Album Review: Arnold Young and the Roughtet- Young Spirit

The brazen title of the 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come seems idealistic today. Few of Ornette Coleman’s innovations have been adopted by mainstream jazz musicians. The harmolodics devised by Coleman thrive only in the fringes of improvised music.

Arnold Young has personified outsider jazz in Kansas City for more than 50 years. The drummer’s 2024 album Young Spirit often seems like an homage to Coleman’s initial conceptions. Young also looks beyond early Coleman on the 69-minute recording. The funky “Monkey Motor Company” is reminiscent of Coleman efforts like the 1982 album Of Human Feelings. 

Adam Galblum evokes the free jazz fiddler Leroy Jenkins on “The Stone the Builder Refused.” Song titles alluding to additional iconoclasts such as Nduduzo Makhathini, Roscoe Mitchell and Charlie Parker suggest additional variations.  While Young is always front and center, the powerful presence of bassist Gerald Spaits is no less essential. Their sturdy foundation allows several young Kansas City horn players to shine. 

The revolution incited by Coleman and his cohorts converted surprisingly few followers, but Young remains a true believer. A young spirit who refuses to lose his edge, Young continues to spread Coleman’s audacious directive in a dauntless mission to change the shape of jazz in Kansas City.

Plastic Sax’s Favorite Performances of 2023

Top Ten Performances by Kansas City Artists
1. Mike Dillon, Brian Haas and Nikki Glaspie at the Brick
Plastic Sax review.

2. Hermon Mehari at the Folly Theater
Plastic Sax review.

3. Adam Larson, Matt Clohesy and Jimmy Macbride at Westport Coffee House
Instagram clip.

4. Rod Fleeman at Green Lady Lounge
Instagram clip.

5.  Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye at Muriel Kauffman Theatre
Plastic Sax review.

6. Drew Williams, Alex Frank, Ben Tervort and Brian Steever at Westport Coffee House
Plastic Sax review.

7. Cynthia van Roden at the Market at Meadowbrook
Instagram snapshot.

8. Chalis O’Neal at the Blue Room
Instagram clip.

9. Alan Voss, Benjamin Baker, Forest Stewart and Evan Verploegh at Swope Park Pavilion
Plastic Sax review.

10. Rich Hill, Arnold Young and Rob Whitsitt in Volker Park
Instagram clip.

Top Ten Performances by Artists from Elsewhere
1. Samara Joy at the Folly Theater
Plastic Sax review.

2. Devin Gray and Maria Elena Silva at the Firehouse Gallery
Plastic Sax review.

3. Bill Frisell, Greg Tardy, Gerald Clayton and Johnathan Blake at the 1900 Building
Plastic Sax review.

4. Artemis at the Gem Theater
Plastic Sax review.

5. CRAG Quartet and Joshua Gerowitz at the Bunker Center for the Arts
Instagram clip.

6. Miguel Zenón Quartet at the Folly Theater
Plastic Sax review.

7. Henrique Eisenmann and Eugene Friesen at the 1900 Building
Plastic Sax review.

8. Robert Stillman at the Midland Theater
There Stands the Glass review.

9. Jack Wright and Ron Stabinsky at Charlotte Street Foundation
Instagram clip.

10. Rob Magill and Marshall Trammell at Farewell
Plastic Sax review.

(Last year’s survey is here.)

Now’s the Time: Arnold Young

The venerable provocateur Arnold Young returns to Westport Coffee House on Wednesday, August 30. The drummer’s RoughTet takes on Thelonious Monk in the embedded video.

The Kansas City Jazz Scene's Top Stories and Trends of 2022

1. Full Swing

It’s almost as if nothing happened.  On the surface, Kansas City’s post-pandemic jazz scene now looks just as it did in 2019.

2. Got It Covered

In spite of- or maybe even because of- the $5 cover charge instituted last year, Green Lady Lounge is packed on any given night.  It makes sense: Green Lady Lounge is the only place in Kansas City at which jazz is performed every evening.

