Now's the Time: Jimmy Cobb

I considered posting videos from the Wee Trio (Sunday at Jardine's) or Kurt Rosenwinkel (Monday at the Blue Room) today, but another legitimate excuse to feature Kind of Blue-era Miles Davis at Plastic Sax may never come around again. So here's Jimmy Cobb drumming for Davis in 1959. The eighty-year-old leads an all-star band Saturday at the Gem Theater.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Joe Klopus interviewed Eldar. On a related note, don't miss the contentious discussion at the previous Plastic Sax post.

*Based on the thirty-second clips streaming at Amazon, Angela Hagenbach's new album The Way They Make Me Feel is amazing. The Resonance Records title was released yesterday.

*An outstanding track from Alaadeen's Blues For RC and Josephine is available for free download here. (Tip via the New Low Down.)

*Ink published a profile of the Rhythm Lounge, a "new jazz club on Broadway." Loren Pickford's endorsement aside, it doesn't really look like a jazz club based on their Facebook account.

*UMKC's student newspaper previews Jimmy Cobb's Kind of Blue tribute show. As of Wednesday afternoon, tickets remain for Saturday's show at the Gem. It's rather shocking that the Gem's 500 seats aren't already spoken for.

*Plastic saxophones are in vogue in London.

*Here's fan footage of the fabulous Mariyln Maye in action last week.

*It's great for Jardine's that a Tori Amos-style artist, Julia Othmer, recently filled the club for several shows. If I was a jazz artist, however, I might start worrying about the implications of that success...

*Here's Mark Edelman's weekly list of live jazz events.

*Nebraska's Beatrice Daily Sun covered a jazz-backed poetry reading by Dan Jaffe.

*From Tim Whitmer: On Saturday, October 17th, Tim Whitmer will return to perform at the Phoenix Jazz Club... This is the First Time that Whitmer has played at the Phoenix for nearly 5 years! Tim and his band the KC Express were the house band from 1990-2006, a 16 year run that included Tim being part owner from 1998-2004.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

The Height of Folly

As a complete nitwit mentioned in his otherwise worthless review of the event, only about 350 people attended Eldar's concert Saturday at the Folly Theater. Empty seats outnumbered occupied chairs by a ratio of almost two to one.

And that sad number doesn't tell the whole story. Eldar, 22, might have been the youngest person in the building. Less than fifty audience members were under the age of thirty. And it's people without gray hair, in theory, who would have been most receptive to Eldar's sound. The pianist, bassist Armando Gola and drummer Ludwig Afonso are spiritual, if not musical, brethren of progressive acts like Radiohead and Tortoise.

Where were the young jazz fans? Do they even exist?

The "it's-the-bad-economy" explanation doesn't fly with me. Sure, things are tough all over but last week alone I attended two sold-out rock concerts in Kansas City, one at the Uptown Theater (1,800 capacity) and the other at Crossroads (3,000 capacity). Tickets for those general admission events were $30, the same as the most expensive ticket to Eldar's show at the gorgeous Folly Theater.

It doesn't help that neither Eldar nor the Folly employ social media and both have a tired web presence. Intentionally neglecting the tools with which today's most active music fans consume music is foolhardy.

Still, it's the music that matters, and the inaugural performance of the Folly's new jazz season offered many great moments. The next event, Edward Simon and Gretchen Parlato, also holds tremendous artistic promise. (Here's my August 17 survey of the Folly's current season.)

But if a hometown hero sells a mere 350 tickets, how will Venezuelan-born Simon and up-and-coming vocalist Parlato fare on Halloween? October 31 might be a very frightful evening for the Kansas City jazz scene.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Megan Birdsall

One of my best friends loathes jazz. He prefers female singer-songwriters. We finally have common ground in the form of Megan Birdsall's new alter ego MBird. Birdsall explains her dramatic stylistic transformation in this charmingly homey video. Birdsall plays Ophelia's on Friday and Saturday, October 9-10.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Good news! A "Jazz Winterlude" will be held at Johnson County Community College in January. Artists participating in the three-day festival include the Luqman Hamza Trio, the New Red Onion Jazz Babies, Danny Embrey/Rod Fleeman, the Greg Carroll Quartet, the Rich Hill/Charles Perkins Quartet, 9 Plus 1, the James Ward Trio, the Doug Talley Quintet, Sherry Jones/Mike Ning, Sons of Brasil, the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the Dan DeLuca Trio. Tickets are available here. (Tip via a generous reader.)

