Plastic Sax’s Favorite Albums and Performances of 2019

Favorite Albums by Kansas City Artists
1. The Sextet- Among Friends (KCUR audio feature.)
2. Matt Villinger- All Day (Plastic Sax review.)
3. Adam Larson- Listen With Your Eyes (Plastic Sax review.)
4. Jay McShann- Live in Tokyo 1990 (KCUR audio feature.)
5. Wing Walker Orchestra- Hazel (Plastic Sax review.)
6. Norman Brown- The Highest Act of Love (Plastic Sax review.)
7. Julian Vaughn- Supreme (Plastic Sax review.)
8. Dave Scott- In Search of Hipness (Plastic Sax review.)
9. Myers Swingset- The State of This City (Plastic Sax review.)
10. Karrin Allyson Sextet- Shoulder to Shoulder: Centennial Tribute to Women’s Suffrage (Plastic Sax review.)

Favorite Albums by Artists From Elsewhere
1. The Art Ensemble of Chicago- We Are On the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration
2. Flying Lotus- Flamagra
3. Kris Davis- Diatom Ribbons
4. Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan- Epistrophy
5. Laura Jurd- Stepping Back, Jumping In
6. G. Calvin Weston- Dust and Ash
7. Matana Roberts- Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis
8. Jaimie Branch- Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise
9. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah- Ancestral Recall
10. Terri Lyne Carrington- Waiting Game

Favorite Performances by Kansas City Artists
1. Logan Richardson’s Blues People- Capsule (Plastic Sax review).
2. The Sextet- RecordBar (Instagram clip.)
3. Bobby Watson & Horizon- White Recital Hall (Plastic Sax review.)
4. Jerry Hahn and Danny Embrey- Recital Hall at the Carlsen Center
5. Matt Otto Quartet- Black Dolphin (Plastic Sax review.)
6. Ben Tervort’s Classically Trained- Westport Coffee House (Plastic Sax review.)
7. Rod Fleeman and Gerald Spaits- Green Lady Lounge
8. Brian Scarborough Quintet- RecordBar (Plastic Sax review.)
9. Peter Schlamb Trio- Capsule (Plastic Sax review.)
10. Guitar Elation- Green Lady Lounge (Instagram clip.)

Favorite Performances by Artists From Elsewhere
1. Aaron Parks’ Little Big- Blue Room (Plastic Sax review.)
2. Ehud Ettun and Henrique Eisenmann- 1900 Building (Plastic Sax review.)
3. Tatsuya Nakatani and Assif Tsahar- 1900 Building (Plastic Sax review.)
4. Snarky Puppy- Muriel Kauffman Theatre (Plastic Sax review.)
5. Stefon Harris & Blackout- Folly Theater (Plastic Sax review.)
6. Ryan Keberle & Catharsis- Mod Gallery (Plastic Sax review.)
7. Der Lange Schatten- Blue Room (Plastic Sax review.)
8. The Chicago Plan- Blue Room (Plastic Sax review.)
9. Tatsuya Nakatani- The Ship (Plastic Sax review.)
10. Joshua Redman Quartet- Folly Theater (Plastic Sax review.)

Plastic Sax conducted similar exercises in 2018, 2017, 2016 (albums and performances), 2015, 2014 (albums and performances), 2013 (albums and performances), 2012, 2011 and 2010.

(Original image of the Peter Schlamb Trio at Capsule by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Chris Hazelton chatted with a Canadian journalist.

*The Kansas City Star previewed concerts by Julian Vaughn, the Messthetics and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

*Wynton Marsalis spoke to Patrick Neas in advance of his concert at the Midland theater.

*Wing Walker Orchestra’s Hazel and Joyce DiDonato’s Songplay, albums with ties to Kansas City, are among the 272 titles given a Best Albums of 2019 designation by Downbeat magazine.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Karen Abrams- Hit up a bit of the black music scene at 18th & Vine in Kansas City - jazz, blues and trap music bar/ Raiders Party in one block. Tomorrow is a BBQ spot. Weirdly dope so far.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Jackie Myers pitched her new album in an interview with Joe Dimino.

*Kurt Wheeler discusses societal issues in a StoryCorps segment on NPR.

*Bird at 100, an album featuring Bobby Watson, Vincent Herring and Gary Bartz, will be released by Smoke Sessions Records on November 29.

*A performance by the Boulevard Big Band is documented by Joe Dimino.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Wing Walker Music- I'm delighted to finally perform some brand new "solo" music I've been working on for the last four years featuring saxophone, synths, pedals, and tape loops.

*From the American Jazz Museum: In celebration of John Coltrane's September 23rd birthday, AJM is proud to present a new exhibition, on display through the end of October, 2019… Featured objects in the exhibit include a letter written by Coltrane to Congressman John Conyers, and a telegram sent by Floyd B. McKissick, the National Director of CORE (Congress Of Racial Equality) to Naima Coltrane after the artist's death on July 17th, 1967.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Since the founding of Plastic Sax in 2007, I’ve made a point of staying out of the business of The Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors.  With apologies to the Plastic Sax readers who have encouraged me to comment on the ongoing behind-the-scenes drama at the organization, I’m not about to start now.

*Justin Binek and John Stafford discussed Kansas City Kansas Community College’s jazz program on a morning television program.

*Jefferson City’s News Tribune published an article about Mike Ning.

*Milt Abel, Jr. recalls his father in a profile at The Daily Beast.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Drew Williams- How wild is it that in New York, there are entire jazz scenes that think music made after 1940 is way too hip??? Like, if your pants don’t go up to your nipples, what are you even doing?

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*An album review in the June issue of Downbeat suggests that Hazel, the new release by Drew Williams’ Wing Walker Orchestra, is “concurrently vibrant, accessible and subtly sophisticated.”

