Album Review: Elvis Costello- Look Now

It’s not him, it’s me.  Many of my insightful peers insist that Elvis Costello’s Look Now is his best album in more than a decade.  While they’re probably right, I’m just not in a proper frame of mind to appreciate his baroque throwback pop.  There’s simply too much free jazz, contemporary pop, African funk, Chicago footwork and grimy hip-hop demanding my attention at the moment.  I look forward to revisiting Look Now when I’m in rocking chair mode.  RIYL: Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick’s greatest hits, Jimmy Webb.  Here’s “Suspect My Tears”.


---
I reviewed a concert by Bob Seger and Blue Water Highway for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed a concert by Twenty One Pilots, Awolnation and Max Frost for The Kansas City Star.

---
I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed Peter Schlamb’s Electric Tinks at Plastic Sax.

---
I’ll inflict my taste on unsuspecting listeners of KTGB, 90.9 The Bridge, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 27.

---
The Chicago bluesman Eddie C. Campbell has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
Patrick Mathé, the founder of New Rose and Last Call Records, has died.  (Tip via SS.)

---
The British folk prosthetizer Roy Bailey has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
Good intentions and outstanding musicianship don’t always result in worthwhile music. The heartfelt sincerity of Marcus Strickland’s People of the Sun is corny.  RIYL: Robert Glasper, disappointments, Bilal.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Les Arts Florissants at Helzberg Hall

I couldn’t afford not to go to the Les Arts Florissants concert at Helzberg Hall last Saturday.  The 80% discount the presenter offered to everyone on its mailing list reduced the price of the ticket I purchased in the back row of the room to $4. 

At that absurdly low sum, I was willing to bail at intermission if the show wasn’t entertaining.  Rather than finding Les Arts Florissants tiresome, I wished that the vocal and instrumental ensemble that specializes in playing baroque music on period instruments would have performed all night.

An exceedingly sober review of the concert bears the headline “Consistency, grace, good taste.”  Those words don’t reflect my reaction to the presentation.  I’d go with “Sexy, steamy, fun” instead.  Vintage footage of a Les Arts Florissants show captures only a bit of the ensemble’s sultry side that enthralled this bargain-hunter on Saturday.


---
I reviewed a concert by the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

---
I reviewed a concert by Magic Man, the Griswolds and Panama Wedding.

---
My friends don’t call me Rain Man for nothing.  My stilted commentary is featured in an audio review of Logan Richardson’s Shift that was aired by KCUR on Wednesday.

---
I chatted about Duncan Burnett with Steve Kraske on KCUR last week.

---
I wrote an extended concert preview about the Arcs.

---
I wrote an extended show preview for R. Kelly’s return to the Sprint Center.

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

---
Lonnie Mack has died.

---
Billy Paul has died.

---
Papa Wemba has died.

---
The Kansas City band Making Movies created a video for “Ready For the Rain.”

---
Nihil Novi, the wonderful album by Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life, is a post-Kamasi Washington, post-Robert Glasper project.  RIYL: Randy Weston, groovin’, Meshell Ndegeocello.  The 15-minute album trailer contains a few interesting insights.

---
Most of Mind of Mine, the solo debut album by former One Direction member Zayn Malik, is an unabashed homage to R. Kelly.  In other words, it’s pretty good.  Here’s ”Befour”.

---
George Coleman’s A Master Speaks is a treat.  RIYL: octogenarians, Jackie McLean, standards.

---
The press release for the Yellowjackets’ Cohearence suggests that the band offers a “modern take on Weather Report.”  If by “modern” the publicist meant “watered down,” the assertion is spot-on.  And I’m not even going to pretend that I’m too cool for sophisticated elevator music.  The Yellowjackets are one of my favorite contemporary jazz groups.

---
Levitation Room’s Ethos is an almost perfect neo-garage-rock album.  RIYL: The Electric Prunes, “Pushin’ Too Hard,” the Pretty Things.

---
Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom- Otis Was a Polar Bear is delightful.  RIYL: Jenny Scheinman, giving the drummer some, Myra Melford.  Here’s a promotional video.

---
A$AP Ferg’s Always Strive and Prosper is immensely entertaining.  RIYL: Wu-Tang Clan, glossy production, Danny Brown’s XXX.  The uplifting ”Strive” may be my favorite song of 2016.

---
Black Stone Cherry’s Kentucky is RIYL: Lynyrd Skynyrd, boogie, Kid Rock.  Here’s “Soul Machine”.

(Original image of a facade in Kansas City’s jazz district by There Stands the Glass.)