Spoiler alert: don’t partake of the embedded fan footage if you’d prefer to take in Pat Metheny’s return to Muriel Kauffman Theatre on Saturday, April 4, without any expectations or biases. The surreptitiously filmed document divulges a taste of what’s in store for hometown fans.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Matt Hopper’s trio is featured in the most recent episode of Kansas Public Radio’s Live at Green Lady Lounge program.
Album Review: Clovis Nicolas- Blues in Blueprint: 12 Variations on the Blues
A musician who manages to recruit keyboardist Larry Goldings and the Kansas City based drummer Carl Allen to play on a recording date should be prepared to play the blues. That’s precisely what Clovis Nicolas does on Blues in Blueprint: 12 Variations on the Blues.
As the title indicates, the new album by the Abidjan-born bassist contains a dozen blues-based selections. The opening track is like catnip for listeners in Kansas City. The reading of “Old Stack O’Lee Blues” is squarely in the tradition of Count Basie and Jay McShann.
Known primarily as an organist, Goldings excels on piano throughout Blues in Blueprint. Allen, as always, operates as a well-oiled swing machine. Nicolas holds his own in the trio as he generously allows his colleagues to shine.
Goldings runs rampant on “The Double Nickel.” Allen demonstrates his tasteful mastery on “Hutch.” While Blues in Blueprint mostly stays close to home, “Ramblin’” ventures into shallow left field.
In addition to the classic Kansas City sound, the album touches on blues styles associated with locales such as Chicago, New York City, Paris and Philadelphia from different eras of jazz history. Blues in Blueprint is an edifying and entertaining tour.
Now’s the Time: Mark Turner
A band of all-stars performs at the Folly Theater on Sunday, March 29. Unfortunately, Mark Turner, Sean Jones, Kurt Rosenwinkel, John Beasley, Ben Williams and Terreon Gully will be hamstrung by an unpromising format. The concert is billed as “Unlimited Miles: Miles Davis at 100.” Consequently, the audience isn’t likely to hear material from Turner’s formidable new album Patternmaster.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Reed Jackson reviewed Bill Frisell’s appearance at Atkins Auditorium.
Album Review: Seth Andrew Davis & Project C4- Techno Chapel
Sanctified sounds.
Read moreNow’s the Time: Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell, one of very few top-tier touring jazz musicians who regularly perform in the Kansas City area, returns to Atkins Auditorium on Saturday, March 21. “When Film Meets Guitar,” the guitarist’s collaboration with Bill Morrison, is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Recent episodes of Kansas Public Radio’s weekly Live at Green Lady Lounge program feature ensembles led by Jeff Shirley, Alex Abramovitz and Tim Whitmer.
Album Review: Drew Williams Trio- Demons Hate Fresh Air
Drew Williams saves his listeners a lot of speculative rumination. Rather than guessing at the Kansas City musician’s inspirations for his three-month-old release Demons Hate Fresh Air, Williams provided a syllabus for the album in which he reveals the film, literature and music that informed the recording.
He cites albums by Michael Blake, Ornette Coleman, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Andy Shauf and Thom Yorke in the latter category. The stylistic diversity lends invigorating unpredictability to Demons Hate Fresh Air.
Collaborating with bassist Ben Tervort and drummer Brian Steever- the reigning Plastic Sax Person of the Year- Williams honors his jazz heroes by transcending genre. His cohorts demonstrate their elite chops on knotty selections such as Coleman’s “Street Woman.”
The innovative “Green Girl” seems ready-made for 2036. The insinuating “Fix Your Heart (or Die)”- a holdover from Williams’ Live at Weights and Measures album- indicates he’s a standout composer. “Bend Your Ear” is similarly insinuating. The album closes with an effective reading of Yorke’s "Dawn Chorus".
Plastic Sax ranked the album release show for Demons Hate Fresh Air the second-best performance by a Kansas City artist in 2025. Anyone not at Stray Cat Film Center last December 4 needn’t feel left out. The album continues provides an equally memorable experience.
Now’s the Time: Cyrille Aimée
The French pop-jazz artist Cyrille Aimée returns to the Folly Theater on Saturday, March 14. Plastic Sax reviewed her Kansas City debut in 2018.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*From a press release: Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Artistic Director Clint Ashlock today announced the next concert for the 2025-2026 Signature Series, Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall, for one performance on Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 7 p.m. at Kansas City’s historic Folly Theatre… Featuring pre-eminent clarinetist, saxophonist and band leader Anat Cohen, KCJO will re-create a groundbreaking 1938 Carnegie Hall concert that marked a significant turning point, altering the direction of big-band jazz music, and becoming one of the most popular collections of live music ever produced... For Tickets and more information: kcjo.org/tickets.
Album Review: Pat Metheny- Side-Eye III+
Pat Metheny has been leagues ahead of all but a few musicians throughout his extensive career. Recent developments in electronic music, hyperpop and artificial intelligence now allow humans without Metheny’s daring intellect better shots at catching up.
