Concert Review: Chris Brown at the Sprint Center

Chris Brown is still a jerk.  I was considering rejoining #teambreezy when I purchased a $30 cheap seat for the infamous star’s return to the Sprint Center on Tuesday.  My potential change of heart was completely thwarted three hours later when the spectacle concluded with a series of resounding explosions.  With no corresponding visual effects, the gratuitous blasts seemed specifically intended to damage the eardrums of fans.

On stage about an hour, Brown sparingly doled out his brilliant talent.  Even so, he remains equal parts Michael Jackson and Rick James.

An elaborate production that incorporated a few of the most appealing elements of the recent stage shows of Drake and Kanye West made me feel as if my $30 ticket was a bargain.  I just wish I’d left five minutes before the show ended.

Aaron Randle reviewed the concert for The Kansas City Star.


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I wrote an extended concert preview about John Mayer 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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I named Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle KCUR’s Band of the Week.

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John Geils Jr. has died.  I sold and marketed Geils’ solo blues projects in the 1990s.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Ingrid Laubrock- Serpentines

Free jazz is often deliberately off-putting.  I suspect that a lot of obtuse improvised music may be little more than self-indulgent pranks.  That’s not the case with Serpentines, a new recording overseen by Ingrid Laubrock.  The saxophonist’s adventurous cohorts include the monumental drummer Tyshawn Sorey and celebrated pianist Craig Taborn, but it’s the electronics of Sam Pluta that differentiate Serpentines from less credible noisemakers.  ”Chip in Brain” is my jam.


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I reviewed a spectacular concert by Maxwell and Mary J. Blige.

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I wrote an extended concert preview about Third Eye Blind for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I named Eddie Moore the Plastic Sax Person of the Year.

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I was a guest on a two-hour edition of the Eight One Sixty radio program on 90.9 The Bridge.

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I reviewed a concert by Milky Chance, Marian Hill, Banks & Steelz and Shaed.

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

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Joe Ligon of the Mighty Clouds of Joy has died.

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Even as an impressionable kid attending one of his first big indoor concerts, I was nonplussed by the garish drum and keyboard workouts during Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s 1977 appearance at Municipal Auditorium.  Greg Lake’s efforts have always been considerably more appealing to me.  Lake died earlier this month.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Bury Me Deep: Andre Williams’ Morbid Checklist

Old friends are dropping like flies.  And even my hair ached when I crawled out of bed yesterday.  Maybe it’s time to begin making funeral arrangements.  Andre Williams’s “Bury Me Deep” indicates that the process needn’t be joyless.  Here’s the beginning of his outlandish checklist: “when I die, I want six female pallbearers, and I want a Jewish hearse driver, and I want a black preacher preaching for me, and I want a pink hearse- gotta be pink…”  The outlandish song is from Williams’ forthcoming Don’t Ever Give Up album.


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I reviewed concerts by Bonnie Raitt, Toni Braxton, Il Divo and Bob James for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed the Conquerors’ Wyld Time album for KCUR.

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My most recent weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine are published here and here.

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I recently discussed Various Blonde and Kansas on KCUR.

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Tonight’s Schoolboy Q concert is my Big Show of the week for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I recently reviewed jazz concerts by Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle and the Hermon Mehari Quartet at Plastic Sax.

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Helado Negro found ways to transcend the quandry faced by laptop pop artists at RecordBar last night.  Rather than merely singing into a microphone after pushing the play button on his MacBook, he and his computer were flanked by two costumed dancers and were supplemented by a nifty light system.  The experimental artist is also a convincing guitarist.

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Phil Chess has died.

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I’m all about Joyce DiDonato’s latest video.

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Time/Life: Song for the Whales and Other Beings by Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra is a nice surprise.  The late bassist is heard on two of the five tracks.

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Jamie Lidell’s Building a Beginning is RIYL Hall & Oates, old-fashioned love songs, Bobby Caldwell.  Here’s ”I Live To Make You Smile”.

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The intentionally absurd album cover of D.R.A.M.’s Big Baby D.R.A.M. reflects its contents.  ”WiFi” features Erykah Badu.

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Metal na Madeira, a collaboration between vocalist Paula Santoro and guitarist Ian Faquini, is RIYL Gal Costa, cool water on a hot day, João Gilberto.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Michael Angelo at RecordBar

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.


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An Amos Lee concert obliterated my modest expectations last week. Here’s my review.

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I reviewed a concert by Leon Bridges and Lianne La Havas.

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I discussed Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle on KCUR last week.

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

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I address Kansas City’s “jazz dick music” controversy at Plastic Sax.

