The Kansas City trumpeter Trent Austin is featured in the Jazz Winterlude series at Polsky Theatre on Sunday, February 19.
Concert Review: Oran Etkin at Polsky Theatre
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Oran Etkin resembled Victor Frankenstein at an audacious concert at Polsky Theatre on Sunday, January 22. Manipulating recorded sounds on a laptop while overseeing a mix-and-match quartet, Etkin seemed like a mad scientist teaching an ungainly mutation to hum “Kumbaya, My Lord.”
An explanatory video preceding the concert outlined Etkin’s Open Arms Project. The itinerant idealist’s band delivered a message of social justice and multicultural unity in a concert that refused to recognize national boundaries or musical borders. A gallery of 75 observed the sonic laboratory.
The band embodied Etkins’ inclusive world music philosophy. The multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Etkin, guitarist Vinicius Gomes, bassist Sam Minaie and drummer Alvester Garnett traversed the globe during 80 minutes of improvised music.
The delicate playing of Brazilian guitarist Gomes is heard to great effect on Home, a 2022 duet album with vocalist Song Yi Jeon. Yet the insistent style of Garnett, an American artist best known for his work with Regina Carter and Abbey Lincoln, didn’t always allow Gomes’ soloing room to breathe.
A concept initiated by Minaie, an Iranian-American who has recorded with Tigran Hamasyan, was unceremoniously nixed. Diligent researchers expect unsuccessful trials. The quartet transcended the failed experiments with several inspired moments including an evocation of Eric Dolphy that resounded like a priceless breakthrough.
Now’s the Time: Oran Etkin
Multi-instrumentalist Oran Etkin is joined by four of the world’s best musicians in the embedded video. His accompanists for a concert at Polsky Theatre on Sunday, January 22, will include the extraordinary guitarist Vinicius Gomes and the accomplished bassist Sam Minaie.
Concert Review: Pat Metheny in Kansas City: The Genesis of Genius at Polsky Theatre
Original image by Plastic Sax.
Advance promotional material for the Pat Metheny in Kansas City: The Genesis of Genius presentation at Polsky Theatre on Thursday, March 3, included the advisory “Pat Metheny will not be attending this event.” The sadly unnecessary disclaimer underscored an unfortunate truth.
Despite playing in more than four dozen American cities including Detroit during the past year, the hard-touring musician from nearby Lee’s Summit once again passed over the Kansas City area. Metheny last performed within the city limits in 2012. He subsequently played a poorly attended concert in Topeka in 2014.
Forty people attended the free noontime event on Thursday. The lecture by Carolyn Glenn Brewer, the author of the 2021 book Beneath Missouri Skies: Pat Metheny in Kansas City 1964-1972, was interspersed with performances of corresponding selections by guitarist Rob Whitsitt, bassist Tim Brewer and drummer Mike Warren.
The trio played polite versions of compositions Brewer selected as particularly meaningful to Metheny’s development. Images of album covers and black-and-white photographs accentuated the presentation. While plainly not as fulfilling as an actual Metheny concert, the ambitious offering was a commendable consolation prize.
Set list: Seven Steps to Heaven, Unit 7, John McKee, Broadway Blues, Walter L., Bright Size Life
Say It Isn't So
Original image by Plastic Sax.
I intend to purchase a $35 ticket to the Bessie, Billie and Nina: Pioneering Women in Jazz concert at Polsky Theatre. Performances by Tahira Clayton, Vanisha Gould and Charanée Wade in the Midwest Trust Center’s Jazz Winterlude series on March 6 will almost certainly be enjoyable.
Even though Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone merit the utmost respect, the booking is part of a pervasively discouraging trend. Honoring past heroes is commendable. Neglecting present innovators is detrimental. Angel Bat Dawid, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Esperanza Spalding are among the many artistically vibrant artists currently embodying the rebellious legacies of Holiday, Simone and Smith.
The conservatism of Jazz Winterlude is understandable. Past bookings by forward-thinking artists including Terri Lyne Carrington and Julian Lage received tepid public support. Curating a sanitized past is safer than presenting a divisive present.