All Music Is For All People

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I don’t think of myself as a weirdo. Yet when my friend Chris Haghirian repeatedly insisted my cultural predilections are extremely unusual during a taping of his Eight One Sixty program did I begin to suspect that maybe I am abnormal. Attempting to justify my listening habits, I recall blurting out something like “all music is for all people.” My appearance on Chris’ show will air at 6 p.m. CST Tuesday, December 19, on 90.9 The Bridge and will stream in perpetuity at the station’s site.

The Top Reissues and EPs of 2023

The Top Ten Reissues and Reimaginings of 2023

1. Bob Dylan- Fragments: Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997); The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17

2. Jessye Norman- The Unreleased Masters

3. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Max Roach- Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings

4. Milford Graves- Children of the Forest

5. Fred Davis- Cleveland Blues

6. Bob Weir- Ace: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

7. Reba McEntire- Not That Fancy

8. RP Boo- Legacy, Volume 2

9. William Basinski- The Clocktower at the Beach

10. Cat Power- Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert

The Top Ten EPs of 2023

1. Julian Lage- The Layers

2. Theo Croker- By the Way

3. Noah Preminger and Kim Cass- The Dank

4. Truth Cult- Walk the Feel

5. Midwestern- Cartoon Network

6. Big Boss Vette- Resilience

7. $uicideboy$- Yinyang Tapes: Spring Season 1989-1990

8. Mozzy- Kollect Kall

9. Ilhan Ersahin, Dave Harrington and Kenny Wollesen- Your Head You Know

10. Marquis Hill- Rituals + Routines

The Top Kansas City Albums, EPs and Reissues of 2023

The Top 25 Kansas City Albums of 2023

1. Matt Otto- Umbra*

Plastic Sax review.

2. Mike Dillon and Punkadelick- Inflorescence

Plastic Sax review.

3. Adam Larson- With Love, From New York City*

Plastic Sax review.

4. Ampichino and Rich the Factor- Midwest Tygoons*

Real orcas.

5. Stik Figa and The Expert- Ritual*

“It’s Stik Figa, mayne!”

6. Enzo Carniel, Hermon Mehari, Stéphane Adsuar and Damien Varaillon- No(w) Beauty

Plastic Sax review.

7. Pat Metheny- Dream Box

Plastic Sax review.

8. Janelle Monaé- The Age of Pleasure

Decadent.

9. Torches Mauve- Volume Two*

Plastic Sax review.

10. Flooding- Silhouette Machine

Dark shadows.

11. Mireya Ramos & the Poor Choices- Sin Fronteras

Cantinas and honky tonks.

12. Sweeping Promises- Good Living Is Coming For You

Look out below.

13. Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton- Death Wish Blues

A blaze of glory.

14. The Floozies- Porty Hord

Gort dorn.

15. Kansas Virtuosi- Luis Humberto Salgado

Ecuadorian expedition.

16. Tech N9ne- Bliss*

Bliss-ish.

17. The Whiffs- Scratch n' Sniff

Pub rock.

18. Krista Kopper- Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

There Stands the Glass review.

19. The Count Basie Orchestra- Swings the Blues*

Plastic Sax review.

20. LaVelle- Promise to Love

Between the sheets.

21. Danny Embrey- Orion Room

Plastic Sax review.

22. Bach Aria Soloists- Le dolce sirene

Siren songs.

23. Nick Schnebelen- What Key Is Trouble In?

There Stands the Glass review.

24. Heidi Lynne Gluck- Migrate or Die

Rumours.

25. Kelly Hunt- Ozark Symphony

Polished folk.

The Top 10 Kansas City EPs of 2023

1. Midwestern- Cartoon Network

There Stands the Glass review.

2. Missouri Executive Order 44- Seventeen Dead in Caldwell County

Savage.

3. SleazyWorld Baghdad- Debo Baghdad*

Shooter.

4. Weaponize Chomsky- Time Destroys Everything

Dialectical materialism.

5. Conductor Williams- Conductor We Have a Problem

The preferred sound of 2023.

6. Kevin Morby- Music From Montana Story

Big skies.

7. Spine- Raîces

Furia.

8. Alyssa Murray- Scrollin'

Plastic Sax review.

9. The Bitter Lake Association- My Life Inside a Movie Scene

A one-person greeting committee.

10. Eggs on Mars- Warm Breakfast

Tasty.

The Top 5 Kansas City Reissues of 2023

1. SleazyWorld Go- Where the Shooters Be 2

Star light, star bright.

2. Charlie Parker- Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings

Refreshed sound for the storied 1953 date.

3. Fred Davis- Cleveland Blues

Buried treasure.

4. Basie All Stars-  Live at Fabrik Hamburg 1981, Vol. 1

Shiny stockings.

5. The Noise FM- Deleted Scenes: Unreleased Hits 2013-2023

Appropriately titled.

