Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Grand Marquis + Cris Williamson + John Keck +
Patrick Alonzo Conway & Gamelan Genta Kasturi

10:00 – Station ID

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / Universal / Dec. 20, 1979
[WMM’s theme]

We lost one of our own at KKFI as Caroline Lee passed away early in the morning on Wednesday, April 18th, surrounded by her family. Caroline was married to Barry Lee. Together they have been a constant presence in the area music scene and on the radio. Caroline was an early volunteer and organizer for 90.1 FM. When the station went the air in 1988 Caroline hosted and produced “Watusi Rodeo,” (one of the first alternative country radio shows). When that program ended its run, she was often a guest-host on, Signal To Noise. Barry Lee will present a radio memorial for Caroline on May 4th at 9:00 pm. There will also be a concert at Knuckleheads Saloon in July in her memory.

In honor of Caroline’s passing I would love to play a song from Cris Williamson’s 2001 release “Ashes,” 12 original songs about transformation, love, and the Phoenix rising. Helping Cris with the vocals is her friend Bonnie Raitt.

10:01

2. Cris Williamson – “Cry Cry Cry”
from: Ashes / Wolf Moon Records / September 18, 2001
[Written by Cris Williamson. Produced by Teresa Trull. Lead vocals – Cris Williamson, piano – Bonnie Hayes, supporting vocals – Bonnie Raitt, string arrangments & keyboard – Frank Martin, violin – Jeremy Cohen.]

[Cris Williamson will be in KC for the first time in 10 years, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Kansas City, Missouri, 4501 Walnut, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm. ]

10:07

3. John Keck – “Dear Life”
from: Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles / John L. Keck / Expected May 2018
[Written by John Keck. Produced/Engineered/Mixed by Chase Horseman at Element Recording & Mastering Studios. Mastered by Ian Dobyns. John Keck on Guitar & vocals; Shannon O’Shea on violin; Chase Horseman on bass, drums, organ, & wurlitzer. This EP represents the first studio release in 5 years and is the first of 3 songs in a planned series of work. “Out in the Cold” a reflection on our society. These 3 songs were written while living on historic 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. This is John’s first release since his 2013 Jack Moon Sessions, which was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis. More at: http://www.johnlkeck.com]

[John Keck will be in concert with John Statz on Friday, April 27 at Replay Lounge in Lawrence.]

[John Keck will be in concert with John Statz, and Kelly Hunt, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm at Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gilliam Rd, KCMO]

10:11 – Interview with John Keck

Kansas City based singer songwriter John Keck joins us to share music from his new EP, Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles. This is John’s first release since his 2013 Jack Moon Sessions, which was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis.

John Keck, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles. This EP represents the first studio release in 5 years and is the first of 3 songs in a planned series of work. “Out in the Cold” a reflection on our society. These 3 songs were written while living on historic 12th St. in downtown KCMO.

Produced, engineered, & mixed by Chase Horseman at Element Recording Studios.

John Keck’s mom was a teacher.

Missouri Queen.

John’s words – This is an ode to my single mother and the advice she’s given me. I wanted a short biographical song that allows me to give a frame of reference for where all of my songs come from and this was born. My Grandfather flew a B-29 in WWII called the “Missouri Queen”. There were Japanese fighters with floodlights on their noses that would chase the B-29s and light them up so they could be shot down. She told me that he would say “Don’t get caught in the light”, which is advice that she passed down for me to interrupt My Dad was a pilot and always gone when i was growing up, I would look up at the stars and confuse them with taillights of airplanes. Hence the shooting stars. When my parents separated, my mom returned to the farm where my grandparents lived and it became an integral part of my life. When I pushed my mom for more advice for the song she repeated what she has always told me, which is this story. “A Persian king asked the wisest man of his country for advice that would always be true, and he replied ‘This too shall pass’”

10:20

4. John Keck – “Missouri Queen”
from: Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles / John L. Keck / Expected May 2018
[Written by John Keck. Produced/Engineered/Mixed by Chase Horseman at Element Recording & Mastering Studios. Mastered by Ian Dobyns. John Keck on Guitar & vocals. This EP represents the first studio release in 5 years and is the first of 3 songs in a planned series of work. “Out in the Cold” a reflection on our society. These 3 songs were written while living on historic 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. This is John’s first release since his 2013 Jack Moon Sessions, which was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis. More at: http://www.johnlkeck.com]

10:22 – Interview with John Keck

We are talking with Kansas City based singer songwriter John Keck joins us to share music from his new EP, Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles. This is John’s first release since his 2013 Jack Moon Sessions, which was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis.

