No Future

Anyone who has listened to Future more than me in recent months probably has a nasty codeine habit.  The Atlanta artist has overwhelmed his admirers with an avalanche of high-quality, opiate-laced music in 2017.  My addiction is problematic.  As a guy who recently reminded readers of his affinity for overtly Christian rappers, it’s a blessing that I don’t always comprehend Future’s lyrics.  Even so, mesmerizing tracks like ”Feed Me Dope” from Future’s new collaboration with Young Thug match my current mindset.  The audaciously synthetic sound will almost certainly sound hopelessly dated in a year or two, but at this moment, I’m a hopeless fiend for Future.


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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I named the MGDs the KCUR Band of the Week.

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I put Changing the Tune: The Kansas City Women’s Jazz Festival, 1978-1985 into context at Plastic Sax.

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Muhal Richard Abrams has died.  I’m horrified that I never heard the jazz giant perform.  I need to get serious about checking the likes of Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill and James “Blood” Ulmer off my bucket list.

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L’Orange’s The Ordinary Man packs 16 tracks into 39 minutes.  The ratio doesn’t make for a fluid listening experience.  Each track ends just as the groove begins to sink in.  RIYL: spoken word samples, 9th Wonder, short attention spans.

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I’m predictably elated by Kanye West’s verse on CyHi’s “Dat Side”.

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I overlooked Move Upstairs, the wondrous new album by the Como Mamas, when it was released several months ago.  RIYL: Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, salvation, the Staple Sisters.  Here’s “Count Your Blessings”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Oh Very Young

I don’t recall hearing nursery rhymes as a kid.  The sing-song hits of Cat Stevens, however, were integral components of the soundtrack of my childhood.  “Wild World” and “Peace Train” are among the ditties that helped shape my worldview at an impressionable age.  The Laughing Apple is rightfully billed as a return to form for the man who now goes by Yusuf Islam.  I can’t resist the nostalgic charm of guileless songs like ”See What Love Did To Me” and “You Can Do (Whatever)”.


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I reviewed Melissa Etheridge’s concert with the Kansas City Symphony at Helzberg Hall.

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Thundercat gave me hope last week.  My notes about his revelatory concert in Lawrence are at Plastic Sax.

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I celebrated the reunion of Hadacol on KCUR’s Up To Date.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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Charles Bradley has died.

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Souljazz Orchestra’s spectacular Under Burning Skies sounds like Awesome Tapes From Africa come to life.  Here’s ”Dog Eat Dog”.

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Will Downing’s Soul Survivor is RIYL Charlie Wilson, romance, Joe.  Here’s ”I’m Feeling the Love Again”.

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Riser, the debut album of the London based guitarist Rob Luft, is so startlingly imaginative that it makes the majority of jazz musicians seem like dullards.  RIYL: Lionel Loueke, unorthodoxy, David Binney.

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I take the Christian rapper Lecrae seriously.  That’s why I’m disappointed by the wildly inconsistent All Things Work Together.  Here’s ”Blessings”.

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Joe McPhee makes an unholy racket with Damon Smith and Alvin Fielder on Six Situations.  RIYL: skronk, Anthony Braxton, room-clearing jazz.

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Young Martha, the four-song EP that pairs the eccentric rapper Young Thug with the left-of-center producer Carnage, is correspondingly freaky.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Urgent Jumping: East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics 1972-1982

Political and social mayhem and personal medical ailments won’t get me down.  Urgent Jumping: East African Musiki Wa Dansi Classics 1972-1982 is responsible for keeping me on an even keel.

Big Steve, a regular There Stands the Glass reader, recently tipped his friends off to the new compilation of restorative East African jams.  Afro 70’s ”Hasara Ya Moto is among the selections with restorative qualities.

There are undoubtedly ominous subtexts throughout the two-and-a-half-hour set, but I’m blissfully unaware of the conflicts that may have inspired the music.  In fact, I’m annoyed when a man speaks in English during Hafusa Abasi & Slim Ali and the Kikulacho Yahoos Band’s otherwise wondrously ethereal ”Sina Raha”.


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I reviewed Karrin Allyson’s concert at the Folly Theater.  I also discussed the performance on KCUR.

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I wrote an extended preview of Young Thug’s show at the Midland 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 took note of A La Mode’s new album at Plastic Sax.

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I reviewed a magic show for The Kansas City Star last week.

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I saw Mose Allison perform only once.  I was one of a few dozen fans who attended his show at The Tuba on Southwest Boulevard in the early 1990s.  The wonderful wit died last week.

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The heroic Sharon Jones died last week.

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Billy Miller of Norton Records has died.

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I’m not nearly as enthralled as most of my hip-hop-loving peers by A Tribe Called Quest’s We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service album.  The ideas it signifies are often more interesting than the actual content.  “Kids”- a cranky get-off-my-lawn tirade- is my favorite track. 

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I’m obsessed with the work of Jóhann Jóhannsson.  His score for the new alien invasion flick  Arrival is out of this world.

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Sharon Jones’ mourners might take heart in Special Night, the solid new album by Lee Fields and the Expressions.  Here’s a live rendition of the title track.

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Miranda Lambert’s The Weight of These Wings is the album I’ve long wanted her to make.  ”Keeper of the Flame” is the project’s slickest song.

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The sickeningly cloying Jazz Loves Disney makes me want to break something.

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Daniil Trifinov shreds on Transcendental, two frenzied hours of Franz Liszt.

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Lamb of God’s The Duke benefit EP is RIYL: live souvenirs, Pantera, veteran metal bands that are better than Metallica.

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David Bazan is at his pitiful best on Dark Sacred Night  "Wish My Kids Were Here” is an instant classic in the delectable sub-genre of sad-sack Christmas songs.

