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

Fathers + Poet Jen Harris & Lori Chandler +
Dwight Frizzell & Leo Wetherill & Missouri River Bridge as an Instrument

1. “It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / Dec 20, 1979
[WMM’s theme]

2. Other Americans – “Neon Sunrise (Glitchjoy Remix)”
from: OA2 / AWAL Records / October 19, 2019
[New EP follow up to the band’s debut self-titled EP from June 29, 2018. Julie Berndsen on lead vocals, Adam Phillips on drums, Brandon Phillips on guitar, Michelle Bacon on bass. Produced by Brandon Philllips. Engineered by Joel Nanos. Recorded at Element Recording Studios in Kansas City. All remixes by Mensa Deathsquad. Hailing from the musical hotbeds of Kansas City, MO, and Lawrence, KS, the electro-alternative OTHER AMERICANS are comprised of members of such regional luminaries as The Architects, Latenight Callers, The Philistines, Radar State and Brandon Phillips and The Condition. Other Americans is a virtual Midwestern supergroup. The cohorts first crossed paths in when a mutual friend and matchmaker introduced Brandon Phillips to vocalist Julie Berndsen “We were all looking for something new to do musically, recalls Brandon. “The way I remember it, a mutual friend (KC music producer Joel Nanos) told me that Julie was looking to start something new and I sent her a note about it. We had tacos to see if we liked each other.”]

[Other Americans play an OA2 Album Release Party with special guests Emmaline Twist, Saturday, October 19, at 9:00 PM at miniBar, 3810 Broadway, KCMO.]

3. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear – “Started With a Family”
from: Started With a Family / Starts With Music, LLC / September 6. 2019
[Produced with Grammy-winner Nathan Chapman at iconic Blackbird Studios in Nashville. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear have garnered international acclaim, and new fans from all over the world. They signed with Glassnote Records and recorded their debut full length album in Nashville with acclaimed producer Jim Abiss. They performed their debut single “Silent Movies” on The Late Show with David Letterman, they’ve toured across the United States, and Europe, more than once. They were featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NBC’s The Today Show, and “Later With Jools Holland and played Bonnaroo, Pilgramage, and the Newport Folk Festival, and the Ryman Theatre, in Nashville. Ruth Ward has continually performed throughout her life, mostly in coffee shops and open mics, for over 30 years, even recording a solo record. In the midst of this she got married and became a mom, and was busy raising a family. Madisen Ward was born in Oklahoma, and grew up in the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from William Chrisman High School in 2007. Madisen’s journey to become a musician, was “melodically passed down” through the songs of his mother, where Madisen grew up watching his mom perform at local coffee shops. Eventually he began to learn to play the guitar, and poured his talent for writing into the music to create original songs. They began playing Madisen’s original songs along with the occassional cover of a classic track reinterpreted in their own incredibly beautiful performance of two voices and two guitars in harmony and orchestration. Their debut album, The Skeleton Crew, was released May 9, 2015 and was our most played record that year and was #1 on WMM’s The 115 Best Recordings of 2015. The band’s follow up EP, Radio Winners was released July 27, 2018 and received critical acclaim.] [Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear played Crossroads Music Fest, Sat., Sept 7, Crossroads KC, with Shy Boys, Split Lip Rayfield, The Freedom Affair.]

[Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear play The High Watt, Nashville, Sat., Oct. 12.]

[Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear play Levitt Shell, Memphis, Sun., Oct. 13.]

