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.
---
An Amos Lee concert obliterated my modest expectations last week. Here’s my review.
---
I reviewed a concert by Leon Bridges and Lianne La Havas.
---
I discussed Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle on KCUR last week.
---
I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.
---
I address Kansas City’s “jazz dick music” controversy at Plastic Sax.
---
Neville Marriner has died.
---
Kashif Saleem has died.
---
Rockabilly cat Joe Clay has died. (Tip via BGO.)
---
I know the Kansas City rapper Brotha Newz as a high school teacher. Here’s his high-concept video.
---
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.
---
Prince lives! Eric Benét channels the master on “Insane”.
---
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.)
---
I had a quasi-religious experience while listening to a track from Mother of Light, a forthcoming album by Isabel Bayrakdarian.
---
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”.
---
”Change Me” is my favorite song on Tamela Mann’s disappointing new One Way album.
---
T.I.’s Us Or Else EP is essential. Here’s ”Warzone”. RIYL: Woody Guthrie, thoughtful discourse, Run the Jewels.
---
A Seat at the Table, Solange's latest release, sounds like Dirty Projectors filtered through Cornel West.
---
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”.
---
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”.
---
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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment