Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Detractors of Plastic Sax should rejoice. KCJazzLark's clever review and gorgeous photos of Saturday's Bobby Watson & Horizon show are so good that I momentarily considered abandoning my Kansas City jazz blog.

*But who aside from Plastic Sax would point out that Jason Harper took a gratuitous swipe at Kansas City's jazz scene in his final column as the Pitch's music editor? "Efforts to revive the old music through appeals to noble concepts, such as 'heritage,' have been hugely ineffectual (the sad Jazz District)," Harper suggests. And who else would note that he agrees with Harper's sentiment?

*Before taking umbrage at my previous statement, note that Harper's, the charming restaurant directly across the street from The Blue Room, has closed.

*Doug Tatum is leaving his position as The Folly Theater's executive director.

*Robert Folsom profiles Hermon Mehari of Diverse.

*The Black House Improvisors' Collective site features a revealing interview with Russell Thorpe. An interview with Matt Otto is less successful. The ensemble next performs on January 15.

*"I hesitate to call myself a jazz singer," Ida McBeth tells John Kreibergs. "There always seems to be someone that'll say, 'She doesn't sing jazz; she sings R&B' or 'She sings gospel.' Instead, I prefer to call myself a song stylist." Read the rest of the excellent portrait of McBeth here. And Hearne Christopher remembers an old story concerning McBeth.

*KCJazzLark shares wonderful photos of Diverse. While it lacks the same degree of artistry, I'm rather proud of the image I took on the same night.

*Jardine's site was hacked last week. Everything seems fine now. Hearne Christopher offers details.

*Can anyone vouch for John Stein? A press release says the "internationally renowned" guitarist was "born and raised" in Kansas City.

*Alaadeen periodically posts stories online. It's good stuff.

*Here's a rave review of a Deborah Brown performance in Europe. She's at the Blue Room on January 15.

*A blogger wonders about the career of trumpeter Carmel Jones.

*Sue Vicory announced that her documentary about Kansas City jazz and blues will premiere at the Gem Theater on May 6.

*A local blogger lists and ranks 43 albums and mixtapes released by Kansas City-area hip hop artists in 2009. How many jazz albums were released by local artists last year? A dozen?

*The 2010 schedule for St. Louis' Jazz At the Bistro is stellar. The Bad Plus and Vijay Iyer play the club in January. Lou Donaldson and Freddy Cole are among the artists performing in February. Meanwhile, Branford Marsalis plays a larger St. Louis venue next month. The organization also provides podcast interviews with Iyer and other visiting artists. Ahem...

*I really enjoy this rendition of Bobby Watson's "Lemon Cello" by a group of California students.

*It may be clumsy, but Plastic Sax's Kansas City Jazz Calendar remains the best tool in town for jazz fans. Jazz advocates have particularly intriguing decisions to make Friday. Choices include Allen Toussaint at The Folly Theater, the opening night of the Jazz Winterlude festival and Mark Lowrey vs Hip Hop at the Czar Bar.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Stefon Harris at the Folly Theater

"Music is just a science of organizing sound into emotion," Stefon Harris said before he performed for an audience of about 300 Saturday night at the Folly Theater.

The concert was so affecting that a prize committee might wonder if Harris should be recognized for outstanding achievement in the category of music, science or psychology.

As Harris acknowledged in a fascinating pre-show "Jazz Talk" with Doug Tatum, his work with Blackout renders musical boundaries irrelevant.

"We're the hip hop generation," Harris said. "It would be a shame not to include that."

He freely admitted to admiring Rihanna, Radiohead, Coldplay and Kanye West. The contemporary awareness showed. The evening's highlights could have be mistaken for instrumental tracks from a classic Stevie Wonder session.

Keyboardist Marc Cary was responsible for much of the group's most intriguing sonic textures. Drummer Terreon Gully acted as a ridiculously efficient groove machine; young bassist Earl Travis was compelled to merely tag along.

Harris' athletic work on marimba and vibraphone- "it's just a bunch of metal and wood" he noted- was always in the service of the ensemble.

"It's not my sound," Harris said before the show. "It's our sound."

Maybe so, but the show's surprise standout was tough tenor Logan Richardson. The former Kansas Citian was subbing on the gig.

"It's extremely honest and open with emotion," Harris said of Richardson's approach. "It's riddled with all the conflict and grit that he has."

Based on his memorable performance Saturday, Richardson deserves a spot among Kansas City's saxophonist elite.

(Original photo of Stefon Harris and Doug Tatum by Plastic Sax.)

Grading the Folly's New Season

Put yourself in Doug Tatum's shoes.

Among the considerations of the Folly Theater's executive director when scheduling the annual jazz series are pleasing his moneyed patrons, retaining the allegiance of aging core supporters, developing a younger audience and securing artists who can fill seats.

It's an exceedingly challenging proposition. While the end result means that Cecil Taylor isn't coming to Kansas City, Tatum largely succeeded in booking a varied, interesting set of shows for the forthcoming season.

