Jorja Smith’s episode of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert floored me. The performance seemed to signal the arrival of a major talent. Alas, the 21-year-old British woman’s debut album Lost & Found is slightly less convincing. I was about to write it off until I was arrested by a surprising interpolation of Dizzee Rascal’s “Sirens,” my favorite song of 2007, on the eighth track. Smith could be the next big star in the mode of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo or Lauryn Hill after all.
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I covered the first day of the Boulevardia festival for The Kansas City Star
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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star.
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I analyzed the significance of Social Distortion in a forecast of the band’s appearance at Middle of the Map festival.
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I reviewed the Ryan Marquez Trio’s Moving Forward in Time at Plastic Sax.
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I was backstage in Austin Music Hall at a SWSW showcase for the All the King’s Men project in 1997. I was on cloud nine watching a parade of stars walk past me to perform with Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. Fontana has died.
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At the conclusion of Matt “Guitar” Murphy’s first set at the Jazzhaus in Lawrence, Kansas, in the 1980s, I convinced two friends to abandon the club for my apartment. I’d run out of money, but cold beer was in my refrigerator. I’ve been haunted by that shameful decision for decades. Murphy died last week.
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Lorraine Gordon of the Village Vanguard has died. I’m fairly certain she’s the person who scolded me for dawdling during my first visit to the club in the 1990s.
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Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of the Last Poets has died. (Tip via BGO.)
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If three minutes were cut from the 7:33 “Everything,” Nas’ Nasir would be close to perfect. It’s the best of Kanye West’s recent stellar musical outburst. My new ranking: Nasir, Kids See Ghosts, Daytona, Ye. Another thought: it’s increasingly clear that the five-part series (Teyana Taylor’s effort is slated for release on June 22) is intended to be heard as a single song cycle.
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Nick Lowe’s new four-song collaboration with Los Straitjackets is almost as wonderful as his classic work of the 1970s.
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The four-song Consolation affirms my belief that Protomartyr is one of the most vital bands in rock.
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Jeffrey Osborne’s Worth It All suffers from a serious quality control problem. The soul crooner’s voice is intact, but decent songs are few and far between. Here’s the title track.
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Lower East Suite Part Three, the sloppy debut album of the Onyx Collective, is a lo-fi mess. And that’s precisely what I like about it. The young jazz musicians play with the reckless indifference of punks. RIYL: the Jazz Passengers, nose-thumbing, the Lounge Lizards.
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Orange Goblin’s The Wolf Bites Back is a blast. RIYL: Clutch, prison tattoos, Red Fang. Here’s “In Bocca Al Lupo”.
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I listened to The Carters’ Everything Is Love once. Never again. RIYL: Forbes list flexing, Us Weekly, misplaced priorities.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
