Concert Review: Voices of Mississippi at Yardley Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The multimedia presentation staged at Yardley Hall on Saturday, February 12, shouldn’t have worked.  The languid drawl of a disembodied octogenarian narrator offered insights into a blend of grainy footage and live performances throughout the 90-minute show attended by several hundred people.

Yet the narrator was the gallant folklorist William Ferris and the six featured musicians possessed correspondingly auspicious talent.  What might have resembled a tedious TED Talk was instead a vital exposition of Mississippi culture.

The concept is inspired by Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris.  The Grammy Award-winning collection ranges from tracks by the blues icon Mississippi Fred McDowell to the beat poet Alan Ginsburg.  Saturday’s concert was similarly expansive.  

Shardé Thomas and Chris Mallory of the Rising Stars Fife & Drum Band, Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, the roots music mainstay Ruthie Foster and sought-after guitarist Marcus Machado didn’t play it straight.

Ferris’ footage of B.B. King was followed by the rarest of musical unicorns: a fresh version of “The Thrill Is Gone.”  Thomas’ vocals on the shopworn warhorse as well as the life-affirming fife playing she demonstrated on other selections were the concert’s biggest revelations.

Her collaborators were almost as good.  Ruthie Foster delivered a stunning a cappella reading of Son House’s “Grinnin’ In Your Face.”  The low-key guitar duels between Dickinson and Machado were tasteful.  The Kansas City vocalist Danielle Nicole made a fun guest appearance on “You Gotta Move.”

The frequent video segments could have been buzzkills had they not been so engaging.  Rather than resembling fusty outtakes from Martin Scorsese’s 2003 documentary on the blues, they added vitality.

Logic dictates that a performance by the same lineup at a roadhouse like Kansas City’s Knuckleheads would have been preferable. Yet almost everything about Voices of Mississippi defies blues convention.  The triumphant concert was a most pleasant surprise.

Radio Operator: Inside the Making of an Audio Feature

Original image of Barnaby Bright by There Stands the Glass.

My work with KCUR resumed with a feature about the Folk Alliance International Conference told through the perspective of the locally based band Barnaby Bright.  A few additional details and insights related to the construction of the story follow.

*The text and the audio components of the feature are distinct items. I encourage you to consume both elements.

*The principal characters in the story were uncommonly accommodating.  They’re lovely people.

*Longtime readers of There Stands the Glass understand that I’m not particularly fond of pop-tinged folk.  Yet I can’t get Barnaby Bright’s hook-laden songs out of my head.

*Fun bit of trivia: the notable operatic tenor Ben Bliss is the brother of Barnaby Bright’s Becky Bliss.

*I hadn’t previously realized that Barnaby Bright’s Nathan Bliss is an astounding musician.

*More bands would benefit from the addition of harmoniums.

*Carlos Moreno’s excellent images compensate for my incompetence as a photographer.

*Partly because I was required to self-isolate this week due to illness, KCUR editor Luke Martin did almost all of the heavy lifting.

Uptown Folk

Original image of Jake Blount by There Stands the Glass.

God willing, the actual purpose of my enormous time investment and, alas, personal health sacrifice at last week’s Folk Alliance International Conference will soon materialize.  Until then, I’ll share a blind item.

Jake Blount’s official showcase was packed.  I fruitlessly inquired about empty seats as I shuffled from the back of the room toward the stage.  I wound up sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with fans who claimed spots on the floor up front.  Discomfort was rendered irrelevant by Blount’s brilliance.  

Blount opened his enthralling set with a lament about the Middle Passage delivered over a grim drone.  I soon became aware of discontented harrumphing from a man seated immediately behind me who apparently didn’t care for Blount’s unconventional approach.

The protest wasn’t out of place.  I was almost certainly among a small minority at the conference who wanted to hear sonic disruption.  I turned to identify the malcontent at the conclusion of Blount’s set.  I was amazed and delighted to discover the dissenter was an octogenarian folk legend.

For the record, here’s a ranked listing of the artists responsible for my ten favorite performances at the conference: Jake Blount, Verónica Valerio, Sara Curruchich, Jennifer Knapp, Kris Drever, Kitty Macfarlane, OKCello, Barnaby Bright, Harry Manx and Talibah Safiya.

