Your Custom Text Here
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*A few moments of Bill Summers’ performance at Dunbar Park were captured by Joe Dimino.
*The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra’s new rendition of Mary Lou Williams’ the “Zodiac Suite” streams on the ensemble’s YouTube channel.
*Tweet of the Week: Mayor Q- Spring-like weather and my man, Desmond Mason, at the top of the @TheWWImuseumtower playing some jazz. How can you not love Kansas City?!? #MakeMusicKC #HappyMonday
Original image by Plastic Sax.
The duo of Mike Dillon and Nikki Glaspie operated as a miniature drumline at the 1900 Building on Thursday, June 10. A few dozen people heard the audaciously unconventional percussionists perform uncharacteristically restrained cadences. Dillon is a longtime jazz insurrectionary. Glaspie is best known for her robust work as a member of Beyoncé’s touring band. Material from Dillon’s four outstanding pandemic albums- reviewed enthusiastically at Plastic Sax here and here- dominated the setlist. A brief sample reflects the lighthearted tone of the 80-minute recital. Longtime fans hoping to hear old favorites weren’t entirely neglected. The duo stumbled through a version of the title track of Hairy Apes BMX’s 2000 album Out Demons. Dillon explained he hadn’t played the impertinent contrafact of “Salt Peanuts” in 15 years. Prioritizing the present rather than glorifying the past makes the future seem exceptionally bright for both intrepid musicians.
Bill Summers played the haunting hook that opens and closes Herbie Hancock’s 1973 hit version of “Watermelon Man.” He crafted frequently-sampled mid-’70s jams like “God Made Me Funky” with the Headhunters. More recently, Summers made a series of stellar albums with Jason Marsalis and Irvin Mayfield as Los Hombres Calientes. On Monday, June 21, the storied musician performs at Dunbar Park. The concert is presented by the Traditional Music Society of Kansas City and UNESCO’s Creative City of Music initiative. Details about the free event are here.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Eddie Moore chatted with Patrick Sprehe for more than 90 minutes on the Center Cuts podcast.
*Tweet of the Week: Westport KC- @WestportCoffeehouse Sunday Night Jazz Series: June 6th, 6pm: Rich Hill “2Big2Fail”; June 13th, 6pm:Adam Larson Quartet; June 20th, 6pm: Brad Gregory; June 27th, 6pm: Michael Eaton #westportkc #kclivemusic
*From a press release: Kansas City and the UNESCO Cities of Music announce the Voyage of the Drum. 18 UNESCO Creative Cities will participate on 21 June 2021. The videos will be streamed on YouTube courtesy of Music Export Poland and with the support of the Polish Ministry of Culture. The Voyage of the Drum is hosted by UCCN with Kansas City Missouri USA – the only UNESCO Creative City of Music in the United States. The Voyage of the Drum unites the cities of the world through the drum – one of humanity’s earliest instruments. The Voyage of the Drum celebrates the African Diaspora around the world and demonstrates how the influence of African rhythms is felt through many world music cultures… From Kansas City, Missouri USA - the host and instigator of the Voyage of the Drum project, comes a video featuring Bird Ellington Fleming – percussionist, teacher and environmental leader of the Traditional Music Society and the Soundz of Africa.
Original image of the sunset at Stephens Lake Park during Irreversible Entanglements’ performance by Plastic Sax.
I drove four hours to hear 45 minutes of music on Sunday, June 6. The trip was worth it. Irreversible Entanglements confirmed its status as one of the most essential ensembles of the past five years at Stephens Lake Park Amphitheatre in Columbia, Missouri.
The perfect night in a gorgeous setting took a bit of the edge off Camae Ayewa’s lacerating poetry and the insistent free jazz played by Keir Neuringer (saxophone and electronics), Luke Stewart (bass) and Tcheser Holmes (drums). Aquiles Navarro, Irreversible Entanglement’s trumpeter, didn’t make the gig. The evening’s sole flaw was a 40-minute late start that presumably abbreviated the unticketed show presented by Dismal Niche.
