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Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The Kansas City jazz organist Dave Creighton has reportedly died. Creighton is best known among the general public for his band’s street performances on First Fridays.
*The Kansas City Star notes the passing of drummer Marvin Jones.
*Joe Dimino checked in with Vincent Orsolini.
*Tweet of the Week: Green Lady Lounge- Macedonia listeners represent 5% of Green Lady Radio listeners over the last 30 days. Thanks for listening to all original compositions by Kansas City jazz musicians!
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Giovanni Russonello’s "Where Jazz Lives Now" treatise in The New York Times generated a kerfuffle in jazz circles last week. The controversial article asserts that most performances of groundbreaking improvised music no longer transpire in venues dedicated to jazz.
The claim rings true in Kansas City. A significant portion of adventurous jazz programming in the region during the past 15 years has been presented under the auspices of the Jeff Harshbarger Presents series at the rock-oriented venue recordBar.
Members of an attentive audience of about 100 paid $15 to hear a homecoming concert by the New York based guitarist Steve Cardenas at recordBar on Sunday, March 20. Cardenas was joined by bassist Forest Stewart and drummer Brian Steever in the series’ first presentation since the onset of the pandemic.
In spite of its unconventional setting, little of the internecine contention generated by Russonello’s feature applied to the outing. The trio’s elevated musicianship was beyond destructive turf wars. They implied avant-garde wooliness even as they evinced Kansas City-style swing.
Renditions of original compositions by Cardenas and Stewart were as potent as the standards performed by the trio. The strong show of support, superlative sound and exceptional music made debate irrelevant. Kansas City’s jazz scene seemed entirely cohesive, healthy and robust at a rock club last Sunday.
First set: Wail (Bud Powell), Newer Normal (Forest Stewart), Lost and Found (Steve Cardenas), Fleurette Africaine (Duke Ellington), Don Formation (Forest Stewart), untitled (Steve Cardenas), Ladies in Mercedes (Steve Swallow)
The discerning adaptability of Vanessa Rubin helped a student band sound like a professional orchestra at a concert in Portland reviewed by Plastic Sax earlier this month. Supported by ringers including drummer Carl Allen, pianist Reggie Thomas and saxophonist Bobby Watson at the Blue Room on Saturday, March 26, Rubin will almost certainly affirm her reputation as an elite old-school jazz vocalist.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The Kansas City musician Marvin Jones has died.
*Johnnie’s Jazz Bar & Grille in downtown Kansas City will transform into a Harry Potter-themed space for seven days in April.
*Steve Paul filmed a portion of Steve Cardenas’ appearance at recordBar. Joe Dimino documented Angela Ward Trio’s recent midday show at the Blue Room.
*Marc Myers admires Frank Foster at JazzWax.
*Tweet of the Week: Michael Eaton- I'm in Kansas City on April 20, playing with Second Nature Ensemble for the EMAS series at @CharlotteStreetaround 8:30pm. A great concert series worth your support! SN is a mix of free jazz, new music, and electronic music, aiming to do something different in KC jazz + improv.
The members of Back Alley Brass Band, a Kansas City based New Orleans-style brass band, may be feeling the pressure of being the sole jazz-oriented act among the approximately 70 music bookings at the forthcoming Boulevardia festival. The event rivals the Kansas City Irish Festival as the city’s largest music-centric festival in a town associated with jazz.
Because it’s the precisely sort of ensemble that thrives amid liberal consumption of alcohol, the nine men of Back Alley Brass Band needn’t worry. The rowdiness of the group’s debut album indicates it will go over like gangbusters at the festival presented by Boulevard Brewing Company.
Kansas City’s answer to institutions like Rebirth Brass Band (the illustrious group’s “Do Whatcha Wanna” is covered here), Back Alley Brass Band plays with the giddy enthusiasm of a collegiate pep band representing a championship basketball team. For lubricated revelers looking for a rambunctious party, Back Alley Brass Band is a slam dunk.
Camille Thurman performs with KU Jazz Ensemble I at the Lied Center on Tuesday, March 29. The thirty-something New Yorker is an exuberant vocalist and vigorous saxophonist.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*An otherwise commendable feature story in The Kansas City Star about a reunion of the McFadden Brothers asserts the duo has been on a “ten year hiatus.” A cursory check of Plastic Sax’s published archives confirms that’s simply not the case.
