Tatsuya Nakatani may be the only touring avant-garde improviser who regularly includes Kansas City on his itineraries. The percussionist will be joined by the locally based musicians Shawn Hansen, Jeff Harshbarger and Mike Stover at Grand Avenue Temple on Friday, August 9.
Album Review: Brian Scarborough- We Need the Wind
A gentle breeze elevates We Need the Wind. Brian Scarborough’s second album as a leader soars on an uplifting current of optimism. The trombonist is joined by four prominent Kansas City jazz musicians. Saxophonist Matt Otto, keyboardist Roger Wilder, bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Brian Steever assent to Scarborough’s innate cheerfulness. The Fender Rhodes wielded by Wilder adds a jaunty texture to the session. Otto adds characteristically thoughtful commentary to Scarborough’s melodies. The sturdy resolve of Harshbarger and Steever bolster the nine tracks. As for Scarborough, the multiplicity of his lofty talent continues to necessitate comparison to the Kansas City jazz icon Bob Brookmeyer.
Now’s the Time: Tatsuya Nakatani
Tatsuya Nakatani returns to the Ship on Thursday, November 30. The percussionist will be joined by Shawn Hansen, Jeff Harshbarger and Mike Stover following a solo set. Plastic Sax reviewed Nakatani’s 2019 performances at The Ship and the 1900 Building. The final four minutes of the embedded video are extremely amusing.
Album Review: The Alex Frank Quartet- Reclaim
Matt Otto’s Umbra, Plastic Sax’s favorite album of 2023, features elegant contributions from guitarist Alex Frank. The Kansas City musician makes a similarly graceful statement on his new album Reclaim. Accompanied by keyboardist Matt Villinger, bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer John Kizilarmut, Frank displays uncommon melodic bounce and an optimistic sensibility. Frank often seems on the verge of shredding, but in keeping with his tasteful playing with Otto, restraint is the byword of Reclaim.
Album Review: Matt Otto- Umbra
Umbra, the Matt Otto album released in August by Origin Records, is an understated masterpiece. Imbued with quiet grace, Umbra reflects the subtle magnanimity associated with Otto, a Kansas City saxophonist with a cool West Coast approach.
Yet the vaguely threatening “Little Things” opens Umbra. The core trio of saxophonist Otto, bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Kizilarmut is supplemented by shadowy contributions from trumpeter Hermon Mehari, keyboardist Matt Villinger and guitarist Alex Frank.
The musicians seem intent on pursuing peaceful resolutions on the remainder of the album. Otto promptly sets about addressing the quandary on the gorgeous second selection “Hawk.”
“Paw Paw,” perhaps Umbra’s best track, mirrors the excellence of Otto’s previous 2023 album Kansas City Trio. Kizilarmut’s sly playing indicates he’s become one of the elite drummers in improvised music.
The elastic “Melisma” concludes Umbra by alluding to the tension presented in “Little Things.” Profound equanimity, paired with extraordinary musicianship, gracefully resolve the album’s intellectual and spiritual challenges.
Album Review: Matt Otto- Kansas City Trio
The three trio albums Adam Larson released in a 14-month span are one of the most artistically rewarding achievements undertaken by a Kansas City musician in years. As if in response to Larson’s vital statement, Matt Otto issued the similarly daring Kansas City Trio on June 30.
Three Kansas City bassists- Bob Bowman, Jeff Harshbarger Ben Leifer- and three locally based drummers- John Kizilarmut, Marty Morrison and Brian Steever- construct interesting frameworks for Otto’s endlessly imaginative excursions.
The robust intellect, sly humor and gracious humanity displayed by Otto imbue the 12 tracks with magnificent grace. While his trios are always controlled and cool, their approaches emanate from the adventurous edge of mainstream jazz.
Relatively young artists, Larson and Otto are in their artistic primes. Any mid-size city would be lucky to claim one such elite saxophonist. Kansas City is exceptionally fortunate that both Larson and Otto call Kansas City home.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*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.
Now’s the Time: Danny Kamins
Danny Kamins will join the notable Kansas City musicians Seth Davis, Jeff Harshbarger, Krista Kopper and Evan Verploegh at the Bunker Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, September 19. The daring Houston based saxophonist can be heard in a variety of contests at Bandcamp.
Concert Review: The Dave Scott Quartet and Arnold Young and the RoughTet at Westport Coffee House
Original image by Plastic Sax. From left to right: John Nichols, Jacob Schwartzberg, Arnold Young (obscured), Dave Scott, Quin Wallace and Gary Cardile.
A concert at Westport Coffee House on Sunday, July 10, felt consequential even though fewer than two dozen people paid the $10 cover charge. A quartet led by trumpeter Dave Scott and Arnold Young’s RoughTet shared the bill in a rare confluence of exceptional homegrown talent.
Scott, a New York based trumpeter raised in the Kansas City area, and the Kansas City drummer Young made waves in the region’s jazz scene alongside their eminent peer Pat Metheny several decades ago. On Sunday, the bandleaders were joined by representatives of several generations of Kansas City jazz musicians. Each participant responded to the momentous summit with inspired playing.
