The pleasures provided by year-end music lists are manifold. I relish the opportunity to display my (obviously superior) taste and disparage the (clearly inferior) selections of others. Yet the most rewarding aspect of combing through entries is encountering undiscovered sounds. Even though I listen to about two dozen new albums in their entirety every week, I only learned of No Joke! when I peeked at a rough draft of a colleague’s best-of 2021 list. Released three weeks ago by the illustrious ESP-Disk record label, the date led by the prolific bassist William Parker and his wife, the poet, choreographer and activist Patricia Nicholson, is a spiritual and musical companion to Irresistible Entanglements’ free jazz tour de force Open the Gates. Indignant and cacophonous, No Joke! is a dead serious call to action.
Album Review: Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates
Driving to Columbia, Missouri, to catch Irreversible Entanglements in June was my first meaningful post-quarantine pleasure trip. In spite of the brevity of the avant-garde ensemble’s appearance, the experience was my first brush with normality in more than a year. At 73 minutes, Irreversible Entanglements’ new album Open the Gates is twice the length of the concert at Stephens Lake Park Amphitheatre. Open the Gates solidifies Moor Mother’s status near the top of the jazz poet pantheon and the group’s expression of rage is more cogent than the output of any contemporary punk band. "It's energy time!"
Escape Plan
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
I grieve with the families and friends of the people killed at the Astroworld Festival. But no, I don’t have a hot take based on my attendance at concerts like Travis Scott’s 2019 show at the Sprint Center. Events with thousands of giddy teens tend to be a little dicey. Experience allows me to know where to position myself to avoid danger. Only two live music environments continue to frighten me. I’ve long been afraid an incapacitated person will unintentionally take out my fragile knees at a rock festival. And at outdoor country shows, I have to be on guard for the angry drunk men who are invariably offended by my ostensibly unmasculine presence.
Opera Review: George Frideric Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” at White Recital Hall
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
“Oh, the pleasure of the plains!” The exuberance of the opening line of George Frideric Handel’s “Acis and Galatea” possessed special resonance for me at White Recital Hall on Thursday, November 4. The UMKC Conservatory presentation was my first in-person post-Covid opera experience. I loved every minute of the amusingly frisky and refreshingly irreverent production.
Two unfortunate elements failed to derail the integrity of the performance. Rather than the sumptuous orchestral accompaniment that helps make “Acis and Galatea” delightful, the vocalists were supported solely by piano. The performers also wore masks. While commendable, the hindrance obscured their voices. The same couldn’t be said for the dullards in the audience of about 100 who pulled down their masks when the house lights were dimmed.
Forgiving the inappropriate applause that followed several energetic arias was easier. In spite of the minimalist set, the outstanding stage direction of Mo Zhou resembled a series of Spike Jonze pop music videos more than the conventional operatic stagings associated with Franco Zeffirelli. The cast’s vocals were good; their acting was even better. Single-camera footage of the pleasure of the plains has already been uploaded to YouTube.
Book Review: Richard Thompson's Beeswing
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
I’ve met far more famous people, but a meet-and-greet with Joe Boyd is among my most meaningful music-related celebrity encounters. A significant swathe of the raconteur’s expansive discography impacted the way I experience music. Gaining insights about Boyd from the perspective of one of his most notable artists was among the reasons I picked up Richard Thompson’s Beeswing.
The cult artist spills a lot of beans in his new autobiography. An account of being heckled for having long hair by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos in the Detroit airport and an admission of hiring a prostitute in Hamburg are among the titillating anecdotes. I wasn’t surprised by Thompson’s detailed acknowledgement of his obsession with all forms of music. He raves about artists as disparate as Claude Debussy, Jimi Hendrix and Barney Kessel and offers firsthand portraits of associates including Sandy Denny, Nick Drake and Dave Pegg.
Lavish praise of Boyd verified my admiration of the renaissance man, but Thompson’s thorough exploration of his conversion to Sufism and subsequent pilgrimage to Mecca contains several unanticipated elements. In spite of his uncommon path, Thompson still considers himself a traditional folk artist of Britain. I’m looking forward to experiencing Thompson’s forthcoming concert at the Folly Theater through this newly acquired perspective.
October 2021 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency
Screenshot of The Fugitive Kind by There Stands the Glass.
Top Ten Albums (released in October)
1. Fire-Toolz- Eternal Home
A noise supreme.
2. Lana Del Rey- Blue Banisters
Now That’s What I Call Adult Contemporary!
3. Craig Taborn- Shadow Plays
Standing on the shoulders of Keith Jarrett.
4. Daniil Trifonov- Bach: The Art of Life
Living large.
5. Maxo Kream- Weight of the World
“Record deal off a pill!”