Ayewa, the celebrated artist better known as Moor Mother, summarized the music she makes with her cohorts in a mellifluous statement of purpose: “this is a different vibration... a far-out inner sound… a sound that makes you feel you can survive… free-jazz philosophies for peace.”
I recently whined about the unofficial embargo of Kansas City by improvising musicians with cutting-edge inclinations. Hitting the road felt empowering. The brief immersion in revolutionary sounds with approximately 150 adventurous listeners was as liberating as it was refreshing. If the music’s not going to come to me, I’m going to go to the music.
Nikki Glaspie jams with stars including keyboardist Robert Glasper in the embedded video. The powerhouse drummer collaborates with Mike Dillon at the 1900 Building on Thursday, June 9.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*A television station reports on a proposed spending plan that would close traffic on two blocks of 18th Street in the Jazz District.
*Tweet of the Week: Aaron Rhodes- Pick up @RollingStone issue 1352 (June 2021) to see my first national byline. It’s a sponsored content piece from @VisitMO that highlights a few Kansas City venues worth visiting (@Knuckleheadskc, @ajazzmuseumKC, and Lemonade Park).
Original image of First Person Singular by Plastic Sax.
Haruki Murakami is ideally suited for an era in which alternative facts, deep fakes and outright lies seem to be hastening societal collapse. The writer has long been celebrated for his subversive distortions of the truth and playful skewering of reality. First Person Singular, Murakami’s new collection of short stories and essays, includes a riff on Charlie Parker. The extremely meta exercise concerns a narrator who encounters the Kansas City icon years after his satirical review of a nonexistent bossa nova album was published in a Japanese journal. The prank detailed in Murakami’s “Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova” has tangible and spiritual ramifications. Analogous with Parker’s daring personality and in keeping the mythology surrounding Bird, the story holds particular appeal to Parker devotees harboring devotional predilections. The strangeness doesn’t end there. The Polish musician Milosz Konarski oversaw the creation of the poker-faced album Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova (what if) as an homage to Murakami’s work. What does it all mean? Don’t ask the author. Murakami writes in “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” a similarly astounding story in First Person Singular: “Theme? Can’t say there is one.”
Charles Perkins is one of Kansas City’s most underappreciated jazz masters. He plays alto saxophone for a handful of fortunate people in the embedded video. The host of the Mutual Musicians Foundation function even jokes about the need to boost attendance: “Next time tell a friend to bring a friend and we’ll have two people!”
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Live music resumes at the Blue Room this week.
*Jazzwise magazine offers a profile of Logan Richardson.
*Robert Castillo is among the artists featured in an arts overview published by KCUR.
*A fundraising campaign for a new Kansas City based big band with Rob Scheps as musical director is accepting donations.
*Nate Nall chatted with Joe Dimino.
*The Kansas City Star assesses the push for gun control in the Jazz District.
*Tweet of the Week: St. Louis Public Radio- Ferguson native and renowned jazz trumpeter @keyonharrold shares why jazz purists need to open their eyes to other music genres. (link)
*From a press release: The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra is thrilled to announce the debut of its new, second ensemble, Riff Generation, in the 21/22 season. The ensemble, distinct from the organization's long-established 18-piece big band, now entering its 19th season, will perform a multi-concert series beginning in the first half of 2022.
Original image of a free Open Spaces performance by Plastic Sax.
Detroit’s reputation as the most economically challenged major city in the United States was validated during my first post-quarantine trip this month. The pervasive blight is horrifying. Even so, Detroit manages to host one of the biggest annual jazz festivals in North America. The 2021 edition of the four-day Detroit Jazz Fest will present icons including Herbie Hancock and Abdullah Ibrahim in September.