*One or more of the musician’s additional 2023 recordings were excluded from these listings to make room for titles by other artists.

Last year’s rankings are here.

Book Review: Victory Is Assured, Stanley Crouch

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

When I spent 90 minutes in the presence of Stanley Crouch in 2014, I thought of him mostly as the most prominent advocate of Wynton Marsalis’ usurpation of the jazz establishment and as the author of the recently published Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker.  Knowing what I know now, I would almost certainly have embarrassed myself groveling before the imposing intellectual that day.  

Encountering Crouch’s extended meditation on an unlikely performance by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Disneyland in Victory Is Assured: Uncollected Writings of Stanley Crouch allowed me to belatedly recognize his brilliance.  The new posthumous collection of unpublished and uncollected essays, notes and reviews is an engaging survey of Crouch’s imposing range.

In addition to pieces addressing the familiar Crouch subjects Ellington, Marsalis and Charlie Parker, the survey includes surprising topics including a brief appreciation of the Italian actress Anna Magnani, a scathing takedown of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and a spirited defense of two critically disparaged late-career Marvin Gaye albums.

Although I relished every page of Victory Is Assured, I still don’t buy into a few core Crouch doctrines. Yet the collection allows me to better understand his loathing of rap, disdain for plugged-in crossover jazz and unequivocal endorsement of Marsalis. I only wish I’d come to this more complete understanding during his lifetime.

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.”

Album Review: Bettye LaVette- Blackbirds

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

Assembling a comprehensive collection of classic soul was one of my primary projects at the onset of the CD era.  I built an extensive library of artists ranging from Solomon Burke to Jr. Walker & The All Stars one disc at a time.  The endeavor was enormously satisfying.  My mind was repeatedly blown by hearing deep tracks by the likes of Ruth Brown, Al Green and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes for the first time.  After all the obvious bases were covered, I began buying compilations of soul rarities.  That’s how I first heard the scorching vocals of Bettye LaVette.  While much of the material she recorded in the ‘60s and ‘70s sounds thrilling today, her efforts lagged stylistic trends at the time.  The many hardships the septuagenarian endured make her late career renaissance all the more rewarding.  Blackbirds, a new set of imaginative covers, is as solid as anything LaVette has released.  I suspect most of the CD mixes I made during my initial immersion in soul were only half as satisfying as LaVette’s profound new statement.

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The pledge breaks during the premiere broadcast of KCPT’s new Charlie Parker documentary Bird: Not Out of Nowhere were almost as interesting as the program. I assess the film at Plastic Sax.

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Four days after publishing an analysis of various opera presentations, I learned of the existence of “Trollflöjten”, Ingmar Bergman’s freaky adaptation of “The Magic Flute” (“Die Zauberflöte”).  I may be an uncultured country bumpkin, but I was on to something when I suggested Kenneth Branagh’s version might be appropriate for children.  Bergman’s primary conceit is the depiction of Mozart’s work through the eyes of a little girl seated in a Swedish opera house.  For those keeping score at home, I’ve now watched 169 operas in the past 168 days. My second rendition of “Der Rosenkavalier” is on deck.

Million Dollar Bash

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I’ve reluctantly recommitted to the onerous task of organizing The Museum of Dead People and Obsolete Technology, the cluttered realm also known as my unfinished basement.  Consolidating old ticket stubs into a single box is one of the more enjoyable components of my job as chief curator.  As I sifted through thousands of bits of paper, it occurred to me that I’ve spent more money on Bob Dylan than any other musician.  Between concert tickets, physical recordings and books, I’ve almost certainly laid out more than a grand on the man.

Blood on the Tracks is one of several Dylan albums I’ve owned on cassette, vinyl and compact disc.  The relentless flood of must-have sets of rarities and live recordings plays a further role in emptying my wallet, as does mandatory attendance at area appearances of Dylan’s enigmatic Never Ending Tour.  I’ve even dragged my full brood to a couple shows.  And while I own six or seven Dylan-related books, I’m relieved I’ve never been tempted to buy a t-shirt.

Dylan isn’t my only substantial investment.  Here are nine additional artists who’ve separated me from inordinate amounts of money: 

• Mary J. Blige- Old-school R&B concert tickets are crazy expensive.

• Bill Frisell- I accumulate dozens of Frisell albums the way other people collect baseball cards.

• Thelonious Monk- I bought a Monk album at cost every Friday for nine months when I worked in a music distribution warehouse.

• Charlie Parker- So many books!  So many bootlegs!

• Prince- He was omnipresent in the pre-streaming era.

• Bruce Springsteen- Dylan redux.

• George Strait- All hail King George.

• Tech N9ne- I’ve seen more performances by the Kansas City rapper than all but a few dozen Technicians.

• Bobby Watson- Two or three $20 door charges every year for more than 25 years add up.