October Recap

Top Five Performances
1. Nadia Larcher and Ensemble Ibérica- MTH Theater
My review.
2. Max Richter, Grace Davidson and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble- Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater (Austin)
My review.
3. Rodney Crowell- 04 Center (Austin)
Ain’t living long like that.
4. Tatsuya Nakatani- The Ship
My review.
5. Orville Peck- RecordBar
Who was that masked man?

Top Five Albums
1. Kris Davis- Diatom Ribbons
Unit structures.
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Ghosteen
My review.
3. Robert Glasper- Fuck Yo Feelings
My review.
4. Danny Brown- Uknowhatimsayin?
Don't know nothing but I do know this.
5. Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise
Jazz musicians with punk attitudes are inestimable.

Top Five Songs
1. Summer Walker and PartyNextDoor- “Just Might”
Self-awareness can be excruciating.
2. City Girls- “JT First Day Out”
Sprung.
3. Miranda Lambert- “Tequila Does”
Shots.
4. Bill Frisell- “Everywhere”
Sweet dreams are made of this.
5. Kanye West featuring Clipse and Kenny G- “Use This Gospel”
Kenny G takes a solo on Jesus Is King's best track.

I conducted the same exercise in September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February and January.

(Original image of Tatsuya Nakatani by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Kelli O’Hara at Helzberg Hall

What constitutes an ideal date night concert?  I’d suggest that the performance should be romantic, engaging, sophisticated, brief and affordable.  By those specifications, Kelli O’Hara’s appearance at Helzberg Hall on Saturday, October 12, was perfect.  My date shed tears of gratitude during the Broadway star’s renditions of romantic standards including “All the Way”, and she gleefully sang along to a rendition of the cheerful “Getting to Know You”.  Accompanied only by pianist Dan Lipton, O’Hara’s appearance lasted less than 90 minutes.  The brevity of the show might have bothered me had I not purchased rush tickets at an enormous discount.  Light attendance meant that we had an entire section in a posh venue almost entirely to ourselves.  Suddenly, I’m bright and breezy.


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I reviewed an appearance by Tatsuya Nakatani at Plastic Sax.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

April Recap

Top Five Performances
1. Khatia Buniatishvili- Folly Theater
My review.
2. Matt Otto, Danny Embrey, Sam Copeland and Brian Steever- Black Dolphin
My review.
3. Tatsuya Nakatani & Assif Tsahar- 1900 Building
My review.
4. tenThing- Helzberg Hall
My Instagram footage.
5. Bill MacKay- Mills Record Company
My Instagram footage.


Top Five Albums
1. Anderson Paak- Ventura
My review.
2. Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan- Epistrophy
My review.
3. Caroline Shaw/Attacca Quartet- Orange
Yet another Big Ears Festival encounter.
4. Brooks & Dunn- Reboot
My review.
5. Angelique Kidjo- Celia
Afro-Cuban makeovers.


Top Five Songs
1. Reba McEntire- “Stronger Than the Truth”
The hard stuff.
2. Kevin Abstract- “Big Wheels”
Squeaky.
3. Randy Rogers Band- “Drinking Money”
Gonna spend it all in one place.
4. Lizzo- “Jerome”
I’d hate to be him.
5. Pup- “Scorpion Hill”
Dark thoughts.


I conducted the same exercise in January, February and March.

(Original image of Bill MacKay by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Anderson Paak- Ventura

I don’t entirely trust my enthusiasm for Anderson Paak’s Ventura.  The album is so closely attuned to my sensibilities that I suspect it’s an algorithmic swindle.  Ventura resembles what might happen if the Music Genome Project, the uncannily perceptive program designed by the creators of Pandora Music, was commissioned to create music specifically for me.  The silky throwback soul of songs like “Make It Better” are frighteningly spot-on evocations of my sonic ideal.

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I contribute weekly concert previews to The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I reviewed a recital by Assif Tsahar and Tatsuya Nakatani at Plastic Sax.

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Before music streaming services became quick and (nearly) comprehensive, I’d occasionally go on excursions at the Free Music Archive in search of interesting variations on the jam-band sound.  I invariably came up empty.  Imperfection, the new release by the New York power trio Gorgeous!, is the sort of unpolished gem I’d hoped to discover at FMA.  The group sounds like the Jimi Hendrix Experience jamming on contemporary funk.  The album contains about 20 minutes of thrilling grooves.  Unfortunately, Imperfection rambles on for 98 minutes.

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I wasn’t impressed the two times I witnessed Whitechapel spoon-feed greasy kid stuff to fidgety teenage headbangers.  The convincingly heavy The Valley, however, isn’t generic child’s play.  Here’s “When a Demon Defiles a Witch”.

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Lage Lund is accompanied by pianist Sullivan Fortner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Tyshawn Sorey on Terrible Animals.  The auspicious lineup assembled by the guitarist doesn’t disappoint.  RIYL: Mary Halvorson, genius hiding in plain sight, Pat Metheny.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)