Forgoing live music as part of an interminable effort to avoid the virus hasn’t been all bad. I’ve hunkered down with books in recent weeks. Many of the biographies and novels I spend hours reading every evening conclude with end-of-life reflections about lessons learned and meanings gleaned.

Similar ruminations dominate 2 Blues for Cecil. A trio of avant-garde elders- drummer Andrew Cyrille, 82, bassist William Parker, 70, and trumpeter Enrico Rava, 82- brood over the legacy of the late iconoclast Cecil Taylor on the album recorded 11 months ago in Paris.

More than a meditation on loss, 2 Blues for Cecil is a profound exploration of the essence of time and space. Yet tracks like "Ballerina" don’t function as background music. Reading is impossible even during the most serene moments of the riveting 2 Blues for Cecil.

William Brownlee

January 23, 2022

Album Review: John Mellencamp- Strictly a One-Eyed Jack

William Brownlee

January 23, 2022

I worked at a newsstand for a couple years in the 1980s. Between reading the merchandise and silently judging customers’ purchases, there was a lot to like about the minimum wage job. John Mellencamp was one of the most famous people I rang up. The heartland rock heavyweight was characteristically aloof.

Even though I was a Bruce Springsteen guy, I recognized that Mellencamp’s misanthropic songs were more representative of the people I knew and the place I called home. Springsteen appears on three tracks of Mellencamp’s astounding new album Strictly a One-Eyed Jack. The hard-knock tone is matched by Mellencamp’s smoke-ravaged voice. Strictly a One-Eyed Jack often sounds as if Tom Waits is covering Mellencamp’s superlative 1987 album The Lonesome Jubilee.

I shouldn’t be surprised to find myself admiring a Mellencamp album in 2022. The cynic’s advanced age finally matches his lifelong sensibility. I feel much the same way about myself. It’s simply stating the obvious to reveal that Mellencamp purchased a pack of cigarettes during our brief encounter 35 years ago.

William Brownlee

January 18, 2022

Album Review: Tony Malaby’s Sabino- The Cave of Winds

William Brownlee

January 18, 2022

The Cave of Winds is mean and ugly. The confrontational chaos overseen by saxophonist Tony Malaby suits the intractable moment. Malaby, guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tom Rainey convey legitimate fury on the new release. The aggressively angry “Scratch the Horse” sounds like Charles Mingus by way of Sonic Youth. The ebb and flow of the 18-minute title track evokes a middle aged riot. The quartet doesn’t merely disregard the established rules of improvised music; they deface every signpost of swing propriety.

William Brownlee

January 15, 2022

EP Review: Earl Sweatshirt- Sick!

William Brownlee

January 15, 2022

The fear, doubt and anguish expressed by Earl Sweatshirt on Doris mirrored my state of mind at the time of its release. The harrowing masterpiece was my top album of 2013. I’m in a much better place now. Unfortunately, Earl’s new EP Sick! indicates he continues to struggle. Seemingly short of breath and resigned to hopelessness, the grimy aesthetics of Sick! are matched by correspondingly anguished lyrics. Emotionally invested in the well being of the prodigiously talented rapper, I’m torn by my admiration of art inspired by unrelenting pain. I still care about how he feels.

William Brownlee

January 11, 2022

Album Review: Lise Davidsen and Leif Ove Andsnes- Edvard Grieg

William Brownlee

January 11, 2022

I often wonder if the ongoing pandemic is making my world bigger or smaller. The new album by the magnificent soprano Lise Davidsen compels me to reexamine the question. While I haven’t touched my passport during the past 24 months, I’ve become increasingly dedicated to reading literature, studying history and furthering my musical literacy.

Scouting potential day trips from Kansas City about a year ago, I considered driving to the site of Willa Cather’s family homestead in Nebraska. I reckoned I should first familiarize myself with her work. What began as a casual investigation quickly became an obsession. I’ve since read almost everything she published.

Opera, another of my nascent infatuations, figures heavily in Cather’s 1915 novel The Song of the Lark. Although she rose to fame after the novel’s publication and was of Norwegian rather than Swedish descent, the opera star Kristen Flagstad served as my proxy for Cather’s protagonist Thea Kronberg. A few of Flagstad’s vintage recordings of Grieg are astonishingly vibrant.

