Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Baby, it's cold outside

Kansas City is going through its annual dose of genuine winter, with overnight lows dropping into the single digits and wild-chill factors dropping into the negatives. At work this morning, Michael Byars and I were comparing cold-weather stories.

As a person who grew up in South Dakota, my ace-in-the-hole in these discussions has always been the winter of 1979. I still remember riding to school in the front seat of my mom's Plymouth Fury and hearing the man on the radio announce that Sioux Falls had set a new record for days in a row without the temperature rising above zero degrees Farenheit. As I recall, it was around 60.

If there is any advantage at all to growing up in South Dakota, it is the wealth of "shitty weather" stories you take with you into gentler climes.

Even so, I'd come to think that the memories of my alternately frozen and heat-blasted childhood were just that: memories, subjected to the blurring and compression of passing time and "worsified," to borrow from Ogden Nash.

I went Googling for that record from 1979 and, in the process, discovered that the statistics prove that my memory was right. The weather sucked ENORMOUSLY when I was a kid.

Joe Sheehan from the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls (where his chick-magnet title is Hydrometeorological Technician) keeps track of these things in a series of chart- and fact-packed pages on the NWS site. (Tax dollars well freaking spent, I'd say.)

According to Joe's page on the 1970s, the decade that followed had not only the coolest average temperature on record but also, get this, "on average … warmer than normal summers and much colder winters." I toddled off to kindergarten in the fall of 1969 (which, by the way, had the coldest October on record).

Take it, Joe:
"…the winters of 1977-78 and 1978-79 were especially brutal. The average winter temperature in 1978-79 was 8.0 degrees, the coldest this century, while 1977-78 had an average winter temperature of 8.9 degrees, which was the second coldest winter this century. To underscore the frigid weather Sioux Falls experienced those two winters - 1977-78 had 52 days at or below zero (3rd most) with 30 days at or below -10 degrees (3rd most.)"

I also discovered that, before lighting out for the relative balminess of Missouri, I lived through December 1983 the coldest December on record:

"With deep snow cover at the beginning of December and a persistent jet stream pattern that brought one cold Arctic blast after another, a month that started out cold only got colder and it wasn't until after Christmas when temperatures moderated and even then temperatures remained will below normal." That'll put some frost on the old candy cane.

That December was the end of my first semester of college, which I spent plotting to transfer somewhere else. Over the Christmas beak I agreed to drive my friend John to Rapid City (about a 400 mile trip) and spend a day or two with his family before heading back. We left on the 20th in my 1967 Valiant. John was wearing a pair of hightops.

Once again, the fabulous Joe Sheehan:
On the 20th, from 3 to 4 inches of dry fluffy snow fell across the area which served as ammunition for the biggest Arctic blast of the month which occurred late on the 23rd and continued into the 24th.
And because we were lucky, we made it. But when I went to start Old Green, the engine wouldn't turn over. My uncle Loren came by and towed the car to the shop at his millwork company where we let it thaw for a day or two. A day or two later it started up and I made it home for New Years Eve.

That spring I applied and was accepted to two colleges. The choice was either William Jewell where I knew people and had a chance of going to England for my junior year, or a college in Santa Barbara where people studied on the beach. I opted for the chance at England.

What can I say; bad weather seems to be in my genes.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Security?

Gary Wills has a great editorial in the New York Times that deserves a reading. Wills points out the too-often forgotten obvious, that the President is the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. That's it. Not the National Guard and in particular not the rest of us. And Wills argues that the ongoing militarizaiton of American life is -- surprise, surprise -- undermining the foundations of the Constitution.

The editorial ("At Ease, Mr. President") also neatly summarizes our current 66-year-old "security" predicament.

"The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and 'the duration' has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever — more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism."

Friday, January 26, 2007

Kevin Mahogany in KC



Kevin Mahogany is a wonder to me. He seems to be able to approach almost any style of popular music and make it his own: the blues, bebop, Motown, Mingus and more.

He's returning to his hometown next week to perform a benefit concert at the Blue Room in the 18th & Vine Jazz district for the Euphrates Gallery.

I'm trying to set up an interview with the "Kansas City Cyclone" himself that would air on KCUR at some point. More on that later. In the meantime, enjoy this performance with the Ray Brown Trio.

(Can you really blame the drummer for looking a little intimidated?)