John Keck will be in concert with John Statz on Friday, April 27 at Replay Lounge in Lawrence.

John Keck will be in concert with John Statz, and Kelly Hunt, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm at Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gilliam Rd, KCMO.

“Song For Mother”

John’s words – The last piece began after the shooting in Ferguson, MO. In following weeks I heard an interview with a woman who was protesting, I remember her saying “We’re just trying to keep our sons alive in the streets, don’t you understand, why can’t people understand”. Her voice stayed with me, haunting me as I watched and read about shooting after shooting. Eventually I dreamt a conversation with a mother who has been confronted all of her days with the death of their child. I woke up and sang this song to myself in the middle of the night. At first she is hesitant to say anything, but then can’t stop herself, going through grief, confusion, sadness, anger, frustration and finally feeling hopeless, pointless. The faint piano represents the child voice/spirit and the violin is speaking for the mother.

John’s words – Just before recording I spoke to the violinist, Shannon O’Shea, I told her what the song represented and asked her to play a solo with that represents the physical struggle when you’re sobbing so hard you can’t control your breath.

John Keck will be in concert with John Statz on Friday, April 27 at Replay Lounge in Lawrence. John Keck will be in concert with John Statz, and Kelly Hunt, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm at Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gilliam Rd, KCMO.

10:30

4. John Keck – “Song For Mother”
from: Out In The Cold – 12th Street Singles / John L. Keck / Expected May 2018
[Written by John Keck. Produced/Engineered/Mixed by Chase Horseman at Element Recording & Mastering Studios. Mastered by Ian Dobyns. John Keck on Guitar & vocals; Shannon O’Shea on violin; Chase Horseman on piano & pump organ. This EP represents the first studio release in 5 years and is the first of 3 songs in a planned series of work. “Out in the Cold” a reflection on our society. These 3 songs were written while living on historic 12th Street in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. This is John’s first release since his 2013 Jack Moon Sessions, which was recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis. More at: http://www.johnlkeck.com]

[John Keck will be in concert with John Statz on Friday, April 27 at Replay Lounge in Lawrence.]

[John Keck will be in concert with John Statz, and Kelly Hunt, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm at Pilgrim Chapel, 3801 Gilliam Rd, KCMO]

10:34 – Underwriting

6. Gamelan Genta Kasturi – “Sekar Jagat”
from: unreleased track “welcoming dance” / Gamelan Genta Kasturi /
[written by Patrick Alonzo Conway]

10:39 – Interview with Patrick Alonzo Conway

Patrick Alonzo Conway on the April 25, 2018 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI.

Patrick Alonzo Conway is a Kansas City based composer, performer, educator, and independent musician. He holds a Masters in Music Composition from the UMKC Conservatory of Music. He was a founding member of newEar, and he works with Terrestrial Consort, People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Mambo DeLeon, Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7, Expassionates, and BCR. He is a 2012 recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Fellow Award. Patrick Alonzo Conway is also the Director of Gamelan Genta Kasturi.

Patrick joins us to share details about KC’s Gamelan Genta Kasturi – 15th Anniversary performance at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Sunday, April 29 at 2:00 PM.

Patrick Alonzo Conway thanks for being with us again on WMM.

Congratulations on KC’s Gamelan Genta Kasturi – 15th Anniversary!

The performance will feature guest Balinese artists: I Ketút Gedé Asnawa, Putu Oka Mardiani, Ni Made Nias Yunirika and Ni Nyoman Nias Yonitika;

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gamelan Students: Putu Tangkas Hiranmayena, Ika Putri and Fedelia Trivianti;

and The Indonesian Community of KC Dancers; plus special guest Shawn Hansen on electronics.

This concert of will demonstrate traditional and modern Balinese Gamelan Music and Dance. This event is free, but requires a ticket to enter.

