Album Review: Matt Otto- Kansas City Trio

The three trio albums Adam Larson released in a 14-month span are one of the most artistically rewarding achievements undertaken by a Kansas City musician in years. As if in response to Larson’s vital statement, Matt Otto issued the similarly daring Kansas City Trio on June 30.

Three Kansas City bassists- Bob Bowman, Jeff Harshbarger Ben Leifer- and three locally based drummers- John Kizilarmut, Marty Morrison and Brian Steever- construct interesting frameworks for Otto’s endlessly imaginative excursions.

The robust intellect, sly humor and gracious humanity displayed by Otto imbue the 12 tracks with magnificent grace. While his trios are always controlled and cool, their approaches emanate from the adventurous edge of mainstream jazz.

Relatively young artists, Larson and Otto are in their artistic primes. Any mid-size city would be lucky to claim one such elite saxophonist. Kansas City is exceptionally fortunate that both Larson and Otto call Kansas City home.

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.

Now’s the Time: Will Matthews

Guitarist Will Matthews performs a matinee show at Soiree Steak & Oyster House on Friday, February 4. Matthews is accompanied by keyboardist Matt Villinger and drummer Marty Morrison in the embedded video.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*A pair of Kansas City-adjacent jazz albums received Grammy acknowledgments this week.  The Count Basie Orchestra’s Live at Birdland is nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.  Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV) is nominated in the category of Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

*Pat Metheny was named Guitarist of the Year in the 86th Annual DownBeat Readers Poll.

*The Lansing City Pulse interviewed Carl Allen.  The drummer who was named the William D. and Mary Grant/Endowed Professor of Jazz Studies at UMKC this year mentioned the formation of the Jazz Professors, a group featuring saxophonist Tia Fuller, trombonist Mitch Butler, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and bassist Rodney Whitaker.

*Pat Metheny is on the cover of the December issue of Jazzwise magazine.

*Joe Dimino chatted with drummer Marty Morrison.

*Tweet of the Week: KCUR- A score of Kansas City musicians are nominated for the 2022 Grammy Awards (link)