Saturday, January 20, 2007

2006 Favorites - Up to Date edition

I thought I would repost my 2006 list from the Jazz Update on KCUR's Up to Date on December 18. It wasn't so much a Best of 2006 edition, but more of a favorites from the year.

Picking a Best of list seems like a hopeless task and I've since come across even more great stuff that was released last year. We'll be gettting to on future shows.

You can listen to the show if you like; the jazz segment starts 28 minutes in. We didn't get to everything but Steigy tells me next year we may take the whole hour.

Image: "Saxophone" uploaded by Flickr user lowlighter, aka Curtis Morton.

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The List

Artist: Skafish
CD: Tidings of Comfort and Joy (La Befana)
Track: Jingle Bells
(This cut served a seasonal "bumper" to get us into the segment, but the CD features some very peppy treatments of holiday standards. It could be just the spike your eggnog needs next December and pairs amiably with your weathered copy of "Ella Wishes you a Swinging Christmas.")

Artist: Mulgrew Miller
CD: Live at the Kennedy Center, Vol. 1 (MaxJazz)
Track: When I Get There

Artist: Hiromi
CD: Spiral (Telarc)
Track: Edge

Artist: Stefon Harris
CD: African Tarantella: Dances With Duke (Bluenote)
Track: Sunset and the Mockingbird

Artist: Ximo Tebar & Fourlights
CD: Eclipse (Omix/Sunnyside)
Track: Inner Urge

Artist: Romero Lubambo
CD: Softly (MaxJazz)
Track: Just the Two of Us

Others guitarists to mention: Russell Malone, Pat Martino

Artist: Regina Carter
CD: I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey (Verve)
Track: A-Tisket, A-Tasket

Artist: Gregory Hickman-Williams
CD: Passages (Shoal Creek)
Track: You Don't Know What Love Is

Artist: Erin Bode
CD: Over and Over (MaxJazz)
Track: Holiday

Artist: Sean Jones
CD: Roots (Mack Avenue Records)
Track: Roots

Artist: The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project
CD: Simpatico (ArtistShare)
Track: Jazzucar

Artist: Roy Hargrove
CD: Nothing Serious (Verve)
Track: Invitation
With Slide Hampton, trombone

Artist: Gary Sivils
CD: Forever Took too Long
Track: Save That Time

Artist: Scott Hamilton
CD: Nocturnes and Serenades (ConcordJazz)
Track: Chelsea Bridge

Artist: Ornette Coleman
CD: Sound Grammer (Phrase Text)
Track: Jordan

Artist: Kenny Garrett
CD: Beyond the Wall (Nonesuch Records)
Track: Gwoka

Artist: Dafnis Prieto
CD: Absolute Quintet (ECM)
Track: The Coolest

Artist: Millish
CD: Millish
Track: Hungry Man No. 1

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Not the next top model

Over the weekend I got a call from my talent agency. They said someone wanted to use me for a print campaign. This was odd because no one has ever wanted to use me in this way before, and doubly odd because I hadn't even been to a "go-see" (the modeling equivalent of an audition: you "go" and they "see"). But the money they were offering endeared soothed my puzzlement.

The client was a large gaming concern and the ads were going to appear only in the Northeast. The role, so to speak, would call for me to enjoy eating sushi in clothes "a step up from casual." I've actually done this, so the research was going to be minimal.

Well, the whole thing turned into a big fuck nugget and I found out at the last minute that the project had "gone another direction," specifically a direction away from where I was figuratively standing. All this after I'd made arrangements with my boss to cover me at work, ironed shirts, trimmed nose hair, etc.

What I was looking forward to even more, yes more, than the paycheck was the possibility surprising friends and acquaintances of mine in the Northeast. I pictured them jumping on or off a train, or stuck in traffic and noticing a poster or (why not think big) a billboard with me a eating sushi and wondering to themselves, "Wait a second, doesn't that look like..."

That's as close as I'm likely to get to staging a Krzysztof Kieslowski moment. Possibly hearing about it later: Priceless.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Michael Brecker 1949-2007



Saxophonist Michael Brecker died Saturday after a long battle with MDS a rare blood disease, followed more recently by a bout with lukemia. He was 57.

Brecker defined the sax sound of 70s popular music. Consider just two iconic solos: James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" and Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years."

