Album Review: Melissa Aldana- Filin

I regularly monitored a weekly radio show dedicated to vintage jazz in the 1980s. Floored by an airing of Coleman Hawkins’ 1939 version of “Body and Soul,” I purchased a budget-priced compilation of material by the saxophonist from St. Joseph, Missouri. An ongoing affinity for the ballad playing of Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster and Lester Young ensued.

Most of the revivalists currently mining that deliciously lugubrious vein don’t capture my imagination. Filin, Melissa Aldana’s new album for Blue Note Records, is different. Consistency is maintained through the thematic concept of material associated with the filin movement of pre-revolution Cuba. 

The saxophonist’s accompanists- pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kush Abadey- are elite. Monotony is circumvented by the appearance of the unconventional vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant on two tracks.

I can’t stop swooning over Filin. That’s why I pitched a fit during Matt Otto’s appearance at Music House last night. The familiar chords of “Darn That Dream” resounded at the 49:15 mark of the quartet’s performance.

Nice! I’d get to hear one of my favorite saxophonists apply his formidable talent to a downtempo Hawkins-style standard. The unaccountably hurried tempo infuriated me. I tossed a $10 bill into guitarist Aaron Sizemore’s guitar case and fled to the comfort of Filin in my Prius.

Album Review: Art Pepper- Everything Happens to Me: 1959, Live at the Cellar

Charlie Parker died in 1955. He was 34. Art Pepper was 56 when he died in 1982. Now that I’m in my sixties, lifespans have become more significant to me. Only love is more precious than time.

The two abstract qualities are well represented on the previously unreleased Everything Happens to Me: 1959, Live at the Cellar. Each of the 142 minutes represents a love letter to Parker. 

The superlative Bird acolyte Art Pepper is accompanied by pianist Chris Gage, bassist Tony Clitheroe and drummer George Ursan at the Vancouver club. Recorded by the venue’s manager and never intended for public consumption, the document is akin to the tapes Dean Benedetti made of Parker.

The low-stakes atmosphere is so ingratiating that I’ve twice listened to the four-hour album without interruption in each of the past two days. Communing with the ghosts of Parker and Pepper will always be time well spent.

Listyn Up

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Friends and associates had long been astonished when informed that I’d never been to an event at The Listyning Room. Even though the public-facing component of the Center for Recorded Music is in my neighborhood, I hadn’t gotten around to taking in a lecture or listening party at the facility.

Live music is my priority. Attending more than 100 distinct live music events in each of the past 25 years (pandemic excepted) precludes most other entertainment options.

I made an exception for my favorite record label on Wednesday, February 18. Kansas City retail veteran and vinyl aficionado Teddy Dibble presented Solstice, Ralph Towner’s 1975 album on ECM Records.

I was among a dozen people who paid a $10 admission fee for the experience. Dibble’s insights were astute, the atmosphere amid thousands of albums was congenial and the sound field on a high-end stereo was exquisite.

Concert Review: Joyce DiDonato and Time For Three at the Folly Theater

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Joyce DiDonato rolled around on the floor of the Folly Theater stage again on February 14, 2026. In a convincing portrayal of Emily Dickinson, DiDonato writhed, twitched and skipped amid a haunting representation of the poet’s room. 

The Valentine’s Day outing for an audience of almost 1,000 was no less stunning than DiDonato’s physically strenuous 2022 presentation in the same venue. (I bought discounted tickets for the two best seats in the house for $43.50 apiece on Black Friday.)

Accompanied by Time For Three in a rendering of their new collaborative album Emily: No Prisoner Be, DiDonato made her operatic park-and-bark peers look like unfit dullards. A trailer about the project provides a concise explanation of composer Kevin Puts’ intent in scoring Dickenson’s poetry. 

The Victorian undercurrent of "Because I could not stop for death" is among the Emily: No Prisoners Be selections that wouldn’t seem out of place on Wuthering Heights, the string-laden, occasionally quasi-classical new album by pop star Charlie XCX. It was even more alluring live.

The version of the title track concluding the concert was a dead ringer for a new-grass anthem by Nickel Creek, further proof that high art needn’t be or inaccessible That sensibility made DiDonato the There Stands the Glass 2022 Person of the Year. She’s now operating at an even more elevated level.

The Case of the Elusive Jazz Fusion Band

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The incredibly nice father of my late friend R. was proud of his home stereo. He enjoyed demonstrating the system with high-fidelity albums sold by audio retailers. These included Fresh Aire 1 on the Omaha-based American Gramaphone label. Even though I preferred the default soundtrack at my home, I was glad to be exposed to a much different sensibility. R.’s father also had a breezy jazz fusion album in heavy rotation. I’d been unable to remember the name of the band for decades. The irritating itch was relieved when recently I spotted the name online. Hearing the debut recording by Flim and the BB’s after all these years reminds me of the many kindnesses R.’s family bestowed on me.

Album Review: Jill Scott- To Whom This May Concern

“I thought you were Black.” That’s how strangers occasionally greeted me during my stint as a music critic for The Kansas City Star. While I am, in fact, white, most of the newspaper’s hip-hop, R&B, blues and jazz assignments went to me.

A dozen years spent reviewing hundreds of concerts by the likes of Tech N9ne, Erykah Badu, Bobby Rush and Herbie Hancock deepened my already considerable devotion to those forms. I believe it really doesn’t get much better than this.

Given the explicit Afro-centric orientation of Jill Scott’s stunning new album To Whom This May Concern, directly addressing race seems appropriate. I may not be part of the ethnic group Scott celebrates on "Beautiful People", but that doesn’t mean I don’t share the sentiment.