Album Review: Bob Dylan: Fragments- Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17 (Deluxe Edition)

I resorted to desperate counter-programming as I drove home from pre-pandemic Folk Alliance International Conference sessions.  After being deluged with hours of banjo and conscientious protest songs, I felt compelled to queue up digital productions by the antisocial likes of Kevin Gates.  Not this year.  I’m all in on the six-hour and thirteen-minute reissue of Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind.  I loved the album as a new release in 1997.  It sounds even better now.  The former folkie’s ravaged voice, gothic blues and frequently hilarious lyrics reflect my current worldview.  My default soundtrack also led to a synchronized bout of serendipity.  A 16-minute version of “Highlands” began as I left the garage of a midtown hotel after midnight last week.  The song ended when I pulled into my driveway.  I too “feel like a prisoner in a world of mystery.”

Album Review: Meg Baird- Furling

I’ve placed special notations on a list of artists performing at this week’s Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City.  The music made by the likes of Sandy Denny, Roy Harper and June Tabor is my favorite form of folk.  Everyone with an official showcase at the conference working in that vein received a gold star.

Reverent of tradition yet constitutionally peculiar, those musicians created something new yet timeless five decades ago.  Naturally, I’m partial to the musicians who follow in their unconventional footsteps. While she’s two generations younger and from the Americas rather than Britain, Meg Baird builds on that legacy.

Her new album Furling is utterly enchanting.  The plaintive psychedelia of "Ashes, Ashes" and the wistful grooviness of "Will You Follow Me Home?" are worthy of Fairport Convention and Pentangle.  Baird won’t be in Kansas City, but I’ll be on the prowl for equally entrancing sounds this week.

January 2023 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the trailer of Opera McGill’s production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums of January

1. Sebastian Rochford- A Short Diary

Sad-sack Satie? Sold!

2. Elle King- Come Get Your Wife

Sounds like home.

3. The Art Ensemble of Chicago- The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris

Roscoe Mitchell and Moor Mother are my favorite dynamic duo.

4. Daniel Pioro- Saint Boy

My review.

5. Mette Henriette- Drifting

ECM-core.

6. Fred Hersch and esperanza spalding- Alive at the Village Vanguard

My review.

7. Obituary- Dying of Everything

Don’t I know it.

8. Kali Malone- Does Spring Hide Its Joy

My review.

9. Lil Yachty- Let’s Start Here.

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

10. Véronique Gens and Orchestre National De Lille- Poulenc: La voix humain

Allô!

Top Ten Songs of January

1. Måneskin- "Kool Kids"

Rock and roll hilarity.

2. Bizzy Banks- "Ok Ok Ok"

Notarized.

3. Gloss Up featuring Icewear Vezzo- "From Cross the Way"

“Bouncin’ like them checks!”

4. Ice Spice- “In Ha Mood”

She’s no one-hit wonder.

5. Yahritza y su Esencia- “Cambiaste”

Change is the only constant.

6. Public Image Ltd- "Hawaii"

A beautiful sunset.

7. Belle and Sebastian- “Juliet Naked”

My favorite Nick Hornby novel.

8. Jill Barber- "Homemaker"

Tammy lives.

9. SleazyWorld Go- “Robbers and Villains”

Grimy side.

10. Boygenius- "$20"

Three is a magic number.

Top Ten Performances of January

1. Pretty Yende- Folly Theater

My review.

2. Mike Dillon and Brian Haas- The Brick

My review.

3. Miguel Zenón Quartet- Folly Theater

My review.

4. Oran Etkin- Polsky Theatre

My review.

5. Kinnor Philharmonic- White Theatre

My review.

6. No Treble- InterUrban ArtHouse

My Instagram photo.

7. OJT- Green Lady Lounge

My review.

8. Scott Looney, Kevin Cheli, Krista Kopper, Seth Davis and Evan Verploegh- Westport Coffee House

My review.

9. Venetophilia- Kansas City Public Library

My Instagram clip.

10. Charles Williams, DeAndre Manning and Mike Warren- Eddie V’s

The previous monthly survey is here.

