March 2024 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Original image of Kevin Miller and Lawrence Brownlee by There Stands the Glass.

The Top Ten Albums of March

1. Jlin- Akoma
Fancy footwork.

2. Tierra Whack- World Wide Whack
(Frank) Oceans of fun.

3. Véronique Gens- Paysage
French soiree.

3. Moor Mother- The Great Bailout
Overdue.

5. Norah Jones- Visions
A beautiful mirage.

6. Amirtha Kidambi- New Monuments
Prog-jazz.

7. Ethnic Heritage Ensemble- Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit
Astral planes.

8. Charles Lloyd- The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
With Jason Moran, Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade.

9. Future and Metro Boomin- We Don’t Trust You
En garde!

10. That Mexican OT- Texas Technician
My review.


The Top Ten Songs of March

1. Bill MacKay- “Glow Drift”
Unhalfbricking.

2. Adrienne Lenker- “Free Treasure”
Gifts abound.

3. Charlie Parr- "Pale Fire"
Luminous.

4. Waxahatchee- “Burns Out at Midnight”
Return of the grievous angel.

5. DannyLux- "Maldito Alcohol"
Cautionary tale.

6. Mike featuring Earl Sweatshirt and Tony Shhnow- "On God"
Dead friends.

7. Anysia Kim featuring Mike- “In Doubt?”
Uncertain.

8. Matt Champion featuring Dora Jar- "Steel"
Boy band breakout.

9. Chief Keef and Mike Will Made-It featuring 2 Chainz- "Pull Up Ghost Clan"
Chiraq.

10. Lekin- “714”
Both sides now.


The Top Ten Performances of March

1. Lawrence Brownlee at the Lied Center
My review.

2. David Lord at Farewell
My review.

3. Ema Nikolovska at the Folly Theater
My review.

4. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s “Roméo et Juliette” at Muriel Kauffman Theatre
My review.

5. Sleater-Kinney at the Truman
My Instagram clip.

6. The Kansas City Symphony’s Matthias Pintscher Conducts Symphony Dances: ‘West Side Story’ and Rachmaninoff with Philippe Quint at Helzberg Hall
My review.

7. Danielle Nicole, Brandon Miller and Go-Go Ray at Records with Merritt
My Instagram snapshot.

8. Seth A Davis, Kwan Leung Ling, Aaron Osborne and Evan Verploegh at 7th Heaven
My Instagram clip.

9. Bryan Hicks, Rod Fleeman and Rich Hill at the Market at Meadowbrook
My Instagram snapshot.

10. Nya at the Blue Room
My Instagram snapshot.



The previous monthly recap is here.

Concert Review: Matthias Pintscher Conducts Symphonic Dances: West Side Story and Rachmaninoff at Helzberg Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I joined more than 1,000 concert-goers at the last of three de facto coronation ceremonies at Helzberg Hall on Sunday, March 24. Matthias Pintscher, the incoming Music Director of The Kansas City Symphony, appears to be a talented, benevolent and humble potentate.

Prior to the performance, the audience was told that Pintscher was mourning the death of his mentor Peter Eötvös. The distressing news raised the stakes for a vibrant reading of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story’.

Composer Errollyn Wallen was in the house for the world premiere of her Violin Concerto. I couldn’t discern the hushed passages played by guest artist Philippe Quint from my seat in the rafters.

Charles Ives’ loopy “Three Places in New England” was my favorite piece. I sense the subversive programing is an indication of Pintscher’s plans for the Symphony. Aside from the prominence of a saxophone, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances” didn’t do much for me.

All tickets were $37 for the concerts billed as “Matthias Pintscher Conducts Symphonic Dances: West Side Story and Rachmaninoff”. Having gladly made the investment, I’m eager to evaluate the responses to Pintscher’s oversight of the Symphony at three European concerts in August. Here’s to fresh starts and new beginnings.

Recital Review: Lawrence Brownlee at the Lied Center

Original image of Kevin Miller and Lawrence Brownlee by There Stands the Glass.

One of the most rewarding things about residing in the Kansas City area is also one of the most discouraging elements about life in the center of the country. Disinterest in what’s dismissed by others as highbrow art allows a lowbrow hick like me incredible access to topflight performances of classical music.

I bought two front-row center tickets to Lawrence Brownlee’s appearance at the Lied Center on Tuesday, March 19, for $21 apiece on Cyber Monday last November. Brownlee has been my favorite operatic tenor since he and Eric Owens stunned me at the Folly Theater in 2019.

