Almost everything about Sueños Paralelos sounds wrong. Drummer Lionel Friedli could be auditioning for a rock band. Hans-Peter Pfammatter’s synthesizer belongs in an avant-prog ensemble. The storied saxophonist Tony Malaby and Swiss violinist Laura Schuler get tangled up like competitive kite fighters. The quartet’s rude, unpolished anti-jazz is a combative rebuttal to the codified, calcified realm of mainstream improvised music.
Album Review: Nick Schnebelen- What Key Is Trouble In?
I’m going to meet up with a few buddies tomorrow. Our conversation will inevitably turn to Kansas City’s music scene. Few of my pals share my affinity for improvised music, so my advocacy of new albums by the likes of Mike Dillon and Torches Mauve won’t be appreciated.
A couple guys will also dismiss my admiration of Nick Schnebelen’s latest release. Succeeding in its humble mission to provide an hour of good-time blues-rock, What Key Is Trouble In? is a bracing shot of undiluted Kansas City spirit.
A tribute to the venerable blooze purveyors Ten Years After sets the hard-driving tone. The rest of the original down-and-dirty compositions performed by the guitarist’s trio are bolstered by Schnebelen’s searing solos. Keyboards, organ and saxophone supplement a few tracks.
My friends will likely point out What Key Is Trouble In? is simply more of the same straightforward, no-frills boogie Schnebelen has been creating as a solo artist and with Trampled Under Foot for more than 20 years. They’ll be right- and that’s precisely what makes the album emblematic of our town.
Concert Review: CRAG Quartet at the Bunker Center for the Arts
Original image by There Stands the Glass.
I didn’t include The Bunker Center for the Arts in the feature I recently wrote for KCUR about music venues in Kansas City. Yet there was nowhere I would rather have been on Tuesday, March 14.
A stellar array of new music improvisers performed at the art gallery. The three-part concert opened with a riveting set by saxophonist Benjamin Baker, guitarist Seth Andrew Davis, bassist Krista Kopper and drummer Evan Verploegh.
Davis and Verploegh are the reigning Plastic Sax People of the Year. Almost every time I hear the core members of the Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society of Kansas City- and that’s been about a dozen times in the past 12 months- I think it’s their best outing to date. The simmering improvisation on Tuesday was no exception.
Guitarist Joshua Gerowitz and multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia played next. The serpentine extemporizations of the Los Angeles based artists were striking, partly because Golia possesses a swagger that makes him the free jazz version of Ronnie James Dio.
The touring band CRAG Quartet headlined. Golia, violinist/composer Christian Asplund (violinist/composer), Steve Ricks (trombone/electronics) and Ron Coulter (percussion) made a stupendous racket that sometimes resembled an emergency siren. And as with many of the most imaginative new music improvisers, their playing possessed a delightful undercurrent of humor.
Festival Review: Electronic Music Midwest
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Free admission. Set changes of two minutes or less. Superlative surround sound. Attentive audiences. Comfortable seating. There was a lot to like about the Electronic Music Midwest’s festival at Kansas City Kansas Community College on March 10 and 11.
I treated the event as a low-key approximation of the post-genre Big Ears Festival as I attended the first, fifth and eighth of the festival’s eight concerts. The absence of star power and brief sets were the only liabilities.
I was previously familiar with only a couple of the performers. And there wasn’t much time to get to know them. Most outings were between five and 15 minutes.
My understanding is that all of the festival’s participants are affiliated with academic institutions. Consequently, the industrial rock was congenial, the beats were civil, the screaming was artful and the sound collages were crisp.
The genteel decorum meant that everything presented was quite good, but few offerings felt revolutionary. The deployment of motion-activated gametrack controllers by Xinglan Deng and Sunhuimei Xia in separate demonstrations were wondrous exceptions.
I also admired Heather Pryse’s fusion of flute, voice and electronics. Nathan Krueger’s rendering of Ed Martin’s hilarious aria “The Future” was similarly striking. Alas, the festival will be held in the Chicago area next year. It’s tempting.
Album Review: Morgan Wallen- One Thing at a Time
Car trips and country music are synonymous to me. Country has been an integral component of almost every extended drive I’ve taken. My old man, a genuine king of the road, would blast Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and George Jones songs on the radio when I was a toddler.
A looped stream of Morgan Wallen’s new 36-track album One Thing at a Time provided the soundtrack for my drive from Kentucky to Kansas this week. At nearly two hours, it’s ideal for the long haul.
The metropolitan sprawl of St. Louis excepted, the majority of my drive passed through the idyllic back-country Wallen croons about. A significant portion of his new batch of songs address substance abuse and loss, subjects necessitating unrestrained singalongs.
Even the songs referencing Waylon Jennings, The Marshall Tucker Band, Gary Stewart and Keith Whitley possess the slick sheen of radio rock acts like Shinedown. The bright production cuts through the loud hum of the road. I’m almost looking forward to the grueling drive to Denver this summer.
Fuel
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Hunter S. Thompson is alleged to have said that “music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel.” My current base of operations in Louisville, Kentucky, is 15 blocks from Thompson’s childhood home. The sabbatical hasn’t been infused with an excess of “fuel.” I’ve taken in only six performances in the last ten days. But before any more of the month slips away, I should link to the 10 Kansas City concerts you don't want to miss this March feature I created for KCUR. Cheers from Derby City.