3. Frequent Freakouts

Fans of free jazz and experimental music no longer need to leave Kansas City to hear those sounds.  Thanks to the strenuous initiatives of members of the Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society, innovative music made by notable touring musicians and local artists is regularly performed in Kansas City.

4. A Man Called Adam 

The dynamic presence of Adam Larson continues to elevate Kansas City.  The saxophonist’s two new albums- with a third on the way- requires skeptical outsiders to reassess the vitality of Kansas City’s scene.

5. For the Record

It’s an extraordinarily productive year when a lovely album featuring Bob Bowman can’t squeeze into a list of the top ten Kansas City jazz albums of 2022, 

6. Don’t Call It a Comeback

While they never went away, the innovative veterans Dwight Frizzell and Arnold Young reemerged as prominent bandleaders with active performance schedules.

7. Fest or Famine

The one-stage, single-day, storm-plagued Prairie Village Jazz Festival notwithstanding, the Kansas City area hasn’t hosted a true jazz festival since a “stellar but ill-fated” event in 2017.

8. Outside Validation

Jazz at Lincoln Center created a fetching tradition-oriented video portrait of Kansas City.

9. Meanwhile, Back at the Museum

Had it done nothing but present Nduduzo Makhathini at the Blue Room in June, the American Jazz Museum would have provided an invaluable cultural contribution to the city in 2022.  Yet its noontime concerts and the resumption of the Jammin’ at the Gem series were similarly encouraging developments.

10. An Awkward Anniversary

Another year passed without an appearance by Pat Metheny.  The hometown hero last played in Kansas City in 2012.  Although he continues to tour extensively, ten years have passed since a Metheny concert transpired in his old stomping grounds.

Last’s year’s installment of this annual series is here.

Plastic Sax's Favorite Performances of 2022

Top Performances by Kansas City Artists

1. Logan Richardson + Blues People at the Ship

Review.

2. Adam Larson, Clark Sommers and Dana Hall at Westport Coffee House

Review.

3. Black Crack Revue at Westport Coffee House

Review.

4. Steve Cardenas, Forest Stewart and Brian Steever at recordBar

Review.

5. Arnold Young and the RoughTet at the Ship

Instagram clip.

6. Bob Bowman and Peter Schlamb at Second Presbyterian Church

Review.

7. Evan Verplough and Ben Baker at World Culture KC

Review.

8. Rod Fleeman at Green Lady Lounge

9. Alter Destiny at Charlotte Street Foundation

Review.

10. Drew Williams, Ben Tervort and Brian Steever at Westport Coffee House

Review.

Top Performances by Artists from Elsewhere

1. Nduduzo Makhathini at the Blue Room

Review.

2. Ohma at the Midland theater

Review.

3. Livia Nestrovski and Henrique Eisenmann at the 1900 Building

Review.

4. High Pulp at recordBar

Review.

5. Phillip Greenlief at Bushranger Records

Review.

6. Terence Blanchard at Atkins Auditorium

Review.

7. Keefe Jackson, Jakob Heinemann and Adam Shead at Black Dolphin

Instagram photo.

8. Esthesis Quartet at the Blue Room

Instagram clip.

9. Kind Folk at the Black Box

Instagram clip.

10. Bill Summers and Forward Back at Dunbar Park

Review.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Snippets from a performance by Arnold Young and the Roughtet were shared by Joe Dimino.

*Mary Lou Williams aficionados are advised to investigate South Korean bassist Jeong Lim Yang’s startling interpretation of Zodiac Suite.

*Marc Myers has been on a Freddie Green spree at Jazz Wax.

*Tweet of the Week: Cinephile- Watched Altman's Kansas City. It seemed like it was an ode to his hometown, or his love for jazz, not a project driven to serve story or character. 6/10.

*From a press release: Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Executive Director Lea Petrie today announced the next concert for the 2022-2023 20th Anniversary season, The Family featuring guest artists Lonnie and Chloe McFadden, Tuesday,December 6 at 7 p.m. at the Helzberg Hall of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts… Multitalented local legend Lonnie McFadden, a vocalist, trumpeter, and tap dancer, grew up immersed in Kansas City jazz through his deep, familial ties from his father Jimmy, a tap dancer who worked alongside Count Basie, Jay McShann, and Charlie Parker.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Smoke Sessions Records created a trailer for Bobby Watson’s forthcoming album Back Home in Kansas City.