On September 12, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago is headlined by the innovative jazz-informed artists Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus and Thundercat. Even closer to home, the Iowa City Jazz Festival hosts the acclaimed up-and-comers Giveton Gelin and Immanuel Wilkins on July 3. The following weekend, dozens of jazz and jazz-adjacent acts including Lalah Hathaway and Roy Ayers will be featured at the Music at the Intersection festival in St. Louis.
An uninformed observer would think Kansas City- a much-ballyhooed cradle of jazz- is certain to outdo the endeavors of those Midwestern cities in 2021. Not so fast. Unless the yet-to-be-announced lineups of the Spotlight Charlie Parker initiative or the Prairie Village Jazz Festival break from their comparatively modest traditions, Kansas City won’t muster anything remotely similar for the foreseeable future.
The two most ambitious jazz-friendly ventures of recent years- the city-financed Open Spaces (2018) and the American Jazz Museum’s Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival (2017)- were artistic triumphs but financial debacles. The correlation between the two elements forced area promoters and attentive musicians around the world to relearn a difficult lesson about Kansas City.
Apologists excuse the failures with allegations of poor promotion, but the unfortunate reality is the local appetite for touring jazz musicians- especially artists with left-of-center inclinations- is extremely limited. Empty seats at Open Spaces’ jazz and jazz-related performances outnumbered patrons. About 75 people bothered to show up for Vijay Iyer’s headlining performance at Open Spaces. Less than 500 hundred people attended a set by Chick Corea at the Kansas City Jazz & Heritage Festival.
I’m reopening this old wound because I’m increasingly agitated by the necessity of leaving Kansas City to experience performances by all but a handful of the most significant artists in improvised music. I’ll save the 200 people in the same predicament a step by providing the cost of the cheapest round trip flights to each festival: Detroit, $140; Chicago, $155; St. Louis, $150; Iowa City, $325. Let me know if you’re interested in splitting the cost of a hotel room or two or three tanks of gasoline.
Sometimes you have to go back to move forward. Black to the Future, the latest album by Sons of Kemet, resonates with me partly because the British band’s attack gratefully cites the foundational sound of jazz. "Throughout the Madness, Stay Strong" and Bennie Moten and the Kansas City Orchestra’s 1928 track “Tough Breaks” are clearly part of the same continuum.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Robert Castillo discusses his work in a 56-minute video created by the Kansas City Artists Coalition.
*A crowdfunding campaign was created on behalf of Mike Dillon following a horrific event in Kansas City last weekend.
*Chris Haghirian recommends Kansas City jazz venues in Afar magazine.
*Joe Dimino documented a performance by Jackie Myers.
*Tweet of the Week: Rob C- They caught the person that stole my homies life, and I can only hope it’s the last time he is able to hurt people. Kansas City man charged with murder in connection to Jazz District shooting that wounded 4
Original image by Plastic Sax.
I treated a minor setback like a major calamity yesterday. I’d long considered the ticketed performance by Mike Dillon and Brian Haas at Raj Ma Hall on Saturday, May 22, as my proper reintroduction to live music. The outdoor show at the listening-oriented venue featured two favorite musicians. I took it hard when my precious scheme was foiled due to inclement weather. Even though I’m fully vaccinated, I remain irrationally skittish about engaging with large, unmasked crowds. Indoor venues are still uninviting. Besides, interference from inattentive audiences is my pet peeve. The Raj Ma Hall show represented an optimal baby step in a gradual acclimation process. I’m now inclined to take the opposite tack. The Chicago rapper Lil Durk is slated to perform at a notoriously sketchy venue a few miles from my home this week. I just might pull the trigger.
The self-effacing Adam Larson bills himself as “everyone’s favorite jazz ginger.” The gradual lifting of quarantine restrictions should allow the Kansas City based saxophonist to retest the premise.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*A Condé Nast Traveler feature suggests Green Lady Lounge is “arguably the best place to catch live jazz in the city.”
*Nate Nall shared a track from his forthcoming album.
*Joe Dimino interviewed Jim Lower and Tim Reid, Jr.
