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.

Album Review: Krista Kopper- Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Krista Kopper has acted as the responsible adult in the room during the more than dozen times I’ve seen her perform with her peers in the Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society. Whenever her Kansas City colleagues flirt with excess, Kopper can be counted on to apply gentle persuasion to redirect their dissipation. The profundity of her new solo double bass album Blessed Are Those Who Mourn, consequently, isn’t surprising. Composed, performed and titled for women who were “assaulted and then killed while running,” the eight selections represent Kopper’s intention “to fight death with music.” Her tragically essential battle is a magnificently dignified triumph.

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.