To Whom This May Concern is in the indelible tradition of Stevie Wonder’s Hotter Than July, Maze’s Joy and Pain and Maxwell’s BLACKsummers’night. An insistence that the social, economic and political challenges of 2026 can be overcome by faith, love and community helps make Scott’s first album in a decade is an instant classic.

Opera Review: UMKC Conservatory's Carmen at White Recital Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

A trigger warning about depictions of gunfire, suicide, criminality, cruelty to animals and “seductive and violent behavior” is included in the program for UMKC Conservatory’s current production of Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.” How I love opera!

While I embrace the plot elements that are part and parcel of grand opera, a personalized advisory would remind me that every time I’m exposed to “Carmen” the melodies involuntarily ricochet in my head for weeks. Bizet is all about the bops.

The talented cast of students did justice to the arias of the 151-year-old opera. I paid $25 to be transported to a Romani community in and around Seville. The other 200 people in the room on opening night vanished along with the rest of the world during the nearly three-hour production.

Much of the success of my pandemic-era opera initiative is rooted in the form’s hallucinatory effect. The slow pace and spectacular voices in the best productions- last night’s opera included- put me in an altered state in which place and time no longer exist. "La la la."

Old and New Dreams: An Appreciation

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

My preparation for Joshua Redman’s return to the Folly Theater on Saturday, February 7, went awry when I realized I’d rather be listening to the saxophonist’s late father. After checking out Dewey Redman’s 1966 debut album Look for the Black Star (wild! fun!) and Redman’s contribution to Keith Jarrett’s maligned 1979 album Eyes of the Heart (messy! awkward!) for the first time, I revisited an old favorite.

Old and New Dreams’ self-titled 1979 debut for ECM Records turned my world inside-out when I first encountered it in the early 1980s. Ornette Coleman- the man to whom the quartet of saxophonist Redman, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell paid homage- was little more than a name to me then.

Consequently, Old and New Dreams’ elegiac version of Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” was my introduction to the classic composition. Forty-five years later, it still gives me chills. My taste in improvised music was formed in large part by the landmark recording.

Joshua Redman’s occasional nods to the thornier work of his father were among my favorite moments of Saturday’s concert. (My review at Plastic Sax is forthcoming.) No one should feel obliged to follow the path forged by a parent. Even so, it’s the Old and New Dreams discography rather than the work of the younger Redman I continue to binge.

Album Review: Tigran Hamasyan- Manifeste

My head and heart wage war as Tigran Hamasyan’s new album Manifeste plays. The Armenian’s rococo blend of prog-rock, jazz fusion and progressive metal causes my brain to rebel. Yet the pleasure centers in my soul lay siege to cynicism as they recall my juvenile love of Foxtrot, American Garage and 2112.

Conflict breaks out immediately. The opening selection “Prelude for All Seekers” alludes to Genesis’ “Watcher of the Skies.” Elsewhere, Hamasyan applies the grandiosity of the Pat Metheny Group and the pretentiousness of Rush to tracks including “Dardahan.” The absurdities are enlivened by generous infusions of Armenian folk traditions. 

Loving the sturm und drang of the ludicrously-titled “A Eye- The Digital Leviathan” in spite of myself makes me believe a truce is possible. By managing to convince myself that Manifeste is a tasteful distillation of its ostentatious inspirations, I’m able to enjoy the 72-minute album in a temporary peace.

January 2026 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer for Theater an der Wien’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro by There Stands the Glass.

The Top Ten Albums of January 2026
1. Kris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet- The Solastalgia Suite
A turbulent third stream.

2. Angelika Niescier- Chicago Tapes
The German saxophonist visits the Windy City.

3. Sault- Chapter 1
Rewriting the book of neo-soul.

4. Craig Taborn- Dream Archives
With Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith.

5. Zach Bryan- With Heaven on Top
Little pink houses.

6. Ari Lennox- Vacancy
Hole in her heart.

7. Haeun Joo- Just Gravity
Inescapable pull.

8. Makoto Ozone- For Someone
My review.

9. Joel Ross- Gospel Music
Persuasive testimony.

10. Hermon Mehari and NO(w) Beauty- (un)Seen
On sight.

The Top Three Reissues and Reimaginings of January 2026
1. Various- Naive Melodies
Real live wires.

2. Zach Bryan- With Heaven On Top (Acoustic)
Lonesome jubilees.

3. Grupo Um- Nineteen Seventy Seven
Return to forever.

The Top Ten Songs of January 2026
1. Callie Day- "Rely On You"
Live at Isaac Cates’ Affirmations service in Leawood, Kansas.

2. Jill Scott- “Beautiful People”
Everybody is a star.

3. Ella Langley- “Dandelion”
Deep in the weeds.

4. Rawayana featuring Manuel Turizo- “Inglés en Miami”
Speaking of Venezuela.

5. A$AP Rocky- “Punk Rocky”
The best track on a disappointing album.

6. By Storm- “Can I Have Your For Myself”
A tough pill to swallow.

7. Pat Metheny- “In On It”
I’m going with him.

8. The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis- “Gestations”
Fully formed.

9. Camper featuring Alex Isley and RoseGold- “Sixteen Summers”
Silly love song.

10. Melissa Aldana- “La Sentencia”
Exquisite.

The Top Performances of January 2026
Travel, inclement weather and budget constraints prevented me from attending ten or more shows in a month for the first time since the pandemic.

The previous monthly recap is here.