Rod Fleeman, Plastic Sax’s 2021 Person of the Year, leads a trio every Saturday afternoon at Green Lady Lounge. The guitarist performs with a band led by drummer John Armato in the embedded video.
The Top Jazz Albums of 2021
More than two dozen jazz albums by artists associated with the Kansas City area were released in 2021. A ranking of my ten favorite titles follows. For context, I’ve added a list of my top ten jazz albums by artists without immediate connections to Kansas City.
The Top Kansas City Jazz Albums of 2021
1. Pat Metheny- Road to the Sun
2. Pat Metheny- Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)
3. Hermon Mehari and Alessandro Lanzoni- Arc Fiction
4. Verploegh and Baker- Singles
5. Steve Million- What I Meant to Say
6. The Count Basie Orchestra- Live at Birdland
7. Florian Arbenz, Hermon Mehari and Nelson Veras- Conversation #1: Condensed
8. John Armato- The Drummer Loves Ballads
9. Lucy Wijnands- Sings the David Heckendorn Song Book
10. Blob Castle- Music for Art Show
The Top Jazz Albums of 2021 by Artists From Elsewhere
1. Irreversible Entanglements- Open the Gates
2. Mathias Eick- When We Leave
3. Pino Palladino and Blake Mills- Notes With Attachments
4. Nala Sinephro- Space 1.8
5. Sons of Kemet- Black to the Future
6. Evan Parker Quartet- All Knavery & Collusion
7. Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble- Now
8. Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson- Searching for the Disappeared Hour
9. Artifacts- …And Then There’s This
10. Angel Bat Dawid- Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1: Doxology
Links to similar annual surveys of the past 11 years begin here.
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Dave Scott and Tim Brewer chatted with Joe Dimino about their past and present endeavors.
*The Leedy-Voulkos Art Center hosts a jazz-themed art exhibition through December 31.
*The author of this blog muses on the shifting landscape for music venues in a report by KCUR’s Laura Spencer.
*Tweet of the Week: John Armato- Veteran music journalist Bill Brownlee calls "The Drummer Loves Ballads" one of the Top 25 Kansas City Albums of 2021. Thank you Bill! (link)
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*John Armato discussed his new album with Nic Spacek for a feature in The Kansas City Star.
*Zach Shemon, Assistant Professor of Saxophone at UMKC’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, was part of an hour-long conversation about his ensemble Prism Quartet on Classical KC.
*Kansas City Magazine created a guide titled “The Best Places to See Live Jazz in Kansas City Right Now.”
*Tweet of the Week: KC Jazz Orchestra- Join us one week from today at Polsky Theater (on the Johnson County Community College campus) for a free masterclass with Jaleel Shaw featuring the music of Charlie Parker! We can't wait!
Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes
Original image by Plastic Sax.
*Carl Allen chatted with Steve Kraske about his new position at UMKC on KCUR’s Up To Date program.
*John Armato and Andrew Ouellette made appearances on Neon Jazz.
*The Kansas City Beacon filed a report about decrepit city-owned properties in the Jazz District.
*Tweet of the Week: Charles Lloyd- Sending white light and prayers to my friend #PhilSchaap who has filled #WKCR airways for decades and augmented our knowledge not only about Bird but the history of Jazz. His health is failing. Listen to Bird and send him light and prayers, he will feel it. (link)
Album Review: John Armato- The Drummer Loves Ballads
The most emblematic Kansas City jazz album of 2021 is the work of a drummer who currently lives in Sacramento. John Armato oversees a bevy of prominent Kansas City musicians on his ambitious concept album The Drummer Loves Ballads.
Armato turns to the contacts he made during the years he spent on Kansas City’s jazz scene to realize his imaginative vision. Two storied outsiders- saxophonist Houston Person and cornetist Warren Vaché- also get in on the action on the project released in May.
A survey of a few highlights reflects the album’s breadth. Brett Jackson pays tribute to the late baritone saxophonist Kerry Strayer on “Night Lights.” Lucy Wijnands, the daughter of the Kansas City mainstay Bram Wijnands, croons the dreamy chanson “The Shadows of Paris.”
A duet by vocalists Ron Gutierrez and Molly Hammer is ravishing. Veteran pianist Wayne Hawkins and clarinetist Lynn Zimmer make sentimental contributions. An interpretation of “Lonely Woman” features characteristically stunning work from guitarist Rod Fleeman and bassist Gerald Spaits.
The inclusion of so many scene stalwarts on the stylistically conservative, musically impeccable and deliberately hushed The Drummer Loves Ballads makes the album an invaluable document of the mainstream sound that continues to dominate Kansas City’s jazz clubs.