4. Black Belt Eagle Scout – “Scorpio Moon”
from: At the Party With My Brown Friends / Saddle Creek / August 23, 2019
[Released in September of 2018, Mother of My Children was the debut album from Black Belt Eagle Scout, the recording project of Katherine Paul. Heralded as a favorite new musician of 2018 by the likes of NPR Music, Stereogum, and Paste, the album was also named as a “Best Rock Album of 2018” by Pitchfork, and garnered further end-of-year praise from FADER, Under The Radar and more. // Arriving just a year after that debut record, At the Party With My Brown Friends is a brand new full-length recording from Black Belt Eagle Scout. Where that first record was a snapshot of loss and landscape and of KP’s standing as a radical indigenous queer feminist, this new chapter finds its power in love, desire and friendship. // At the Party With My Brown Friends is a profound and understated forward step. The squalling guitar anthems that shaped its predecessor are replaced by delicate vocals and soft keys, sentiments spoken and unspoken, presenting something shadowy and unsettling; a stirring of the waters. // The end result presents a captivating about-face that redefines KP’s beautifully singular artistic vision. At the Party With My Brown Friends is introduced in greater detail here via a new statement by the artist. // ARTIST’S STATEMENT: My name is Katherine Paul and I am Black Belt Eagle Scout. // I grew up on the Swinomish Indian Reservation in NW Washington state, learning to play piano, guitar and drums in my adolescent years. The very first form of music that I can remember experiencing was the sound of my dad singing native chants to coo me to sleep as a baby. I grew up around powwows and the songs my grandfather and grandmother sang with my family in their drum group. This is what shapes how I create music: with passion and from the heart. // After the release of Mother of My Children, I felt awake and desperately wanted to put new music out into the world. I had no real intent behind At the Party With My Brown Friends except creating songs around what was going on in my life. In the past few years, the reciprocal love I experienced within friendships is what has been keeping me going. A lot of what is in this album deals with love, desire and friendship. // The lead single, “At the Party,” starts off with a quintessential BBES guitar lick, heading into booming and abundant drums and vocals. The lines ‘How is it real? We will always sing’ came out of me one evening when I was crafting the song in my bedroom. Within my conscious self, there is always a sense of questioning the legitimacy of the world when you grow up on an Indian reservation. We are all at the party (the world), trying to navigate ourselves within a good or bad situation. I happen to be at the party with my brown friends- Indigenous, Black, POC who always have my back while we walk throughout this event called life. // I started writing “My Heart Dreams” the summer after I initially put out MOMC, writing the guitar chords in a friend’s apartment on Ohlone land. I had been in a transitional part of my life, leaving one love and wanting to find another so much so that I felt like my heart was dreaming about it along with my brain at night. I have an obsession with dreams, mainly because I cannot remember most of mine and often times that leaves me frustrated not knowing that part of myself. I would wake up and be overcome with anxiety about not knowing what had gone down in my brain so much so that I started feeling like my heart dreamt more than my mind, thus becoming the line, my heart dreams. // I wrote “Going To The Beach With Haley” one day when I was out on a coastal trip with my friend Haley Heynderickx. We loaded up her car with our blankets and instruments and drove straight to a beach where we sat and listened to the waves and young families with their babies on the beach. I had brought my mini casio keyboard that had an array of beats I used when writing songs. The beat that’s on the song just stuck there along with the main guitar part. Initially written on an old acoustic guitar my mom bought me, the song really transformed in the studio where I added drums and other melodies to create the song. // Throughout the course of my writing and playing around this record, most of these songs deal with relationships I have either with loved ones or friends. I think it low key has to do with my anthropology degree, but also the fact that writing and playing guitar in my bedroom just makes everything feel better for me. For the longest time, I wanted to convey my feelings around coming out to my family. It had been a good experience for me and while I know it is not always that way when kids decide to tell their family, I think that we can open our hearts more for that. I would watch youtube videos of moms being proud of their kids surrounding their sexuality and gender identity and I really wanted to raise my voice to say, ‘my family too!’ What started with trying to sound so literal in this song ended up turning into a song about how much I love my mom and how our connection is eternal. “You’re Me and I’m You” is about being one with your mother, since we all were a part of their bodies at one point. It’s me trying to explore who she is and who I am with my love for people.]

[Black Belt Eagle Scout plays White Schoolhouse, 1510 North 3rd Street, Lawrence, KS. Thursday, November 7, at 7:00 PM with Hikes, and Bad Alaskan.]

