The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2011. I naively believed a new day had dawned on Kansas City’s music scene. I expected the two venues in Moshe Safdie’s striking building to regularly present the world’s most important cutting-edge artists.
The institution might have used its considerable prestige to cultivate a bold new era of music appreciation in the heartland. Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass appeared at the Kauffman Center in 2012. Brad Mehldau and Christian McBride perform there in October. Yet truly adventurous bookings remain scarce.
Turnsol Books, an arts space situated catawampus to the Kauffman Center, is among the many makeshift venues in Kansas City that have filled the gap during the last 15 years. Two experimental improvised music sessions hosted by Turnsol this year have been uploaded to YouTube.
Austin Engelhardt and Kwan Leung Ling converse on Turnsōl Tapes Vol. 1. Ling, a daring suona specialist, yields his unique instrument with humor as Engelhardt wrings dark textures from an electric guitar. Percussionist James Taylor joins the party on Turnsōl Tapes Vol. 2. The three formally trained musicians add punk and avant-garde classical tactics to a vital set.
The Kauffman Center will likely never present the Art Ensemble of Chicago, David Murray, Matthew Shipp or Mats Gustafsson. Recorded in the shadow of the Kauffman Center, the two albums by Engelhardt, Ling and James Taylor are fine examples of the essential art that’s been largely absent from the moneyed institution for 15 years.