Sour Concord Grapes

I’m not one of the three pasty men in the photograph that accompanies a The New York Times report about the latest transmutation of the entity once known as Concord Records.  While I bear a slight resemblance to the executives who oversee the conglomerate, I suppose I lack some of their business acuity.  I certainly had myriad opportunities to get in on the ground floor of the operation.  I regularly interacted with Carl Jefferson, the late founder of Concord Records, as I toiled as a sales rep for independent record labels when his company was strictly devoted to mainstream jazz recordings.  When he wasn’t scolding me about slow payments or the ostensibly light spreads of his latest releases, Jefferson and I had delightful discussions about our mutual admiration of musicians like Ruby Braff.  Even though things have worked out for me, I occasionally regret not striving to become a redoubtable music industry mogul.


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I reviewed the 25th anniversary edition of Rockfest.

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I reviewed Tech N9ne's return to the Midland.

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Future’s concert at the Sprint Center was my show of the week for The Kansas City Star and
Ink magazine.

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I gave Nick Schnebelen my KCUR Band of the Week designation.

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

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I reviewed Hermon Mehari’s solo debut album at Plastic Sax.

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Danny Cox recalled the summer of 1967 for The Kansas City Star.

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Bern Nix has died.

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The remix of Bob Marley & the Wailers' Exodus is disorienting.  Here’s ”Turn Your Lights Down Low”.

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Mad Decent added just the right amount of production sweetening to Omar Souleyman’s music on To Syria, With Love.  Here’s ”Chobi”.

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Cuong Vu’s Ballet is miraculous free-ish jazz.  RIYL: Bill Frisell, four (brilliant) dudes jamming, Dave Douglas.

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Orrin Evans might be my favorite mainstream jazz pianist.  His presence elevates Sean Jones’ Live From at the Bistro.  RIYL: Hermon Mehari, the St. Louis jazz club, Terrel Stafford.

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Rock may be dead, but the members of Greta Van Fleet are expert necromancers.  Black Smoke Rising is RIYL Led Zeppelin IV, gravedigging, Houses of the Holy.  Here’s ”Highway Tune”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Christian Scott- Stretch Music

I’m no longer crestfallen that Christian Scott isn’t performing in Kansas City on his current tour.  I expected his new release to expand on the exciting advances he made on Christian aTunde Adjuah, my #2 album of 2012.  Instead, it’s a tedious retrenchment.

Stretch Music is billed as "a genre-blind musical form that stretches the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic conventions of jazz to encompass as many musical forms, languages, thought processes and cultures as possible."

The project reeks of unflattering me-too-ism.  Scott seems to be trying to unnecessarily prove that hip-hop, rock and jazz can coexist.  He’s merely rehashing the work of Flying Lotus, Nicholas Payton, Miles Davis and Gil Evans. 

I expect Scott to be a leader.  He’s opted to be a follower.  Unless Frank Ocean or Kanye West stumbles, Stretch Music will be the most disappointing album of 2015.


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I reviewed Citizen Cope’s concert at Crossroads KC.

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Here are the weekly music previews I write for The Kansas City Star.

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I spotlighted Making Movies’ Carnaval for Ink magazine.

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I contributed a Local Listen segment about Making Movies to KCUR.

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Bobby Watson and his touring band thrilled me at the Folly Theater on Friday.  Here’s my review.

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A man seated near me softly snored through much of the Kansas City Symphony’s concert on Sunday afternoon.  The tiresome program didn’t excite me either.  I’m more of a Berg: Lyric Suite; Wellesz: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett-Browning guy.  Here’s the intriguing EPK for the new collaboration between the Emerson String Quartet and Renée Fleming.

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I assume that Shannon and the Clams and the critics who extol the band are trolling.  Gone By the Dawn is dismal.  RIYL: The Shaggs, the first rehearsal of an unpromising garage-rock band, Jonathan Richman at his most insufferable.

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The subtleties of The Evolution of Oneself initially eluded me.  Repeated listens have revealed that the trio of Orrin Evans, Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins have created one of the year’s best jazz albums.  Recommended to people who appreciate both Ray Brown and the Wu-Tang Clan.

