Early in the pandemic my life partner and I swapped church attendance with livestreams of worship services. Unfaithful servants, we quickly found ourselves shopping around for inspirational music and astute preachers with shameless promiscuity. During the pre-times, our ideal Sunday morning church experience lasted less than 60 minutes. That’s one reason we may never visit the Chosen Vessel Cathedral in Fort Worth. The June 5 service is more than two hours long. Oh, but what music! Marvin Sapp is the most prominent member of the church’s outstanding array of vocalists and instrumentalists. Sapp’s comparitively anemic new album Substance contains nothing as memorable as his signature song. "You Kept Me" and "All In Your Hands" are among the few selections approximating the holy fervor heard at Chosen Vessel.
Album Review: Nancy Mounir- Nozhet El Nofous
I won’t visit Egypt as long as el-Sisi and any like-minded successors remain in power. The situation pains me enormously, but I’m able to take solace in books, films and now, also in Nancy Mounir’s transportive new album Nozhet El Nofous. The Egyptian musician and producer recontextualizes scratchy recordings from the 1920s in her highly unusual remix endeavor. The occasional difficulty in discerning Mounir’s subtle contributions from the sounds on the original vinyl is part of the substantial charm. Not unlike a recurring dream, Nozhet El Nofous is appealingly unreal. The pyramids can wait.
Album Review: Lívia Nestrovski and Henrique Eisenmann- Nação
I was exasperated upon discovering no album existed to accompany a so-called “album release concert” by vocalist Lívia Nestrovski and pianist Henrique Eisenmann in the Kansas City area four months ago. Even though the Brazilian duo’s characterization of their appearance in the heart of the Midwest in that fashion was patently nonsensical, I was desperate to confirm my unqualified enthusiasm for their recital at the 1900 Building. Nação is finally here. Sort of. The album streams at Spotify and YouTube, but it doesn’t seem to be available at Amazon, Apple, Bandcamp or Tidal. Nação’s unadorned romantic and playful art songs replicate what the duo sounded like in Mission Woods, Kansas.
Album Review: Wilco- Cruel Country
I've had more or less the same conversation with innumerable Deadheads during the past 40 years. Deadhead: “Do you like the Dead?” Me: “No, not really.” Deadhead: “You obviously never went to a concert.” Me: “Yes, I did.” Deadhead: “But… but…” Me: “I’ll grant you this- I love American Beauty.” The Grateful Dead’s 1970 album is loaded with smart, concise folk-rock shuffles. So is Cruel Country. Wilco’s twelfth studio album sounds like a loving tribute to American Beauty. The sound, atmosphere and intent of the two albums are strikingly similar. A handful of Cruel Country songs may one day become as universally beloved as American Beauty classics like “Friend of the Devil,” “Ripple” and “Truckin’.” Cruel Country is the miracle Deadheads didn’t know they needed.
Dirt Road Anthems
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
As a Prius-driving, New York Times subscribing jazz blogger, I often forget I’m a hillbilly at heart. Returning to dirt roads in the middle of Kansas activates my intergenerational agricultural sensibility. I feel at home in the absolute middle of nowhere. My life partner and I recently added almost 2,000 miles to an odometer. A soundtrack of spirited gospel, old-timey folk, scratchy honky tonk and contemporary country felt compulsory as we drifted on the outskirts of towns including Colby, Fort Dodge, Garden City and Pratt. In addition to relishing hour after hour of Willie Nelson and George Strait, we sang along with Luke Bryan, the Dixie Chicks, Freddy Fender, Dolly Parton and Doc Watson. Revisiting timeless hymns was no less restorative. Yet my insatiable craving for Ray Price dissipated as suburbs replaced pastures as we neared our increasingly inharmonious residence.
May 2022 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency
Screenshot of soprano Sara Blanch in the trailer of the Donizetti Opera Festival’s staging of Gaetano Donzetti’s La fille du régiment by There Stands the Glass.
Top Ten Albums (Released in May, excluding 5/27 titles)
1. Mary Halvorson- Belladonna
2. Ches Smith- Interpret It Well
3. Bad Bunny- Un Verano Sin Ti
Summer soundtrack sorted.
4. Leikeli47- Shape Up
Fit.
5. John Scofield- John Scofield
Sublime solo set.
6. Shabaka- Afrikan Culture
Hushed Hutchings.
7. Daniel Villarreal- Panamá 77
International Anthem indeed.
8. Mary Halvorson- Amaryllis
My review of the companion album.
9. Andris Nelsons- Strauss
10. Kendrick Lamar- Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
The transformation of King Kendrick into Captain Obvious is a hard pill to swallow.
Top Ten Songs (released in May)
1. Charles Stepney- “Daddy’s Diddies”
My favorite sound.
2. Tank and the Bangas with Lalah Hathaway and Jacob Collier-
Fulfillingness’ second finale.
3. Becky G- "Kill Bill"
Dead.
4. Dougie B- “I’m Back”
Bumpin’ me against the wall.
5. Flee Lord with Mephux- "Out the Mud"
True grit.
6. Hollie Cook- “Happy Hour”
Red Stripe special.
7. Ty Segall- “Saturday Pt. 2”
A stroll in Itchycoo Park.
8. Belle and Sebastian- "Do It for Your Country"
Ask not.
9. Flora- "Hey"
Ya.
10. Kevin Morby- “A Coat of Butterflies”
Hallelujah.
