Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Champian Fulton pays tribute to Jay McShann in an appealing blog post.

*Here's another promotional video for the forthcoming album by the Pat Metheny Unity Group.

*KC Jazz Lark documents another night at Broadway Jazz Club.

*Chick Corea and Bela Fleck will perform at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre on April 6.

*The Pitch recommends a gig by the Foundation 627 Big Band at the Green Lady Lounge.

*Lisa Henry is working with the likes of Ambrose Akinmusire.

*Charles Ferruzza reports that Beena Brandsgard is booking jazz acts at Carma in Leawood.  (Via Tony's Kansas City.)

*Scott Wilson of The Pitch spoke to author Chuck Haddix about his biography of Charlie Parker.

*Comment o' the Week: Cb- I agree, HIB. The video work is top-shelf ...  Is this SOP for the venue or was that done special by this group in order to produce the video, etc.?  I also like the aesthetic of the multi-cameras and the announcer bringing focus to the music, treating the gig like "an event of musical importance".  Every venue in KC could learn from this approach.

*Tweet o' the Week: Michael Mackie- Hey @officialkennyg! Hear you're coming to KC! Please come play w/ us on our show, @KCLiveTV. We'd love to dish & have you perform.

*From a press release: The incomparable Joe Cartwright, Piano Virtuoso and Tim Whitmer & The Consort Band.  Pianist Joe Cartwright has lived, performed and taught in the Kansas City area for the last thirty years.  He is a graduate of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and is currently the musical director for the critically acclaimed NPR radio show 12th Street Jump…  Spirituality & All That Jazz.  First Wednesday of every month.  Wednesday, February 5.  7:00 p.m.  Unity Temple on the Plaza/ Tickets at the door only - $7.00 - Children under 16 free.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Album Review: Dojo- Road Trip

I don't subscribe to the notion of guilty pleasures.  I freely admit my affection for scads of unfashionable music, ranging from the lewd hip-hop of Tech N9ne to the prog-rock of 1970s-era Genesis. 

Perhaps no style of music is more out of favor than jazz fusion.  Jazz purists detest it while most of the rock audience pretends the form doesn't exist.  Road Trip, the new album by Dojo, is destined to be ignored by most mainstream outlets.  It's a shame.  Road Trip deserves an audience beyond the habitués of guitar shops.

The ensemble led by the Lawrence-based guitarist Brian Baggett has crafted an album that's both technically masterful and eminently enjoyable. 

While rooted in the era in which fusion giants like Allan Holdsworth and Billy Cobham ruled the earth, Road Trip isn't defined by nostalgia.  The influence of metal-oriented bands like Dream Theater and a trace of Metallica-style thrash can be detected in several selections while "In Times Like These" contains electronic bleeps and blurts.

Baggett's work is complimented by a pleasing variety of moods and textures.  Rather than sounding like a series of long guitar solos, each track on the album possesses a unique disposition.  Baggett's solos, while unrepentantly ostentatious, rarely impede the forward momentum of the melodies.  Bassists Chris Handley and Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Luke Stone provide a solid foundation for Baggett's explorations.

Let the cool kids have their fun.  If appreciating Dojo's powerful jazz fusion is wrong, I don't want to be right.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: The Paul Shinn Trio

The production values of the embedded 57-minute video are outstanding.  The performance by pianist Paul Shinn, bassist Dominique Sanders and drummer Ryan Lee is similarly extraordinary.   Plastic Sax reviewed Reason Pure, the 2013 album by the Paul Shinn Trio, last August.  The ensemble's three-night residency at the Green Lady Lounge began on Thursday, January 9 and concludes on Saturday, January 11.  The trio appears at Take Five Coffee + Bar on Sunday, January 12.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*The simple but effective music video for Eddie Moore and the Outer Circle's "Passing By" documents several Kansas City neighborhoods.

*KC Jazz Lark ponders an evening he enjoyed at Broadway Jazz Club.

*The Pitch highlights Deborah Brown's return to the Blue Room.

*Bob McWilliams of Kansas Public Radio published a list of his top five jazz albums of 2013.