To reserve tickets: https://nelson-atkins.org/events/performance-gamelan-genta-kasturi-15th-anniversary-concert/

For over 15 years KC’s community Balinese gamelan orchestra, Gamelan Genta Kasturi, has been presenting community concerts.

The group’s founder and family return in a special concert of Balinese Music & Dance featuring original compositions by Mr. Asnawa and traditional classics.

Gamelan Genta Kasturi with Balinese Guest Artists, under the direction of I Ketút Gedé Asnawa, featuring his wife Putu Oka Mardiani Asnawa, and two daughters Yunirika Asnawa & Yonitika Asnawa performing several dances with the music.

Mr. Asnawa has been faculty at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in conjunction with the Robert E. Brown Center For World Music since leaving Kansas City in 2006. He and his family maintain an active schedule performing, teaching and promoting Balinese Cultural Arts.

Gamelan Genta Kasturi have been Studio Residents as part of the Charlotte Street Foundation/Urban Culture Project Studio Residency Program.

Gamelan Genta Kasturi, premiered a large scale collaborative work in 2011 featuring his Patrick Alonzo Conway’s original composition Angels & Demons at Play through Urban Culture Project and ArtSounds.

A gamelan is a traditional musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Java and Bali, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, kendang (drums) & gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed & plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included. For most Indonesians, gamelan music is an integral part of Indonesian culture.

The term refers more to the set of instruments than to the players of those instruments. A gamelan is a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together – instruments from different gamelan are generally not interchangeable.

Bali is a province of Indonesia. The province covers a few small neighboring islands as well as the isle of Bali. The main island is located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country’s 34 provinces w/ the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the S. of the island.
Patrick Alonzo Conway went to Bali.

Kansas City’s Gamelan Genta Kasturi – 15th Anniversary performance at The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Sunday, April 29 at 2:00 PM. http://www.gamelangentakasturi.org

https://nelson-atkins.org/events/performance-gamelan-genta-kasturi-15th-anniversary-concert/

10:57

7. Gamelan Genta Kasturi – “Samvartaka”
from: Rehearsal recording / Gamelan Genta Kasturi /
[Original composition written by Patrick Alonzo Conway for 20th aniversary of Charlotte Street Foundation.]

11:00 – Station ID

8. Grand Marquis – “Another Lover”
from: Brighter Days / King Forward Records / April 28, 2018

11:04 – Interview with Bryan Redmond and Ben Ruth

Grand Marquis were founded in 1998, over the last 20 years they have logged well over 2000 performances from Seattle to South Beach Miami playing their very own mix of American Roots, Blues, & Prohibition Jazz. They have now released 8 albums including a 7” 45 rpm vinyl recorded at legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. Grand Marquis write powerful original songs and mix classic standards into their sets. Bryan Redmond on lead vocals & saxophones, Chad Boydston on trumpet, Trevor Turla on trombone, Ryan Wurtz on guitar, Ben Ruth on upright bass & sousaphone, and Fritz Hutchison on drums.

Grand Marguis are releasing their new album, Brighter Days and play a Brighter Days – Release Party on Saturday, April 28, at 8:30 at Knuckleheads, with Victor & Penny, and Brandon Phillips and The Condition.

Bryan Redmond and Ben Ruth thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Grand Marquis are playing the Zoo Bar in Lincoln Nebraska, Friday, April 27.

“This band plays as if the joint was literally on fire.” Billtown Blues Association

“Completely infectious…it begs to be played loud, it begs to be danced to!” Boston Blues Review

“…moving the genre forward into the next century.” Graham Clarke, Blues Bytes

“Few bands have more fun or produce more joy in an audience while onstage.” Jason Harper, The Pitch

Accolades:

2013 International Blues Challenge Finalists: “Best Self-Produced CD”
2011 International Blues Challenge Finalists (The Blues Foundation)
2011 Best Blues Band – The Pitch (Kansas City, MO)
2010 Topeka Blues Society International Blues Challenge Champions
2007 Best Jazz Band – The Pitch (Kansas City, MO)
2006 Best Jazz Band – The Pitch (Kansas City, MO)
2006 Best Local Band – The X Entertainment Magazine (Kansas City metro area)

11:12

9. Grand Marquis – “Brighter Days”
from: Brighter Days / King Forward Records / April 28, 2018

11:16 – More Interview with Bryan Redmond and Ben Ruth

Grand Marquis Discography:

“Brighter Days”2018
“Blues and Trouble” 2013
“The Sun Session” 2011
“Hold On To Me” 2010
“One More Day” 2007
“Grand Marquis” 2004
“Le Chant Du Diable Bleu” 2002
“Burlesk” 2000

The band has grown and evolved over the years.