February 2023 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency
Screenshot of the trailer of Detroit Opera’s production of Charles Gounod’s “Faust” by There Stands the Glass.
Top Ten Albums of February
1. Young Fathers- Heavy Heavy
Crushed.
2. Christian McBride’s New Jawn- Prime
A1.
3. James Brandon Lewis- Eye of I
All seeing.
4. Ten City- Love Is Love
Disco revival, part one.
5. Karol G- Mañana Será Bonito
Tomorrow will be pretty.
6. Don Toliver- Love Sick
Grown and sexy.
7. Lisel- Patterns for Auto-Tuned Voices and Delay
A.I. soundtrack.
8. Gorillaz- Cracker Island
Stranded.
9. Kelela- Raven
In flight.
10. The Necks- Travel
Hear the world.
Top Ten Songs of February
1. Kelsea Ballerini- "Leave Me Again"
Alone.
2. Fuerza Regida and Becky G- "Te Quiero Besar"
Kisses.
3. Joe Louis Walker- "Don’t Walk Out That Door"
Let’s stay together.
4. Jessie Ware- "Pearls"
Disco revival, part two.
5. Hitkidd featuring Aleza, Gloss Up, Slimeroni and K Carbon- "You the Type"
Old-school fun.
6. Yeat featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again- "Shmunk"
Kids these days.
7. Lonnie Holley featuring Moor Mother- "I Am a Part of the Wonder"
Old souls.
8. Dierks Bentley- “Heartbreak Drinking Tour”
The night life ain’t no good life.
9. The Men- “Peace of Mind”
Stooges stew.
10. Talibando featuring BabyTron- "Make the Money"
Paid in full.
Top Ten Performances of February
1. UMKC Conservatory’s “Proving Up” at Spencer Theater
2. Hermon Mehari Quartet at the Folly Theater
3. Jake Blount at the Folk Alliance International Conference:
4. Bobby Weir and the Wolf Bros at Louisville Palace
5. Verónica Valerio at the Folk Alliance International Conference
6. Kentucky Opera’s “Cinderella” at W.L. Lyons Brown Theatre
7. Voices of Mississippi at Polsky Theatre
8. Jack Wright with Ron Stabinsky at Charlotte Street Foundation
9. Talibah Safiya at the Folk Alliance International Conference:
10. NAVO Trio at Polsky Theatre
The previous monthly survey is here.
Concert Review: Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros at Louisville Palace
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I listened to Ace for the first time last month. Hearing the 50th anniversary deluxe edition of Bob Weir’s 1972 solo album was a revelation. I hadn’t known that the recorded versions of sturdy classics like “Mexicali Blues,” “One More Saturday Night” and “Playing in the Band” first appeared on Ace.
The live version of the album featuring Weir’s current Wolf Bros band included in the reissue is so good that it inspired this skeptic to buy a ticket to catch Weir’s show at Louisville Palace on Saturday, February 25. It was a sound decision.
Unlike the Grateful Dead and Ratdog concerts I (reluctantly) attended in the previous millennium, the performance attended by a near-capacity audience of about 2,500 was inspired. The ten-piece ensemble sounded like a rugged garage-rock band that managed to grow old gracefully without losing its endearingly rough edges.
The show opened with my favorite Dead song “Bertha” and closed with the apropos “One More Saturday Night.” If only the alleged fans had been as sophisticated as the musicians. The incessant blathering of a third of the audience marred the otherwise miraculous evening.
Concert Review: UMKC Conservatory’s “Proving Up” at Spencer Theater
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Recreational marijuana has been legalized in Missouri. I’m not tempted when I drive past bustling dispensaries. A matinee performance of an enthralling new opera yesterday demonstrated that I’m fully capable of attaining blissful, extra-sensory states without the use of intoxicants.
I felt like a monster when I selected a third-row center seat in Spencer Theatre on Saturday, February 18. Most of the 100 other people at the free production of Missy Mazzoli’s "Proving Up" opted for seats in the back. My transgression paid off.
Sitting 20 feet from the action in the Cather-esque tale of hardscrabble Nebraska homesteaders was an immersive experience. The performers were obligated to make eye contact with the weirdo up front as they portrayed hope, grief, fear and devastation. I became part of the plot.
The orchestra played the inventive score with authority. The vocalists were remarkable. In fact, everything about the student production was first-rate. Aside from a production of Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele” at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 2010, “Proving Up” is my favorite in-person opera experience. No gummies necessary.
Book Review: Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler, by Richard Koloda
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I’m covered up in John Coltrane bootlegs. I own a stack of Sonny Rollins boxed sets. Reissues of Sun Ra’s self-released recordings featuring saxophonist John Gilmore extend more than two feet in my music library. I have more Eric Dolphy than I know what to do with. Yet I’d never attained a handle on the discography of Albert Ayler.
Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler, a recently published study by Richard Koloda, offers a comprehensive view of the controversial saxophonist’s output. Understanding the sequence of events in Ayler’s unconventional life allowed me to better understand the recordings I hadn’t properly experienced and compelled further investigations into the nooks and crannies of his catalog.
Discovering why the sound quality of the otherwise spectacular 1965 album Spiritual Unity is atrocious, for instance, answers questions I’d harbored for decades. More significantly, Koloda’s study led me to Slugs' Saloon. The live 1966 set documents what may be the most invigorating improvised music I’ve encountered. This is everything I’ve always wanted in music.