Album Review: Hailu Mergia- Lala Belu

Friday wasn’t going well.  A couple setbacks put me in a foul mood that even a plethora of new music releases couldn’t remedy.  As I began to prepare for sleep at the end of the disappointing day, I auditioned one last album.  The dark clouds in my head dissipated five minutes into “Tizita,” the opening track of Hailu Mergia’s Lala Belu.

I’d just read The New York Times’s profile of Mergia that explained that the Ethiopian musician was now a cabdriver in Washington D.C.  The guy behind Awesome Tapes From Africa tracked Mergia down and recorded Lala Belu with him.  It’s a cool story, but I still wasn’t expecting much.  I was mistaken.

The life-affirming Lala Belu sounds as if the Ethiopian icon Mulatu Astatke is jamming with the jazz luminaries Charles Mingus and Robert Glasper.  Simultaneously old, new, African and American, the album is a potent sonic salve.


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I reviewed Logan Richardson’s Blues People at Plastic Sax.

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I featured David George in my weekly segment for KCUR.

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Cry No More, the second solo album by Kansas City blues-rock luminary Danielle Nicole, puts me in mind of the classic 1970s work of Delaney & Bonnie.  The title track is the second-best song on the new release.

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I’m as excited as everyone else about Janelle Monáe’s new songs “Django Jane” and “Make Me Feel”.

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I don’t begrudge Dessa for making crass pop moves on Chime.  It’s ridiculous that the enormously talented Doomtree standout isn’t already a household name.  I hope Chime makes her a star, but I’m not going to spend much time listening to the slick bid for mainstream acceptance.  RIYL: Madonna, commerce, Gwen Stefani.  Here’s “Half of You”.

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I still mourn Lou Reed.  I might even miss Mark E. Smith of the Fall someday.  But I’ll be damned if Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest doesn’t prove himself to be a worthy heir of those innovators on Twin Fantasy.  Here’s “Nervous Young Inhumans”.

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Noah Preminger is on a roll.  Genuinity, the most recent in a string of impressive albums by the New York based saxophonist, is RIYL Ornette Coleman, jazz emancipation, Rudresh Mahanthappa.

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While the contents aren’t as interesting as the title, Leslie Pintchik’s You Eat My Food, You Drink My Wine, You Steal My Girl! is a better-than-average mainstream jazz album.  RIYL: Bill Charlap, accordion flourishes, Matt Wilson.

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Black Milk’s Fever is decent, I guess.  RIYL: Dwele, good enough, Oddisee.  Here’s “Laugh Now Cry Later”.

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A couple tracks on Soulive’s instrumental EP Cinematics Vol. 1 are spectacular.  RIYL: Booker T. & the M.G.'s, imaginary soundtracks, Badbadnotgood.

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They still make ‘em like they used to.  Even the cover art of the new recording by baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan’s Alternative Contrafacts is straight out of 1974.  The dated packaging is belied by the freshness of the music.  Bassist David Wong and drummer Rodney Green push Smulyan into wooly terrain.  RIYL: Harry Carney, unexpected treasures, Hamiet Bluiett.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Marilyn Maye at Quality Hill Playhouse

If the going rate for a psychologist is $100 an hour, the seemingly exorbitant price of admission to see Marilyn Maye at Quality Hill Playhouse last weekend was a relative bargain. 

I spent $90 on two tickets to hear a 75-minute show by the dynamic 88-year-old cabaret star partly to demonstrate to my life partner that I intended to grow old with her.  Maye complied with my agenda with a set that emphasized putting a brave face on our imminent mortality.

Rather than emphasizing the line “you better chase all your cares away,” Maye’s doleful rendition of “Get Happy,” warned that the members of the near-capacity audience of about 125 should “get ready for the judgement day.”  Tears streamed down my face during Maye’s interpretation of "If He Walked Into My Life," a heartbreaking song of regret that I’d never heard from a musical I’ve never seen (“Mame”).

Maye’s stunning performance reminded me that I’d better get busy living.


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I reviewed Lil Uzi Vert’s concert at the Uptown Theater.

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I reviewed a concert by Aida Cuevas and Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles at Yardley Hall.

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I discussed Emmaline Twist on KCUR last week.

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I wrote an extended preview of a Car Seat Headrest show 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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Bob Cranshaw has died.

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Kay Starr has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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Bap Kennedy has died.

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I’ve worked my way through the first three-and-a-half hours of the six-hour Otis Redding document Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings.  Otis and the band are (obviously) great, but the brutally repetitive sets, Otis’ awkward stage patter and the Whiskey’s atrocious emcee make it a slog.

(Original images by There Stands the Glass.)

The Bourgeois Bumpkin

When Michael Stern began his defense of the placement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 2 on the program to the audience of about 1,400 at Helzberg Hall on Sunday afternoon, I was embarrassed for the Music Director of The Kansas City Symphony.  I felt that his apparent need to justify the presence of the occasionally jarring and overtly Leninist composition amid the “Beethoven sandwich” of “Meersstille und glückliche Fahrt” and Symphony No. 9 was patronizing.  Then I heard the piece for the first time and loved every minute of it.  Stern’s conciliatory spiel enhanced my appreciation of the work.  I suppose that makes me a bourgeois bumpkin.


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I reviewed a concert by Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Tech N9ne, Rich The Factor and Stevie Stone.

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I reviewed a concert by Fantasia and Anthony Hamilton.

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I reviewed a concert by Béla Fleck & the Flecktones.

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I selected songs by Krizz Kaliko, Logan Richardson, Psychic Heat, Kanye West, Carrie Rodriguez and Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom for my appearance on Best Music of 2016 (So Far) show on KCUR’s Up To Date.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I documented my visit to SoJo Summerfest at Plastic Sax.

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"If You Ask Me Again (I Do)", the new single by Soul Revival, the Kansas City duo of Derick Cunigan and producer Desmond Mason, is lovely.  RIYL: John Legend, marriage, Chrisette Michele.

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The Kansas City rapper Farout’s new song “Guns” is shocking.  And I like it.

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Attrell Cordes of P.M. Dawn has died.

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Gojira’s Magma is RIYL A Perfect Circle, French metal, Lamb of God.  Here’s ”Silvera”.

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Death Grips’ Bottomless Pit is RIYL El-P, true punk, Karlheinz Stockhausen.  Here’s the title track.

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Brandy Clark’s Big Day in a Small Town sounds like money.  Almost every song could have been a hit for Miranda Lambert or Kenny Chesney.  Here’s ”Girl Next Door”.

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I’m not on the Car Seat Headrest bandwagon.  Teens of Denial leaves me cold.  I’ll stick to my dusty collection of albums by Pavement and the Fall.

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I’m pretty sure I can find the perfect theme song for my next podcast on The Odd Tape.  Oddisee strikes a winning balance between jazz and hip-hop on his latest effort.  Here’s ”Brea”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)