Album Review: Lianne La Havas- Lianne La Havas

I fully realize I’m often viewed as an eccentric misfit.  My longstanding indifference to conforming to societal expectations grows even stronger as I age.  I’m accustomed to being the age and/or racial outlier at events.  Social media statistics, celebrity gossip and the latest outrage in the daily news cycle are among the popular topics I happily ignore.  Still, I welcome occasional opportunities to feel like a regular guy.  My instant affinity for the sophisticated adult pop on Lianne La Havas’ new self-titled album gives me a sense of belonging.  The singer-songwriter’s extreme normcore sound is tailor-made for people in my demographic.  In the tradition of the storied chanteuses Carole King and Robert Flack, Lianne La Havas songs like “Can’t Fight” and “Paper Thin” are in keeping with similarly age-appropriate favorites by K.D. Lang, Shelby Lynne and Lizz Wright.  La Havas’ lovely form of easy listening is talkin’ to my generation.


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I review Mike Dillon’s remarkable new album Rosewood at Plastic Sax.

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Opera update: Programmers at the Metropolitan Opera began slipping reruns into their free stream schedule.  How dare they!  Scotland Opera’s production of Stuart MacRae’s outstanding “Anthropocene” is among the unconventional works I’ve come across since being forced to look further afield.  I’m now at 118 operas in 118 days.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Rickie Lee Jones at Crossroads KC

Seeing Rickie Lee Jones for the first time is akin to discovering that Santa Claus is real.  It turns out that Jones really is an old-school beatnik who has no choice but to inhabit a rarefied realm in which ‘50s-era West Coast jazz and Dylanesque folk intersect.

I paid $40 for a magical 95-minute trip to Coolsville, a place where Jones raps several lines of Cypress Hill’s “(Rock) Superstar” one moment and casually mentions that she recorded her 1991 album Pop Pop with jazz luminaries including saxophonist Joe Henderson and bassist Charlie Haden in the next without seeming the least bit incongruous.

Most members of the absurdly small audience of about 300 at Crossroads KC on Sunday were Jones’ generational peers, a circumstance that allowed me to ride the rail to get an intimate view of her interactions with percussionist Mike Dillon and two crackerjack multi-instrumentalists.  I didn’t dare snap a photo.  A testy performer, Jones directed her ire at a smoker, an annoying blurter and even a passing motorcyclist in the first few minutes of the show.  I didn’t want to be her next target.

Jones went full torch singer on “Company”, delivered a bebop interpretation of “Bye Bye Blackbird” and oversaw a hot jazz reading of “Nagasaki” that she admitted was based on the 1937 arrangement by the Mills Brothers.  Without the studio polish that ruined the original recording, a version of the devastating junkie blues “Living It Up” tore me to pieces.

I won’t bother making a Christmas list in December.  Santa came early this year.


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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Heartbreak Mountain

To the best of my knowledge, I don’t harbor any repressed memories.  Even so, I possess a psychological warehouse of unpleasant recollections that I choose not to dwell on.  A handful of selections on The Complete Capitol Singles 1971-1975, a recently released collection of material by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, plunged me back to what must be a composite memory from my childhood.  I’m alone in a parked sedan that reeks of fresh cigarette smoke and stale Coors even though the windows are down.  Second-tier country songs play on the AM radio as I pick at the sun-cracked artificial leather seat.  Thanks to the new compilation, I now know that I was hearing "The Good Ol' Days (Are Here Again)", “Made in Japan” and “Heartbreak Mountain”.  Buck and his boys were running on empty and I was just trying not to be noticed.


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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I reviewed Universal Pulse, a 2004 alliance of Mike Dillon, Earl Harvin and Arny Young, at Plastic Sax.

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Bushwick Bill of the Geto Boys has died.

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Guitarist Spencer Bohren has died.

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I don’t recall previously hearing any of the 20 revelatory songs on the 83-minute Outro Tempo II: Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil, 1984-1996 compilation.  While the insufferable pop production techniques associated with the era are represented, most artists subvert the harsh digital sound with acoustic flourishes that sound deliriously strange to a guy who was raised on country radio in the northern hemisphere.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

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Rainford is the Lee “Scratch” Perry album of my dreams.

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This show was among the Santana concerts I attended at the Uptown Theater about 40 years ago.  I fondly recall the sustained guitar notes and the Latin percussion workouts at the jam-oriented shows.  The new album Africa Speaks isn’t merely a return to form, it’s a significant upgrade on the band’s vintage sound.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Deep Cover

There’s a right way and a wrong way to make an album of cover songs.  Nikka Costa takes the proper approach on the stellar Nikka & Strings: Underneath and In Between.  The unconventional arrangements and unusual instrumentation demonstrate Costa’s healthy irreverence on selections like Prince’s ”Nothing Compares 2 U”.  Her leisurely version of  “Stormy Weather” makes a case for Costa as Etta James’ most worthy heir.  Conversely, Douyé’s impeccably tasteful interpretations of standards like “In a Sentimental Mood” on Daddy Said So are infuriatingly stale.  The inability of elite jazz musicians like Kenny Barron, Ron Carter and Jeremy Pelt to lift the project out of the doldrums makes the effort even more frustrating.  The reactionary conservatism of Daddy Said So sounds like the supper club of my nightmares.


