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Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Hermon Mehari is among the musicians featured in a series of France tv culture performance videos acknowledging the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis’ birth.
*Joe Dimino interviewed Alex Abramovitz and Back Alley Brass Band’s Matt Fillingham.
Festival bookers, wedding planners and organizers of corporate events in Kansas City must have Back Alley Brass Band on speed dial. The New Orleans-style brass band seems to play at the majority of the area’s high-profile gatherings. The group’s live presentation, work ethic and professionalism please the sorts of people accustomed to writing big checks. Some Bright Morning, Back Alley Brass Band’s latest album, is a bit less dependable. Funky and sophisticated, the opening instrumental “Superhero” is the ensemble’s best recorded track to date. Unfortunately, the remainder of the selections feature vocals. While sing-alongs to familiar material like “Hey Jude,” “Just the Two of Us” and “I’ll Fly Away” are bound to blossom in exuberant live settings, the vocals on Some Bright Morning are cringey. The good times roll at Back Alley Brass Band’s live shows. The band’s recordings are less of a sure bet.
The music component of the 2025 edition of the Boulevardia festival consists entirely of locally based artists. Rap veteran Tech N9ne is the headliner. Jackie Myers, Chalis O’Neal and Back Alley Brass Band are the jazz-oriented acts at the June 14 event. The latter ensemble kicks off its set in the embedded video with a Rebirth Brass Band staple.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Joe Dimino conducted interviews with Adam Larson and members of The Back Alley Brass Band.
Back Alley Brass Band isn’t Kansas City’s only New Orleans-style brass band. Yet the ensemble’s shrewd marketing strategies and its willingness to give audiences precisely what they didn’t previously know they wanted has made Back Alley Brass Band the most visible group of its type in the region. It’s no accident Back Alley Brass Band is making appearances at Kelce Jam and Boulevardia, two of the Kansas City area’s biggest music-related events this summer. Accordingly, the ensemble’s new EP Last Chance to Dance doubles as a sonic business card. The infectiously exuberant set of party music containing arrangements of Rick Astley and Miley Cyrus hits will almost certainly result in further high-profile bookings.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Pat Metheny’s new solo guitar album MoonDial will be released July 26.
*Joe Dimino captured portions of the DelMurrow Trio’s performance with Roman Gonzales at Johnson County Community College.
*Jazz will be represented at the Boulevardia beer festival in June by Thundercat and Back Alley Brass Band.
The Ship hosts the 24th Annual KC Carnival Ball on Saturday, February 3. The Back Alley Brass Band is one of four party-oriented ensembles featured at the celebration. The Kansas Citians interpret a New Orleans standard in the embedded video.
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*The New York Times caught up with Marilyn Maye.
*Eboni Fondren and Rashida Phillips considered the role of women in the development of Kansas City jazz on KCUR’s Up To Date program.
*KCUR published A Guide to the Best Venues for Live Music Around the Metro.
*All Night Trio and Back Alley Brass Band submitted entries to NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest.
*Tweet of the Week: Coalback- Saw u last night @GreenLadyLounge. Excellent show!
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Giovanni Russonello of The New York Times suggests that one of Logan Richardson and Blues People’s sets at the Village Vanguard in May was “the sparsest show I had been to the Vanguard in years in terms of attendance and it was the best show that I had been to at the Vanguard in years” in an episode of Popcast.
*Steve Kraske chatted with the McFadden Brothers and Candace Evans on KCUR’s Up To Date.
*Joe Dimino documented a street party fueled by the Back Alley Brass Band.
*Anteloper’s July 9 concert in Columbia is previewed by Aarik Danielson for The Columbia Daily Tribune.
*Tweet of the Week: Next On TCM- PETE KELLY'S BLUES (1955) Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien. Dir: Jack Webb 12:00 PM ET The jazz band's leader gets mixed up with a gangster in '20s Kansas City. 1h 35m | Crime | TV-PG
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.