His admirers might use Side-Eye III+, the Lee’s Summit native’s new album, as a blueprint of how musicians can use cutting-edge technology to lift the spirits of human souls and perhaps, inspire robotic mechanisms to commiserate with their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
The forty-five second breakdown beginning around the 6:30 mark of the opening track “In On It” is emblematic of Metheny’s aptitude for futurism. Members of a celestial choir are among the elements vacuumed into a sonic black hole.
Side-Eye III+ isn’t exclusively dedicated to glitchy Aphex Twin-style effects. Keyboardist Chris Fishman and drummer Joe Dyson are among more than a dozen musicians making tried-and-true Metheny signatures seem even bigger and bolder.
“Don’t Look Down” is characterized by fist-pumping razzle dazzle. “Urban and Western” sounds as if Metheny programmed his proto-AI Orchestrion device to create a mashup of Ray Charles and Carole King. The organ trio jam “SE-O” resembles a sweat-stained sport coat accessorized with baubles, bangles and beads.
The sentimental melody of “Make a New World” is a throwback to the sort of television show theme song Bob James might have composed in the 1970s. Yet as its title suggests, Metheny continues to look ahead. The future is now and Side-Eye III+ is its soundtrack.
Now’s the Time: Arturo O’Farrill
Arturo O'Farrill headlines the Jazz Winterlude festival at Johnson County Community College on Sunday, March 7. The complete schedule for the two-day event is here.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*A recap of KC Winter Jazzfest was published by 90.9 The Bridge.
*Joe Dimino interviewed David Basse.
*Mary Lou Williams is one of twenty women recognized in an In Kansas City magazine feature.
Festival Review: KC Winter Jazzfest
Original image by Plastic Sax.
The hand-scrawled sign at the entrance of KC Winter Jazzfest is an accurate representation of the event that took place in the West Bottoms on Sunday, February 22. Organic, DIY and sincere, the purity of the miniature festival was endearing.
I took in three-and-a-half hours of the scheduled thirteen-hour event in the space best known at Cap Gun Studios. Marcus Lewis, the festival’s gregarious organizer, told attendees that his intention was for “all the musicians (to) come together and play music for each other.”
In fact, the upbeat atmosphere resembled a clubhouse for Kansas City’s jazz musicians. About fifty musicians and approximately two dozen curious civilians shuffled between two stopgap stages during my time in the loft. I paid a $35 admission fee at the door.
Separate sets by saxophonists Pete Fucinaro and Matt Otto were incendiary. Trumpeter Nate Nall and saxophonist Matt Baldwin paid homage to the early work of Donald Byrd. Amber Underwood (aka Flutienastiness) and the Deshtet (led by rapper and trombonist Kadesh Flow) played crossover forms of jazz.
Lewis spoke between sets about ambitious plans for the future of the festival. While the prospect for expansion is exciting, I’ll harbor fond memories of the slapdash tone and uncommon innocence of the inaugural edition of KC Winter Jazzfest.
Now’s the Time: Matt Von Roderick
Locally based musicians usually fill in when Lonnie McFadden, the titular musician of Lonnie’s Reno Club, takes a night off. Every so often a touring artist appears at the supper club. Matt Von Roderick, a crooner and trumpeter from Los Angeles, entertains at Lonnie’s Reno Club on Thursday, February 26.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*KCUR surveys current construction projects in the Jazz District.
*From a press release: In honor of Women's History Month, the Christopher Burnett Quartet will perform a special midday concert of instrumental jazz ballads on March 25, 2026, at JW Crancers Event Space. The performance will run from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm and is free and open to the public… The Ensemble: Christopher Burnett, Roger Wilder, Gerald Spaits and Houston Smith. Details are here.
Album Review: David Lord- Way Over the Rainbow
Woulda, shoulda, coulda. What-if scenarios as explanations of the absence of critical and commercial recognition are invariably pathetic. Still…
If David Lord hadn’t released Way Over the Rainbow on December 12, the album would likely have found its way on several year-end best-albums-of-2025 lists, including my own.
If Way Over the Rainbow had been issued by a prominent record label with a publicity department rather than being self-released by the guitarist, the anomalous Americana album would almost certainly have found a larger audience.
If Lord wasn’t based in Wichita he might have a better shot at being rightfully recognized as one of improvised music’s most interesting artists.
The ballyhooed guitarist Jeff Parker appears on three rarefied Way Over the Rainbow selections. The playing of bassist Dale Black, drummer Charles Rumback and vibraphonist Sam Hake (on one track) is no less elevated.
Apparently, none of that matters. Not even the presence of Parker had previously inspired a single review. Members of Lord’s avid cult following may have to accept that the world isn’t ready for his brilliant but abstruse conception.
Now's the Time: The Westerlies
The jazz-adjacent brass quartet The Westerlies perform at Polsky Theatre on Friday, February 20. The Seattle based group’s next two albums are dedicated to the compositions of Bill Frisell.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Shaun Crowley and Eddie Moore participated in a discussion of Kansas City’s music economy on KCUR’s Up To Date.
*Marcus Lewis promoted the KC Winter Jazz Fest on 90.9 The Bridge’s Eight One Sixty program.