Album Review: Wire Town- Riffin’ on Grand

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The folksy expression applies to Wire Town’s artful new album Riffin’ on Grand. As with the band’s 2024 debut recording, Wire Town’s new release documents four of Kansas City’s finest artists honoring the town’s jazz tradition with seventy minutes of exquisite musicianship and life-affirming spirit.

Riffin’ on Grand again features guitarists Danny Embrey and Rod Fleeman along with bassist Gerald Spaits. Brian Steever ably replaces Todd Strait on drums on the set recorded at Green Lady Lounge eight months ago. The quartet has nothing to prove and no axes to grind. The four men strike an ideal balance of reserved tastefulness and articulate individual statements.

Embrey and Fleeman display the sort of mindmeld that can only be attained by close friends through decades of collaboration. Sublimating their egos, the guitarists and their band mates craft sonic landscapes as modestly majestic as the most dignified shan shui painting.

Green Lady Lounge hosts the album release show for Riffin’ on Grand at 6 p.m. Sunday, February 16.

Now's the Time: Guitar Elation

Brian Baggett and Danny Embrey duel every Thursday at Green Lady Lounge. As the featured members of Guitar Elation, the guitarists are held to one another’s high standards in friendly competition of elite improvisation.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*The Danny Embrey Trio is featured on the most recent episode of Kansas Public Radio’s Live at Green Lady Lounge.

*Joe Dimino shared footage of the Prairie Village Jazz Festival.

Album Review: Wire Town- Kansas City

The beautiful ballad “Tell Me Now” closes the debut album of Wire Town. No less rapturous than the collaboration of legendary guitar heroes Jim Hall and Pat Metheny, the hushed “Tell Me Now” is an outlier on Kansas City.

The eight tracks preceding “Tell Me Now” exemplify Green Lady Lounge’s signature sound: jaunty instrumental jazz rendered by elite musicians. Each of the esteemed members of Wire Town- guitarists Danny Embrey and Rod Fleeman, bassist Gerald Spaits and drummer Todd Strait- are closely associated with Green Lady Lounge.

Recorded live at the bustling Kansas City venue, the 69-minute Kansas City is a winning showcase for the considerable talents of the quartet. With the exception of “Tell Me Now,” the uptempo selections are vehicles for engaging soloing and seamless interplay.

The album’s official release show is 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, January 28, at Green Lady Lounge.

Plastic Sax’s Favorite Albums of 2023

Top Ten Albums by Kansas City Artists
1. Matt Otto- Umbra
Plastic Sax review.

2. Mike Dillon and Punkadelick- Inflorescence
Plastic Sax review.

3. Adam Larson- With Love, From New York City
Plastic Sax review.

4. Enzo Carniel, Hermon Mehari, Stéphane Adsuar and Damien Varaillon- No(w) Beauty
Plastic Sax review.

5. Matt Otto- Kansas City Trio
Plastic Sax review.

6. Pat Metheny- Dream Box
Plastic Sax review.

7. Torches Mauve- Volume Two
Plastic Sax review.

8. Narrative Quartet- Narrative
Plastic Sax review.

9. Count Basie Orchestra- Swings the Blues
Plastic Sax review.

10. Danny Embrey- Orion Room
Plastic Sax review.

Top Ten Albums by Artists From Elsewhere

1. Sebastian Rochford and Kit Downes- A Short Diary

2. Jason Moran- From the Dancehall to the Battlefield

3. Sylvie Courvoisier- Chimaera

4. Kassa Overall- Animals

5. Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi- Our Daily Bread

6. Henry Threadgill- The Other One

7. Aja Monet- When the Poems Do What They Do

8. Laura Schuler Quartet- Sueños Paralelos

9. Cécile McLorin Salvant- Mélusine

10. Irreversible Entanglements- Protect Your Light

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Danny Embrey chatted with Joe Dimino.

*The Kansas City Star plays up Marilyn Maye’s return to Kansas City.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s return to the Folly Theater is plugged by The Kansas City Star.

*Danny Embrey is interviewed by Ken Lovern in four new videos.

*Mary Lou Williams was remembered on an episode of KCUR’s Up To Date program.