Album Review: Kali Malone- Does Spring Hide Its Joy

I’m diligently working my way through Confessions, Saint Augustine’s exhausting chronicle of his conversion to Christianity in the fourth century.  Does Spring Hide Its Joy, Kali Malone’s new three-hour set of drones, provides ideal accompaniment.  I encountered a relevant passage as a particularly harsh phase of sound developed.  “As for the present,” Augustine wrote, “If it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time but eternity.”  Malone and her collaborators Stephen O’Malley and Lucy Railton capture a state of immutable limbo with Does Spring Hide Its Joy.

Album Review: Daniel Pioro- Saint Boy

Hearing musicians and arts presenters apologize to audiences for staging challenging or unconventional music always makes me furious.  The excellent Kansas City bassist Krista Kopper came uncomfortably close to begging forgiveness for the cutting-edge repertoire performed at InterUrban ArtHouse in Overland Park, Kansas, on Wednesday, January 18.

The program exhibited by her No Treble trio included premieres of experimental pieces by three Kansas City area composers.  Even though the audience of about 40 was presumably receptive to new music, Kopper offered defensive explanations of the adventurous sounds.  The strength of Viktor Suslin’s woozy “Grenzubertritt” and “Evening Redness in the West,” Seth Andrew Davis’ twist on Spaghetti Western scores, spoke for themselves.

Nothing on Saint Boy, the wondrous new album of chamber music by the British violinist Daniel Pioro, is as jarring as the gnarliest moments of the concert in Kansas.  Even so, the album’s blend of old (Johann Sebastian Bach and Hildegard von Bingen) and new (Laurence Crane’s “2020 Music” and Pioro’s Glass-like title track) is unconventional in the hidebound realm of classical music.  In this ahistorical moment, apologies aren’t necessary.

Concert Review: Bobby Watson at Yardley Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Introducing his interpretation of a John Coltrane composition at Yardley Hall on Sunday, January 15, Bobby Watson said “this is entitled ‘Dear Lord’- I really need Him tonight.”  He wasn’t kidding. Watson visibly and audibly struggled throughout the 70-minute performance.  He repeatedly suggested his alto saxophone was malfunctioning. 

His tone was off and Watson was able to realize only a fraction of the notes he usually plays. Pianist Roger Wilder, bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Mike Warren supported Watson with admirable sympathy, but the duress of the hometown hero was unmistakable.  Acknowledging the calamity, he suggested “I do not make excuses… I play from my heart, that’s all I can do.”

It’s the last thing I expected when I purchased a $25 ticket. I’ve seen the hard bop icon generate fire at dozens of gigs since the 1980s.  Watson mustered only a few sparks on Sunday.  Yet the audience of more than 400 gave him a standing ovation at the conclusion of the desultory concert.  

The cheers were presumably attributable to Watson’s grace under adversity as well as for his impeccable track record.  Watson has been the face of jazz in Kansas City for more than three decades.  His musical and societal contributions have earned him a lifetime of goodwill.

Setlist: Sweet Dreams, Mind Wind, Love Remains, No Greater Love, Wheel Within a Wheel, Condition Blue, Dear Lord, Bird-ish

Album Review: Fred Hersch and Esperanza Spalding- Alive at the Village Vanguard

Is any form of music demonstrably worse than jazz scatting?  The overwhelming majority of perpetrators inflicting nonsense syllables on listeners are unknowing musical vandals.  As has been the case throughout most of her unconventional career, esperanza spalding (stylization hers) is different.

On “Loro,” a track on her new album with pianist Fred Hersch, spalding mocks scat even as she demonstrates how the form can be expressed with rare finesse and elite musicality.  Some observers are likely to hail Alive at the Village Vanguard as a welcome return to mainstream jazz for Spalding.  Not me.  I respected her recent explorations of funky art music, even as I was disappointed spalding never attained the heights achieved by the likes of Meshell Ndegeocello.

Hersch matches spalding’s incandescence on the spare voice-and-piano album recorded in 2018.  The Thelonious Monk tributes “Dream of Monk” and “Evidence” capture the erratic spirit of the jazz giant.  The heart-rending ballads “Some Other Time” and “A Wish” are countered by the duo’s cerebral frolicking on “Little Suede Shoes” and “Girl Talk” on the early album-of-the-year candidate  Shoo-be-doo-bee, be-bop blam!