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I’m the guy who acts “more stupidly.”  I have more than $200 tied up in tickets to a canceled Kanye West show.

(Original images by There Stands the Glass.)

In My Solitude

One of the most satisfying things about being an obsessive music consumer in the age of on-demand entertainment is that every Friday feels like Christmas.  I scour the recommendations of Spotify’s bots, listings at online retailers, emails from record labels and the social media discourse of my friends as I drink my first cup of coffee on Friday mornings. 

Yet plenty of things of interest to me inevitably fall through the cracks.  I’m repeatedly shocked and disappointed when “important” titles by “major” artists are almost completely ignored by the official and unofficial gatekeepers. 

I accidentally stumbled across Nearness, the new duet album by Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau, three days after its release.  The saxophonist and pianist- two of the most prominent living jazz artists under 50- are in top form on the live recording.  The 16-minute reading of ”The Nearness of You” is sublime.

The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Wall Street are the only outlets that have bothered to post reviews of the project.  Times are tough for all 13,065 fans of contemporary improvised music and even harder for the 21,872 musicians who practice the form.


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My three favorite acts at the Crossroads Music Fest were Stephonne Singleton, the Mitch Towne Trio and Julian Davis & the Hayburners.  My capsule reviews are here.

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I chatted about Dan Thomas 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 reviewed the Jorge Arana Trio’s Mammoth at Plastic Sax.

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Bud Isaacs, steel guitarist to the stars, has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Prince Buster has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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The contents of Young Thug’s Jeffery aren’t as provocative as the album cover, but it’s still plenty of fun.  RIYL: Future, mild disappointments, Rich Homie Quan.  Here’s the mind-boggling ”Kanye West”.

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Lydia Loveless’s Real is RIYL: Neko Case, me too-ism, Gretchen Wilson.  Here’s ”Longer”.

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Don’t believe the hype.  The Beatles’ Live at Hollywood Bowl is still unlistenable.

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Shirley Collins is back.

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Eric Bellinger’s Eric B for President: Term One is filled with empty calories and even emptier promises.  RIYL: Usher, amorous R&B, Chris Brown.

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Oh, for Pete’s sake.  Catherine Russell’s old-school Harlem On My Mind charmed me in spite of my predilections.  RIYL: Alberta Hunter, the era in which jazz was popular music, Ernestine Anderson.

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Jeremih’s Late Nights: Europe is filled with nasty sex songs, but ”Dubai” is my jam.

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M.I.A.’s AIM is ridiculously entertaining and entertainingly ridiculous.

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Nathan Bowles’s excellent Whole & Cloven is RIYL: John Fahey, old sounds made new, Glenn Jones.

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In a perfect world, the Banks & Steelz collaboration wouldn’t be an unusual.  Anything But Words is RIYL: Run-D..M.C./Aerosmith, Beastie Boys/Rick Rubin, Public Enemy/Anthrax.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Yelawolf- Love Story

Blame it on David Allan Coe.  I was raised on outlaw country songs like “Longhaired Redneck” and the infamous “If That Ain’t Country.”

I suppose that’s why I remain partial to decidedly uncouth music by Southern and Midwestern outsiders ranging from Kid Rock to Tech N9ne. 

Yelawolf, the controversial Alabaman who has been repeatedly excoriated by critics, speaks directly to me, partly because I relate to his intense relationships with God and alcohol. 

Yelawolf airs his dirty laundry on the deliberately offensive “Whiskey in a Bottle”, one of Love Story’s many strong tracks.  ”Best Friend”, a collaboration with Eminem, is also pretty great. 

I don't condone the hateful slurs Yelawolf employs, nor will you ever hear me utter those words.  But that doesn’t mean that I haven't been barraged by similar trash talk for much of my life. 

I may not look or sound like Yelawolf, but I know precisely where he's coming from.


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I reviewed a concert by Vance Joy, the Kooks, Joywave and Hembree.

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I contributed a Local Listen segment about Mat Shoare to KCUR.

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“Hood Crazy” is probably Tech N9ne’s most mainstream song to date.  Here’s the video.  Tech N9ne’s Special Effects drops this week.

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I saw Joseph Kern conduct the Midwest Chamber Orchestra in a performance of his dissonant but romantic new Chamber Symphony at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection last night.  Sarah Tannehill-Anderson’s singing of a Walt Whitman text was beauteous.

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Ben E. King has died.  I suppose “Spanish Harlem” is my favorite King hit.

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Jack Ely of the Kingsmen has died.

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Reach places flowers at the graves of jazz, rock and hip-hop in the ”Pay Respects” video.

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His provocative image aside, Young Thug is kind of boring.  Barter 6 is  RIYL: Birdman, drugs, Weezy.  Here’s ”Constantly Hating”.

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Earl Sweatshirt is so sad.  "Solace" is his extremely loose new project.

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Just a Mortal Man is the debut album of 71-year-old Jerry Lawson.  RIYL: Brook Benton, classic soul, Solomon Burke.  Here’s the title track.

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I appreciate Marc Myers’ reevaluation of the collaboration between Tony Bennett and Bill Evans.

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Angry jazz is good jazz.  Terence Blanchard’s goes hard on the EPK for his new album.

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Need a lift?  I recommend "Gyae Su" by Pat Thomas the Kwashibu Area Band.

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Portions of Raekwon’s Fly International Luxurious Art are almost as good as Ghostface Killah’s recent string of outstanding albums.  RIYL: Wu-Tang Clan, the kitchen sink, Busta Rhymes.  Here’s ”All About You”.

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Bell Witch’s acclaimed metal album Four Phantoms is RIYL: vertigo, High On Fire, fashionable black metal.

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I’m disappointed by Charles Lloyd’s Wild Man Dance.  RIYL: hype, Gerald Clayton, third stream.  The EPK, however, is amazing.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)