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Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Flatland investigates the demise of the Charlie Parker Memorial Foundation.
*Tweet of the Week: American Jazz Museum- 25 years ago today, the American Jazz Museum opened its doors on September 5, 1997. Originally named the Kansas City Jazz Museum, KCMO Mayor @repcleaver, the museum’s Executive Director Dr. Rowena Stewart, and community members planned a noteworthy three-day celebration.
With Love, From Chicago, the album the Kansas City based saxophonist Adam Larson released in February, is outstanding. Good news: the followup With Love, From Kansas City is its equal.
The Kansas City based tandem of bassist Ben Leifer and drummer John Kizilarmut is as formidable as the rhythm section of Clark Sommers and Dana Hall featured on With Love, From Chicago.
On both alto and tenor, Larson’s tone possesses the impact of a pair of brass knuckles. Packed with swagger, the music made by the hard-charging trio crackles with energy.
“New Thread” sounds like an instant classic. An inventive take on Peter Shlamb’s “REL,” a recently minted Kansas City standard, is wonderful. A ferocious attack on Charlie Parker’s “Chi-Chi” is even more exciting.
Thousands of people recently celebrated the 102nd birthday of Parker by revisiting Bird’s recordings. Listening to Larson’s phenomenal new albums may be an even better way to acknowledge Parker’s legacy.
Terell Stafford will join a band led by Adam Larson at the Prairie Village Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 10. The New York based trumpeter is best known in the Kansas City area for his affiliation with hometown hero Bobby Watson. Stafford is accompanied by the Chilean star Melissa Aldana and the Prism Quartet- featuring Kansas City’s Zach Shemon- in the embedded video.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Kansas City’s YouTube channel includes a new video feature about the Spotlight Charlie Parker initiative. Related videos are here, here and here.
*Anita Dixon and Jakob Wagner lobby for additional arts spending in a television news feature.
*The author of Plastic Sax reviewed a performance by Bob Bowman and Peter Schlamb at his nondenominational music blog.
*A television station filed a report from the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Harlem last weekend.
*Tweet of the Week: Pat Metheny- New Album 'SHIFT (Bad Hombre, Vol. II)' from the great @AntonioDrumsX Available Now! "Eh Hee 2.0" featuring Pat and Dave Matthews Buy CD/ Vinyl/ Stream here
*From a press release: The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra… announced the inaugural concert for the 2022-2023 20th Anniversary season, The Horn, featuring guest artist Sean Jones, Friday, September 30 at 8 p.m. at… Helzberg Hall… Artistic Director Clint Ashlock stated “… the centerpiece of the concert will be the majestic, soulful artistry of Sean Jones - arguably the world’s greatest trumpet player."
The notes accompanying Second Nature, the astounding debut album of the Second Nature Ensemble, include text from The Anarchist Library. While the music implies extreme polemics, the cerebral sounds of the recording are a more appropriate soundtrack for analyzing subversive texts than for throwing bricks through windows in a riot.
Michael Eaton (saxophones, flute, and clarinet), Seth Andrew Davis (guitar), Dwight Frizzell (wind controller and alto clarinet), Ben Tervort (bass), Alan Voss (drums) and Tim J Harte (electronics) are seemingly unlikely collaborators. Plastic Sax published an enthusiastic missive about the (mostly) Kansas City musicians’ generational and stylistic clash at a performance at Westport Coffee House last year.
The discordant tone of Second Nature is established on the 19-minute opening track "Alchemy". A work of sublime beauty is forged from a lethal slurry of abrasive analog and digital sounds. Intentionally erratic swing does battle with galactic static on the 16-minute “Large/Large II”. Tervort’s improvisation is among the individual solo features interspersed among the group tracks.
The prolific output of individual members of the collective make it impossible to cite a single release as representative. Yet in sifting through a myriad of styles ranging from swing to industrial noise, the expansive Second Nature is a good place for lawless agitators, scholastic Marxists and even cutthroat capitalists to begin exploring the most astringent sounds emanating from Kansas City’s improvised music scene.
The contemporary jazz saxophonist Jackiem Joyner headlines the American Jazz Museum’s Jazz in the Yard concert on Saturday, August 27. The show opens with a performance by Shedrick Mitchell featuring Christie Dashiell.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The young musicians Morgan Faw and Houston Smith shared their admiration of Charlie Parker with Steve Kraske on KCUR’s Up To Date.
*Steve Hargrave promoted the Spotlight: Charlie Parker initiative on a television program and in an interview with Joe Dimino.
*Arnold Young chatted with Joe Dimino.