Grand Marquis are Bryan Redmond on lead vocals & saxophones, Chad Boydston on trumpet, Trevor Turla on trombone, Ryan Wurtz on guitar, Ben Ruth on upright bass & sousaphone, and Fritz Hutchison on drums. Brighter Days is the band’s 8th release. Grand Marquis play a Brighter Days – Release Party on Saturday, April 28, at 8:30 at Knuckleheads, with Victor & Penny, and Brandon Phillips and The Condition.

Bryan Redmond and Ben Ruth have kept this band alive and made all of this music while also growing families and raising kids.

Ben Ruth also plays in the bands: The Hardship Letters, Be/Non.

http://www.grandmarquis.net

Grand Marguis are releasing their new album, Brighter Days and play a Brighter Days – Release Party on Saturday, April 28, at 8:30 at Knuckleheads, with Victor & Penny, and Brandon Phillips and The Condition.

11:23

10. Grand Marquis – “Many Rivers to Cross”
from: Brighter Days / King Forward Records / April 28, 2018

11:28 – Underwriting

11. Cris Williamson – “Motherland”
from: Motherland / Wolf Moon Records / November 14, 2017
[30th release from legendary singer songwriter. Produced by Julie Wolf.]

11:34 – Interview with Cris Williamson

Legendary singer songwriter Cris Williamson recently released her 32nd album, Motherland. Cris Williamson is a brilliant songwriter, poet, pioneer, and renegade who recorded her first album in the 1964 when she was sixteen. Cris Williamson’s groundbreaking album, The Changer and the Changed, was released in 1975, and became one of the best-selling independent releases of all time, selling over 500,000 copies. The sales of these records allowed the independent label Olivia Records to release music from a whole new movement of diverse female artists, all overlooked by mainstream music. Cris Williamson helped to forge a historic movement in the male dominated music industry, fostering the creation of completely female owned record labels, touring companies, and music festivals. The movement, (often misclassified as a genre) was about opening the doors, and smashing glass ceilings, for so many women to follow, who had been shut-out of the game, simply because of their gender. Cris seemed to shrug all of that off with an earthy sexy confidence that makes audiences swoon for her. She wrote music for people desiring to find their own identities in modern folk and pop music. No one had ever courageously written and performed so many brilliant full length albums of songs by women, about women, for women. At the same time, these songs are universal to us all. These songs were all impeccably and professionally produced and have stood the test of time and could go up against any of the songs by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, or James Taylor. Only difference is mainstream radio and television has almost completely ignored Cris Williamson. Despite this injustice, through her amazing voice, and spirit, and open heart, Cris has helped make the world a better place for all female and LGBTQIA artists who follow the path she cleared. We owe her for that. Cris Williamson has written and recorded hundreds of beautiful, incredible songs, while remaining one of our most underrated singer songwriters of the last 50 years. If you’ve never seen her in concert, now is your chance! Cris Williamson will be in KC for the first time in 10 years, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church , 4501 Walnut, on Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm.

Cris Williamson thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

On Motherland we just heard the title track, a song Cris wrote. All of the other songs on the new record are written by her musical contemporaries of the past 50 years: Joni Mitchell, Eliza Gilkyson, Laura Nyro, Patty Griffin, Bob Dylan, Jackson Brown, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen & Jennifer Warnes. We’ve heard you cover songs from Joni Mitchell & James Taylor on earlier releases.