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I reviewed a concert by Iron Maiden and Ghost on Tuesday.

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I reviewed Monday’s outing by DJ Shadow at the Madrid Theatre.

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OneRepublic’s concert at the Sprint Center on Friday was one of my favorite shows of 2017.  No joke.  I reviewed the concert for The Kansas City Star.

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I discussed the Kansas City jazz fusion musician Blair Bryant on KCUR last week.  I inflicted Mike Dillon on listeners of the NPR affiliate earlier today.

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I write weekly concert previews for The Kansas City Star.

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I consider Steve Lambert’s new album Seven Stories at Plastic Sax.

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Lord have mercy.  Pokey Bear’s ”Can’t Be Faithful” is a strong contender for my favorite song of 2017.

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21 Savage’s Issa is so bad that it's good. "FaceTime" is among the tracks that are both brilliantly awful and awfully brilliant.

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I love everything about Riverside’s The New National Anthem.  The project overseen by trumpeter Dave Douglas is RIYL Carla Bley, brilliant fun, Old and New Dreams.

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Shredders, a reshuffling of the Doomtree crew, is invigorating.  RIYL: P.O.S, feeling Minnesota, Sims.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Mark Chesnutt- Tradition Lives

I grew increasingly frustrated as I watched Mark Chesnutt perform with Lorrie Morgan and Joe Diffie at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in January.  My subsequent review was positive, but I longed to be transported to a proper Chesnutt concert at a honky-tonk in his home state of Texas.

Rather than gripping a notepad and a penlight, I wanted to hold a longneck in one hand and the waist of my dance partner in the other.  My daydream of careening across a dance floor to “Brother Jukebox” was heavenly. 

Tradition Lives, Chesnutt’s first album in six years, is filled with sturdy country songs about drinking, cheating and heartbreak.  “So You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore,” an ode about a breakup with booze, is my favorite track. 

The veteran traditionalist has no use for crossover pop moves or for the sort of arty innovations that made Sturgill Simpson a sensation among the NPR set.  Yet formalism doesn’t seem stodgy in the hands of Chesnutt.  I favor hip-hop, jazz, metal and R&B these days, but hardcore country like Tradition Lives will always sound like home to me.


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I reviewed Twenty One Pilots’ sold-out concert at the Sprint Center.

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I wrote an extended preview of Flight of the Conchords’s show at Starlight Theatre 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 continue to drive the Matt Otto bandwagon at Plastic Sax.

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Marc Meyers reports that jazz pianist Don Friedman has died.

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”How Many” is Miguel’s response to recent events.  (Tip via BGO.)

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If I manage to embrace the distortion that makes speakers sound as if they’re blown out, Mike Dillon’s Functioning Broke might become one of my favorite jazz-based albums of 2016.  RIYL: Steve Reich, Elliott Smith covers, early Keith Jarrett.

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I get choked up by Allen Toussaint's cover of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” at the conclusion of his lovely posthumous album American Tunes.

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In 2014, I suggested that Schoolboy Q's Oxymoron resembled "a poor man's version of Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city."  The rapper's new  Blank Face LP sounds like a bankrupt response to To Pimp a Butterfly.  The project also has the dubious distinction of housing “That Part”, arguably Kanye West’s worst-ever feature.

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The messy mix on the reissue of Van Morrison’s ...It’s Too Late to Stop Now doesn’t spoil the fun.

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Hiromi’s Spark is RIYL: bombast, Rush, being buried by notes.

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BadBadNotGood’s IV is mildly disappointing.  RIYL: Mulatu Astatke, hype, John Klemmer.

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At his best, Kenny Garrett is among the most essential living jazz musicians.  He’s astoundingly awful at his worst.  Do Your Dance! runs the gamut.  RIYL: John Coltrane, embarrassingly amateurish cover art, middle school talent shows.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Surface Noise at Ink's Middle of the Map Fest

I don't share the musical sensibilities of the organizers of Ink's Middle of the Map Fest.  That doesn't mean that I couldn't find plenty to enjoy last weekend.  I caught at least two sets at each of the event's six stages in the 17 hours I logged at the festival.  All of my favorite performances, however, took place at the Riot Room.  Here's the top five:

• Wolf Eyes- searing noise
• Reggie and the Full Effect- a glorious mess
• Bummer- Olathe grunge
• Shabazz Palaces- interstellar hip-hop
• Josh Berwanger Band- Kansas power-pop

Some of my commentary is incorporated into reports here and here.


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Your Friend's session for KJHK at the KU Natural History Museum is impressive. 

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I ponder Mike Dillon's Band of Outsiders at Plastic Sax.

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Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders has died.

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Atmosphere's "Kanye West" is a bit disappointing.

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The European piano trio Phronesis is doing interesting things.

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Dave Koz's rendition of the "Game of Thrones" theme has gone viral.

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B.B. King's performances continue to deteriorate.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image of James Dewees by There Stands the Glass.)