A rambunctious couple sitting near the bandstand hooted and hollered throughout Young’s freewheeling 45-minute opening set. They had the right idea. Assisted by his longtime compatriot John Nichols on bass and Gary Cardile on percussion, the veteran drummer acted as an irreverent version of Art Blakey as he mentored the youthful tandem of saxophonist Jacob Schwartzberg and trumpeter Quin Wallace.
Renditions of selections from their new album Fear Is the Mind Killer were gloriously raucous. Scott sat in with the RoughTet before playing a 70-minute set with the New York based Michael Eaton (the saxophonist is from nearby Liberty), bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer Marty Morrison.
Eaton took several Coltrane-esque solos and a few of Scott’s distinctive statements resembled variations on “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Yet the ensemble mostly shifted between the proto-harmolodics of early Ornette Coleman, ominous post-bop and joyful Kansas City swing. Such transcendent displays of left-of-center artistic excellence in the face of public indifference are a hallmark of Kansas City’s jazz scene.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Jon Poses praises Tomorrow Is Not Promised, the new album by the Josh Nelson/Bob Bowman Collective, for The Columbia Daily Tribune.
*Steve Paul documented a portion of a recent performance by the Jeff Harshbarger Quartet at the Blue Room.
*Joe Dimino captured the ambience of a Westport Coffee House show featuring River Cow Orchestra.
*Tweet of the Week: Sly James- Good groove w/ #RSS @ #GreenLadyLoungetonight. #LoveKC. #StayFrosty
Concert Review: Steve Cardenas at recordBar
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Giovanni Russonello’s "Where Jazz Lives Now" treatise in The New York Times generated a kerfuffle in jazz circles last week. The controversial article asserts that most performances of groundbreaking improvised music no longer transpire in venues dedicated to jazz.
The claim rings true in Kansas City. A significant portion of adventurous jazz programming in the region during the past 15 years has been presented under the auspices of the Jeff Harshbarger Presents series at the rock-oriented venue recordBar.
Members of an attentive audience of about 100 paid $15 to hear a homecoming concert by the New York based guitarist Steve Cardenas at recordBar on Sunday, March 20. Cardenas was joined by bassist Forest Stewart and drummer Brian Steever in the series’ first presentation since the onset of the pandemic.
In spite of its unconventional setting, little of the internecine contention generated by Russonello’s feature applied to the outing. The trio’s elevated musicianship was beyond destructive turf wars. They implied avant-garde wooliness even as they evinced Kansas City-style swing.
Renditions of original compositions by Cardenas and Stewart were as potent as the standards performed by the trio. The strong show of support, superlative sound and exceptional music made debate irrelevant. Kansas City’s jazz scene seemed entirely cohesive, healthy and robust at a rock club last Sunday.
First set: Wail (Bud Powell), Newer Normal (Forest Stewart), Lost and Found (Steve Cardenas), Fleurette Africaine (Duke Ellington), Don Formation (Forest Stewart), untitled (Steve Cardenas), Ladies in Mercedes (Steve Swallow)
Concert Review: Thollem McDonas at 9th and State
Original image by Plastic Sax.
The Antler’s Club, a den of iniquity during the Pendergast era in Kansas City, hosted a band featuring a teenaged Charlie Parker in 1938. In the same space in the West Bottoms on September 24, 2021, five musicians successfully pursued an extreme manifestation of Parker-inspired improvisation.
The itinerant new music luminary Thollem McDonas (keyboard) was joined by Kansas City musicians Seth Davis (guitar), Krista Kopper (bass), Jeff Harshbarger (bass) and Brian Steever (drums) in the tavern now operating as 9th & State. Following a set in which McDonas provided music for ACVilla’s short silent film Worlds In a Life, the quintet launched into an extended improvisation filled with strong interplay.
Although he’s acclaimed for high-profile collaborations, McDonas deferred to the Kansas Citians. Kopper and Harshbarger deftly took turns as de facto leaders. Kopper initiated many of the most interesting developments. Harshbarger’s impressive stunts included wielding two bows simultaneously.
The swing-oriented Steever thrived in the free setting. His bag of tricks included using bandanas as drumsticks. The jagged tones emitted by Davis’ instrument resembled concertina wire. Parker may not have recognized the sounds, but he probably would have approved of the quintet’s audacious flaunting of Kansas City’s established conventions.
Album Review: Alaturka- In Concert with KU Jazz Ensemble I
Alaturka was one of one of Kansas City’s most auspicious bands during the quartet’s most active period in the first half of the previous decade. Beau Bledsoe (guitar, oud and primary musicologist), Rich Wheeler (saxophone), Jeff Harshbarger (bass) and Brandon Draper (percussion) combined the classical music of Turkey with American jazz.
Augmentation from a big band seemed like an unnecessary and excessive proposal. Yet a surprise release reveals that Alaturka’s 2013 collaboration with Dan Gailey’s KU Jazz Ensemble 1 at the Lawrence Arts Center resulted in an entirely tasteful concert.
Each member of Alaturka is in peak form and almost all of the textures the big band adds to selections like “Leyla” on In Concert with KU Jazz Ensemble I are appealing evocations of Gil Evans’ arrangements for Miles Davis’ 1960 album Sketches of Spain. While a bit of momentum is lost on “Dar Hejîrokê/Fig Tree,” the superlative document inspires hope for a resumption of activity in the Alaturka camp.