5. Hand Habits – “can’t calm down”
from: placeholder / Saddle Creek Records / March 1, 2019
[Meg Duffy grew up in a small town in Upstate New York and they cut their teeth as a session guitarist and touring member of Kevin Morby’s band. The Hand Habits project emerged after Meg moved to Los Angeles; it started as a private songwriting outlet but soon evolved into a fully-fledged band with Meg at the helm. Hand Habits’ debut album, Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void), was released by Woodsist Records in 2017. The LP was entirely self-produced and recorded in Meg’s home during spare moments when they weren’t touring. Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void) is a lush, homespun collection of folk songs that found Meg in an exploratory state as an artist moving out on their own for the first time. Two years later, Hand Habits has returned with their sophomore album, placeholder. To make this album, Meg chose to work in a studio and bring in collaborators, entrusting them with what had previously been a very personal creative process. Over the course of 12 tracks, Meg emerges with new confidence as both a bandleader and singer. This album is as tender and immediate as anything Meg’s ever written, but it’s also intensely focused and refined, the work of a meticulous musician ready to share their singular vision with the world. The name placeholder stems from Meg’s fascination with the undefinable. Their songs serve as openings — carved-out spaces waiting to be endowed with meaning. As a lyricist, Meg is drawn to the in-between, and the songs on this new album primarily confront the ways in which certain experiences can serve as a stepping stone on the road to self-discovery. “A big aspect of my songwriting and the way I move through the world depends on my relationships with people. The songs on placeholder are about accountability and forgiveness,” Meg says. “These are all real stories. I don’t fictionalize much.” Meg describes these songs as their most direct to date, crafted with clear intention, and unlike Wildly Idle (Humble Before The Void), placeholder doesn’t meander. “It’s less of a submerged landscape and more a concise series of thoughts,” Meg explains. Instrumentally, placeholder can be situated alongside some of Meg’s folk-adjacent contemporaries like Angel Olsen or Big Thief, and the guitar work on this album proves that Meg continues to be one of the finest young musicians working today. placeholder is another entry in the Hand Habits songbook, but it’s also a valuable testament of our time. While placeholder inspires a sense of ease, simple questions rarely beget easy answers and Meg honors the indescribable joy and profound sorrow that comes with figuring things out, one step at a time.]

[Hand Habits play In-Store at Mills Record Company, 4050 Broadway, TODAY, Wed Sept 11, 3:30 PM.]

[Hand Habits play a solo show at Uptown Theatre, Sunday, October 20.]

6. Bon Iver – “Hey, Ma”
from: i,i / Jagjaguwar Records / August 9, 2019
[Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon released Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, independently in July 2007. The majority of that album was recorded while Vernon spent three months isolated in a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin. The band later won in 2012 the Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album for their album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. They released their third album 22, A Million to critical acclaim in 2016, which was followed by their fourth album i,i in 2019.The name “Bon Iver” derives from the French phrase bon hiver (French pronunciation: ​[bɔn‿ivɛːʁ]) (“good winter”), taken from a greeting on Northern Exposure.]

7. Calvin Arsenia – “Back To You (Paul Brown Mix)”
from: L.A. Sessions / Center Cut Records / September 20, 2019
[1st single from L.A. Sessions released August 16. Produced by Tony Braunagel (he also delivers exquisite percussion on LA Sessions) with Paul Brown on guitar, Mike Finnigan on keyboards, Freddie Washington on bass, and David Garfield on piano. Between them, the five musicians have worked with some of music’s most iconic names, including Jimi Hendrix, George Benson, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Leonard Cohen, Bonnie Raitt, Chuck Loeb, Rickie Lee Jones, Buddy Guy, The Neville Brothers From Center Cut Record Press Release: “It was a thrill for me to work with such legendary players,” says Calvin. “Not only were they incredibly talented, but I got off a plane straight from Australia, hit the studio, and they were more than ready to get to that place where you honor the songs, leaving their egos at the door and honoring what the muses tell them. It was one of the best recording experiences I ever had.” Calvin’s production M.O. on previous recordings was to piece together songs “like pieces of a puzzle” and “layer them over several sessions.” He believes the immediacy of the LA Sessions, and having the instrumentation all happening in the “same emotional space together as a band,” powerfully served the intimacy of the album, particularly on the reflective “Back To You.” “It’s one of the most vulnerable songs on the album, and it always plays that way in my live set, and the guys were able to help me capture that,” he says. “The song is a very heartfelt admission of guilt, I think. But it’s done in a way people usually don’t want to talk about. Breakup songs are usually angry and lashing out and this is a very sober-minded take on it. It’s not something we usually want to admit, surrendering or admitting defeat in a relationship, because everyone thinks you’re always going to make it through, and this is saying ‘no we didn’t…but it’s OK.’” Born in Orlando, Florida, his creative journey really began when he moved to the KC suburb of Olathe, teaching himself the guitar, and eventually the harp. He learned his signature instrument at the age of 20 after he couldn’t find a harpist as determined as him to meld folk, rock, classical, rap and R&B into the irresistible fusion which has become his calling card in the Kansas City music scene and beyond. His passion for stretching the boundaries of musical expression saw him transform a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland’s Fringe Festival early in his career into a life-changing music mission, with an Edinburgh church offering him a role as musical liaison between the church and the city that would change his life. Two years and 300 shows later, Calvin returned to Kansas City reborn as a humanistic songwriter/performer whose impassioned and conceptual stage shows (regularly sold-out in Kansas City, currently catching fire on the West Coast with a diverse following across Europe), are collaborative, costumed-culture-bridging spectacles which In KC Magazine has hailed as ‘equal parts opera, symphony, musical theatre, rock show, all built around its creator: a charismatic 6-foot-7-inch harpist with a natural stage command and knack for gilding gold and painting lilies.’ Calvin’s 2018 national debut, Cantaloupe (Center Cut Records), has been acclaimed for melding diverse textures into an alluring signature sound for the adventurous artist. Most recently, Calvin performed live at L.A.’s The Mint, showcasing the songs on LA Sessions with the musicians who collaborated with him on the album. Says Calvin: “It’s such a special experience to play with them. To be able to perform these songs in front of an audience and do this for a living – to have made a career out of something I love is so amazing – it is an honor that I never take for granted.” On September 15, 2018 Calvin released Cantaloupe on Center Cut Records. Calvin released Honeydew on June 28, an EP including a remix of three of the songs from Cantaloupe.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays The Sextet Album Release, Sun, Sept 15, 7:PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays The LA Sessions EP Release, Sept 19, 8:PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand, KCMO]

