Album Review: David and Tamela Mann- Us Against the World

I took objected as I spotted people clowning on David and Tamela Mann’s new album (and book) Us Against the World.  The couple’s suggestion that the album is intended to serve as a sensual soundtrack for Christian couples struck some wags as hysterical.  I can only assume these heathens are unfamiliar with Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Al Green.

The explicitness of a lot of contemporary R&B eradicates its appeal.  For instance, Trey Songz’s two repulsively graphic 2018 albums 11 and 28 make me queasy.  I’m entirely on board with the gospel-based Manns making grown-and-sexy soul.  Besides, I’m a longtime fan.

Unfortunately, Us Against the World is merely adequate.   Babyface and Toni Braxton’s like-minded 2014 collaboration Love, Marriage & Divorce and Womack & Womack’s 1988 classic Conscience are far more effective.  Even so, Us Against the World songs including “Feels Like” are refreshing examinations of marital grace.


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I touted the music of Logan Richardson, Cardi B and Kanye West on a “Best Music of 2018” program on KCUR’s Up To Date two days ago.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show has died.  “Sylvia’s Mother” and “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’” were among very few radio hits my dad and I both enjoyed.

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Pegi Young has died.

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The versatile lyricist Norman Gimbel has died.

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My childhood loathing of Captain and Tennille may have been my first brush with music criticism.  Even as a credulous child, that zippity doo-dah offended my sensibilities.  Daryl Dragon has died.

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Howard Begle, the “legal eagle” who helped Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown obtain back royalties, has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Honey Lantree of the Honeycombs has died.  Here’s “Have I the Right?”.  (Tip via BGO.)

(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.)

Review: Tamela Mann at the Folly Theater

For a sanctified second on Saturday, the Holy Spirit seemed to roll through the Folly Theater.  A member of Isaac Cates & Ordained stepped to the front of the stage and began to roar with a voice that belied her small frame.

The sound issues that plagued the concert momentarily dissipated.  Taken aback by the ferocious power of their colleague's conviction, several members of the choir doubled over in celebratory shock.  A significant portion of the audience of approximately 700 jumped to their feet.  I was similarly overcome. Tears flowed down my cheeks.

It was the highlight of a night of rapturous peaks and scandalously disappointing lows.  The concert was part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City's annual celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Tickets were $16.

The evening got off to a rough start as the opening remarks of Mia Ramsey- a woman who proved to be an excellent master of ceremonies- were inaudible.   Patrons of events at the Folly Theater can usually count on the opportunity to bask in the venue's pristine acoustics.  The sound was disastrous Saturday.  If the sonic technicians were attempting to recreate the crackly and distorted sound of a 1950's field recording of a tent revival, well, they succeeded.

A brief opening appearance by Shanice and Maurice Hayes was a fiasco.  Their prerecorded backing tracks were a muddle.  The father and daughter had one semi-functional microphone between them.  What a shame.  Isaac Cates & Ordained overcame the sonic debacle through sheer talent (and a possible act of God). 

David Mann, the husband of the celebrated actress and gospel star Tamela Mann, wasn't about to leave the fate of his wife's headlining performance in God's hands.

"I want to make sure you get the real Tamela Mann," David Mann told the audience as the sound was tested.

The precautionary work didn't pay off.  Mann may have opened with "Best Days."  I'm not sure.   I couldn't hear her over the wildly distorted music.  A solid band was game, but Mann inexplicably insisted on a karaoke approach for selections including the Grammy-nominated and current chart-topping gospel hit "Take Me To the King".

Mann is an amazingly dynamic performer.  Yet she was on stage for just 45 minutes.  She spent part of that time indicating that she and her husband David were eager to sell "product" (her word) in the lobby.   This essential fan footage shot at the concert reveals the best and worst aspects of Mann's performance.  Mann dances as the house band fires on all cylinders.  Then she sneaks a peak at her watch at the 1:08 mark.

Clock-watching- even in a trying situation- is a bad look.


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Claire and the Crowded Stage made a video for "Technicolor".

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"Slidecam duet."  (Via Hey Cameraman.)

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Kansas City Click: Hermon Mehari and Mark Lowrey open the week by trading their regular nights at the Majestic.  The switch allows Mehari to play on Sunday while Lowrey will appear on Monday.

John Fullbright returns to Knuckleheads on Tuesday.

The RecordBar hosts Ryan Lee Toms on Wednesday.

Wayland plays the Riot Room on Thursday.

(Original image of Isaac Cates & Ordained by There Stands the Glass.)