So while I’m still little more than an enthusiastic greenhorn, "Møte" and "En Svane" are among the repertoire on Davidsen and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes’ exquisite Edvard Grieg that were previously familiar to me. I’m having an unreasonably good time comparing Flagstad’s approach to Grieg to Davidsen’s. My soundtrack for the Red Cloud road trip is set.

William Brownlee

January 8, 2022

Album Review: Samo Salamon- Dolphyology: Complete Eric Dolphy for Solo Guitar

William Brownlee

January 8, 2022

Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done. The Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon claims his new album Dolphyology: Complete Eric Dolphy for Solo Guitar is “the first time the complete Eric Dolphy songbook has been recorded on a single solo instrument.”

The audacious endeavor is as intellectually admirable as it is artistically precarious. Yet partly because it arrives in the wake of guitarist Miles Okazaki’s acclaimed arrangements of Thelonious Monk compositions, a surprisingly wonderful parallel pandemic project by John Pizzarelli and the like-minded initiatives of guitarist Pasquale Grasso, Dolphyology doesn’t seem like a novelty.

Salamon’s irreverent approach and sympathetic technique allow his risky gamble to pay off. The interpretations range from the pastoral optimism associated with Pat Metheny to the sort of jagged freakouts played by the likes of Marc Ribot. Even better, Dolphyology rekindles the admiration of this foolishly delinquent Dolphyphile.

William Brownlee

January 4, 2022

The Pleasures of Love

William Brownlee

January 4, 2022

Screenshot of The Royal College of Music’s production of “Die Zauberflöte” by There Stands the Glass.

New year, same old virtual Mozart. The Royal College of Music’s recent production of “Die Zauberflöte” is the eighth version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera I’ve watched from home since the onset of the pandemic. I share a few of the reservations expressed by an Opera Today critic about the unconventional interpretation set at a prep school, but like her, I welcome the emphasis on the sexism imposed on Pamina and the Queen of the Night. The Royal College’s relatively modest presentation features strong performances and includes pop culture totems like cell phones and marijuana. My response to Mozart’s music becomes more rapturous with each viewing. An inaugural in-person encounter with “Die Zauberflöte” can’t come soon enough.

William Brownlee

January 1, 2022

Album Review: Bill Callahan and Bonnie “Prince” Billy- Blind Date Party

William Brownlee

January 1, 2022

Freak-folk landed between opera and trap-latino in the personalized annual “top genres” notification Spotify sent me four weeks ago. I certainly listened to gobs of Richard Wagner and Bad Bunny, but I don’t recall spending much time singing along with folk outsiders like Bill Callahan and Bonnie “Prince” Billy during the first 11 months of 2021.

Things have changed. Released December 10, Blind Date Party, a 90-minute compilation of covers overseen by the two Bills, is in heavy rotation at There Stands the Glass headquarters. Abetted by an impressive slate of like-minded peers, the freak-folk luminaries reinterpret compositions by artists ranging from Billie Eilish (a loopy dressing-down of “Wish You Were Gay”) to Jerry Jeff Walker (an elegiac version of “I Love You”).

I miss my father, but I’m relieved he’s not around to hear the hilarious desecration of “O.D.’d in Denver,” one of his favorite Bocephus bangers. Alastair Roberts’ contributions make an interpretation of Dave Rich’s gospel song "I've Made Up My Mind" my favorite track. The bots at Spotify got it right after all.

William Brownlee

December 30, 2021

We’ve Wandered Many a Weary Foot

William Brownlee

December 30, 2021

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Even though this site has evolved into a personal music diary in recent years, I’m pleased people continue to monitor my musings. Thanks for reading. An audit of recent activity follows.

New episodes of the In My Headache podcast continue to appear intermittently. My collaborator Aaron Rhodes and I discuss Tyler, The Creator, Willie Nelson and Harry Nilsson in the latest installment.

My friends at 90.9 The Bridge recently gave me a forum to share highlights from my many year-end music lists. The episode should show up here soon.

There Stands the Glass may be an automonous endeavor but my Kansas City jazz blog Plastic Sax is a public service. The journeyman guitarist Rod Fleeman is The Plastic Sax Person of the Year.

I participated in the The 2021 Jazz Critics Poll. The complete tally and my ballot are here. The sheer volume of titles- 510 of the approximately 6,000 jazz albums released this year received votes- is staggering.