I drove four hours to hear 45 minutes of music on Sunday, June 6. The trip was worth it. Irreversible Entanglements confirmed its status as one of the most essential ensembles of the past five years at Stephens Lake Park Amphitheatre in Columbia, Missouri.
The perfect night in a gorgeous setting took a bit of the edge off Camae Ayewa’s lacerating poetry and the insistent free jazz played by Keir Neuringer (saxophone and electronics), Luke Stewart (bass) and Tcheser Holmes (drums). Aquiles Navarro, Irreversible Entanglement’s trumpeter, didn’t make the gig. The evening’s sole flaw was a 40-minute late start that presumably abbreviated the unticketed show presented by Dismal Niche.
Ayewa, the celebrated artist better known as Moor Mother, summarized the music she makes with her cohorts in a mellifluous statement of purpose: “this is a different vibration... a far-out inner sound… a sound that makes you feel you can survive… free-jazz philosophies for peace.”
I recently whined about the unofficial embargo of Kansas City by improvising musicians with cutting-edge inclinations. Hitting the road felt empowering. The brief immersion in revolutionary sounds with approximately 150 adventurous listeners was as liberating as it was refreshing. If the music’s not going to come to me, I’m going to go to the music.