April 2023 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of the Irish National Opera’s trailer for Werther by There Stands the Glass.

Top Ten Albums of April

1. Tilo Weber- Tesserae

My review.

2. Zsófia Boros- El último aliento

My review.

3. El Michels Affair and Black Thought- Glorious Game

Roots-y.

4. Adam Larson- With Love, From New York City

My review.

5. Tee Grizzley and Skilla Baby- Controversy

Detroit lions.

6. Thomas Adès- Dante

Hell, purgatory and paradise.

7. Danish String Quartet- Prism V

Bach, Beethoven and Webern.

8. YoungBoy Never Broke Again- Don’t Try This at Home

Untold riches.

9. Brandee Younger- Brand New Life

Starting over.

10. Kiko El Crazy- Pila’e Teteo

Dembow frenzy.

Top Ten Songs of April

1. Shirley Collins- “High and Away”

Storm’s a-brewin’.

2. Margo Price and Particle Kid- “Hands on the Wheel”

I feel like going home.

3. Smokey Robinson- "Beside You"

Cruisin’.

4. Stik Figa featuring Blu and The Expert- "Uknowhut?"

What?

5. Killer Mike featuring El-P and thankugoodsir- "Don't Let the Devil"

Nobody speak.

6. MC Yallah- "No One Seems to Bother"

The truest type of world music.

7. Thundercat and Tame Impala- "No More Lies"

Truth.

8. Armani White and A$AP Ferg- “Silver Tooth”

Novocain.

9. NLE Choppa- "Talk Different"

Money changes everything.

10. Jessie Ware- “Begin Again”

Age of Aquarius.

Top Ten Concerts of April

1. Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Folly Theater

My Instagram photo.

2. Adam Larson, Matt Clohesy and Jimmy Macbride at Westport Coffee House

My Instagram clip.

3. Willi Carlisle and Betse & Clarke at Knuckleheads

My Instagram photo.

4. John Mellencamp at the Midland theater

My Instagram clip.

5. Drew Williams, Seth Davis and Brian Steever at Westport Coffee House

My Instagram clip.

6. Booker T. Jones at the Folly Theater

My review.

7. Joseph Genualdi at Grant Recital Hall

My Instagram photo.

8. Anne-Marie McDermott’s master class at Grant Recital Hall

My notes.

9. Thomas Lacy at Southminster Presbyterian Church

My Instagram clip.

10. Nate Nall, Matt Hopper and Joey Panella at the Market at Meadowbrook

My Instagram photo.

The previous monthly survey is here.

May Flowers

Original image of fans at Rockfest by There Stands the Glass.

I probably won’t attempt to navigate the mayhem in an effort to catch Thundercat’s concert at the 2023 NFL Draft this evening.  The related sprawl extends the grounds of the Liberty Memorial on which I’ve attended more than a dozen festivals.  I (almost) miss hearing bands like Korn at the bygone Rockfest in the shadow of the Kansas City landmark.  Two miniature festivals are among  May concert recommendations for KCUR. 

Album Review: Tilo Weber- Tesserae

A harpsichord was all but inaudible at a recital I attended earlier this month.  I didn’t mind.  The novelty of a harpsichord on Tilo Weber’s Tesserae isn’t the most remarkable element of the new release on the Finnish label We Jazz Records either.

So many unexpected things happen on tracks like "In Epitaxy" that the oddity of the harpsichord jingling rendered by Austrian Elias Stemeseder doesn’t even register.  The musicians led by the German drummer aren't playing jazz- at least not in the swinging American sense of the word.  And it’s not quite European classical music either.

Much of Tesserae contains strong African accents powered by Swedish bassist Petter Eldh.  I may not fully understand the intent or the methodology, but the album is an ideal encapsulation of the sounds that most appeal to me at this moment.

Concert Review: Booker T. Jones at the Folly Theater

Original image of Booker T. Jones neglecting his organ by There Stands the Glass.

A conspicuous hole in my concert-going ledger was filled at the Folly Theater on Friday, April 21.  To the best of my recollection, I’d never previously attended a performance featuring Booker T. Jones.

The recordings of very few living legends have given me more pleasure than the impeccably funky discography of Jones.  Watching him revive several of his essential contributions to soul, blues, rock and pop was thrilling.

The concert could have been better.  I didn’t care for the guitarist’s solos.  And two days earlier the peerless tandem of Matt Clohesy and Jimmy Macbride may have permanently spoiled my capacity to appreciate all other bassists and drummers.

Joining a few hundred baby boomers with the purchase of the least expensive ticket ($32.50) was a sound investment even if the only magical moments occurred during Jones’ elegant introduction to “Time Is Tight.”