*Pinball, a new album by Seth Davis and Kevin Cheli, was reviewed by a blogger.

Album Review: Danny Embrey- Orion Room

Stepping through the doors of Green Lady Lounge is a transportive experience. The transition from urban sidewalk to swanky jazz club necessitates a psychological shift. Revelers immediately sense good times are imminent.

Kansas City’s most popular jazz venue has a second performance space in the basement. The Orion Room is even groovier than the lounge upstairs. 

Even though it was recorded at Green Lady Lounge in 2023, Danny Embrey’s new album Orion Room captures the speakeasy ambience of the plush basement. The guitarist, bassist Gerald Spaits and drummer Brian Steever craft a slinky soundtrack to slightly subversive behavior.

While several solos are stupendous, the emphasis of Orion Room isn’t on the individual statements. Instead, the music is an invitation to a party brimming with sly innuendos and knowing winks.

Embrey has long been one of Kansas City’s most respected musicians. Spaits and Steever steer his sophisticated playing in insinuating directions. The trio get into artistically exhilarating forms of trouble on Orion Room. All are welcome at the seductive soirée.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Aaron Diehl’s adaptation of Mary Lou Williams’ orchestration of Zodiac Suite was released by Mack Avenue last week.

*Joe Dimino shared footage of the Jackie Myers Trio performing at KC Bier Co.

*From a press release: On May 15, 1953, five of jazz’s most influential musicians – Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, and Bud Powell – gathered at Toronto’s Massey Hall for what would result in their first and only known recording as a quintet. While only a small audience was able to experience it in person, this historic evening was captured on tape. The resulting album, The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall, would become one of the genre’s most essential and celebrated releases. Now, Craft Recordings commemorates the 70th anniversary of this singular concert (2023) with Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings, a definitive collection that presents the entirety of the evening’s recorded material by the members of this quintet. Arriving November 17 and available for pre-order today, the 3-LP, 2-CD and digital release features meticulous 24-bit audio restoration and remastering…

*From a press release: Longtime Kansas City jazz guitar hero Danny Embrey is releasing his first recording of new music under his name since 1988… Bassist Gerald Spaits and drummer Brian Steever join Danny on this freewheeling live recording. The compositions are mostly by Danny with a couple by Gerald Spaits and one each by Brian Steever and Kansas City piano legend Russ Long… The performances on this recording were captured live at Green Lady Lounge earlier this year. Danny leads a trio in the downstairs Orion Room every Friday and Saturday from 7:30 to 10:30, and has done so for several years now.  CD Release Event on Saturday, October 7, 2023 at 7:30 pm in the downstairs Orion Room at Green Lady Lounge, 1809 Grand, Kansas City, Missouri. The show lasts till 10:30, but the first set will include many of the new tunes from the CD and stories about their origin… CDs will be available for $10 each at Green Lady Lounge on the day of the show…  Digital copies will be available as of October 2 on all major streaming platforms.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*A Philadelphian wrote a guide to area jazz venues for The Kansas City Star.

*Tweet of the Week: Green Lady Lounge- Guitar Elation - Dues Blues (Composer: Danny Embrey) #Jazz #NowPlaying #KansasCityJazz (link)

*From a press release: The KU Jazz 50th Anniversary Celebration will commemorate 50 years of the “official” jazz program—and the “unofficial” bands that existed before this. The event will feature two concerts highlighting alumni of the KU Jazz Studies Program, both taking place at 7:30 PM at the Lied Center… On Friday, October 28, 2022, the current edition of KU Jazz Ensemble I will present a tribute to saxophonist and woodwind artist Gary Foster, with guest soloists Steve Houghton (drums), Matt Otto and Paul Haar (saxophones), Ron McCurdy (trumpet), Jeff Harshbarger (bass) and others. The following evening on Saturday, October 29, 2022, KU alumni from the past 50 years will perform in big bands and a vocal jazz ensemble and will be directed by the program’s 4 directors—Robert Foster (the founder of the program in 1972), James Barnes, Dr. Ron McCurdy and Dan Gailey. Tickets are available here.