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I love everything about Windhand’s Grief’s Infernal Flower.  RIYL: Slayer, cemeteries, Pallbearer.

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Mary Halvorson’s Meltframe does nothing for me.  RIYL: Robert Fripp, dissertations about music theory, Bill Frisell.

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I don’t have anything bad to say about Keith Richards’ Crosseyed Heart.  RIYL: Ian McLagan, lions in the winter, Chuck Berry.

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Steve Van Zandt’s maximalist production of Introducing Darlene Love is too much for me.  Here’s the overblown ”Forbidden Nights”.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Orrin Evans- ...It Was Beauty

My previous post and the accusatory slings and arrows regularly fired my way to the contrary, I don't detest swing.

In fact, I'm a shameless fanboy of mainstream jazz pianist Orrin Evans.  While I don't wake up each morning eager to spend my day consuming piano trio albums, Evans' new …It Was Beauty (his twentieth release!) avoids the usual pitfalls of the format.  Only two tracks- "Dorm Life" and "Hats Off to Rebay"- fail to stave off tedium. 

Evans, one of the more intriguing theoreticians in jazz, helps keep things fresh by using several bassists, including two on a couple tracks.  A version of "African Song" is stunning.  It's one of several selections that shine with the freedom I associate with the late Esbjörn Svensson.

Fortunately, I watched the ill-advised homemade EPK for …It Was Beauty only after I'd already fallen in love with the album. 


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Sound the Alarm, Booker T's new album, is two or three bum tracks away from being an album-of-the-year contender.

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Is the world ready for Y-Love, a "black Orthodox Jewish rapper"?

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Howlin, the new throwback album by Jagwar Ma, isn't my thing.  RIYL: (the vastly superior) Tame Impala, Oasis, 1985.

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Soft Will, the new throwback album by the Smith Westerns, is my thing.  RIYL: (the vastly superior) My Morning Jacket, Badfinger, 1985.

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Young Jeezy's "It's a Cold World" is embarrassingly awful.

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I'm glad to have discovered New Zealand's Meth Drinker.  RIYL: oblivion, Black Sabbath, drinking meth.

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At a different point in my life, I might have eaten up the Restorations' new album LP2 like a cow in cabbage.  RIYL: Fugazi, Gaslight Anthem, Big Country.

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Ellery Eskelin's Mirage is an excellent new free jazz album.  RIYL: beautiful chaos, pedal steel, chess.

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Don Cavalli is a convincing French bluesman.  "Tempermental" is RIYL: JD McPherson, Lloyd Price, the Black Keys.

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I still haven't forgiven T.I. for his lackluster concert at the Sprint Center earlier this year.  Even so, I like his new "Problem" featuring B.o.B.

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"This Is the Place", a dusty slow jam from Springfield's Kansas City Express, is amazing.  Hey, BGO- can you provide any context for this forgotten relic?

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Tech N9ne is billed third- behind Insane Clown Posse and Twistid- in the highly-anticipated annual announcement video for the Gathering of the Juggalos.

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Sure, I laugh at Juggalos.  I don't laugh at Maggots.  Slipknot remains woefully under-appreciated.

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The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 Another Self Portrait?  Oof.  But yeah, I'm in.  (First spotted via a posting by Big Steve NO.)

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Of all the albums slated for release this week- the list includes titles by Ace Hood, Phil Anselmo, Court Yard Hounds, George Duke, Tom Kennedy, Peter Leitch, Mayday, Soft Metals, the Steve Swallow Quartet and A Road Leading Home: Songs By Dan Penn- I'm most interested in hearing Border Wars, the new release from longstanding There Stands the Glass favorites The Architects.

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Kansas City Click: Night Beds performs at the RecordBar on Monday.

The Green Lady Lounge hosts Steve Lambert on Tuesday.

Joe Nichols plays Kanza Hall on Wednesday.

Buckwheat Zydeco will fill the dance floor at Knuckleheads on Thursday.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)