*KC Studio checked in with Vincent Orsolini.
*Tweet of the Week: West End Cultural Centre- In the 1920s thousands of dance bands were scattered across America. Join the @WpgJazzOas we explore some of the rarely-played music from that era alongside hits from the wild and raucous Kansas City jazz scene.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
A free concert in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, March 7, unexpectedly evoked of the sound of Kansas City. Vanessa Rubin and the Portland State University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of George Colligan wondrously transported an audience of 100 at a dignified campus facility to a rowdy Kansas City nightclub.
Count Basie, Ronnell Bright, Frank Foster, Bobby Watson and Frank Wess were among the Kansas City-affiliated artists name-checked by the vocalist during the swinging performance. The formidable talent documented on Rubin’s five major label albums in the 1990s hasn’t diminished.
Many members of the extremely impressive student ensemble beamed with delight as Rubin revealed an old-school sensibility worthy of comparison to Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Maye. Tradition-minded jazz fans in Kansas City won’t want to miss Rubin’s appearance at the Blue Room on Saturday, March 26.
The smooth jazz luminary Kirk Whalum performs with The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra in the big band’s “Just the Two of Us” concert at Helzberg Hall on Saturday, March 12.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Nina Cherry praises Stephen Martin’s new album for Kansas City magazine.
*There Stands the Glass, the sister site of Plastic Sax, reviews Seth Andrew Davis’ new recording Highways Jammed with Broken Heroes.
*Addie Sartino of the Kansas City indie-pop band The Greeting Committee recommends Green Lady Lounge.
*Joe Dimino documented a set by Amber Underwood at the Blue Room.
*Tweet of the Week: In Jesus name No More- Listening to The Session with Hermon Mehari has been the best addition to my Sunday self care. @kcur @KCTrumpeter
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Advance promotional material for the Pat Metheny in Kansas City: The Genesis of Genius presentation at Polsky Theatre on Thursday, March 3, included the advisory “Pat Metheny will not be attending this event.” The sadly unnecessary disclaimer underscored an unfortunate truth.
Despite playing in more than four dozen American cities including Detroit during the past year, the hard-touring musician from nearby Lee’s Summit once again passed over the Kansas City area. Metheny last performed within the city limits in 2012. He subsequently played a poorly attended concert in Topeka in 2014.
Forty people attended the free noontime event on Thursday. The lecture by Carolyn Glenn Brewer, the author of the 2021 book Beneath Missouri Skies: Pat Metheny in Kansas City 1964-1972, was interspersed with performances of corresponding selections by guitarist Rob Whitsitt, bassist Tim Brewer and drummer Mike Warren.
The trio played polite versions of compositions Brewer selected as particularly meaningful to Metheny’s development. Images of album covers and black-and-white photographs accentuated the presentation. While plainly not as fulfilling as an actual Metheny concert, the ambitious offering was a commendable consolation prize.
Set list: Seven Steps to Heaven, Unit 7, John McKee, Broadway Blues, Walter L., Bright Size Life
The extraordinarily accomplished pianist Helen Sung returns to the Blue Room on Saturday, March 12. The Houston native pays tribute to her hometown in the embedded video.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The Kansas City Star shares James McGee’s perspective on the past, present and future of the Jazz District.
*From The Folly Theater: Due to COVID, the Paquito D'Rivera Quintet Folly Jazz Series performance scheduled for March 12 has been canceled. We hope to reschedule in 2023.
*Tweet of the Week: Snarky Puppy- We are incredibly honoured and excited to announce that we will be supporting Steely Dan on their US tour as well as playing some headline Snarky Puppy dates! Tickets are on sale now, visit the link below to grab yours. (link to tour schedule including a June 9 date in Kansas City)
Original image by Plastic Sax.
During a moment in which the eyes of the world were glued to war in Ukraine, about 40 people welcomed a glorious distraction by a pair of Brazilian musicians at the 1900 Building. Lívia Nestrovski and Henrique Eisenmann performed 75 minutes of transcendently global music in the first stop of their American tour on Friday, February 25. While the vocalist and pianist expressed enormous pride in their homeland, the innovative sounds they created transcended their origin.