*Footage of Arturo Sandoval’s concert at the Folly Theater is shared by Joe Dimino.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Kansas City Fed- Today is #InternationalJazzDay! For a fun, educational activity, read "Concert Tours are Where the Real Money Is" with your child and discuss how music artists combine live tours with recorded music to earn their living. (link: https://abcn.ws/2UM8YoW) abcn.ws/2UM8YoW

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*A critic for a British newspaper praises Hermon Mehari in a concert review that suggests “our side of the pond is where jazz is at in 2019.”

*Marilyn Maye’s new show in New York is titled “I Wish I Were 90 Again!”.

* Drew Williams and Ben Leifer chatted with Joe Dimino.

*Jazz St. Louis is presenting April and May performances by the Branford Marsalis Quartet, Marcus Strickland with Ron Miles and Matt Wilson, the Brad Mehldau Trio, the Pedrito Martinez Group, Arturo O’Farrill, Jazzmeia Horn and the John Pizzarelli Trio with Catherine Russell.  Not one of these stars is slated to appear in Kansas City.

*Tweet o’ the Week: UMKC MNL- Are you around campus this week? Check out one (or all) of our exhibits! Floor G: Focusing on Faces, A Life in a Year Part 3 Floor 3: Jay McShann's Kansas City Floor 4: Poetics of Invention, a traveling exhibit from OU

*April’s gig listings are posted at The Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Chris Tickner, the man responsible for the jazz bookings at Johnnie’s Jazz Bar & Grille and B&B Theatres Liberty 12 Cinema, pitches his business on a television news program.

*Tim Finn conducted a question-and-answer session with Shay Estes.

*Rick Hellman objects to The Kansas City Star’s editorial about stasis at the American Jazz Museum in a letter to the newspaper.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Wing Walker Music- YESSS. I'm so excited that Hazel is listed along with all of these incredible artists as one of the Best Jazz releases on @Bandcamp for February 2019. Thanks to Dave Sumner!(@BirdIsTheWorm)

*The Kansas City Jazz Calendar lists all of March’s bookings.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Zach Albetta interviewed Sam Wisman for his Working Drummer podcast.

*Bobby McFerrin and Pablo Ziegler and among the bookings in the 2018-19 season of Carlsen Center Presents at Johnson County Community College.

*The owner of a new jazz club in Omaha suggests that “(from) Kansas City all the way down to Tulsa, there's a Midwest run right now.”

*A few days after being lauded at Plastic Sax, Drew Williams’ Wing Walker Orchestra received an enthusiastic notice in The New York Times.

*The KU Jazz Festival is slated for Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Liam Hogan- woke up this morning & checked all the texts i sent out last night, realized i mixed up the name of green lady & black dolphin, & had been telling friends to meet me at “the black ladies lounge” all night

(Original image of a page from a Kansas City-themed puzzle book published in 2002 by Plastic Sax.)

Album Review: Drew Williams' Wing Walker Orchestra- Hazel

The New York based Drew Williams recently informed Plastic Sax that “I didn’t really start playing jazz music seriously until college so I didn’t play that much in KC while living there, except for the odd Blue Room jam session.”  Williams made up for lost time.  Created with his Wing Walker Orchestra, Williams’ new album Hazel announces the irrefutably significant arrival of an auspicious talent.

Produced by trombonist Alan Ferber, Hazel compares favorably to the output of Snarky Puppy and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society at the vanguard of improvisational large ensembles.  As with those groups, Wing Walker Orchestra is susceptible to accusations of intellectual fussiness.  Yet Hazel isn’t merely the sort of clinical exercise associated with the academic products of music schools.  (Williams honed his craft at Truman State  University and New York University.)

A riotous arrangement of Tune-Yards' "Look Around" reflects the inclusive intent of Hazel.  “High” sounds as if Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is sitting in with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard.  A portion of “Lying (or the Will)” reflects the influence of the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.  The most accessible moments are balanced by wooly solos that will resonate with aficionados of the Vijay Iyer Sextet.  (Here's the album trailer.)

Williams grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, the town that produced the jazz giant Pat Metheny.  While Hazel isn’t likely to catapult Williams to Metheny’s level of acclaim, it’s a consequential step in that direction.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Concert Review: John Blevins and Drew Williams at the Westport CoffeeHouse Theater

Drew Williams offered heartfelt thanks to the family and friends who attended his showcase at Westport CoffeeHouse Theater last Wednesday. 

The body language of at least a couple members of the audience indicated they’d didn't care for egghead jazz.  Seated between the only two of 30 people that didn’t seem to have a personal connection to the former Kansas City resident, I adored the nerdy sounds.

The ambitious concert began with a 40-minute set of Williams’ compositions.  Many of the arrangements performed by an octet resembled Sun Ra-penned pep band fight songs for a mathlete team. 

Williams occasionally looped his bass clarinet.  The contributions of guitarist Jeff McLaughlin and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell were also intriguing.  Although the musicians’ intense concentration on sheet music detracted from the presentation, Williams’ bold experimentation resulted in one the most exciting jazz-based performances I’ve heard in Kansas City in 2015.

A subsequent quintet interpretation of material from the New York based trumpeter John Blevins’ Matterhorn album was almost as engaging.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Drew Williams

Drew Williams' site prominently features an endorsement from Doug and Lori Chandler of Take Five Coffee + Bar.  The couple asserts that Williams' "playing is driving, thoughtful and expertly balanced" and that his compositions are "challenging in their use of time and angular lines, but at the same time very accessible."  Williams returns to Take Five on Saturday.   He'll be accompanied by saxophonist Tim Aubuchon, guitarist Scott Bein, bassist Bill McKemy and drummer Brendan Culp.