Kansas City Hustle

I wrote a piece for The Kansas City Star that examines Nicholas Payton's Black American Music proposal. The challenging subject makes a lot of people uncomfortable. And while the argument isn't new, it's more relevant than ever. Allow me to set aside the political and sociological aspects of Payton's concept in order to demonstrate one reason this topic matters.

Approximately 400 people attended Nnenna Freelon's excellent concert Saturday at The Folly Theater. (Here's my review.) With this issue in mind, I made an informal tally. Including the four musicians on stage, less than fifty people of color took in the concert. Where was everybody? Don't blame ticket prices- student rush tickets were $10 and cheap seats were $18.

To a large extent, the barrier was antipathy to the j-word. The jazz label may have drawn three-quarters of the existing audience, but it repelled even more potential ticket-buyers. Only people immersed solely in hip hop, indie rock, heavy metal or country music wouldn't have enjoyed the show. Music lovers of all stripes who appreciate Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse, Luther Vandross, Frank Sinatra or Mary J. Blige would have loved Freelon's performance.

Had the concert been marketed as an evening of Black American Music rather than as an installment of the "Folly Jazz Presents" series, all 1,078 seats might have been sold to satisfied customers. The change in labels wouldn't help everyone. Free jazz, for instance, is always going to have limited appeal. But the new categorization would almost certainly exponentially expand Nnenna Freelon's audience.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Otra Cosa

I don't care that it's not jazz. The ardent music and enchanting visuals in the embedded clip transcend genres. Beau Bledsoe's Otra Cosa perform Friday, January 13, at R Bar.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*KCJazzLark is a man with a (business) plan.

*Tony's Kansas City chronicles the Jardine's saga here. Hearne Christopher tracks the story here.

*Finally! A Kansas City jazz video. (Sort of.)

*From the American Jazz Museum: The American Jazz Museum’s Blue Room jazz club is the first among two Kansas City venues to be named to Down Beat Magazine’s “212 Great Jazz Rooms - An International Listing of the Best Places to See and Hear Live Jazz”.

*A track from the forthcoming Project H album is streaming here.

*Roy Hargrove will appear at UMKC Jazz Festival on February 3.

*A Lee's Summit publication features Clarence Smith.

*"Meet Chris Burnett."

*T-shirts, gigs and ideas are on tap at the latest post at the site of the Black House Improvisors' Collective.

*Miles Bonny has a new Kickstarter campaign.

*An exhibit at UMKC includes items related to Kansas City's jazz legacy. (Via KC Stage.)

*The title of the January 18 edition of KCUR's Central Standard Time is "Kansas City Jazz with musician Mark Lowrey."

*The Sun Session, the new album by Grand Marquis, has been released.

*The Glenn Miller Orchestra is performing at Shawnee Mission West on February 11.

*Tweet o' the Week: americanjazzkc- Count down to Benny Golson in the Blue Room 2.25.12...let us know your favorite Benny Golson tune!

*From Doug Talley: As you probably know, Westport Presbyterian Church suffered fire damage a couple of weeks ago. So our annual Martin Luther King Day concert has been relocated to Community Christian Church, 4601 Main Street Kansas City, MO 64112… As always, the concert will begin at noon on Martin Luther King Day, next Monday, January 16.

*From Central Seminary: Please be our guest at Central Seminary this year for the Sacred Arts Recital Series which began last fall in the Baugh-Marshall Chapel. These complimentary recitals feature some of Kansas City’s finest musicians. The spring series, which will be held on the third Sundays of the month at 4:00 p.m. begins this Sunday, January 15… This Sunday’s recital will feature jazz keyboardists Dr. Michael Pagan, Roger Wilder, and Joe Cartwright for a keyboard “play-off.”

(Original image of Russell Thorpe by Plastic Sax.)

Review: Micah Herman- The Ship

It must be terribly frustrating to be a Kansas City-area jazz bassist not named Bob Bowman, Jeff Harshbarger or Gerald Spaits. The three men invariably secure a disproportionate number of the area's high profile gigs. Each member of the triumvirate deserves his elite standing, but that doesn't mean that the talent pool ends with them. James Albright, Ben Leifer, Bill McKemy and Dominique Sanders are wildly different but uniformly excellent bassists.

And then there's the often overlooked Micah Herman. He's no less impressive than the aforementioned bassists, but to my knowledge he hasn't had a regular widely-touted public gig since he teamed up with Loren Pickford at the Golden Ox for a three-year run that ended in 2009. His new album The Ship, Vol. 1: The Studio Sessions makes a strong case for Herman as a top-tier talent.

While The Ship contains a breadth of styles, Herman generally works from a post-Coltrane perspective. "My Ship", a duet with saxophonist Matt Carrillo, is gorgeous. The contributions of saxophonist Matt Chalk also impress.