The 2,000-seat venue was at about ten percent capacity for the star who regularly appears on the world’s most prestigious stages. Brownlee and pianist Kevin Miller didn’t disappoint. 

The recital featuring familiar Italian arias, art songs by Austrian composer Joseph Marx and contemporary works from Brownlee’s Grammy-nominated 2023 album Rising couldn’t have been more rewarding. Kudos to presenters who continue to program decidedly unpopular music in the hinterlands.

Much as some professional sports franchises opt for a “best player available” philosophy when drafting talent, I’ll keep allotting my resources to the best deals available regardless of style. Regrettably, I’m priced out of next week’s Bad Bunny concert.

Opera Review: Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Roméo et Juliette at Muriel Kauffman Theatre

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The last vestiges of skepticism left my mind during the fourth act of Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” on Sunday, March 17. Only then was I willing to acknowledge that I was taking in a very good production. 

Even from my $39 seat in the back row of Muriel Kauffman Theatre I was moved by the chemistry between Ben Bliss and Andriana Chuchman. Most of the voices successfully traversed the vast space between the stage and my remote location. 

Compelling visuals were complemented by conspicuous direction that allowed me to track the action without opera glasses. And The Kansas City Symphony sounded more than serviceable.

I’ve misspent my time and money on a few disappointing nights with Lyric Opera of Kansas City. It may not have been particularly fashionable or fresh, but the production of “Roméo et Juliette” was grand opera done right.

Album Review: That Mexican OT- Texas Technician

The lineups assembled by the Tacos & Tequila festival franchise make me giddy. Fat Joe! Twista! Chingy! Mike Jones! David Banner! The music those guys made in their primes was once very important to me. That Mexican OT refreshes the hip-hop of that era with his distinctive voice and superlative flow. Even though the shock of the new has already faded and the recording is far from perfect, the rapper’s latest album Texas Technician is a blast. As he says on "02.02.99", he “can’t be nobody other.”

Concert Review: Ema Nikolovska at the Folly Theater

Sharing the gloriously odd feature embedded above is the best way to illustrate why I’m smitten with Ema Nikolovska. I was swooning by the conclusion of the operatic vocalist’s United States recital debut at the Folly Theater on Wednesday, March 6.

The voice of the Berlin resident and native Macedonian is good, but good voices are a dime a dozen. Nikolovska is special because she’s a goofball. Her quirky sense of humor and bold creativity are distinctive qualities in the po-faced realm of classical music.

Her delivery of typical repertoire- art songs by Franz Schubert and a set of Claude Debussy compositions she characterized as “a lot of ennui”- was faultless. Yet the unconventional elements of the program were best.

A reading of Margaret Bonds’ “Songs of the Seasons” was exceptionally romantic. The sympathetic playing of pianist Howard Watkins enhanced each endearing moment.

Even better, Nikolovska’s take on Nicolas Slonimsky’s “Five Advertising Songs” almost had the audience of about 300 rolling in the aisles. (Here’s the original "Children Cry".) Paying the Harriman-Jewell Series $20 for the recital was a deal, even if it wasn’t half as freaky as the video.

Album Review: Julian Lage- Speak To Me

I thought I liked innovation. I guess I was wrong. I’ve long taken pride in my embrace of sonic experimentation. Apparently, I was kidding myself. Speak to Me, the new album by Julian Lage on Blue Note Records, was among my most anticipated releases of 2024. The guitarist is one of my favorite musicians. Furthermore, I admire almost everything connected to Joe Henry, the producer of Speak to Me. Lage’s collaborators are first-rate. Speak to Me is both innovative and experimental. And yet I loathe it. The sound is new and the musicianship is faultless, but the resulting music is incomprehensibly bland and lifeless. I won’t give up. There’s a one in five chance I’ll post a mea culpa before the end of the year.

February 2024 Recap: A Monthly Exercise in Critical Transparency

Screenshot of Lise Davidsen in the trailer for the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La forza del destino.”

The Top Ten Albums of February 

1. Heems- Lafandar
My review.

2. Lee “Scratch” Perry- King Perry
My review.

3. Hera Hyesang Park- Breathe
The soprano’s imaginative song cycle.

4. Kali Malone- All Life Long
A secular service.

5. Joel Ross- nublues
Blue notes.

6. James Brandon Lewis Quartet- Transfiguration
The saxophonist with Aruán Ortiz, Brad Jones and Chad Taylor.

7. Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas and Ted Nash- Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols
My review.

8. Arcangelo- Handel: Theodora
A revelatory new recording of the 1750 oratorio.

9. Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey- Compassion
Piano trio nonpareil.

