You Run Your Mouth, I'll Run My Business

My obsessive-compulsive tendencies compel me to think twice before queuing up compilations of irreproachable music by the likes of the Carter Family, Coleman Hawkins, Billie Holiday or Django Reinhardt.  Their timeless works tend to send me down unproductive rabbit holes.  It was with great reluctance, consequently, that I played the first of 136 tracks on the new Louis Armstrong collection The Complete Decca Singles 1935-1946.  I was out of commission for the next six hours and 38 minutes.  Oh, but what glorious waste of time!  Armstrong was such a genius that his interpretations of extremely problematic material, culturally insensitive compositions and pure drek are just as compelling as his classic works.  And when it comes to Armstrong, too much isn’t enough.


---
I reviewed a concert by RL Grime, What So Not, Graves and Longer Days at the Midland theater for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed a concert by Primus and Clutch for The Kansas City Star.

---
I reviewed a concert by the Harlem Quartet at Plastic Sax.

---
I featured Bloodstone in my weekly segment on KCUR.

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

---
I don’t think any album in my old man’s regular rotation annoyed me more than Glen Campbell’s 1969 release Live.  It opens with a over-the-top medley.  The second track is a corny rendition of “White Lightning.”  My whiskey-drinking dad would mimic the vocal effects.  I never got past it.

---
Barbara Cook has died.

---
DL Menard has died.

---
Howard Husock, the father of Eli “Paperboy” Reed, has written a fascinating account of his fleeting relationship with the late blues man Fred Davis.  The Kansas City native was killed in Cleveland in 1988.

---
I admire all of the genre-shattering impulses displayed on Paul Jones’ Clean.  His version of jazz is RIYL Philip Glass, chamber music, David Binney.

---
Tyler Childers’ Purgatory doesn’t contain a single original idea.  I like it anyway.  RIYL: the young Steve Earle, “real” country, Turnpike Troubadours.  Here’s ”Whitehouse Road”.

---
I’m annoyed (and a bit embarrassed) that I immediately fell for Forq’s new album Thrēq.  The quartet melds the most appealing (and dorky) elements of prog-rock and jazz fusion.  RIYL: Brand X, imaginary soundtracks, Bob James.

---
Damn hippies!  Power of Peace, a collaboration between Carlos Santana and the Isley Brothers, is far out.

---
Hey, John Scofield is pretty good.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

I'm One

The PA system at the United Center in Chicago blared “Baba O’Riley” at a crucial juncture of the fourth quarter of the Bulls-Cavaliers game yesterday.

The moment was reason #3,129 I can no longer listen to the Who for pleasure.  That’s why I was relieved when The Who's appearance at the Sprint Center was canceled last week a day before the concert.

I knew I wouldn’t be working the show, but I felt obligated to show up and buy a ticket.  As a self-centered 17-year-old twit, I completed internalized Quadrophenia.

A lot’s happened since then.


---
I reviewed Primus’ return to the Uptown Theater.

---
I reviewed Mary Chapin Carpenter’s collaboration with the Kansas City Symphony.

---
I contributed a Local Listen segment about Julian Vaughn to KCUR.

---
Johnny Gimble has died.  I saw the fiddler accompany country stars a few times and I took in a few sets he led in Winfield, Kansas.

---
Guy Carawan has died.

---
Jerome Cooper, the drummer of the Revolutionary Ensemble, has died.

---
Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate has died.

---
Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear were featured on CBS Sunday Morning.

---
Only when forced at proverbial gunpoint did I reluctantly listen to the Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color.  Holy smokes!  RIYL: Some Girls, career artists, My Morning Jacket.  Here’s the title track. 

---
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  Much of Kamasi Washington’s The Epic struck me as merely “good” during my first pass at the three-hour album.  From the choirs to the running time, it’s just too much.  RIYL: Pharoah Sanders, hype, Joshua Redman.

---
Never Were the Way She Was is the first Colin Stetson album that completely resonates with me.  RIYL: chamber music, Hauschka, not a trace of jazz.

---
Reason #3,130 I can’t listen to the Who for pleasure- Quadrophenia has become an actual opera.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)