*Tweet of the Week: James Neal- "Kansas City Public Library helps to memorialize Parker’s genius through the official Charlie Parker website, http://CharlieParkersKC.org, on which its Digital Branch collaborated with KC Jazz ALIVE and Marr Sound Archives Director Chuck Haddix." @KCLibrary
*From a press release: Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa makes a highly anticipated Smoke Jazz Club debut performing music inspired by and celebrating the great Charlie Parker… His recent, highly acclaimed release Hero Trio features more explorations of Parker’s compositions in the context of a piano-less trio... His exciting trio for this celebration features bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Rudy Royston.
The most vital sounds emanating from Kansas City occur when Peter Schlamb goes goblin mode on electric vibraphone. “Eternal Dollars,” the standout track on All Night Trio’s new album All Faded, is a prime example of the phenomenon. Following an admirable solo by guest trumpeter Herman Mehari, Schlamb makes a stupendously gonzo statement. Propelled by Matt Villinger (keyboards, vocals) and Zach Morrow (drums, vocals), Schlamb repeatedly demonstrates why he’s one of the most exciting young talents in improvised music. While nothing else is as indispensable as “Eternal Dollars,” All Faded is loaded with wavy grooves. The title track and “Hazeology” are low-key party songs. Subtler instrumental tracks including “Benny” and “Slow Jam” are even more intoxicating.
Morgan Faw will showcase material from his new album It Takes a Village at the Blue Room on Monday, August 22. The saxophonist performs with the James Ward Band in the embedded video. Faw will return to the Blue Room alongside Houston Smith on Friday, August 26, in a concert billed as “Ode to Bird.”
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The Spotlight: Charlie Parker initiative tops The Kansas City Star’s weekly entertainment advisory.
*David Basse is teaching an online course about Kansas City jazz at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University.
*Kansas City’s Aryana Nemati receives a credit on a sanctioned live recording by singer-songwriter Father John Misty.
*Joe Dimino shares conversations with Daniel Dissmore and Dawson Jones.
*The jazz portion of the lineup of the San Jose Summer Fest boasts saxophone heavyweights Gary Bartz, Donald Harrison Jr., Charles McPherson and Bobby Watson. A preview published by radio station KQED suggests that the event is a de facto tribute to Charlie Parker.
*Tweet of the Week: Jeff Zdanowicz- The Black Dolphin and the Green Lady Lounge. Nothing but good cocktails and great jazz! You should check it out!
Original image by Plastic Sax.
In a satisfying case of delayed gratification, I heard drummer Evan Verploegh and saxophonist Ben Baker perform on the porch of a stately home last week. Released ten months ago, the duo’s Singles was one of the best albums released by Kansas City musicians in 2021. Yet I only managed to catch up with the tandem performing without other accompanists on Sunday, August 7. In spite of the suffocating heat, the urgent rush of free improvisation resembled a perilous downhill slalom. The athletic endeavor lasting about 50 minutes attracted more than a dozen intrepid friends, fans and curious passerby.
The members of RSS Trio will make Green Lady Lounge their home this weekend. The young Kansas City band performs from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. on the night of Friday, August 12, from 6:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. on the evening of Saturday, August 13, and closes the weekend with a four-hour engagement beginning at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 14. It’s precisely the type of grueling apprenticeship that transformed many aspiring local musicians into international stars during Kansas City’s jazz heyday.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Aarik Danielsen runs down the 2022-23 season of the We Always Swing concert series for The Columbia Daily Tribune.
*Gregory Lewis, an avid Kansas City jazz enthusiast, has died.
*A concert in Oregon by sometime Kansas Citian Rob Scheps is previewed by The Tillamook Headlight Herald.
*Tweet of the Week: 627 Stomp- Friday! Dance lesson, live music, and delicious drinks. You won't want to miss it!
*From a press release: “The alto is a singing horn,” says Bobby Watson, and the great saxophonist is in fine voice on his latest album, Back Home in Kansas City. Due out October 7 on Smoke Sessions Records, the album features an all-star quintet with Watson’s longtime rhythm section of bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Jones along with pianist Cyrus Chestnut and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. “Great melodies are immortal, like a sculpture or a painting,” Watson insists. “This album is more about the singing quality of my instrument.”
*From a press release: Spotlight: Charlie Parker 2022 celebrates the jazz icon’s 102nd birthday with jam sessions and musical tributes, tours, lectures, exhibits, panel discussions, workshops and concerts. The annual program was developed to honor Parker (also known as “Bird”), his legacy and impact to jazz in Kansas City and worldwide.