*Tweet of the Week: American Jazz Museum: JOB ALERT The American Jazz Museum is officially hiring the following positions: Grant Writer (Contract); External Affairs/Membership & Donor Relations Associate (Part-Time); Museum Accountant (Part-Time). More information here.
Motivated by my admiration for Blob Castle’s Music for Art Show, I visited the Kansas City Artists Coalition gallery to witness the corresponding art created by Blob Castle mastermind Robert Castillo. As its title suggests, each of the seven songs on the 26-minute Music for Art Show coincides with a Castillo work displayed in his Variegated exhibition. Experiencing the correlative music and art simultaneously is instructive, but each component is easily appreciated independently.
My high regard for Castillo’s latest efforts isn’t a surprise. Among Friends, a sprawling document created by Castillo’s band The Sextet, was Plastic Sax’s top Kansas City album of 2019. As with Among Friends, Music for Art Show occupies the freewheeling region of jazz galvanized by jam-oriented acts like Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Snarky Puppy, and Medeski Martin and Wood.
Although the sumptuous sound suggests otherwise, Castillo made liberal use of a MIDI keyboard to play and record much of Music for Art Show himself. Poets provide analogue counterpoint. The frenetic wordplay of Jeffrey Hasno- a dizzying blend of rapper Aesop Rock and beat icon Allen Ginsberg- sets the tone on the opening track. Castillo offers a convincing anti-screen screed on “Lost in the Feed.”
The poetry of “Portrait of My Father,” a remarkable track that also features a hompax, is delivered in Mayan. On “Two Lines,” Poet José Faus asks “do you want to be the gatekeeper or the bouncer in the back?” Nevertheless, Castillo rejects binary choices. All are welcome at Castillo’s multidimensional party.
The Plastic Sax-approved ensemble Guitar Elation entertains at Green Lady Lounge every Thursday evening this spring and summer. If I play my cards right, Guitar Elation will be on stage when I elect to once again darken the door of the popular venue in the coming weeks.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Clint Ashlock touted the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra’s fundraising concert on KCUR’s Up To Date program.
*While many of the artists I nominated for consideration are represented on the final ballot, I voted for only four of the ultimate victors of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2021 Winners for Jazz Performance and Recordings. Pat Metheny is the sole Kansas City artist listed.
*Tweet of the Week: Jeff Shirley- Tonight at Green Lady Lounge, Jeff Shirley Organ Trio with Ken Lovern on organ and Brian Steever on drums!! 11pm-2am
Original image of Rashida Phillips at the opening reception for the exhibit by Plastic Sax.
Billie Holiday boasted “my mother, she gave me something- it's going to carry me through this world” on “Billie’s Blues,” one of the iconic artist’s signature songs. The powerful attribute radiates from the 56 images in Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic at the American Jazz Museum. The museum hosts the traveling exhibit curated by the Smithsonian Institution through August 1.
The proceedings of a reception in the museum’s atrium celebrating the May 8 opening of the exhibit- the fourth of the show’s six tour stops- effectively affirmed Holiday’s ongoing relevance in popular culture. Backed by the James Ward Band, Rashida Phillips, Executive Director of the museum, Piaget Long and Love, Mae C, (Instagram clip) performed winning renditions of songs associated with Holiday.
Dr. Dina Bennett, Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs, mentioned Kanye West’s sample of Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit” on his divisive 2013 album Yeezus. Phillips referenced the new Andra Day vehicle The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Dantzic’s output while on the payroll of Decca Records in 1957 possesses a similarly timeless quality. Holiday is seen in strikingly intimate photos at home, in paparazzi-style street shots and in instructive images at the New Jersey nightclub Sugar Hill.
All of the portraits can be easily located online, but seeing the handsomely framed photographs hanging on the walls of the museum’s Changing Gallery offers a vastly superior experience. Holiday claimed “I ain’t good looking” in “Billie’s Blues.” It’s not true. Dantzic’s photos depict a woman who was beautiful inside and out.