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Neville Marriner has died.

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Kashif Saleem has died.

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Rockabilly cat Joe Clay has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

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I know the Kansas City rapper Brotha Newz as a high school teacher.  Here’s his high-concept video.

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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.

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Prince lives!  Eric Benét channels the master on “Insane”.

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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.)

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I had a quasi-religious experience while listening to a track from Mother of Light, a forthcoming album by Isabel Bayrakdarian.

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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”.

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”Change Me” is my favorite song on Tamela Mann’s disappointing new One Way album.

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T.I.’s Us Or Else EP is essential.  Here’s ”Warzone”.  RIYL: Woody Guthrie, thoughtful discourse, Run the Jewels.

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A Seat at the Table, Solange's latest release, sounds like Dirty Projectors filtered through Cornel West.

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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”.

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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”.

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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.)

He Was a Friend of Mine

You don’t want to be my friend.

Four of my closest high school pals are dead.  I haven't spoken to a few others in years.  Maybe that’s why I reacted so poorly when a former classmate I’ve loved since the day we met in 1979 dropped a disheartening bomb on me during a break at last week’s appearance by Adam Lambert at the Silverstein Eye Centers Arena.

While I discussed the merits of Pentatonix with his child, my friend casually mentioned that it was the first live music event he’d attended since he accompanied me to a 2001 show by Prince at Municipal Auditorium.

I responded by inviting the girl to move into my home to escape her unsound living conditions.  What’s worse- my failure to insist that my friend join me at any given show during the past 14 years or his inability to maintain a balanced life?

Then again, maybe the joke’s on me.  While I’ve spent much of my adult life listening to loud music in dark rooms, my friend has become a successful attorney and a prominent community leader.

What have I done?


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I reviewed a concert by Adam Lambert and Pentatonix.

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I played songs by Samantha Fish, Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle, Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7, Kendrick Lamar, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Lila Downs during my appearance on KCUR’s Up To Date last week.  Here’s the podcast.

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

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I contribute weekly Local Listen segments to KCUR.

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I took notes at a performance by the Brian Scarborough Quintet at the Westport CoffeeHouse.

(Original image of Lemony Snicket at the Plaza Library by There Stands the Glass.)

Song For Sisyphus: A Remembrance of Phil Woods

Phil Woods was the first angry jazz musician I encountered.  He certainly wasn’t the last.

I recall being titillated by the rage Woods unleashed on impolite people on blankets and in lawn chairs at a free concert sponsored by Kansas City, Missouri, in the mid-’70s. 

I’d never seen a performer act like that. 

As a kid who managed to talk a parent who didn’t have any interest in jazz into driving him to the show (I recall that it was near our home north of the river), I didn’t have much context for what I was witnessing.  But I could tell that it was good.

I was riveted. 

In hindsight, it’s clear to me that Woods’ fiery outing and a free concert by the elegant Roland Hanna at Crown Center in the same time period ignited my tempestuous obsession with jazz.

An appearance at the Folly Theater in 2012 was the last of several times I saw Woods.  I admit to crying in my review of his bittersweet performance.  Woods died on September 29.


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I reviewed the Grisly Hand’s new Flesh & Blood album for KCUR.

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I reviewed a Zappa Plays Zappa concert.

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I wrote an extended preview about KC Psych Fest for Ink magazine.

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

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My review of Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle’s Live in Kansas City album is on page 27 of the October issue of JAM magazine.

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I contributed a Local Listen segment about Mark Lowrey to KCUR.

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I reviewed Matt Villinger’s All Night at Plastic Sax.

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Kansas City’s music nerds have been posting fond recollections about the RecordBar in response to the venue’s tenth anniversary and pending relocation.  One friend claims to have taken in more than 700 performances at the RecordBar.  I don’t keep meticulous records; my number is probably around 225.  I haven’t appreciated everything I’ve seen in the room.  For instance, I detested Mumford & Sons when I caught the soon-to-be-massive band in the club in 2010.  Here are my ten favorite performances at the RecordBar:  Nikka Costa (2006), The National (2005), The People’s Liberation Big Band (2012), V.V. Brown (2010), Marijuana Deathsquads (2014), Mission of Burma (2012), Peter Schlamb’s Electric Tinks (2015), American Music Club (2008), Blind Pilot (2009) and Helmet (2015).

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The Buhs created a representative promotional video.

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Wilton Felder of the Crusaders has died.

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Pop quiz: which two artists have had two #1 albums on Billboard’s Top 200 chart in 2015?  Why, it’s D---e and Future, of course.  As I detailed in my notes about his 2013 concert at the Sprint Center, I loathe He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  Even so, I have to admit that I enjoy much of his latest chart-topper What a Time To Be Alive. 