6. Charlotte Greve- Sediments We Move
7. Artifacts Trio- ...And Then There's This
Chicago’s finest.
8. Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson- Searching for the Disappeared Hour
The pianist and guitarist clear the room.
9. Jpegmafia- LP!
A firehose of mutinous ideas.
10. Steddy P- SOS: Toxic
KC’s rapper’s convincing comeback.
Top Ten Songs (released in October)
1. Céu- “Chega Mais”
Come closer.
2. Tainy, Bad Bunny and Julieta Venegas- "Lo Siento"
Dream collaboration.
3. Orquesta Akokán- “Guajira Del Mar”
Havana.
4. Badbadnotgood- "City of Mirrors"
Deep reflections.
5. Adele- "Easy On Me"
Drowning.
6. Harriet Krijgh and Magda Amara- “Les chemins de l'amour”
The paths of love.
7. Emily D’Angelo- "A Thousand Tongues"
“Nine and ninety-nine lie.”
8. Angel Du$t with Tim Armstrong- "Dancing on the Radio"
“Like there’s no tomorrow.”
9. Conway the Machine- "Piano Love"
Tuned.
10. Remi Wolf- "wyd"
Preposterous pop.
Top Ten Concerts of October
1. Pat Metheny, James Francies and Joe Dyson- Orchestra Hall (Detroit)
2. St. Vincent- Grinders KC
3. Erykah Badu- Midland theater
4. Marc Anthony- T-Mobile Arena
5. Asleep at the Wheel- Muriel Kauffman Theatre
6. Joshua Bell and Alessio Bax- Helzberg Hall
7. Rod Fleeman- Green Lady Lounge
The guitarist’s weekly matinee is among my favorite things in Kansas City.
8. Flooding- Vinyl Underground
9. Jeff Kaiser, Kevin Cheli and Seth Davis- Charlotte Street Foundation
10. Everyday Strangers- Gem Theater
Top Ten Films (viewed for the first time in October)
1. The Fugitive Kind (1960)
My new favorite movie.
2. Höstsonaten/Autumn Sonata (1978)
Excruciating generational trauma.
3. The Emperor Jones (1933)
Paul Robeson in an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play.
4. Where East is East (1929)
Lon Chaney, Estelle Taylor and Lupe Vélez don't need sound.
5. Mamma Roma (1962)
The continuation of the decline and fall.
6. Flesh and the Devil (1927)
Greta Garbo as femme fatale.
7. Hollywood Barn Dance (1947)
Walkin’ the floor with Ernest Tubb.
8. SAS: Red Notice (2021)
Precisely what I want from a big, dumb action flick.
9. The Seventh Victim (1943)
Kim Hunter confronts a satanic cult in Greenwich Village.
10. The 100-Foot Journey (2004)
Amuse-bouche.
September’s recap and links to previous monthly surveys are here.
Concert Review: Asleep at the Wheel at Muriel Kauffman Theatre
An elated man hailed me on Broadway Boulevard following Asleep at the Wheel’s sensational performance at Muriel Kauffman Theatre on Saturday, October 30. “What a concert!” he exclaimed. “Country music!” While I shared his enthusiasm, I questioned the categorization.
Asleep at the Wheel is a country band like the Alamo is a stone building. The inadequate characterization doesn’t recognize the band’s historical importance, cultural significance or stylistic breadth.
Formed in West Virginia in 1970 and relocated to Texas in 1974, the band is belatedly marking its fiftieth anniversary with a two-leg reunion tour in support of the star-studded Half a Hundred Years album. Asleep at the Wheel alumni Floyd Domino, Chris O’Connell and LeRoy Preston joined the current eight-piece group at the shockingly vital two-hour Kansas City show.
Although the audience of about 1,000 heard a generous batch of songs associated with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Asleep at the Wheel is far more than a tribute band dedicated to Western swing.
The setlist included selections by the Kansas City icon Count Basie, the proto-rocker Louis Jordan, the Texas troubadour Guy Clark and the R&B artist Toussaint McCall. Renderings of Preston compositions including the 1975 novelty hit “The Letter That Johnny Walker Read,” the wry “Dead Man” and the rip-roaring “My Baby Thinks She’s a Train” were also highlights.
Dual fiddlers and the impeccably impressionistic steel guitar of Cindy Cashdollar were anchored by a hard-swinging rhythm section bound to mainstream jazz. Floyd Domino channeled Kansas City pianist Pete Johnson while bandleader Ray Benson played Chuck Berry-esque guitar.
The stylistic range made the reconvened ensemble seem absolutely essential. In fact, Asleep at the Wheel possesses almost all the attributes aficionados of the Grateful Dead erroneously claim for their favorite group. Persuasive interpretations of vintage songs and original material made a convincing case for Asleep at the Wheel as the quintessential American roots band.
