Concert Review: Salif Keita at Town Hall

I was disappointed when I checked the live music listings after I snagged a cheap flight to New York City.  No Henry Threadgill.  No Cecil Taylor.  Not even Wadada Leo Smith would be playing while I’d be in town.

During my previous trip to New York City, I heard Joyce DiDonato light up Carnegie Hall (my review) and sat a few feet from Dave Douglas, Lee Konitz, Matt Mitchell, Linda Oh and Ches Smith at the Jazz Standard (my review). While I experienced nothing quite as momentous on my visit earlier this month, I didn’t go wanting.

I heard the artist known as the Golden Voice of Africa perform for hundreds of Malians in a historic venue built by suffragettes.  It was a quintessential New York City experience.  I uploaded a snippet to Instagram.  Super-fan Banning Eyre reviewed the concert for Afropop Worldwide.


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I reviewed a concert by In This Moment, Motionless In White, Avatar and Gemini Syndrome for
The Kansas City Star.

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I wrote an extended concert preview about Mastodon for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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My weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine are here and here.

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I named Alicia Solo KCUR’s Band of the Week.

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I laud Kansas City’s new lounge band Agora at Plastic Sax.

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Allan Holdsworth has died.  Feels Good To Me might be the last prog/fusion album I enjoyed before the Sex Pistols, the Ramones and the Clash changed my outlook.

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Orchestra Baobab’s Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng is the leading candidate to be my all-purpose album of the summer. My next-door neighbors have already heard it twice as I’ve worked in my driveway.  RIYL: life, Buena Vista Social Club, love.  Here’s ”Foulo”.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

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Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng is light and breezy, but Vieux Farka Touré‘s Samba is loud and brassy.  RIYL: 1970s’s-era Carlos Santana, dancing, Ali Farka Touré.  Here’s ”Homafu Wawa”.

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Damn isn’t To Pimp a Butterfly or Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.  So what?  It’s still essential.  Kendrick Lamar remains the #rapmessiah.  Here’s ”DNA”.

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I’ve always loved Decoy.  Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah successfully updates the 1980s sound of Miles Davis on Ruler Rebel.

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Rodney Crowell’s Close Ties is a mishmash of great and cringe-worthy- songs.  ”Nashville 1972” is both.

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Howard Shore’s Two Concerti, ably played by Lang Lang, is a noble failure.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Vieux Farka Touré- Mon Pays

Vieux Farka Touré has served as my mental health counselor for the past ten days.  It's my understanding that his new album Mon Pays addresses the horrors afflicting his native Mali, but the album has consoled me as I struggle with my decidedly less dramatic personal issues.  The rapturously beautiful album lacks the startling "new thing" element that characterized his father Ali Farka Touré's crossover albums in the 1990s.  Yet Mon Pays' sense of familiarity brings me comfort.  Blessed relief is just a click away.

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Tim Finn wrote a remembrance of Abigail Henderson.

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Sathima Bea Benjamin has died.

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ReJoyce, a new Joyce DiDonato compilation, contains six previously-unreleased tracks.

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I reviewed Harold O'Neal's Man On the Street album at Plastic Sax.

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I recently stumbled across Dereck Higgins talking about the French label BYG Actuel on his YouTube channel.  I love everything about this guy.

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Kentucky Knife Fight's Hush Hush is RIYL: The Hold Steady, Lucero, Vic Chesnutt. 

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A$AP Ferg's Trap Lord is as harrowing as Mon Pays is comforting.

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The EPK for Linda Oh's Sun Pictures reflects the album's charms.  RIYL: Kurt Rosenwinkel, Matt Wilson, Todd Clouser.

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Light In the Attic is releasing a massive box set of material originally released by Lee Hazelwood Industries.

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Here's footage of Steve Coleman's Five Elements tearing it up.

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Four Fists is a new collaboration between P.O.S and Astronautalis.  RIYL: TV On the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Beck.

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The trailer for Narco Cultura is fantastic.

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This week's new releases of interest to There Stands the Glass include Tamar Braxton, Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Joyce DiDonato, Dave Holland's Prism (here's a fusion-tastic sample), Jaheim, King Khan & The Shrines, Kreator, John Legend, Glenn Lewis, Nine Inch Nails, North Mississippi Allstars, Okkervil River, Raheem DeVaughn, a collaboration between Julian Lage and Fred Hersch, a new version of Verdi's Requiem and the Numero Group's Forte compilation.

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Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)