*From a press release: Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Executive Director Lea Petrie and Artistic Director Clint Ashlock today announced Riff Generation Fall Series. Riff Generation explores what it means to be a Kansas City jazz musician in the 21st century, creating new music deeply imbued in KC’s riff-based jazz style… Three concerts in this new series are scheduled for the fall of 2022… All concerts will be held at the Medallion Theater in the Plexpod Westport Commons.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Just how weird can 100 Midwestern baby boomers get? Very weird, if the assemblage at Westport Coffee House for the 40th anniversary concert of Black Crack Revue is any guide. The free-spirited people who paid $15 for entry on Thursday, August 4, provided an outlandish visual counterpoint to the extraordinarily accomplished and often absurdist music of BCR.
The lack of inhibition displayed by fans of the self-proclaimed “Afro-nuclear wavabilly funk swing reggae Turska” band is rooted in the era prior to cell phones and social media. BCR, an ensemble partially inspired by an extended Kansas City residency of the Sun Ra Arkestra in the early 1980s, acted as inspiring ringleaders.
The current edition of the interstellar jazz and alternative pop ensemble consists of original members including Thomas Aber and Dwight Frizzell as well as more recent additions like Pat Conway and Julia Thro. The accomplished woodwind specialist Michael Eaton joined the large cast during the 95-minute opening set.
BCR is just as inspiring and energetic as it was in the early 1990s when it was a fixture on the calendars of Kansas City nightclubs. Then as now, the ensemble is best during its astral jazz excursions, but wacky pop-leaning songs such as “Teenie Boppers in Atlantis” and “Rappin' Kierkegaard” filled the dance floor on an extraordinarily peculiar night to remember.
Thundercat, a jazz-adjacent leader of the West Coast funk and electronic music movements, performs at Grinders on Monday, August 8. Plastic Sax reviewed the bassist’s 2017 concert in Lawrence. According to the Plastic Sax archives, Thundercat last performed within the city limits of Kansas City in 2012 when he opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Sprint Center.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Seth Davis discussed Kansas City’s experimental music scene in the first portion of an interview on Guitar Moderne’s YouTube channel.
*Bobby Watson’s recent performance in Sonoma County was hailed as “a West Coast reemergence” by Classical Voice.
*Tweet of the Week: Adam Larson- New KC Trio Album Pre-Order NOW AVAILABLE! (link)
With the temperature in Kansas City occasionally reaching 100 degrees this summer, thousands of area residents are desperate to find ways to cool off. Red Tiger, the latest release by Kansas City bassist Blair Bryant, offers a quick fix. Hitting play on the smooth jazz album is like taking a refreshing plunge on a scorching day.
The sultry Sade-isms of “Kiss of Life” might make the song the feel-good hit of the summer in an alternate universe. The horn lines of “Medusa’s Mirror” echo Hugh Masekela’s classic hit “Grazing in the Grass.” A breezy arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s 1982 hit “That Girl” is equally invigorating.
Focusing on Bryant’s vigorous fusion-esque electric bass on tracks like “Power Up!” is as pleasantly hypnotic as watching an icon on a screensaver bounce off the edges of a computer monitor. Fifty-four minutes of carefree fun, Red Tiger is a crisp oasis hidden in a steamy, anxious summer.
The smooth jazz bassist Julian Vaughn will represent Kansas City’s jazz heritage at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s Heart of America Hot Dog Festival on Saturday, July 30. The R&B oldies acts Average White Band and Atlantic Starr top the bill.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*A concert headlined by smooth jazz artist Jackiem Joyner and a performance by Dan Thomas are among the events listed on the schedule of next month’s Spotlight Charlie Parker endeavor.
*The Kansas City Star’s feature about Fairyland Park notes that bands led by Bennie Moten and Count Basie frequently performed at the amusement park.
*A review of a Minneapolis concert by the Count Basie Orchestra was published by the Jazz Police blog.
*Tweet of the Week: Helbing Jazz Initiative- Day 1 of the 2022 Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy Jazz camp! We spent the day focused on the music and legend of Charlie Parker: Kansas City Lightning.
Gullible listeners who mistake volume for quality are unlikely to appreciate Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley. The new album doesn’t contain deafening drum solos or screeching vocals. Instead, the trio of guitarist Steve Cardenas, bassist Ben Allison and saxophonist/clarinetist Ted Nash interpret nine Bley compositions with solemn quietude. Cardenas, a former Kansas City resident who performed at recordBar four months ago, consistently flirts with silence. Nash, best known for his affiliation with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Allison, one of the leading bassists of the new millennium, match Cardenas’ serenity on their third recording as a trio. Their sublime restraint is, in fact, restorative.