septet- Blue Room

41. Fantasia- Starlight Theatre
42. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats-Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
43. Elvis Costello- Yardley Hall
44. Avant- Uptown Theater
45. Helado Negro- RecordBar
46. Julion Alvarez- Sprint Center
47. Josh Groban- Starlight Theatre
48. Ebony Tusks- Midland theater (opening for Zhu)
49. Kevin Gates-  Providence Medical Center Amphitheater (opening for Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa)
50. Candido- American Jazz Museum

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Michael Angelo at RecordBar

I told the organizers of the Outer Reaches festival that I was extremely anxious about Michael Angelo Nigro’s momentous appearance at their event.  The obscure Kansas City musician who performs as Michael Angelo seems flighty in a 10-minute documentary released last year.

I had the gall to share my concern with Michael Angelo when I encountered him on the sidewalk outside RecordBar prior to his show on Saturday.  When I told him that I didn't know what to expect, he replied that “I don’t know, either.”

His uncertainty was understandable.  The booking was only the second time he’d performed the songs from his recently rediscovered 1976 and 1977 albums and the first time he would air the material in his hometown.  He told the audience of about 75 that “you guys are kind of in a historic moment here.”

Accompanied by guitarist Rusty Crewse and drummer Paul Allee, Michael Angelo played bass and sang during a 45-minute set that sounded untainted by the musical developments of the last 40 years.  The trio recalled the spiritual jangle-pop of Chris Bell’s “I Am the Cosmos” on a couple wondrous selections.  A rendition of “Sorcerer’s Delight” was appropriately freaky.  A novelty song Michel Angelo described as an homage to Tin Pan Alley broke up the heaviness of selections that evoked early Rush.

While it was a bumpy ride, I enjoyed the brief excursion to 1977.


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An Amos Lee concert obliterated my modest expectations last week. Here’s my review.

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I reviewed a concert by Leon Bridges and Lianne La Havas.

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I discussed Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle on KCUR last week.

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

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I address Kansas City’s “jazz dick music” controversy at Plastic Sax.

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Neville Marriner has died.

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Kashif Saleem has died.

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Rockabilly cat Joe Clay has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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I know the Kansas City rapper Brotha Newz as a high school teacher.  Here’s his high-concept video.

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I have yet to decide if Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition is good or great.  There’s no debating ”Really Doe”- it’s an instant classic.

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Prince lives!  Eric Benét channels the master on “Insane”.

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A play-in-reverse-sequence function on audio playback devices would make chronologically precise compilations that cover expansive time frames such as Pat Thomas’ excellent Coming Home: Original Ghanaian Highlife & Afrobeat Classics, 1964-1981 more accessible.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

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I had a quasi-religious experience while listening to a track from Mother of Light, a forthcoming album by Isabel Bayrakdarian.

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The British jazz scene is on fire.  Neil Cowley Trio’s astounding Spacebound Apes is RIYL: Bad Plus, art-rock, Brad Mehldau Trio.  Here’s ”The City and the Stars”.

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”Change Me” is my favorite song on Tamela Mann’s disappointing new One Way album.

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T.I.’s Us Or Else EP is essential.  Here’s ”Warzone”.  RIYL: Woody Guthrie, thoughtful discourse, Run the Jewels.

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A Seat at the Table, Solange's latest release, sounds like Dirty Projectors filtered through Cornel West.

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While charming, John Prine’s new duets album For Better, Or Worse doesn’t hold a candle to In Spite of Ourselves.  Here’s ”Color of the Blues”.

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I’m trying to wrap my head around Timothy Brownie’s The Ritual Experience at La Guardia Del Maestro, Mexico City.  Here’s a rapturous interpretation of Mark Ronson’s ”Daffodils”.

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I roll my eyes every time I encounter the meaningless compliment “he/she did his/her thing.”  Yet I find myself wanting to employ the irritating cliché to Madeleine Peyroux’s Secular Hymns.  Her imaginative interpretation of an Allen Toussaint classic illustrates the point.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Bassekou Kouyate- Jama Ko

Jama Ko, the new album by Bassekou Kouyate, is currently ranked #2,809 on Amazon's music sales chart.  That's a respectable achievement for a Malian musician, but I'm rooting for it to become a true crossover hit along the lines of King Sunny Adé's Juju Music and Ali Farke Touré's Talking Timbuktu.  Most of the plentiful rave reviews of Jama Ko- an album as stunning as it is enjoyable- emphasize the project's awful backstory.  Here's a typical analysis.  Knowledge of the terribly disturbing Malian siege adds context to Jama Ko, but the music transcends all political and social considerations.   The official 85-second EPK doesn't really get the job done.  A gorgeous music video for the title track is much more effective at conveying the sensuous quality of the album.