*The Marcus Lewis Big Band shared a music video for its new song "You're Very Special".

*Nina Cherry lists a few unconventional venues in Kansas City magazine.

*Joe Dimino documented portions of performances by the Leslie Maclean Trio and the duo of Mark Lowrey and Arnold Young.

*Sean Jones chatted with Steve Kraske on KCUR’s Up To Date program.

*Melissa Aldana, Charles McPherson and Camille Thurman are among the artists praising Charlie Parker in a feature published by The New York Times.

*Tweet of the Week: Kadesh Flow- Bruh.... Sean fn Jones REALLY SAT IN WITH US LAST NIGHT and justcasually went tf off @jazzbonist @kemetcoleman

Concert Review: The Dave Scott Quartet and Arnold Young and the RoughTet at Westport Coffee House

A concert at Westport Coffee House on Sunday, July 10, felt consequential even though fewer than two dozen people paid the $10 cover charge.  A quartet led by trumpeter Dave Scott and Arnold Young’s RoughTet shared the bill in a rare confluence of exceptional homegrown talent.

Scott, a New York based trumpeter raised in the Kansas City area, and the Kansas City drummer Young made waves in the region’s jazz scene alongside their eminent peer Pat Metheny several decades ago.  On Sunday, the bandleaders were joined by representatives of several generations of Kansas City jazz musicians.  Each participant responded to the momentous summit with inspired playing.

A rambunctious couple sitting near the bandstand hooted and hollered throughout Young’s freewheeling 45-minute opening set.  They had the right idea.  Assisted by his longtime compatriot John Nichols on bass and Gary Cardile on percussion, the veteran drummer acted as an irreverent version of Art Blakey as he mentored the youthful tandem of saxophonist Jacob Schwartzberg and trumpeter Quin Wallace.

Renditions of selections from their new album Fear Is the Mind Killer were gloriously raucous.  Scott sat in with the RoughTet before playing a 70-minute set with the New York based Michael Eaton (the saxophonist is from nearby Liberty), bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Marty Morrison.

Eaton took several Coltrane-esque solos and a few of Scott’s distinctive statements resembled variations on “Flight of the Bumblebee.”   Yet the ensemble mostly shifted between the proto-harmolodics of early Ornette Coleman, ominous post-bop and joyful Kansas City swing.  Such transcendent displays of left-of-center artistic excellence in the face of public indifference are a hallmark of Kansas City’s jazz scene.

Album Review: Arnold Young and the RoughTet- Fear Is the Mind Killer

Arnold Young has dedicated much of the past fifty years to giving the straight-laced component of Kansas City’s jazz community the hot foot.  In a deliciously ironic development, the trickster has created a leading contender for the strongest locally released album of 2022.  

Fear Is the Mind Killer, the drummer’s powerhouse recording with his band the RoughTet, is suffused with the rebellious spirit of Kansas City icon Charlie Parker and his fellow bebop revolutionaries Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach.  It’s an ecstatic jazz riot.

In spite of its fealty to the venerated sounds of the 1940s, Fear Is the Mind Killer sounds subversive in present-day Kansas City.  Young and his collaborators apply a raucous devil-may-care approach to improvised music.  And they embrace anarchic noise on tracks including the aptly titled “For Anthony Braxton.”

Young began providing a prominent alternative to Kansas City’s jazz establishment with his band Advertisement for a Dream in the early 1970s.  His status as a perennial outsider has intensified Young’s artistic commitment but may also be partly responsible for his indifference to marketing.

Young can’t be bothered with prosaic matters such as websites, press releases and distribution. Fear Is the Mind Killer may or may not feature Jacob Schwartzberg, Quin Wallace and John Nichols.* Whoever they are, his co-conspirators abet Young’s lifelong commitment to getting into the right kind of trouble.

*Young has since confirmed that the saxophonist, trumpeter and bassist are featured on the album. Saxophonist Jack "Blackie" Blackett plays on one track.