But Brecker was primarily a jazz artist who seemed to be able to work profitably with anybody, whether it was the fusion funk of Jaco Pastorius or Coltrane legacy work with McCoy Tyner.

Rather than me going on about his significance, here are a couple more performances to check out:

Straphangin' - The Brecker Brothers Band (with Randy Brecker on trumpet and George Duke on keyboards) from somewhere in the early 80s.

James with the Pat Metheny (guitar), Christian McBride (bass) and Antonio Sanchez (drums) from 2003.

Brecker's family is asking for donations to The Marrow Foundation.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

They Might Be Jazz



They Might Be Giants have YouTubed this new musico-animato (yes, I made that up). Not their best workb y any means, but I put it up here as a way of launching into the subject of TMBG.

TMBG is John Linnell and John Flansburgh. The two Johns are geeks triumphant. The New Yorker has described TMBG as rock band that functions like a grass roots political organization. For the last 20 years, they've toured regularly, written incessantly and inspired crazed loyalty among their fans. They've branched out into commercials (for Dunkin Donuts, among others) and television theme writing and intelligent children's music.

What I admire about the Johns (and what spurs me to write about them on a supposed jazz blog) is the way they've continued to develop as musicians and embrace new ideas.

TMBG formed in 1982, just as punk (speaking of dead musical genres) was breathing its last. Much as there were power structures to protest, and much as I enjoyed thrashing about, punk always struck me as a form of fundamentalism.

I've come to view jazz, at its best, as kind of catholicism (note the lower-case c). Where jazz is still alive, it's because it has continued to adapt itself to new situations and incorporate new influences. Where it tries to hew to a limited line of inquiry, it's dead indeed. Which brings me to today's exhibit:

Check out "Mr. Me" performed by TMBG's Other Thing (available free at the TMBG wiki download site.

This is a 2003 reworking of a song from the TMBG album Lincoln (released in 1988). It's performed by Linell and Flansberg, backed by a small brass ensemble that includes excitable Grandview, Missouri native Mark Pender). It's a tiny bundle of joy that in someways surpasses the original.

TMBG seem to be bypassing KC of late in favor of gigs at the Blue Note in Columbia (they even wrote one of their Venue Songs for the club). Oh well. Their next Missouri stop is St. Louis next month for a Mardi Gras show.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Canyonero!

Someone at Forbes Magazine with a lot of time on his hands has written an article on Best, Worst and Weirdest car names.

Guess what, Richie Rich and friends at the Forbes copy desk think that the "cool" names include the AC Shelby Cobra, Dodge Viper, Lamborghini Diablo and Rolls-Royce Phantom.

They are also shocked (shocked!) to discover that some of the worst car names on the list (Buick LeSabre, Chrysler LeBaron, Dodge Diplomat) "seem to be a calculated attempts to play upon consumer class-consciousness and social insecurities." Takes one to know one, I'd say.

Naturally, Japanese cars score big time in the weird category, but what else are you to make of the Honda Life Dunk? And I think the Nissan Prairie Joy could really catch here in the Great Middle.

My own vote for worst name? The Ford Probe, which always sounded like it should come with lube and an applicator.

Via AdFreak

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Russ Long's last project

Kansas City jazz musician Russ Long died of heart failure on New Years Eve, after a long struggle with congestive heart failure. He was 69.

On December 3rd, he'd celebrating the release of Time to Go: The Music of Russ Long, a CD with 13 original compositions and a bonus track: Russ singing Cole Prorter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," a leftover from a 2001 session. Most of the tracks are arranged for a seven-piece ensemble that sounds amazingly rich. There's also a solo accoustic guitar rendition of "Never Was Love" by Pat Metheny, who as a teenager played in an organ jazz ensemble with Long.

I talked with bassist Gerald Spaits, a long-time bandmate of Long's, who produced and co-arranged the CD. This feature aired on KCUR.

Too often older jazz musicians die without getting the recognition they deserve. Russ Long got to hear some of his tunes performed by some of the best musicians around, many of them dear old friends.

Time to Go: The Music of Russ Long
is available on CD Baby.

Someone is unhappy with Dr. Chuck

This banner has been up for a couple of weeks but I just got around to snapping a shot with my wizbang new camera phone. (Hence the quality.)

Curiously, the sign is on fancy Ward Parkway, not in Redbridge, where Councilman Eddy has made so many friends with his plan to widen Redbridge Road.