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Cedric Brooks of the Skatalites has died.

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I'm enjoying Around the Way, the new release by Blaxel Rose and Ace Fadal.  RIYL: ASAP Rocky, 7th Heaven, Wu-Tang. (Tip via the Mills Record Company blog.)

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"Give me back my pyramid- I'm trying to free Kansas City!"  It would seem that the world is catching up with Janelle Monae.  Here's "Q.U.E.E.N.".

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Who's willing to join me at the Missouri Big Ass Rock Festival?

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In hindsight, I should have been even harsher in my review of T.I.'s April concert at the Sprint Center.  He phoned it in.  The show would have so much better if T.I. and B.o.B could have been bothered to perform the strong new "Memories Back Then".

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"Down In the Dirt" is the first new Black Flag song in over two decades.

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"My name is Trevante- I'm a singer."  Ha ha!  "Bad Girl" is absurd.

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I'll be darned if Volbeat's Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies isn't one of the most listenable rock albums of 2013.  RIYL: Social Distortion, melody, Metallica's radio hits.

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Operation Northwoods' The Bureau of Fiction is RIYL: ECM, forests, Bill Frisell.

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I'm six weeks late to the 50 Cent/Kendrick Lamar party.  "We Up" is almost good.

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Howl is "Demonic".

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I'll audition this week's new albums by James Cotton Mikal Cronin, Patty Griffin, Havoc, Talib Kweli, Lady Antebellum, Ivan Lins, Natalie Maines, the Pistol Annies, Cassie Taylor and Uncluded after I fully absorb Joshua Redman's Walking Shadows.

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Kansas City Click: iamdynamite is Tuesday's headliner at the RecordBar.

The Riot Room hosts Andre Nickatina on Wednesday.

Chris Thomas King returns to Knuckleheads on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Cherokee Rock Rifle- Ta-Li

Cherokee Rock Rifle enjoys an enviable status among the cool kids in Kansas City.  In addition to being a good guy, vocalist Dutch Humphrey works as a bartender at one of the town's most fashionable music venues.  His band, consequently, is a compulsory member of the in-crowd. 

That sort of reasoning has never swayed me.  I regularly rip the music made by my friends and associates.  I'm a jerk that way.

Thankfully, I love Ta-Li, Cherokee Rock Rifle's new six-song EP, on its own merits.  It compares favorably to the output of like-minded bands including Clutch, Valient Thorr and Black Lips.  The quintet's antecedents include Nazareth, Humble Pie and Accept.  In other words, Cherokee Rock Rifle makes snarling blues-based rock designed to accompany illicit activity. 

Because I've been ailing, it's been a long, lonely time since I cut loose.  The hell-raising Ta-Li will be my companion the next time I'm in a proper mindset to f*** s*** up.   


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The least expensive tickets at the door of T.I.'s concert at the Sprint Saturday last Saturday were $60.  The headliner phoned it in.  Here's my review of the lackluster performance by one of my favorite rappers.

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I caught wholesome heartthrob Tate Stevens' second show at the Midland.  Here's my review.

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Chrissie Amphlett of the Divinyls,  Richie Havens and Artie "Blues Boy" White have died.

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Music-oriented movies at the forthcoming Middle of the Map Film Fest include A Band Called Death and The Frames: In a Deep Shade.

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"This Grey Goose tastes like water."  Brett Gretsky promotes its new release.

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I insist that Tyga supervise the soundtrack to the hypothetical sequel of Idiocracy.  After listening to the entirety of the young star's Molly-centric Hotel California album, I question America's sustainability.

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Christian McBride played the National Anthem at an NBA game last week.

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I loathe TV comedians, but I have to admit that I laughed at Jimmy Kimmel's Coachella-related stunt.

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I can't wait to hear this week's new albums by JD Allen, the Appleseed Cast, Brass Bed, Fantasia, Har Mar Superstar, Wallace Roney, Edward Simon, Snoop Lion, Thee Oh Sees, Craig Taborn, Frank Turner, Carlos Vives and Rob Zombie.  Cowboy Indian Bear's Live Old, Die Young  is at the top of my list.

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Kansas City Click: Black Mountain perform at the RecordBar on Tuesday.

Early Graves play the Czar Bar on Wednesday.

Davey's hosts Cowboy Indian Bear on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)