Now's the Time: The Glenn Miller Orchestra

A few area music lovers may be inclined to drive across Missouri this weekend to catch the Robert Glasper Trio in St. Louis. At the opposite end of the #BAM jazz spectrum, the Glenn Miller Orchestra perform Saturday, February 11, at Shawnee Mission West High School. I doubt that Glasper considered including a rendition of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" on his new Black Radio album, but then again, Glasper regularly confounds my expectations.

This Is My Condition

"This is my condition."

The statement, delivered after two minutes of scraping metal, raging percussion and excruciating feedback, is both funny and disturbing.

Demented one-man-band Craig Comstock, a.k.a. This Is My Condition, makes quite a racket. I witnessed him clear out the Jackpot Saloon in Lawrence during my first encounter with him a couple years ago. The rockers there to see The Hold Steady couldn't handle his fierce raging. It was quite an accomplishment. Only the bravest among Plastic Sax readers should dare watch this video of a typical TIMC performance.

Comstock calls his music "hardcore classical," and he'd probably disavow any connection to jazz. But it's jazz to me. I'll allow his deconstruction of Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" to serve as Exhibit A in my case (MP3 hosted at TINC's site). It embodies a couple of jazz's best attributes- unpredictability and ingenuity.

This is my condition, too.

(Original photo taken by Plastic Sax on 8/03/07 at the Westport Beach Club.)