Original images by There Stands the Glass.
Concert Review: Kansas Virtuosi at Polsky Theatre
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
I was a teenage knucklehead. So it’s with utmost hypocrisy that I malign the people enrolled at Johnson County Community College. How is it on a bustling campus with a student body of 18,000 that not one person under the age of 50 attended a free lunch hour concert in the institution’s long-standing classical recital series on Monday, October 25? For that matter, how is it that no one born after 1970 in the greater Kansas City metropolis of more than two million showed up? I was the youngest member of the audience of four dozen in Polsky Theatre to hear six faculty members of the University of Kansas perform a pair of challenging suites by Luis Humberto Salgado. The compositions filtered the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg through an Ecuadorian sensibility. The invigorating sounds refuted the mistruth that classical music is irrelevant. The audience, myself included, may have been stuffy, stale and snobbish, but the sextet’s energetic rendering of challenging music was altogether vital.
Album Review: Charlotte Greve- Sediments We Move
My failure to catch up with King Crimson on the band’s tour of North America is one of my biggest regrets of 2021. I’ve never seen the venerable prog-rock act. The prospect of eventually attending a concert by the relatively young Charlotte Greve now seems far more likely. The German artist adds Wagnerian excess to the most grandiose elements of prog-rock on Sediments We Move. The extravagant concept album is complex, daring and over-the-top in the best possible ways.
The Top Kansas City Albums and EPs of 2021
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Kansas City is a small town. Even so, my version of Kansas City is vastly different from the place many of my music-minded peers call home. Rankings of 55 of my favorite recordings released by artists from the Kansas City area during the first 42 weeks of 2021 follow. A handful of highly praised albums didn’t make the cut. The omissions aren't personal. I simply prefer the titles listed below. Additionally, several albums by prominent locally based musicians are slated for release in the final weeks of 2021.
The Top 25 Kansas City Albums of 2021
1. Behzod Abduraimov- Debussy Chopin Mussorgsky
2. Pat Metheny- Road to the Sun
3. Steddy P- SOS: Toxic
4. Mac Lethal- Winter Heartbreak II
5. Pat Metheny- Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)
6. Blackstarkids- Puppies Forever
7. Flooding- Flooding
8. Hermon Mehari and Alessandro Lanzoni- Arc Fiction
9. Verploegh and Baker- Singles
10. Samantha Fish- Faster
11. The Count Basie Orchestra- Live at Birdland
12. Liam Kazer- Due North
13. Hxxs- Channeler
14. Steve Million- What I Meant to Say
15. Tech N9ne- Asin9ne
16. Silicone Prairie- My Life on the Silicone Prairie
17. GI Gizzle and Rich the Factor- Don't Take This Personal 2
18. John Armato- The Drummer Loves Ballads
19. Melissa Etheridge- One Way Out
20. Riley Downing- Start It Over
21. Cheli Davis Smith Trio- Composite
22. Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari and Nelson Veras- Conversation #1: Condensed
23. Lucy Wijnands- Sings the David Heckendorn Song Book
24. Sara Morgan- Another Nail
25. Milkdrop- Thirty Eight
The Top 20 Kansas City EPs of 2021
1. Bummer- Dead Horse
2. Blob Castle- Music for Art Show
3. Big Water- ...And I’m All Out of Sh*t to F**k Up
4. The Greeting Committee- Dandelion
5. Baby and the Brain- BrainBaby
6. Rachel Cion - Wanted!
7. Rich the Factor- Mobbligated
8. Alber- Journey
9. Stik Figa- East of MacVicar Ave
10. Quiet Takes- San Fidel
11. Alyssa Murray- Half & Half
12. Sarin Reaper- Demo
13. Maal and Tom Richman- Grass
14. Cuee- Gospel
15. Lauren Anderson- Love on the Rocks
16. Connor Leimer- Like My Mind
17. Andy McKee- Symbol
18. Rory Fresco- Born Hero
19. Edison Lights- Shake This
20. Such Lovely People- Great Distinction
The Top Ten Kansas City Reissues, Reimaginings and Compilations of 2021
1. Kevin Morby- A Night at the Little Los Angeles
2. Mike Dillon- Shoot the Moon
3. Mike Dillon- 1918
4. Merlin- Electric Children: The Final Cut
5. Rich the Factor- Streets vs. Commercial: 100 Song Collection, Part 1
6. The Wild Women of Kansas City- Live at Pilgrim Chapel
7. Kansas- Point of Know Return: Live & Beyond
8. Danny Cox- Young and Hot: Live at Cowtown Ballroom
9. Whiskey Boots- #1
10. Vitreous Humor- Posthumous
Last year’s rankings of Kansas City releases are here.