Top Ten Performances of May (and the last weekend of April)
1. Little Joe y La Familia at the Guadalupe Center
2. Samantha Ege at the Folly Theater
3. Logan Richardson + Blues People at the Ship
4. High Pulp at the recordBar
5. Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Folly Theater
6. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s “Tosca” at Muriel Kauffman Theatre
7. Kind Folk at the Black Box
8. Drew Williams, Brandon Cooper and Seth Andrew Davis at Charlotte Street Foundation
9. Brian Scarborough Quintet at Westport Coffee House
10. Guitar Elation at Green Lady Lounge
The dueling guitars of Brian Baggett and Danny Embrey.
Last month’s survey is here.
Kansas City's Ten Best Music Venues
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Uninformed trash talk in the comment section of a radio station’s social media post about a local music venue irritated me last week. While I’m not free of bias, my longtime patronage of performances ranging from rap to opera makes me uniquely qualified to assess Kansas City’s live music landscape. Additional commendable spaces would obviously be included on an expanded list. The primary genres associated with each establishment are in parentheses.
1. Knuckleheads
Improbably transforming from a motorcycle repair shop into a sprawling music complex with four stages, Knuckleheads is the authentic roadhouse the House of Blues franchise pretends to be. (Blues, country, oldies.)
Kansas City’s most popular presenter of jazz features more than 70 hours of live music every week. The adjacent Black Dolphin and Orion Room supplement the primary stage. (Jazz.)
3. The Ship
The bohemian West Bottom establishment renowned for good vibes just added a larger stage to an upscale annex. (Soul, country, jazz.)
Kansas City doesn’t possess the natural splendor of cities like Denver and San Francisco, but the expansive al fresco amphitheater in Swope Park is very pretty. (Musicals and popular touring acts.)
5. recordBar
Every big city has a go-to rock club. An excellent sound system and loyal staff help make the downtown venue Kansas City’s top intimate room for touring bands and local rock-and-rollers. (Rock, hip-hop, pop.)
The absence of a Kansas City landmark on this list isn’t an oversight. Cowtown’s arts scene has its own version of the fable about the unclothed emperor. The Folly Theater has substantially better acoustics than the two halls of the more prestigious performing arts center. (Classical, jazz, oldies.)
The theater below the coffee shop is Kansas City’s finest listening room. There’s no need to go hungry or thirsty as music is played. Burgers and drinks are available in the adjacent tavern. (Jazz, poetry comedy.)
On its best nights, the venue operated by the American Jazz Museum offers the sounds and ambience that travelers from Europe and Asia hope to experience while visiting Kansas City. (Jazz, soul, blues.)
The authentic Kansas City- not the splashy metropolis depicted by tourism bureaus- is exemplified by the earthy roadhouse serving up savory barbecue and beer-soaked blues. (Blues.)
10. The Black Box
The flexible indoor/outdoor space in the West Bottoms is a relative newcomer to Kansas City’s live music scene. (Rock, hip-hop, jazz.)
Album Review: Mary Halvorson- Belladonna
My first experience with the contemporary classical sound known as new music was a bitter disappointment. At a time in which my music budget was extremely limited, I took a flier on Anthony Davis’ 1987 album Undine. Rather than the cutting-edge jazz I’d expected, the long out-of-print release on the Gramavision label contains a pair of challenging compositions in the vein of Morton Feldman. I didn’t get it.
Mary Halvorson’s thrilling new Belladonna album compelled me to return to Undine for the first time in more than 30 years. The discordant strings that struck me as an incomprehensible slap in the face in the 1980s now sound entirely natural. I was uniquely prepared, consequently, for Belladonna. Featuring the guitarist’s squiggly freakouts over the similarly strident work of the Mivos Quartet, Belladonna is an adventure in dissonance.
I came to Halvorson’s distinctive attack about a year before the only time I’ve seen her perform. It’s since become obvious that Halvorson is one of the most important musicians to emerge in the first quartet of this century. Belladonna, and to a lesser extent its companion album Amaryllis, is precisely the sort of confrontational sound I’ve spent three decades unknowingly preparing to appreciate.
Concert Review: Samantha Ege at the Folly Theater
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Millions of people heard Scott Joplin’s 1902 composition “The Entertainer” for the first time in 1973. Recorded for the soundtrack of “The Sting,” Marvin Hamlisch’s rendition was a fluke hit. I was among the dumbstruck listeners who asked “what is this amazing music, and why haven’t I heard anything like it before?”
I had a similar experience at the Folly Theater on Sunday, May 15. Samantha Ege didn’t play ragtime at her free piano recital for an audience of about 200. Instead, the British musicologist revived the neglected compositions of African American women. Selections by the likes of Florence Price sounded as if Claude Debussy had moved to Chicago to become the music director of an African Methodist Episcopal congregation.
The obscurity of the seamless melding of European classical music with American blues and gospel is a cultural crime. In the remarkably sensitive hands of Ege, the works of Price, Margaret Bonds, Zenobia Powell Perry, Betty Jackson King and Nora Holt seem no less delightful or significant than the output of George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.
Album Review: Andris Nelsons- Strauss
The classical music industry’s proclivity for size is impressive. Strauss is a case in point. Andris Nelsons’ new release on Deutsche Grammophon features the conductor leading the Boston Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus in an eight-hour and 32-minute marathon of works by Richard Strauss. Featured soloists include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Yuja Wang. Absorbing the vast expanse provided me with considerable time to attempt to figure out how a single composer can be responsible for the worst sorts of classical schmaltz, jarring moments of jarring avant-garde noise and futuristic litanies. I hope to one day fully understand Strauss’ fantastic achievement.