Ida McBeth

I had the pleasure of interviewing a great Kansas City singer this week. Ida McBeth has been laying down solid blues, jazz, soul and funk in KC since the late 60s. While she's not well known outside Kansas City, audiences here continue to gather for her regular gigs at Jardine's and the Blue Room.

Here's the feature I put together from our half hour of chat.




She releases her fourth album today. "Live on the Vine" was recorded at the Blue Room at 18th and Vine. While it suffers from the Blue Room's so-often-poorly-tweaked sound system and a few weak song choices, Ida's voice still shines through as the wonderful thing it is.

Personal note: I first caught Ida's act in the late 80s at The Point, a kind of neighborhood joint that has gone they way of the rotary dial phone. The show was always amazing, particularly to a kid who had just drifted out of South Dakota. Between sets, Ida would make a beeline for a stool at the far end of the bar, where she'd wait with her head down until it was time to go back on stage. Turns out that around that time, not only was Ida's mother dying of kidney disease, but Ida and her husband Roy Searcy were going through a divorce. Talk about living the blues.

» To find out more about Ida than I could fit in 5 minutes and 20 seconds (not counting music) check out Tim Finn's profile of Ida from Monday's KC Star.

» And here's a "bootleg" video of Ida and her band at the Corporate Woods Jazz Fesitval doing Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle."

Up to Date Jazz Update - November

Another month, another passle of new jazz. Here's what Kraske and I covered on KCUR's Up to Date.

Headliner
Stefon Harris - African Tarantella: Dances With Duke (Bluenote)
Track: "Thanks For The Beautiful Land On The Delta"

Harris has been called "the most exciting vibraphonist of his generation." African Tarantella features selections from later suites by Duke Ellington, namely New Orleans Suite (1970) and Queen's Suite (1958), plus excerpts from The Garner Meditations composed by Harris. It's no mean feat: successfully paying tribute to Ellington while still making all the material clearly his own.

Also spun:

Keith Jarrett - The Carnegie Hall Concert (ECM)
Track: "Part VII"

The Brian Lynch/Eddie Palmieri Project - Simpatico
Track: The Palmieri Effect

Russell Malone - Live at The Jazz Standard, Vol. 1 (MAXJazz)
Track: Flirt

Gerald Dunn & The Jazz Disciples - Out Of The Comfort Zone
Track: My Baby's Struttin'

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Unfortunately, KCUR doesn't include music selections longer than 30 seconds in its podcasts. You can listen to the segment in the Up to Date archives - it's in the last 15 minutes of the show.

Six things

"JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., -- A Republican-led legislative panel says in a new report on illegal immigration that abortion is partly to blame because it is causing a shortage of American workers." - Associated Press, Nov. 13, 2006

Six other things Missouri Republicans blame on abortion

• That nice Tedd Haggard's sex/meth scandal
• MonicaGate
• Feral hog menace
• Cancellation of HEE HAW
• Hot pizza cheese burns on the roof of the mouth
• The Regis Philbin Christmas Album

Leaf circle

Seen at 53rd & Brookside: Natural occurance or rake art?

Either way, somebody should call M. Night Shyamalan.

Polling place OUTRAGE

I Voted
Originally uploaded by kc tripper.

I made it to the polls today around 12:15 today. From the look of the parking lot at 2nd Presbyterian, I was expecting a line. I politely accepted a Vote No on 2 flyer on the way in and placed it in a trash can in the mens room. Once inside I was stunned to be one of only three voters. So I voted, and only felt compelled to write in "Anyone Else" once.

The OUTRAGE came when I turned in my ballot and was told that they were out of the "I Voted" stickers. Apart from the blessings of democracy and the right to loudly bitch, the stickers are one of the chief pleasures of voting. And if you're careful, they last a lot longer than a purple finger.

The good news is that this means a lot of people had already voted. May we all be counted. And may we all win.

Turn, turn, turn

Ed moved to the Bay Area about six months after I did. Last I heard he was still there. He grew up in St. Joseph and was a year ahead of me in college. Over the years I'd bump into Ed, usually at one coffee shop or another.

We consistently had a particular exchange about the weather. I'd say that the weather in the Bay Area was boring, and Ed would shake his head and say, "What are you talking about? The weather here is great."

Ed meant that the climate was moderate, which is hard to deny. Average highs and lows are in a comfortable range and snow is extremely rare. The fog generally blows in to cool off even the hottest days.

What I meant was that the weather, as a backdrop to my day-to-day life, was pretty dull. And as a born-and-raised quadraseasonal, I found that the Bay Area's sempiternal quasi autumn made it easy for me to lose my temproal bearing. I lost track of three years somatically waiting for winter to arrive.

No fear of climate ennui now that I'm back in Missouri, particularly at this time of year. This week, for instance, we've already had a high a high of 72 (Monday) and a low last night of 23. Climate change is, as they say around here, a whole nuther thing.

Never a dull moment indeed.

Gnarls and/or Bierce

The video for Gnarls Barkley's lovingly faithful cover of The Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" is up on YouTube. It's a hoot. And it demonstrates that somebody's been reading their Ambrose Bierce.

Favorite user comment: "gnarls is genius for not showing themselves in videos... because they are some ugly mo fo's."

Speaking of Bierce, "Civil War Stories" is still showing at KC's Screenland Theater. It's well worth checking out, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it. For those of you outside KC, it'll be out on DVD this month.

And while I'm flinging links around, the director Don Maxwell was on KCUR's Walt Bodine Show a few weeks back. Enjoy.