Album Review: John Stein- Lifeline

The word “tasteful” sometimes acts as code for tame forms of jazz. The characterization is unmodified by aspersion in the case of the music of guitarist John Stein. The recently released Lifeline, a 145-minute compilation of “26 tracks spanning 23 years and 15 albums,” showcases Stein’s consummate tastefulness. A member of the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston for years, Stein was raised in Kansas City. Much like the Kansas City guitarists Danny Embrey and Rod Fleeman, Stein emphasizes insightful swing rather than hollow flash. David “Fathead” Newman is the most prominent of Stein’s collaborators, but Stein’s career isn’t driven by cosigns from all-stars. Lifeline is a master class in egoless excellence.

Album Review: Matt Hopper’s Agora- Live at Green Lady Lounge

The formidable reputations of three locally based mainstream jazz guitarists position the distinguished men head-and-shoulders above their peers.  Danny Embrey, Rod Fleeman and Will Matthews deserve the respect and acclaim they’ve garnered.

Matt Hopper is among the younger musicians who are actively demonstrating the future of jazz guitar in Kansas City is in good hands.  Quietly released at the end of 2021, Live at Green Lady Lounge captures the sound of the band featuring Hopper and organist Ken Lovern, percussionist Pat Conway and drummer Todd Strait.  

The recording exemplifies the distinctive sound that’s helped make Green Lady Lounge the most popular jazz venue in Kansas City.  The music performed in the room at 1809 Grand Boulevard is invariably cheerful, sweetly harmonious and assertively propulsive.

While Live at Green Lady Lounge is no exception, the 2018 recording is no ordinary guitar-and-organ album.  The quiet groove of “Marcelo’s Guitar” contains a slight intimation of psychedelic rock.  Hopper’s trippy solo elevates a slinky reading of his “Green Lady Low Down.” 

The dual tandems of Hopper and Lovern and Conway and Strait propel the ecstatic sensibility. Yet the guitarist merits the spotlight. Live at Green Lady Lounge indicates Hopper will eventually join the ranks of Embrey, Freeman and Matthews as a member of Kansas City jazz royalty.

Now's the Time: Bob Bowman, Danny Embrey and Brian Steever

I intend to hop on an airplane the first day I feel comfortable resuming post-inoculation life. Should my return flight to Kansas City land in the evening, I’ll drop in at the Green Lady Lounge on my way home. The embedded video captures the sound and atmosphere I so dearly miss.

Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Brian Scarborough is featured in The Pitch.

*The legacy of the late LaVerne Barker is examined by Flatland.

*Jacob Wagner tells KCUR that “Kansas City's taken too long to recognize black creativity and African-American music that put us on the map” in a KCUR overview of Charlie Parker’s life.

*Aryana Nemati-Baghestani is interviewed by an in-house UMKC publication.

*The editorial board of The Kansas City Star ponders violence in the Jazz District.

*Bill Clinton is among the luminaries paying homage to Charlie Parker on the icon’s YouTube channel.

*Bret Primack interviewed Bobby Watson and Chuck Haddix.

*Joe Dimino documented a performance by five members of the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. He also interviewed the participants.

*Alliance, a new album by Matt Otto, was released last week.

*The Mid-America Arts Alliance awarded $50,000 to the American Jazz Museum.

*A new mural adorns the exterior of the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

*Tweet o’ the Week: HypnoRaygun- Danny Embrey makes 99% of "real guitarists" look like beginners. He's unbelievable.

*From a press release: Due to restrictions imposed by Kansas City, MO and the CDC, and our concern for our patrons, staff, volunteers, crew, and artists, the Folly (Theater) has made some changes in our current Jazz Season. We have decided to postpone Karrin Allyson from October 17th to January 22. David Benoit will be moved to December 10th of 2021.

*From a press release: Craft Recordings is proud to announce the release of the compact disc edition of The Savoy 10-Inch LP Collection. The collection, which spotlights Charlie Parker’s groundbreaking bebop sessions for the legendary jazz label (spanning 1944 to 1948), is already available on vinyl and digital formats. The CD edition features 28 tracks from the four legendary Savoy 10-inch LPs, presented with newly restored and remastered audio and a deluxe 20-page booklet… The compact disc edition… (is) set for a November 6th release date.