Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Chris Robinson reviewed Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle’s Live in Kansas City.

*Danny Alexander wrote a thoughtful review of a new album by Johnny Hammil’s Gav7d.

*Natalie Gallagher dares to dig into the BCR archives.

*The Jorge Arana Trio created a video for “Crime of Passion Fruit.”

*The Ptich recommends a Megan Birdsall gig.

*A writer for The New York Times ponders the baseball and jazz connections between New York and Kansas City.

*Chris Burnett elucidates a friendly World Series wager made by the American Jazz Museum and the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Darcy James Argue- Congratulations to Kansas City for recapturing the coveted Jazz Capital of the World title for the first time since 1936.

*I apologize for not updating the Kansas City Jazz Calendar for November.  I’ll get to it this weekend. 

*From Gerald Spaits: Sax and Violins, A Double Quartet… featuring: Gerald Spaits on Bass, Charles Perkins: alto sax, Bass Clarinet, Rich Wheeler: Soprano sax, Tenor sax, Brian Steever: drums and percussion (and) Strings: Adam Galblum : violin, Matthew Bennett: violin, Chisitine Grossman: viola, Justin Cowart: cello. This concert features original music of Gerald Spaits as well arrangements of Thelonious  Monk, Duke Ellington, the Beatles and more… I've brought this particular group together to explore new possibilities in combining different genres of music in an improvising setting… The strings are not just added to the jazz quartet for background but are interactive within the ensemble… 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 18, 2015, Westport CoffeeHouse Theater. $10.00.

(Original image of Ron Carlson's band by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: B.C.R.

Thirty-seven years ago, a kid affiliated with the Kansas City Art Institute created a noisy sound collage. A befuddled blogger listed it as one of the Ten Best Kansas City Jazz Recordings. Black Crack Revue, eventually better known as B.C.R., evolved into a Dada-esque Sun Ra-inspired jazz band in the late '70s and early '80s. B.C.R. then morphed into the arty dance band displayed in the embedded 1995 video. Thomas Aber, Dwight Frizzell, Jazzbo, Stan Kessler and Randy Weinstein are among the featured musicians. B.C.R. performs at the RecordBar on Sunday, April 29.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*The Columbia Tribune offers a detailed story about the Village Vanguard's February 18 concert in Columbia, Missouri. Its twists and turns touch on NEA grants, Bob Brookmeyer and Columbia jazz promoter Jon Poses.

*The American Jazz Museum will host "Stories From the Vine" a "history of 18th & Vine as told by those who lived it." The series begins February 14.

*The Pitch reports that Dwight Frizzell will host a KKFI show dedicated to Sun Ra.

*The Star ran a lovely tribute to Joan Kent Dillon, the woman who spearheaded the restoration of the Folly Theater.

*The Blue Room will host a plethora of performances by female artists in March in recognition of Women's History Month.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

The Plastic Sax Muxtape

The good old days were a drag. Warped albums, crummy cassettes and universes of unheard music made discovering and collecting sound recordings an often frustrating endeavor.

Savvy musicians take advantage of today's enlightened environment by making samples of their music- an increasingly free commidity anyway- readily available to listeners.

Plastic Sax decided to join the cool kids by creating a Plastic Sax Muxtape of Kansas City jazz artists. I tossed this mix together Sunday afternoon using only downloadable material from MySpace, artist sites and record labels. The exception is the rarity by Pete Eye, which I snagged from an MP3 blog.

My mix opens with Megan Birdsall's bright signature song and ends with skronk from Dwight Frizzell and This Is My Condition. Also included are Chris Burnett, Bram Wijnands, Harold O'Neal, Kim Sivils and Steve Rigazzi, Ryan Jesperson, the New Red Onion Jazz Babies and Craig Akin. Enjoy.

(Original image by Plastic Sax. I still own hundreds of useless cassettes.)

Space Is Still the Place For BCR

This is Dwight Frizzell in the early evening of July 26, 2007. That was the date on Earth's calendar, anyway. I recall my first encounter with him here.


















As is customary for Frizzell and the rest of BCR, they began their performance outside the venue. I'd love to know what the driver of that pickup truck thought.

















I sat next to my friend and colleague Tim Finn for much of the show. His fine recap is here. I'll only add that I was pleased to find that after the band's recent forays into funk, they're once again squarely positioned amidst the space junk.

(All photos taken by Plastic Sax.)