I wonder whether the KC sign police are considering action. Is it a yard sign if it's hanging from the trees?

---

My feature on Kansas City jazz musician Russ Long's last recording project ran this morning. More info and links coming to The New Low Down soon.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

New Thing

I've decided to funnel my jazz blogging into a separate space: The New Low Down.

Cuz I've got so-ooo much time on my hands.

Design tweaks and more focused intentions to come.

Roy Hargrove Quintet @ The Folly Theater

Notes from Saturday's concert.

Roy Hargrove didn't come to talk
Each concert on the Folly Jazz series generally begins with a "Jazz Talk," where the Folly's Doug Tatum spends a half hour making polite conversation with the headliner. At the Kenny Barron show last month, Tatum announced that Hargrove wouldn't be jazz talking. Once the band took the stage, it appeared the code of silence would be extended. Hargrove and his quintet worked their way through a delicious five-song set before the 37-year-old leader spoke into his dedicated voice microphone, introducing the band and saying they'd be back.

Hargrove and his band did come to play, however, and damn, what a show. I'm not going to pretend I recognized every tune, but the first set did include Charlie Parker's "Marmaduke" and a rendition of "My Foolish Heart" (with Hargrove on flugelhorn) that was truly transcendent. The second set was largely drawn from Hargrove's Nothing Serious CD, released last year (and well worth checking out). The capper was a barnstorming rendition of the title track. A friend tells me a called it a "rousing closer" last night. What can I say: I was roused.

Pretty much every damn band that comes to KC gets a standing ovation, but this time it was more than deserved. And the encore it provoked was as full of surprise as the rest of the night, a vocal of September In the Rain, sung and scatted by Mr. H.

Nothing says "I've finished this solo" like walking off stage
Hargrove took the stage looking every bit the leader, dressed in a sharp black suit, black shirt and grey tie. Immediately after he's finished his first solo, he turned on his heel and walked off stage. He hung out in the wings for a while and then reappeared, much to my relief. This was a taste of things to come and a testament to the portability of the brass.

I figure that since Hargrove is from Texas, he just likes to roam. Sometimes he'd move down stage and shuffle to the beat. Sometimes he chimed in on someone else's solo. When you're the leader that's your prerogative. So while the rhythm section hung out, tethered to their instruments, Hargrove and alto sax player Justin Robinson got to move freely about the stage. Robinson is less practiced at this, and drummer Montez Coleman had to holler him back to the mike for his next solo.

Again with the miked drum kit

Hargrove ensemble is made up of fresh faces, with the exception of Coleman who has been a sideman of note for years. He played on Bobby Watson's excellent Live & Learn. This was my first time seeing him play live and what a treat. That said, I still don't understand the decision to mike the drum kit, given the Folly's wonderful accoutics (even better in the balcony). I think this only contributed to the trouble at the last Folly Jazz event.

Pianist Gerald Clayton's playing was as precise and delicate as his long slender hands (and the fabric of his sweater), while bassist Joe Sanders played with an amzing combination of force and precision.

Come back anytime
In his introduction, Doug Tatum said he'd been trying to get Hargrove on the stage at the Folly for 10 years. If it takes another 10 to get him back, it will be worth the wait.

Friday, January 5, 2007

Roy Hargrove at the Folly



I hate to jinx 2007, but the Roy Hargrove show at the Folly tomorrow could be the best show of the year. So I'll refrain from going on. In the meantime, here's a video of a 19-year-old Hargrove standing toe-to-toe with some giants.

Cool Struttin' (composed and arranged by Son Sickler), recorded in Japan 1988.

Frontline: RH, Don Sickler, Bobby Watson, Billy Pierce, Frank Lacy. Rhythm: Mulgrew Miller, Robert Hurst, Kenny Washington.

Hopeful Sportcow

One day before the NFL playoffs begin and the KC Sportcow near 53rd & Main appears hopeful for a Chiefs victory. In case you can't tell, there are wires holding that red cape aloft. On a windy day it's pretty spectacular (-ish).

Recent Sportcow photo ops missed:
  • Festive Sportcow pulling a tiny sleigh with Christmas lights.
  • Sad Sportcow with a "Thank You Mr. Hunt" sign
You may remember the vaguely Abu Ghraib-ish Sportcow from baseball season.