*A stellar quartet featuring David Basse, Kim Park, Jerry Hahn and Bob Bowman play the R Bar four consecutive Thursdays starting October 15. The new venue is at 1617 Gennessee in the West Bottoms.

*Hearne Christopher makes an unflattering insinuation concerning David Basse. He also notes the passing of John Albertson.

*Joe Klopus' most recent column reminded me of Johnson County Community College's lunch hour jazz series. I've added the remaining dates to the Kansas City Jazz Calendar.

*Friend o' blog Lee Ingalls has unleashed the second New Low Down podcast. It features a new Sons of Brazil track as well as audio from the sorely missed Rhythm & Ribs festival. Download it here. Well done, Lee!

*Here's the week in jazz according to Mark Edelman.

*I was surprised but encouraged to spot one of Kansas City's brightest jazz musicians among the capacity crowd of 3,000 at last night's Wilco concert.

*Gary Sexton of AfterGroove informed me that Chris Botti and his band relaxed after their September 25 concert at the Midland by catching AfterGroove's set at the Drum Room. Botti's guitarist even sat in with the band.

*From Jeremy of Mouth: To promote our CD release party at Jardine's on October 10th, we're making available a three-song sample of our upcoming release. You can download it here.

*From Allen Myers: I have composed a suite which draws inspiration from the famous Coleman Hawkins recording of Body and Soul. The suite will be apart of the Northwinds Jazz Band concert to be held on October 11th at 3:00 p.m. The performance will take place at the outdoor amphitheater in Oak Grove Park in Gladstone, MO. (Tip via a Myers fan.)

*From a press release: The first session of the Black House Improvisors' Collective will conclude with a performance of new music as part of the Charlotte Street Foundation's Urban Culture Project third friday event... All music to be performed at the concluding performance has been newly composed by members of the collective. The participants are: Stan Kessler, Derek Worthington, Peter Lawless, Russell Thorpe, Hunter Long, Patrick Ketter, Brad Baumgardner, Blake Rayfield, Alex King and Sam Wisman. The free event takes place October 16 from 8-9:00pm in City Center Square at 1100 Main.

(This is the first non-original image I've posted at Plastic Sax since 2007. As everything about it fills me with mirth, I just couldn't resist sharing it. Image via J.P.)

Discovering the Heart(s) of Darkness

Members of the horn section engage in fiery battles. Controlled substances are openly consumed as dozens of dancers- most of them in their twenties- gyrate wildly to the 17-piece big band. A charismatic front man leads the charge like a modern day Cab Calloway. It's a raucous scene straight out of Pendergast-era Kansas City.

Yet the most exciting big band in Kansas City isn't exactly a jazz act. The Hearts of Darkness play Afrobeat. Rather than attempting to recreate jazz charts, the loose grooves associated with Fela serve as the ensemble's point of departure. This rather antiseptic video barely begins to reflect the celebratory atmosphere of a typical show.

Far from a musty academic exercise, the Hearts of Darkness convey the spirit, if not the sound, of Kansas City's heyday. The Hearts of Darkness deserve recognition from the jazz audience because their visceral big band power is the soundtrack to the same exuberant scenes that undoubtedly accompanied the bands of Benny Moten, Harlan Leonard and Count Basie.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Now's the Time: Angela Hagenbach

Is it possible for a person to be too attractive?

It's not a question I've ever needed to direct at myself, but I wonder if Angela Hagenbach's remarkable beauty has actually hampered her career in music. Her looks may be a distraction. The vocalist has been a fixture on Kansas City's jazz scene for well over a decade.

Three fine Hagenbach performances were recently uploaded to YouTube. She's backed by Jake Blanton on guitar, Roger Wilder on piano and Steve Rigazzi on bass. I'm unable to identify the drummer and percussionist.

Hagenbach plays Jardine's Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 10.