Cris Williamson was part of NPR Music’s 2017 feature on The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women with her record – The Changer and the Changed: A Record of the Times (Olivia Records, 1975)

From NPR Music’s The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women (7/24/2017):
“I’m kind of hand-carried, person to person,” Cris Williamson told the journalist Ben Fong-Torres in 1981, when asked how people discovered her music. “There are secretaries who’ve told me they can’t get through the day without running home during lunch hour and playing it.” Such was the impact of the Wyoming native’s voice, clear as a mountain stream, and her empathetic songwriting, which made this album one of the best-selling independent releases of all time and the cornerstone of the feminist “women’s music” movement. Produced by Williamson and featuring dozens of the era’s finest women musicians — including guitarists Meg Christian and June Millington, bass virtuoso Jacqueline Robbins and vocalists Holly Near and Margie Adam — Changer blended pop, country and folk elements in songs that were both cuttingly intimate and generously communal. (A few featured large choruses inspired by the sing-alongs women’s music artists inspired in concert.) Williamson’s own keyboard playing ranged from contemplative to dance-floor funky. The clear and confident lesbian desire behind love songs like “Sweet Woman” and “Dream Child” made Williamson a sex symbol; her philosophical side made Changer a record of spiritual growth, too. Speaking what at the time remained mostly unspoken in pop, this album truly changed lives. —Ann Powers (NPR Music)

From http://www.smithsonianmag.com:
Ginny Berson belonged to the Furies collective, a radical, separatist household that published journals, taught classes, and advocated communal living apart from men. Judy Dlugacz, 20, had postponed law school to pursue lesbian activism and was interested in finding an economically workable means of serving the women’s community. Performing as a folk musician at area clubs and coffeehouses, Meg Christian was eager to meet other women songwriters like Cris Williamson—who had released her first album in 1964 at age 16.

When Williamson came on tour to D.C., Christian and Berson not only arranged to bring other women’s music fans to the concert; in a gesture that changed history, they also scheduled a follow-up interview on Georgetown University’s “Radio Free Women” program. On the show, Berson spoke about how she and other members of the Furies collective were searching for a bigger project to invest in— “something that’s for women, by women, and supported by women’s money”—and Williamson responded with a simple yet provocative suggestion, “Why don’t you start a women’s record company?”

It has been over 10 years since Cris Williamson has been back to Kansas City.
Cris will be playing at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Kansas City, Missouri, 4501 Walnut, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm.

Cris is also doing a show in St. Louis on April 28, at MCC of St. Louis

http://www.criswilliamson.com

Never one to rest on her laurels, to which Cris replied laughing, “What Laurels?” In the last 17 years Cris have released 11 full length albums (a few of those were double albums). That works out to be a new album every year and half. Considering the process of writing, recording, mastering, raising the funds to produce and launch a new record, we asked Cris to share what she might be currently working on for the next release. She told us that she has a back log of new songs she has written and collected and from those songs she is working through what she may release next. She has been playing with the idea of releasing an album of American standards, but held back because so many other musicians have been doing this.

(Note: The laurels that are being referred to when someone is said to ‘rest on his laurels’ are the aromatically scented Laurus Nobilis trees or, more specifically, their leaves. The trees are known colloquially as Sweet Bay and are commonly grown as culinary or ornamental plants. Rest on his laurels. The origins of the phrase lie in ancient Greece, where laurel wreaths were symbols of victory and status.)

Throughout the last 15 years Cris Williamson has also conducted Songwriting Workshops.

This summer Cris will be traveling to Norway with Olivia Cruises, and returning to National Women’s Music Festival, and in the fall, attending Women’s Week in Provincetown.

11:55

12. Cris Williamson – “Woman”
from: Motherland / Wolf Moon Records / November 14, 2017
[30th release from legendary singer songwriter. Produced by Julie Wolf.]

[Cris Williamson will be in KC for the first time in 10 years, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church Kansas City, Missouri, 4501 Walnut, Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 pm. ]

13. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]
[WMM Closing Theme]

Next week, on May 2, Marion Merritt of Records With Merritt, returns as our Guest Producer sharing musical discoveries and information from her encyclopedic brain. Also next week, Barry Lee joins us to share information about, An Evening With the Music of The Beatles: Unplugged, Saturday, May 12 at 7:30 PM, at Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS where Signal to Noise’s Barry Lee hosts an All-Star group of KC & Lawrence musicians in a benefit for KPR’s Audio Reader Network. The evening will highlight the quieter side of the Beatles’ music. Special guests The Volker Brothers (David George & Eric Voeks) will open the show with a set of acoustic Beatles songs.

Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.kkfi.org,
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org,
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM

Show #731