The Long Run

My obsessive-compulsive tendencies dictate my music consumption.  The necessity to fully immerse myself in the sounds that interest me means that lengthy works occasionally gum up the works.

The discovery of Anthony Braxton’s four-hour Quartet (New Haven) 2014 in December clogged my queue during the holiday season.  The live recordings of saxophonist and composer Braxton, trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Greg Saunier rendering a thorny form of free jazz aren’t exactly easy listening.

The new 230-minute version of Handel’s Agrippina that’s currently being staged at the Metropolitan Opera is similarly problematic.  Yet the 122 distinct selections of the digital version allow me to experience each distinct piece as an avant-garde chamber-pop song.

Dipping in and out of Agrippina during the past ten days- not to mention knowing less than 25 words of Italian- stripped all context and continuity from the work.  As is sometimes the case, not knowing what’s going on can be enormously comforting.


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I reviewed Post Malone’s party-hearty concert at the Sprint Center for The Kansas City Star.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I admire Guitar Elation’s new album Double Live at Green Lady Lounge at Plastic Sax.

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Justin Gillespie, the Kansas City man who rapped as Info Gates, has died.  I recall witnessing him best a clutch of area rappers at the Riot Room in 2018.  His work with the Beat Academy of Kansas City was also extremely promising.

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I indulged my obsession with Jerry Hahn at his first Kansas City performance in eight months.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Festival Review: Cropped Out 2018

I pogoed at a rapturous performance by the revolutionary rock band Half Japanese five minutes after my mind was scrambled by a collaboration between the heroic titan Anthony Braxton and the imaginative harpist Jacqueline Kerrod in Louisville on Saturday.  The startling contrast between the iconoclastic musicians is what the Cropped Out festival in Louisville is all about.

The annual event represents a paradise for broad-minded aficionados of outsider music.  I heard folk, punk, indie-rock, hip-hop, free jazz, experimental noise, bluegrass, chamber jazz, honky tonk, footwork and a comedian dressed as a opossum at the two-day event.  The music-centric festival isn’t for everyone.  Cropped Out is all about the music.  Organizers can scarcely be bothered with maintaining an online presence.  And while it boasts a glorious view of the Ohio River, the festival grounds at the American Turners Club resemble a condemned country club.

Unlike many of the approximately 750 attendees whose stylistic choices signaled an absolute rejection of the mainstream, my enthusiasm for the esoteric lineup isn’t exclusionary.  I embrace Cropped Out because it allows me to gorge on acts that I might not otherwise see without the hassles associated with major festivals.  I certainly didn’t like everything I heard.  Circuit Des Yeux, the most anticipated act at the festival, did nothing for me.  Thankfully, outings by the two veteran artists that compelled me to attend Cropped Out fulfilled my expectations.  My ten favorite performances:

1. Anthony Braxton and Jacqueline Kerrod- a giant of American music (my Instagram footage)
2. Michael Hurley- a true folk hero (my Instagram footage)
3. Drunks With Guns- surly St. Louis punks
4. Nathan Bowles and Bill MacKay- avant-garde folk (my Instagram footage)
5. Jana Rush- footwork pioneer
6. Half Japanese- bandleader Jad Fair is a rock heretic
7. The Web- disaffected prog-rock
8. Sex Tide- punk rage
9. Quin Kirchner- chamber-jazz (my Instagram footage)
10. Taiwan Housing Project- incendiary rock noise

Next year’s goal: crossing Harold Budd, Evan Parker and Ralph Towner off my bucket list at the Big Ears Festival.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Paul Cebar- Fine Rude Thing

Albums like Fine Rude Thing, the new release by Milwaukee's Paul Cebar, provided the primary soundtrack of my mid-20s.  Cebar's sound is rooted in a divine combination of Creedence, Otis Redding and the Faces.  When my life started getting complicated, however, my taste for party-oriented roots music diminished.  It's a drag- Fine Rude Thing is a good time.  Perhaps I'll add regaining an undiluted enjoyment of cheerful bar bands to my list of long-term goals. 


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I reviewed a concert by Kenny G and the Kansas City Symphony at Helzberg Hall on Friday.

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From my friend Chris Doolittle: I don't know if you remember Symetrix from the late 80's and early 90's but a friend of mine, Eason Pritchard, is an old high school friend and the band's leader. His drummer and friend, Jerry Bayton, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer… Eason asked me to help him finish these few songs he has been working on for a couple of years before Jerry left for treatment in New York earlier this month. This mission was accomplished. Now I am trying to spread the good word to all and especially my music friends about this release as all proceeds go to Jerry's treatment. There are only 3 songs and I play lead on the first two.

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Making Movies made a video for "Pendulum Swing."

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Kansas City pianist Mark Lowrey filmed a performance of a new composition.

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A video was made for D/Will's "Pure."

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My favorite album of the first three weeks of 2014 is the self-titled outing by the supergroup De La Tierra. RIYL: Sepultura, metal en Español, Deftones.

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NPR's coverage of GlobalFest is impressive.  And why didn't any of you jerks tell me about Brushy One-String?

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Fusion lives!  "Just Call Me Nige" is a track from Mehliana, a collaboration between Brad Mehldau and Mark Guiliana.

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A new album by Neneh Cherry will be released next month.  The advance track "Everything" is RIYL: Four Tet, the future, Dessa.

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I hadn't realized that Anthony Braxton was (the best kind) of hippie until I heard his fascinating speech at the 2014 NEA Jazz Masters Concert.  Braxton's segment begins a bit before the one-hour-17-minute mark here.

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I'm a Rick Rubin fanboy, but I have to call him out for whatever role he played in spoiling Jennifer Nettles' That Girl.  The new album might have been as impressive as Gwen Stefani's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. had Nettles' enormous voice not been allowed to overwhelm the mix.  RIYL: ibuprofen, Ethel Merman, epic production fails.

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"CS60" is a track from BadBadNotGood's forthcoming album.  RIYL: Jack DeJohnette's electronic albums, jazz with a young and enthusiastic audience, OFWGKTA.

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I don't want to be "that guy," but really, Jazz Fest?

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A$AP Ant "See Me" fails to impress me.

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I was excited to hear that Plague of Babylon was Iced Earth's "heaviest album in years."  It's not all that.  Legion of the Damned's Ravenous Plague is more like it. RIYL: Vader, punching walls, Morbid Angel.

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The trailer for Mary Chapin Carpenter's new orchestral album is appropriately overblown.

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I recently discovered Ausmuteants' 100 Ausmuteants Fans Can't Be Wrong?100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can.  RIYL: T.S.O.L., the spirit of rock and roll, 999.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)