Yet it's the presence of Logan Richardson that makes the album essential for listeners not already heavily invested in Kansas City's scene. The brilliant saxophonist appears on five of The Ship's nine tracks. Richardson's innovative soloing on "Ease Back" is the sort of next-level stuff that fans of adventurous jazz dream about. Rather than merely admiring Richardson's improvisations, Herman acts as an electric Charlie Haden to Richardson's stunning Ornette Coleman.

The Ship's quiet issuance in December didn't do it any favors. In spite of its unfortunate timing and complete absence of hype, The Ship is the best album released by a Kansas City jazz artist in 2011.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

That's What I'm Talking About

I'm hardly what you'd call a jazz traditionalist. The forthcoming release by Robert Glasper will probably be my favorite album of 2012. Even so, I find this 82-year-old recording by Kansas City's Bennie Moten no less invigorating than anything being created today. The raucous "That's What I'm Talking About" is impossibly strange.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*"Let’s not have another jazz year like 2011," Joe Klopus pleads in a year-in-review column.

*Charles Feruzza reports that Jardine's has been sold to a new ownership group. Tony's Kansas City covers the kerfuffle over Jardine's here, here and here. Hearne Christopher writes about Jardine's here, here and here.

*KCJazzLark captures a remarkable Celebration of Life jam session.

*The Marshall Democrat-News offers a profile of Clarence Smith.

*"It's hard to own and operate a business promoting one of the least popular forms of music in our country," T.J. Martley says in a preview of a gig at the Blue Room.

*Will Matthews is interviewed.

*Mambo DeLeon is the subject of a video interview.

*An audio interview with Karrin Allyson was conducted by the pop group Mulberry Lane.

*Here's 66 minutes of excellent footage from Mark Lowrey's December 21 gig at the Record Bar.

*Kansas City native Frank Wess celebrates his 90th birthday today.

*The author of Outside-Inside-Out solicits the input of his friends in a review of the Owens/Cox Dance Group's most recent collaboration with the People's Liberation Big Band.

*The Star reports on Occupy KC's "jazz funeral."

*Hunter Long addresses a number of topics in a Black House Improvisors' Collective post.

*Howard Reich reports that Miguel Zenon will "re-examine" the Charlie Parker With Strings album in Chicago on February 24.

*Tweet o' the Week: paynic- @Toure The j word has oppressive overtones. It was the name for the white caricaturization of Black music.

*I'll gladly pay $30 for a two-day pass (and $35-$45 more to see Poncho Sanchez) at the Jazz Winterlude festival later this month. But man, $45 buys a two-day pass for this weekend's Winter Jazzfest in New York. It features hundreds of musicians including Marc Cary, Julian Lage, Lionel Loueke, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Marc Ribot, Wallace Roney, Ben Williams and Bernie Worrell.

*Road trip alert: The Robert Glasper Experiment performs February 10-11 at St. Louis' Jazz at the Bistro.

*Alas, the month of January looks slight at The Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

*From Drew Williams: The Drew Williams/Tim AuBuchon Quartet play music that is loose but accessible. Their compositions draw on musical inspirations as diverse as Ornette Coleman, Paul Motian, Igor Stravinsky, and Wilco... Drew Williams is a saxophonist and a composer originally from Kansas City, Missouri. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Jazz Composition from NYU… Saxophonist and composer Tim AuBuchon... is currently Professor of Jazz Studies at Truman State University... The pair performs with Bill McKemy and Matt Leifer on Friday, January 6, at Take Five Coffee Bar, Leawood, Kansas.

(Original image of Customer Quintet performing at Great Day Cafe by Plastic Sax.)

Jeff Harshbarger: The Plastic Sax Person of the Year

I attempt to clear my calendar when I learn that Jeff Harshbarger is participating in a gig. The contributions he makes during jazz, rock, classical and tango presentations often transform good shows into great ones. Harshbarger's refusal to be limited by categories is just one reason the prominent bassist is Plastic Sax's Person of the Year.

In addition to touring extensively as the newest member of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Harshbarger can be heard on The Race Riot Suite, my favorite album of 2011.

Harshbarger is a vital component of the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, one of the region's most interesting aggregations. The ensemble plays regularly at the RecordBar, where the "alternative jazz" series curated by Harshbarger is an essential element of the jazz scene. Many of the adventurous local and national acts tapped by Harshbarger might not otherwise have found a hospitable place to perform in Kansas City.

Congratulations, Jeff! Feel free to consult with previous winners about this prestigious award's unbelievable remuneration package. Mark Lowrey was Plastic Sax's Person of the Year in 2010. Hermon Mehari took the award in 2009. Bobby Watson was named Plastic Sax's Person of the Decade for his stellar contributions during the previous ten years.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)