10. DJ Harrison- Shades of Yesterday
My review.

The Top Ten Songs of February 

1. Little Simz- “Mood Swings”
Schizophrenic.

2. GloRilla- “Yeah Glo!”
Glow-up.

3. Terrace Martin- “Kill Bill”
Smooth jazz revival.

4. Scott H. Biram- “Inside a Bar”
Set ‘em, Joe.

5. Sierra Ferrell- “I Could Drive You Crazy”
Insane earworm.

6. Ducks Ltd.- "On Our Way to the Rave"
Another jangle-pop miracle.

7. Thee Sinseers- “Hold On”
Little bit o’ soul.

8. Hatis Noit featuring Armand Hammer- "Jomon (Preservation Rework)"
Ancient to the future.

9. Gabito Ballesteros and Natanael Cano- "Proyecto X"
Trippy corrido tumbado.

10. Logan Richardson- “Black to the Point”
My album review.

The Top Ten Performances of February 

1. Militarie Gun, Pool Kids, Spiritual Cramp and Spacing at recordBar
My review.

2. Folk Alliance International Conference, Day One (Willi Carlisle, Justin Adams and Mauro Durante, Freedy Johnston)
My review.

3. Jeremy Denk at the Folly Theater
My review.

4. Folk Alliance International Conference, Day Three (Jolie Holland, Ensemble Sangineto, Mitsune)
My review.

5. Folk Alliance International Conference, Day Two (Trond Kallevåg, Louisa Stancioff, Humbird)
My review.

6. Jackie Myers, Rich Wheeler and Jeff Harshbarger at the Market at Meadowbrook
​​My Instagram snapshot.

7. Desmond Mason, Angela Ward, DeAndre Manning and Jaylen Ward at the Blue Room
My Instagram clip.

8. The Kansas City Wind Symphony at Village Presbyterian Church
My Instagram snapshot.

9. Pinnacle Winds at St. Peter & All Saints Episcopal Church
My Instagram clip.

10. Mire Pral at the Market at Meadowbrook
My Instagram clip.



The previous monthly recap is here.

Concert Review: Militarie Gun, Pool Kids, Spiritual Cramp and Spaced at recordBar

Original image of Militarie Gun by There Stands the Glass.

I’ve never listened to Jethro Tull’s 1976 album Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die, but an inversion of the title came to me as I was repeatedly jostled by the outer ripples of the mosh pit at recordBar on Sunday, February 25. I’m not too old to rock ‘n’ roll: I’m not too young to die.

Ten years older than the second most aged person in the capacity audience of 400, I knew I looked out of place. As a weirdo who attended his first punk show more than 45 years ago, the noise made by Militarie Gun, Pool Kids, Spiritual Cramp and Spacing is an integral part of my musical DNA.

I fell in love with Militarie Gun’s shouty form of punk when I first encountered it on Sham 69’s "Hurry Up Harry" in 1978. As Militarie Gun put it in 2023, Harry should "Do It Faster".

Pool Kids’ technical emo sent me back to Warped Tour circa 2012. I don't care for its style, but the quartet’s infectious exuberance won me over. On the other hand, Spiritual Cramp hooked me from the get-go. Its furious garage-rock is precisely my thing.

The three-and-a-half hour show began with a blast of hardcore fun from Spaced. As it’s from the underground punk world I’ve rediscovered and gratefully inhabited in the aftermath of the pandemic, the Buffalo band brought me full circle.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Original image of Jolie Holland and Anna Moss by There Stands the Glass.

I immersed myself in sweeping swathes of sound at the Folk Alliance International Conference when I wasn’t working on a related story that will air soon on KCUR. The choose-your-own-adventure component of the expansive annual summit is enormously appealing. In addition to conventional American folk, I heard Scottish balladeers, Ukrainian hurdy-gurdy, Italian chamber music and Malaysian bedroom pop. I’ve ranked my favorite of the approximately fifty performances I took in at the industry gathering.

1. Willi Carlisle (My Instagram clip.)

2. Jolie Holland (photo above)

3. Justin Adams and Mauro Durante (My Instagram clip.)

4. Trond Kallevåg (My Instagram clip.)

5. Louisa Stancioff (My Instagram clip.)

6. Ensemble Sangineto (My Instagram clip.)

7. Allysen Callery (Sandy Denny lives.)

8. Scott H. Biram (My Instagram clip.)

9. Humbird (political prog-folk)

10. Mitsune (My Instagram snapshot.)

The conference is leaving Kansas City. A friend invited me to join him in Montreal for next year’s conference. It’s a tempting proposition.