The Top Kansas City Albums of 2022 (So Far)

Little of the music made by artists from Kansas City receives substantial attention from outsiders. The ongoing disintegration of the area’s traditional media outlets exacerbates the negligence. Consequently, waiting until the end of the year to recognize the recordings on this list didn’t seem right. Yet this site has never been mistaken for a popularity contest. A few of the most notable new releases- including a fine album by Kansas City’s most popular band- didn’t make the cut. People baffled by the snub of a notable group will find my monthly surveys reveal an allergy to fizzy indie-pop. While I’m displeased by the gender disparity, I didn’t adjust the rankings for representational purposes.

1. Joyce DiDonato- Eden

Straight outta Prairie Village.

2. Arnold Young and the Roughtet- Fear Is the Mind Killer

My review.

3. The Adam Larson Trio- With Love From Chicago

My review.

4. Making Movies- Xopa

The band’s best since 2014’s A la Deriva.

5. LeVelle- My Journey Continues

My review.

6. Kevin Morby- This Is a Photograph

Bob’s New Morning meets Van’s Veedon Fleece.

7. Huerco S.- Plonk

Ambient ear candy.

8. Flora- ​​Emerald City

Over the rainbow.

9. Stik Figa and August Fanon- Heresy

“Posdnuos mixed with Pac.”

10. The Creepy Jingles- Take Me at My Wordplay

The best garage (rock) in town.

11. Dutch Newman- This Too Shall Pass, Pt. 2

Triumphant sobriety.

12. Rich the Factor- NFT Scritch

KC’s whale.

13. Seth Andrew Davis, Kyle Hutchins, Aaron Osborne and Evan Verploegh- Quartet, Vol. 1

My review.

14. Addison Frei- Time and Again

My review.

15. Belle & The Vertigo Waves- Lorelai

Let’s live together.

16. Marty Bush- The Long Way Home

The year’s best reboot.

17. Stephen Martin- High Plains

My review.

18. Seth Andrew Davis- Highways Jammed with Broken Heroes

My review.

19. Kevin “Church” Johnson- Brown Liquor Music

Potent.

20. Ben Baker, Seth Andrew Davis, Krista Kopper and Evan Verploegh- EMS

My review.

21. Norman Brown- Let's Get Away

My review.

22. Josh Nelson Bob Bowman Collective- Tomorrow Is Not Promised

My review.

23. Seth Andrew Davis and Evan Verploegh- Hunter

My review.

24. Thumbs- Trunk Wired Shut

Rock-and-roll lifers.

25. Jeff Shirley- Blue Gold

My review.

Concert Review: Angela Winbush at Juneteenth KC

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

My 40-year appreciation of Angela Winbush came full circle at the Juneteenth KC festival on Saturday, June 18. Hits including "I'll Be Good" and "Angel" were among my favorite songs of the ‘80s. I was reminded of my abiding affection for the R&B of that era when the sound was regularly repurposed by rap artists two decades later. While I had reservations about going to the Jazz District on Saturday- would it be appropriate for me to join thousands of people at the free celebration?- my endorsement of the federal holiday and my love of the music won out. I’m so glad. Winbush’s outing was the first oldies concert I’ve attended at which I didn’t feel the slightest bit of ironic detachment. The 67-year-old cancer survivor executed low squats and high kicks. And she still sings circles around musical heirs like Mariah Carey. Nostalgia was a secondary factor in the joy I felt on Saturday.

Stellar Regions

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I recently attended a free, outdoor jazz concert at which solos were traded in a conventional post-bop style.  The musicians were superb, and while I enjoyed their low-stakes performance, I’m mystified by the dominance of a format that seems exceedingly stale in 2022.  

The unhealthy and unnecessary status quo is repeatedly denounced in Beyond a Love Supreme: John Coltrane and the Legacy of an Album, a 2013 study by Tony Whyton.  The debate about what jazz is and what it should be rages 58 years after the release of A Love Supreme.  The academic jargon employed by the author makes me want to gouge my eyes out, but his subject and the correspondingly fascinating ideas he explores are magnificent.

What is the true significance of the 1964 recording A Love Supreme?  And what’s to be made of the subsequent albums Ascension, Interstellar Space and The Olatunji Concert?  And why, in spite of the vital innovations documented on these late-career Coltrane works, does the jazz establishment continue to promote tiresome- and yes, boring- forms of the music?

Whyton addresses each of these questions thoroughly.  My unfairly simplistic summation of his answers: most fans and scholars are uncomfortable with the notion(s) of God, black nationalism, experimental sound, complicated narratives and democratic approaches to art.

A pal loaned me his copy of Whyton’s 160-page book knowing I’d be triggered by the contents.  As the tone of this screed suggests, the shameful dismissal of Coltrane’s post-A Love Supreme work makes me livid.  Yet I’m eager to discuss one of the most esoteric of the book’s topics with my friend.

Did, as McCoy Tyner once suggested, God speak to us through Charlie Parker and John Coltrane?  And did a divine power, as my friend insisted that night, reach out to us during a performance by the spiritual jazz practitioner Nduduzo Makhathini at the Blue Room two weeks ago? As Coltrane wrote in his liner notes for A Love Supreme, “all praise to God.”

Never Would Have Made It

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

My review.

2. Ches Smith- Interpret It Well

My review.

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

My review.

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- 

“Where Do We All Go”

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

My review.

2. Samantha Ege at the Folly Theater

My review.

3. Logan Richardson + Blues People at the Ship

My review.

4. High Pulp at the recordBar

My review.

5. Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason at the Folly Theater

My Instagram snapshot.

6. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s “Tosca” at Muriel Kauffman Theatre

My review.

7. Kind Folk at the Black Box

My Instagram clip.

8. Drew Williams, Brandon Cooper and Seth Andrew Davis at Charlotte Street Foundation

My Instagram clip.

9. Brian Scarborough Quintet at Westport Coffee House

My Instagram clip.

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.)

2. Green Lady Lounge

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.)

4. Starlight Theatre

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.)

6. The Folly Theater

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.)

7. Westport Coffee House

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.)

8. The Blue Room

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.)

9. BB's Lawnside Blues & BBQ

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.)