*The good news: Lonnie Smith and Bilal are among the artists performing at a Charlie Parker Festival Showcase on Thursday, January 9.  The bad news: it's in New York City.

*Chris Burnett considers the impact of the internet and notes that Pandora isn't always speedy.

*Comment o' the Week: James- The new trend is to refer to everybody as "great human beings" and "great people". Thats nice and all but I've known some cats who passed away in the last several years who were referred to as "great people" and quite frankly from my multi decade association with them they were really anything but "great people". I liked these musicians and respected them and they had a lot of fans BUT they were not "great people". Some were actually jerks both in public or behind closed doors or both.  Its good to be positive but lets be real too.

*Tweet o' the Week: Katie Wernes- The two things Kansas City is famous for is jazz and barbecue. Both of which I don't like. #IShouldMove #ButILoveThisCity

*From a press release: Two internationally known artists and 10 local bands will perform when the fifth annual Jazz Winterlude festival takes place in January in the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College.  Percussionist Terri Lyne Carrington will be the headliner at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24, and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will fill that role at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25. Tickets for Carrington's show will be $20; they will be $25 for Sandoval… The festival will get underway in the Carlsen Center on Friday morning with daylong clinics for area school bands. Students will learn from accomplished area musicians. Carrington will participate in two workshops – one with the jazz students and one for professional musicians… On Saturday, the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story will be shown at 10 a.m. in Carlsen Center, Room 211.  At 1 p.m., local bands will begin playing in the Carlsen Center's Polsky Theatre and Recital Hall. These performances will be free and open to the public.  From 1 to 1:50 p. m., Ron Gutierrez and Marimba Sol De Chiapas will perform; from 2 to 2:50 p.m., KC Sound and Juha's World Beat will play; from 3 to 3:50 p.m., the Chris Clarke Trio and the Guitarras Ibericas with guest Karim Memi will perform; from 4 to 4:50, Beach Nuts and Gamelan Genta Kasturi will play…

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Concert Review: Society Red at Take Five Coffee + Bar

If the goal of Society Red is to generate renewed interest in the music of Dexter Gordon, the band has already achieved a modicum of success.   I've listened to more Gordon in recent days than I have during all of the past decade. 

I caught Society Red's first set at Take Five Coffee + Bar on Friday, January 3. In addition to serving as a sort of coming out party for the band, the evening also marked the fourth anniversary of the Leawood venue.  A standing-room-only crowd was treated to a champagne toast and cake at the break.

True to the name of the ensemble, saxophonist Brett Jackson, trumpeter Ryan Thielman, keyboardist Chris Clarke, bassist Dominique Sanders and drummer John Kizilarmut focused on Gordon's music.

The format could have served as an excuse for a tedious blowing session, but Society Red paid tribute to Gordon with contagious enthusiasm.  The band plays feel-good music in the best sense of the phrase.

Jackson's impressive work on a ballad sounded remarkably like this.  Chris Clarke, one of the older guys in the band, serves as Society Red's wild card.  He seems less hung up on adhering to tradition than on infusing the group with bluesy sense of joy.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Roger Wilder and Bob Bowman

Pianist Roger Wilder and bassist Bob Bowman will perform every Monday in January at the Green Lady Lounge. The embedded video documents the duo's rendition of "Softly As In a Morning Sunrise" at the venue earlier this week.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*KC Jazz Lark assesses the prospects of the Broadway Jazz Club.

*The seasonal song Mark Lowrey and Herman Mehari contributed to a Midwestern Music Foundation campaign was documented on video.

*Crosscurrent previews a January 23 date at the Blue Room.

*The Pitch highlights an upcoming performance by Brett Jackson at Take Five Coffee.

*A critic calls a selection on Bobby Watson's Check Cashing Day "endlessly fascinating" in a review of the album.

*Dean Minderman of St. Louis Jazz Notes published a handy "Best Jazz of 2013" compendium of lists.

*A television station reported on an odd incident at Take Five Coffee.

*Tweet o' the Week: Brian Baggett- @theprojecth I'm done calling clubs. I'm just going to practice and wait for them to call me and/or play sideman gigs. Focus on the music.

*The Kansas City Jazz Calendar has been updated.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)