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I admire Ron Carter’s big band album My Personal Songbook.  Note that I didn’t say I liked it.  RIYL: Oliver Nelson, swangin’, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

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I recently discovered The Milken Archive, "the largest collection of American Jewish music ever assembled."  I’ve heard almost none it, an oversight I intend to rectify.

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Children of the Light features Wayne Shorter’s band without their leader.  The trio of Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade is in top form.

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A recent appearance in Olathe reminded me that Shemekia Copeland is really smart.  That’s partly why I can’t help but think that she’s patronizing the blues audience on Outskirts of Love.  I like it anyway.

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Evan Parker performed in St. Louis last week.  There’s not an audience for the British free jazz artist in Kansas City.  Ninth Square, Parker’s new album with Joe Morris and Nate Wooley, is RIYL: skronking, Sonny Sharrock, screeching.

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I’d been looking forward to the release of the New Mastersounds’ Made For Pleasure, but now that it’s here I’m just not feeling it.  RIYL: St. Paul & the Broken Bones, nice tries, the Budos Band.

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I can’t resist the cheap nostalgia of Graveyard’s Innocence & Decadence.  RIYL: Thin Lizzy, 1975, UFO.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

The Jacka, 1977-2015

The Jacka was killed in Oakland last night.  A television news program reported the murder.  I last saw the underappreciated rapper perform at the Uptown Theater in 2010.  Here are my notes about the show.  D-Boy Era, the Jacka’s throwback hip-hop collaboration with Lee Majors, was my #12 album of 2010.  His most recent release What Happened to the World was my #21 album of 2014.  In spite of his salty persona, the Jacka was very personable when I met with him in a Midtown bar a few years ago.


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I reviewed Dominique Sanders’ astonishing new album at Plastic Sax.

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I contributed a feature about Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle to KCUR.

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La Guerre’s Sapphires is RIYL: Hospital Ships, yearning, Regina Spektor.

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The Floozies’ Do Your Thing is an invigorating dance party.  RIYL: Zapp, disco, Daft Punk.

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I loved John Doe’s recent appearance at Knuckeheads.  Tim Finn reviewed the show.

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Vinyl Community noteworthy Teddy Dibble pays tribute to his late brother.

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I’ve yet to select my favorite new jam on Charlie Wilson’s Forever Charlie. RIYL: The Gap Band, romance, the Commodores.  Here’s ”Me and You Forever”.

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I questioned what I’m doing with my life after I ingested all 153 minutes of the new live album documenting John Scofield’s collaboration with Gov’t Mule.  It’s more in line with the Allman Brothers Band than with Miles Davis. 

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Gehenna, the latest release by Danish band By the Patient, hits the spot.  RIYL: Behemoth, riffs, Vader.

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If neither Hand Over Fist’s “Prize Fight” nor any of the stunning songs on P.O.S’s Never Better failed to break through, it’s unlikely that the latest Doomtree album All Hands will alter the crew’s fortunes. 

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My high hopes for Mohammed Fairouz’s Follow, Poet were dashed when I finally heard the bloated project.  RIYL: high concept, Leonard Bernstein, sociology.

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Dawn Richard’s Blackheart is a compelling variation on post-Beyoncé R&B.  Here’s ”Blow”.

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I have yet to watch the archived performance by Our Point Of View, the all-star group featuring Robert Glasper, Ambrose Akinmusire, Marcus Strickland, Lionel Loueke, Derrick Hodge and Kendrick Scott.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Charles Gatschet and Matt Hopper at the Dubliner

I'm fairly certain that I was the only person among the handful of listeners at the Dubliner on Sunday evening that wasn't somehow affiliated with the weekly Here's to the Roots showcase.  It's a shame.  The performance by Kansas City guitarists Charles Gatschet and Matt Hopper was exquisite.  Squarely in the duet tradition of Herb Ellis/Joe Pass and Bucky Pizzarelli/Ed Laub, the pair traded leads on standards and compositions by the likes of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.  Following an awkward interview with the tasteful guitarists, Havilah Bruders added impressive vocals to beautiful renditions of "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Georgia."


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I reviewed the Kansas City Symphony and Yefim Bronfman on Friday.

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I contributed a Local Listen segment about Vinson Cole to KCUR's Up to Date.

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I admired Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle's appearance at Take Five Coffee + Bar on Saturday.

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Andraé Crouch has died.

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Elena Obraztsova has died.

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Anthony Saunders sings on "Dreaming", a track from Dominique Sanders' forthcoming album.