Set list: Hang ‘Em High, Soul Dressing, Born Under a Bad Sign, Mannish Boy, Hey Joe, Melting Pot, Green Onions, Hip Hug-Her, Ain’t No Sunshine, Bright Lights Big City, Summertime, Soul Limbo, Everything Is Everything, Time is Tight, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long

Opera Review: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Original image of DVD booklet by There Stands the Glass.

Dmitri Shostakovich recently instigated an unpleasant exchange in my home.  More accurately, my insistence on playing the composer’s clamorous opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” at maximum volume was met by a reasonable request to turn it down.  I responded with wildly inappropriate sass.

Aware of Joseph Stalin’s condemnation of the opera in 1936- criticism that endangered Shostakovich’s life- I compared my life partner to the murderous Russian.  It wasn’t my best moment.

I’d like to blame my abhorrent behavior on my passion for the opera.  The library loan of an unflinching 2006 production was my first experience with the work.  (Here’s a representative four-minute clip featuring Eva-Maria Westbrook in the title role.)  Shostakovich’s portrayal of inhumanity coarsened me.  Stalin may have been on to something.

Album Review: Zsófia Boros- El último aliento

Manic dembow made by the likes of Donaty is my new go-to soundtrack for driving and yard work.  I expect my infatuation will last through the summer.  Yet the bonkers music is jarring inside my home.  The contemplative guitar of Zsófia Boros on her third ECM Records album El último aliento is precisely what I need as I gaze out windows at the spring bloom.  Her exquisite interpretation of Mathias Duplessy’s "Le labyrinthe de Vermeer" is representative of the extraordinarily restorative work.

Talk About the Passion

Original image of Anne-Marie McDermott monitoring a student’s performance at White Recital Hall by There Stands the Glass.

Music lovers within my demographic- white, male, middle-aged and Midwestern- recently commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the release of R.E.M.’s Murmur with rhapsodic social media posts.  I also loved Murmur.  Paying $1.02 to attend an R.E.M. concert at the Uptown Theater on May 30, 1983, still seems like the deal of a lifetime.

That said, it’s been more than 25 years since I’ve listened to Murmur.  Having fully absorbed the music in the 1980s, I’ve felt no need to revisit the album.  Expanding the horizons of my knowledge has always excited me far more than wallowing in the familiar.  Chamber music- a form that until recently was entirely foreign to me- has provided many of my kicks of late.  

Watching Anne-Marie McDermott alternately encourage and scold three young pianists at Grant Recital Hall yesterday blew my mind.  Almost everything the famed musician said in response to their performances of compositions by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethover and Camille Saint-Saens acted as an enlightening "Catapult".

Album Review: Alex Cunningham, Seth Andrew Davis, Damon Smith and Weasel Walter- Branches Choke

Footage of Alex Cunningham, Seth Andrew Davis, Damon Smith and Weasel Walter improvising at Charlotte Street Foundation continues to fill me with joy nine months after I posted the brief clip to Instagram.  Branches Choke, fifty minutes of gleeful entropy recorded in Kansas City the day after that performance, is similarly provocative.  The cover art evokes the anarchic punk band Crass while the album possesses the ear-splitting racket of glass bottles shattering in an empty recycling bin.  The Kansas City guitarist Davis sounds like he’s torturing a Slinky toy.  The St. Louis tandem of bassist Smith and fiddler Cunninghim occasionally synchronize their agonized groaning.  The thumps and rattles produced by New York percussionist Weasel Walter are funny even without the riotous visuals. The outrageous Branches Choke is astounding.

Super Slimey

Original image of Future at Petco Park in 2018 by There Stands the Glass.

I just saved $75- and I’m mad about it.  Future- one of my monthly concert recommendations for KCUR- canceled tonight’s performance.  The game-changing rapper may be a superstar, but expecting 10,000 fans in Kansas City to buy exorbitantly priced tickets for an arena show may not have been realistic.  Knowing sales were horrendous, I’d intended to buy the least expensive seat at the door, figuring all attendees would be encouraged to move to the front to improve the optics.  I redirected my money into a ticket to experience a British disco band’s live show for the first time.

EP Review: Midwestern- Cartoon Network

An audio tag featuring what might be a television news reporter enunciating the words “Kansas City homicide” is frequently applied to Cartoon Network.  It’s appropriate, as the stunning combination of vintage no-wave and au currant hyper-pop on Midwestern’s new EP knocks me dead.

The duo’s freewheeling sound fuses the convulsive anti-funk acts of the 1970s like James Chance and the Contortions with the glitchy innovations of contemporary artists including 100 Gecs, Flying Lotus and Tyler, The Creator.  The dynamic prevents the band’s obvious love of vintage soul from succumbing to sentimental nostalgia.

Midwestern’s rapid evolution is astounding.  Nine months ago, the group looked and sounded like this.  It was something else entirely at Howdy last week.  While there’s no telling what Midwestern will be come December, I anticipate another Kansas City homicide.