Here's Plastic Sax's initial verdict on each of the seven concerts. I realize it's an insolent and presumptive act, but I assign a grade to each booking.

Dave Brubeck- October 2
The Folly should continue to book the 87-year-old pianist as long as he continues to tour.
Grade: A-

Stefon Harris- November 22
The young vibraphonist is precisely the sort of forward-looking, innovative artist favored by Plastic Sax. Even so, he's not exactly a household name.
Grade: B+

Roberta Gambarini- December 13
This is the Folly's most suspect booking. The vocalist has little name recognition. While her mainstream cabaret style will please the swing era set, her approach is probably too conservative to interest a young audience.
Grade: B-

John Scofield- January 31, 2009
Plastic Sax isn't personally excited about the guitarist's increasingly close relationship with the jam band sound and corresponding audience, but Scofield should attract the next generation of jazz fans.
Grade: A-

Kevin Mahogany's Kansas City Review- February 28, 2009
A slam dunk. Mahogany's homecoming should be triumphant.
Grade: A

Terence Blanchard- April 4, 2009
The two best jazz concerts I've witnessed at the Folly were Tito Puente in the '90s and Roy Hargrove last year. Even though Blanchard is today's equivalent of Quincy Jones, I don't anticipate his measured approach to elicit the same level of excitement.
Grade: B

Esperanza Spalding- May 16, 2009
She's the "it" musician of the moment in the jazz world. If the current buzz behind the young and beautiful artist continues to build, Spalding could be a huge hit by the time May rolls around. On the other hand, her momentum could fizzle out just as easily. The risky booking delights me.
Grade: A+

Overall grade (based soley on who's appearing, instead of on what might have been): A-

All shows are listed at the Plastic Sax Jazz Calendar.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Joshua Redman At the Folly

Of the many pleasures afforded by the Folly Theater's venerable jazz series, one of the most consistently satisfying is each concert's "Jazz Talk." An hour prior to show time, the headliner chats with Folly executive director Doug Tatum on the historic stage. Depending on the artist, these discussions can be vastly entertaining or painfully awkward. They're almost always insightful.

Curious jazz fans discovered Friday night that saxophonist Joshua Redman is remarkably gracious, humble and engaging. He clearly relished talking about his craft. Here are a few choice quotes from Redman's discussion with Tatum.

*On the idea of inheriting a gift for music from his father Dewey Redman: "The majority of musicians I work with have more natural talent than I do."

*On his progress as a musician: "A lot of holes have developed in my playing and I'm in the process of filling them"

*On his years at Harvard: "I was basically a nerd. Not basically- I was a nerd."

*On his mother's music collection: "A Love Supreme and Sgt. Pepper's are the first albums I remember being albums." He noted that he was particularly impressed by Coltrane's album cover.

*On Sonny Rollins: "When I heard Sonny Rollins I understood what jazz improvisation could be."

*On Rollins' solos on Way Out West: "They had beginnings, middles and ends. They had an organic structure"

*On the trio format he presented Friday: "It's pretty terrifying. It's very difficult... You have to embrace the economy and sparsity of this context."

*On the development of his writing skills: "Composition is something that's come slower for me... I would write for the sake of improvisation... The more I compose I see it as the process in and of itself."

*On improvisation: "What I strive for is to be completely spontaneous at all times... (but) realistically, it's impossible." Redman added that he attempts to "systematically excise" routine and obvious licks and quotes from his playing.

*About a good performance: "There's a sense of being an agent. The music is playing you as much as you're playing the music."

















Unfortunately, Redman's performance was less successful than his jazz talk.

Joined only by bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, the trio's two sets were technically flawless. The rhythm section was superlative, while Redman's tone on tenor and soprano was impeccable. The shaved heads sported by all three men symbolized their musical unity.

Yet much of the show seemed like an academic exercise, as if Redman had consciously limited himself to lurking in the towering twin shadows of Rollins and Coltrane.

One of the evening's few emotionally engaging moments was Redman's unaccompanied introduction to "Zarafah." His soprano conveyed a fierce debate with dialogue worthy of David Mamet. Each of Redman's "characters" pleaded, screamed and attacked until the fight was settled by the entrance of Rogers and Harland.

Too often, Redman's extended solos became tedious, so that it sometimes felt as if Harland had waited a couple minutes too long before bailing Redman out with a percussive explosion.

The trio format is a dangerous tight rope walk. Stumbles and even a few nasty spills are inevitable. When the three risk takers left the stage two and half hours later after they began their venture, they had earned their standing ovation.

Two final comments: I missed the first portion of the second set due to an impromptu meeting with a man regularly mentioned on this site. Secondly, it was discouraging to see hundreds of empty seats. I hope that when Bill Charlap's sublime piano work graces the Folly on November 16, more than the 450 people on hand to witness Redman show up.

(Original images by Plastic Sax.)