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I had to lie down for a bit after watching Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Larry Gray and Jack DeJohnette discuss their forthcoming ECM album.

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Kassé Mady Diabaté's Kiriké is wonderful.  RIYL: Toumani Diabaté, life, Habib Koité.

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"Recognition", a track from THEESatisfaction's forthcoming album, is RIYL: Dirty Projectors, funkateers, Shabazz Palaces.

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Daniel Herskedal's Slow Eastbound Train seems promising.

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A new release featuring Anna Netrebko served as my introduction to Tchaikovsky's "Iolanta."  I'm in love.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

The 20 Best Kansas City-Related Albums of 2013 (so far)

Much of the Kansas City music community is rightfully engaged in self-congratulatory praise inspired by the notably strong showing of new releases in 2013.  A comment made by Matt of Jeopardy of Contentment at this site last week compelled me to join the chorus.  Here's a list of my twenty favorite Kansas City-related new releases of the past four months.  I created a Spotify playlist that includes all but five of my selections.


1. Mark Lowrey- Tangos For 18th Street (review at Plastic Sax)
2. The Grisly Hand- Country Singles
3. Pat Metheny- The Orchestrion Project
4. Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle- The Freedom of Expression (review at Plastic Sax)
5. Cherokee Rock Rifle- Ta-Li (review at There Stands the Glass)
6. Alaturka- Yalniz (review at Plastic Sax)
7. Dutch Newman- Schorre's Son
8. Cowboy Indian Bear- Live Old, Die Young
9. Reach- Live at the RecordBar (review at There Stands the Glass)
10. Ces Cru- Constant Energy Struggles (review at There Stands the Glass)
11. The Eldar Djangirov Trio- Breakthrough
12. Kutt Calhoun- Black Gold
13. The BD Trio- Live (review at Plastic Sax)
14. Appleseed Cast- Illumination Ritual
15. Heartfelt Anarchy- Heartfelt Anarchy
16. The Matt Kane Trio- Suit Up! (review at Plastic Sax)
17. Beau Bledsoe/Victoria Botero- Un Ramo de Voz
18. The Great Vehicle- The People's Cathedral of Wavelengths
19. Tate Stevens- Tate Stevens
20. Soft Reeds- Blank City


My list is not comprehensive.  I haven't heard a lot of stuff.  And there's plenty of music that simply doesn't appeal to me.  I encourage readers to investigate the sites linked to the right for additional commentary about the music being created in Kansas City.  The Mailbox features several new releases in today's podcast.  And The Mills Record Company Blog has been on fire lately. 

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: The Bronx- IV

I never fell in love with the Foo Fighters.  Sure, the band's back story is amazing and I share the rest of the world's affection for Dave Grohl.  But whenever I hear one of the band's hits I wish it was just a little dirtier and bit less corporate.  The Bronx have made that sound in my head a reality with their new album IV.  It's precisely the sort of big, obvious anthemic rock that will always have a place of honor in my rotation.


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Hey, look!  Here's documentation of a 2006 show by the Bronx at the RecordBar.  And lest you forget, the Bronx's alter ego is pretty amazing.

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I reviewed concerts by Kenny Garrett and Kurt Elling last weekend.

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I reviewed the debut album by Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle at Plastic Sax.

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Coming to terms with the death of Donald Byrd is just too much for me to deal with right now.  I'll simply note that I bought a "Walking In Rhythm" 45 when I was a kid.

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Alice Russell's new song "Twin Peaks" is RIYL Amy Winehouse, Dusty Springfield, Adele.

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Oh, for f***'s sake!  Check out the lineup for Jazz Aspen Snowmass.

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Here's a list of the releases for Record Store Day 2013.  Put me down for Husker Du (7"), Sir Douglas Quintet (7") and Eric Church (LP).

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Michelle Rosewoman's new project looks great, but asking for $23,000 seems like a bit much even if Oliver Lake is in the mix.

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The debut album by the new "supergroup" Pinnick Gales Pridgen is RIYL Robin Trower, "Sunshine of Your Love, the 1970s.  (That said, I genuinely want to see 'em live.)

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I hate to sound like a whiny twit, but the decision to make the new "Bryan Ferry" album sound as if it was recorded in 1928 doesn't work for me.

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SSION just dropped a stunning video for "High".  RIYL: mullets, Arthur Baker, creepy basements.

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Kansas City Click: Max Groove returns to the Green Lady Lounge on Tuesday.

Torn the F*** Apart appears at the Riot Room on Wednesday.

Cantus sings at the Folly Theater on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)