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: Julian Lage

Julian Lage, 27, one of the most important musicians of his generation, will return to Kansas City for a concert on Saturday, November 21.  He’ll be joined at the Folly Theater by bassist Orlando Flemming and Kenny Wollesen, a drummer best known for his work with Bill Frisell and John Zorn.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Gerald Spaits was interviewed by Natalie Gallagher in advance of his Sax and Violins show at the Westport Coffeehouse.

*Joe Dimino’s recent interviews include chats with Matt Villinger and Chris Hazelton.

*Hermon Mehari was featured by a design studio.

*The Pitch notes that Kevin Mahogany will be in town this week. 

*Will Matthews was highlighted on KCUR’s Local Listen. 

*The Kansas City Star reports that a memorial to Rowena Stewart, the founding executive director of the American Jazz Museum, will be held at the Blue Room on Thursday, November 12.

*Tweet o’ the Week: Dominique Sanders- In January of this year i dropped my debut album!!! Haven't heard it yet check it out! Music with no boundaries. (link)

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Album Review: Mike Metheny- Twelve For the Road

Mike Metheny is very smart.  He’s also extremely funny.  It’s difficult to discern, consequently, if the press release that accompanies his new album Twelve For the Road is meant to be taken seriously.

My checkered career as a jazz soloist can be seen in two parts.  Part one: I’m getting away with this mostly because of my Pat connection- along with the support of some very talented colleagues and equally generous listeners- and part two: because the vote is in on part one, it seems like a good time to try something different.

With all but one of the ten selections consisting only of Metheny on keyboards, Twelve For the Road is not a “jazz” album.  Instead, much of the project resembles electronic space music in the vein of Steve Roach and Tangerine Dream.  Almost all of it is closer in spirit to the classical composer Erik Satie than to the jazz trumpet star Clifford Brown.

Is Metheny trolling?  I don’t think so.

As someone who occasionally enjoys listening to the syndicated radio program “Hearts of Space” and who frequently uses Satie’s “Gymnopédies” to calm himself, I’m not unaccustomed to the approaches Metheny employs on the album.

Much of Twelve For the Road possesses an ominous edge.  Guitar-like wailing makes “Catharsis” the album’s most conspicuously aggressive selection.  “Ostinato,” a comparatively conventional track, contains intriguing pairings of textures.  The odd lilt of “Carousel” evokes Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Metheny breaks out his signature flugelhorn only on the lush “Home.”  The closing selection “Amen” seems to allude to Bill Evans “Peace Piece.”

The unconventional approach of Twelve For the Road is decidedly offbeat, but it results in one of Metheny’s most artistically and emotionally compelling albums.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: John Blevins

John Blevins is touring in support of his new album Matterhorn.  The New York based trumpeter will lead a band at the Westport Coffeehouse on Wednesday, November 11.

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.)

Sheet Music

You can take the boy out of Kansas City, but you can’t take Kansas City out of the boy.  A recent visit to Powell’s Books in Portland allowed me to acquire a few out-of-print books related to Kansas City jazz at reasonable prices. I regret not adding the pictured tome to my collection.