Acknowledging they possess implausible names for practitioners of Brazilian music, the duo joked they considered titling their forthcoming album Orthodox Polish Songs. Yet their fun-filled art songs included captivating original material and imaginative new interpretations of compositions by the likes of Guinga and Hermeto Pascoal.
Eisenmann demonstrated his impeccable jazz bona fides in a 2018 recital at the same venue. He used the Steinway piano he characterized as “a Lamborghini” to craft a few convoluted Cecil Taylor-style improvisations. Nestrovski embraced the unconventional accompaniment as she seamlessly melded MPB (Música popular brasileira), bossa nova, jazz and opera into her inclusive approach.
Nestrovski was wrong when she suggested only musicologists could fully appreciate what she and Eisenmann were achieving. Not only is her considerable showmanship entirely winning, the partnership is as soulful as it is brainy. Besides representing the unparalleled musical breadth of Brazil, the duo would be as germane in Kyiv as in Rio de Janeiro. And on Friday, they made Mission Woods, Kansas, seem like the musical capital of the world.
Logan Richardson returns to the Blue Room on Saturday, February 26. Steve Paul documented the Kansas City saxophonist’s appearance with an all-star band at the venue four months ago in the embedded video.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*KCUR aired a story about Upcycle Piano Craft’s recital series. Charles Williams is the featured performer in the segment.
*Joe Dimino chatted with Natalie Bates and David Hawkins.
*Tweet of the Week: Green Lady Lounge- Tyrone Clark - Brazilian Dance (Composer: Tyrone Clark) #Jazz #NowPlaying #KansasCityJazz Green Lady Radio
The Extemporaneous Music Society asks a lot of listeners on its recently released debut album. Not only does the recording clock in at almost two hours, the six selections consist of formidably spiky improvisations. The sounds made by Ben Baker (woodwinds), Seth Andrew Davis (guitars and electronics), Krista Kopper (bass) and Evan Verploegh (drums) are uncompromisingly noisy.
Shifting between interstellar space music, ambient landscapes, craggy free jazz and bracing contemporary classical music, the 26-minute “One” contains several discrete movements. A portion of the 36-minute “Two” resembles a sideways version of last year’s celebrated collaboration between Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders.
Kopper’s analog instrument scrapes against Davis’ electronics on the comparatively concise 11-minute “Four.” As with all of the dense and difficult album, it’s only tangentially related to the conventional notion of Kansas City jazz. EMS Quartet is a robust reminder that the artistic conservatism that’s long stifled regional output can be respectfully disregarded.
Darryl White performs at the Blue Room on Saturday, February 19. The Nebraska based trumpeter is accompanied by guitarist Aaron Stroessner in the embedded video.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The Martin City Telegraph profiled Mr. Biggs Place, a new jazz-friendly venue in Grandview.
*Illinois State University’s radio station shared an audio interview with Adam Larson.
*Stephen Martin chatted with Joe Dimino.
*KCUR reports on a new infusion of city money into the Jazz District.
*Tweet of the Week: Jazz 88.3 San Diego- Monday thru Friday is kind of the same except where it's different. Joe 6am, Gary 10, then Ron at 2. Jazz Across America 5-7: Monday the city is NYC, hosted by Kenny Washington. Tuesday is Detroit, hosted by Jim Gallert. Wednesday is Kansas City, hosted by Sam Wisman. @Jazz88 1/2
Original image by Plastic Sax.
The predictability of the phenomena that transpired at Westport Coffee House on Wednesday, February 9, didn’t make the event any less remarkable. Exceptional musicians typically magnify the brilliance of their recordings while celebrating the release of new albums.
The rousing performance of Adam Larson, Clark Sommers and Dana Hall was no exception. Renditions of selections from With Love, From Chicago were even more rewarding than the superlative studio versions.
Larson embellished his stupendous playing with a few flourishes not on the album. The performance of the rhythm section was commensurately outstanding. Sommers and Hall applied a substantially different approach from what’s typically heard in Kansas City.
The sense of occasion was enhanced by an attentive capacity audience of almost 100. The cover charge for the general public was $15, but students who made up about half of the attendees paid only $5 each. Invaluable lessons were dispensed at the de facto masterclass.