I’m no longer crestfallen that Christian Scott isn’t performing in Kansas City on his current tour. I expected his new release to expand on the exciting advances he made on Christian aTunde Adjuah, my #2 album of 2012. Instead, it’s a tedious retrenchment.
Stretch Music is billed as "a genre-blind musical form that stretches the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions of jazz to encompass as many musical forms, languages, thought processes and cultures as possible."
The project reeks of unflattering me-too-ism. Scott seems to be trying to unnecessarily prove that hip-hop, rock and jazz can coexist. He’s merely rehashing the work of Flying Lotus, Nicholas Payton, Miles Davis and Gil Evans.
I expect Scott to be a leader. He’s opted to be a follower. Unless Frank Ocean or Kanye West stumbles, Stretch Music will be the most disappointing album of 2015.
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I reviewed Citizen Cope’s concert at Crossroads KC.
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Here are the weekly music previews I write for The Kansas City Star.
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I spotlighted Making Movies’ Carnaval for Ink magazine.
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I contributed a Local Listen segment about Making Movies to KCUR.
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Bobby Watson and his touring band thrilled me at the Folly Theater on Friday. Here’s my review.
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A man seated near me softly snored through much of the Kansas City Symphony’s concert on Sunday afternoon. The tiresome program didn’t excite me either. I’m more of a Berg: Lyric Suite; Wellesz: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett-Browning guy. Here’s the intriguing EPK for the new collaboration between the Emerson String Quartet and Renée Fleming.
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I assume that Shannon and the Clams and the critics who extol the band are trolling. Gone By the Dawn is dismal. RIYL: The Shaggs, the first rehearsal of an unpromising garage-rock band, Jonathan Richman at his most insufferable.
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The subtleties of The Evolution of Oneself initially eluded me. Repeated listens have revealed that the trio of Orrin Evans, Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins have created one of the year’s best jazz albums. Recommended to people who appreciate both Ray Brown and the Wu-Tang Clan.
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I love everything about Windhand’s Grief’s Infernal Flower. RIYL: Slayer, cemeteries, Pallbearer.
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Mary Halvorson’s Meltframe does nothing for me. RIYL: Robert Fripp, dissertations about music theory, Bill Frisell.
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I don’t have anything bad to say about Keith Richards’ Crosseyed Heart. RIYL: Ian McLagan, lions in the winter, Chuck Berry.
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Steve Van Zandt’s maximalist production of Introducing Darlene Love is too much for me. Here’s the overblown ”Forbidden Nights”.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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