The Micah Hermon album review is reposted from Plastic Sax:
It must be terribly frustrating to be a Kansas City-area jazz bassist not named Bob Bowman, Jeff Harshbarger or Gerald Spaits. The three men invariably secure a disproportionate number of the area's high profile gigs. Each member of the triumvirate deserves his elite standing, but that doesn't mean that the talent pool ends with them. James Albright, Ben Leifer, Bill McKemy and Dominique Sanders are wildly different but uniformly excellent bassists.
And then there's the often overlooked Micah Herman. He's no less impressive than the aforementioned bassists, but to my knowledge he hasn't had a regular widely-touted public gig since he teamed up with Loren Pickford at the Golden Ox for a three-year run that ended in 2009. His new album The Ship, Vol. 1: The Studio Sessions makes a strong case for Herman as a top-tier talent.
While The Ship contains a breadth of styles, Herman generally works from a post-Coltrane perspective. "My Ship", a duet with saxophonist Matt Carrillo, is gorgeous. The contributions of saxophonist Matt Chalk also impress.
Yet it's the presence of Logan Richardson that makes the album essential for listeners not already heavily invested in Kansas City's scene. The brilliant saxophonist appears on five of The Ship's nine tracks. Richardson's innovative soloing on "Ease Back" is the sort of next-level stuff that fans of adventurous jazz dream about. Rather than merely admiring Richardson's improvisations, Herman acts as an electric Charlie Haden to Richardson's stunning Ornette Coleman.
The Ship's quiet issuance in December didn't do it any favors. In spite of its unfortunate timing and complete absence of hype, The Ship is the best album released by a Kansas City jazz artist in 2011.
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The Oak Ridge Boys and the Dukes of Dixieland team up for a new version of "Elvira".
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I intend to catch the A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs touring exhibit this month.
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Tinariwen's Tiny Desk Concert is wonderful.
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Rich Forever, Rick Ross' free new mix tape is shockingly good if you like that sort of thing. (And I do.)
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A link provided by BigSteveNO threw me into full geek mode.
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I don't know what to make of "Glory", Jay-Z's tribute to his newborn child.
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"She Smells So Nice"!
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Miles Bonny has a new Kickstarter campaign.
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Kansas City Click: Jason and the Scorchers appear Wednesday at Knuckleheads.
Lord T & Eloise do whatever it is they do Thursday at the Riot Room.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
2 comments:
Thanks for the link to the Tinariwen thing. That was groovy.
You're welcome, Steve. I hope to publish a Steve-friendly post later today.
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