10:30 – Underwriting

Dwight Frizzell

10:32 – Interview with Dwight Frizzell & Leo Wetherill

Dwight Frizzell is a Professor at KCAI, and is an internationally recognized artist whose work combines video, performance, installation, music, audio art, and writing. Frizzell’s work about his boyhood neighbor, Harry S. Truman, was featured in the Peabody-awarded “Lost and Found Sound” series broadcast on National Public Radio. Frizzell has produced an opera based on the life of Charles Darwin. In addition to his B.F.A. degree from KCAI, he holds a terminal fine arts degree in Sound Design from the UMKC. Dwight Frizzell, is a founder of the “groovy polyphonic jazz/dance” band, Black Crack Revue, now in their 37th year. Dwight Frizzell is also a founding member of the newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, and is host & producer of “From Arc To Microchip” heard Wednesdays at 11:30 PM on 90.1 FM.

Also with us is Leo Wetherill, who has been supporting artists, creating venues, and producing performance and musical productions in Kansas City since the late 1980s. He is one of the founders of the Human Observation Lab, and early pioneer space in downtown Kansas City offering performance art space for the early concerts of The Cocktails, and early productions of Gorilla Theatre, Eyes Wide Open, nationally recognized visual artist and DJ Nick Cave, and many other area bands and and performance groups and DJs.

Dwight Frizzell and Leo Wetherill join us to shares details about Missouri River Bridge as an Instrument, Thursday, October 3, at 7:30 PM, at 1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, Kansas. BRIDGE is a soundscape concert featuring Bill Dye, Steve Donofrio, Patrick Conway and members of Gamelan Genta Kasturi; Dwight Frizzell’s river bridge recordings, Ron Achelpohl Director of Transportation & Environment at the Mid-America Regional Council; Thomas Aber, and Leo Wetherill, Technical Coordinator.

Dwight Frizzell and Leo Wetherill, Thanks for being with us on WMM.

Last time Dwight & Leo were on the show was on June 12 just prior to their midday Solstice concert-June 21, at KC Art Institute’s Vanderslice Reception Patio (behind historically restored Vanderslice Hall), 4415 Warwick Blvd., KC, MO. Heliophonie (Sun Sound) was performed in-sync to the sun’s harmonic tones. The solar sphere oscillates like a bell ringing every 4 minutes 48 seconds (as heard on a large gong). Overtones pulse in quadra-pole rotation (realized by the instruments & electronics). Solar storms moving vigorously through the resonating convection-zone are performed by instrumental duets.

Missouri River Bridge as an Instrument – Thursday, October 3, 2019, 7:30 PM

BRIDGE is a soundscape concert featuring lap steel guitarist Bill Dye, singing-bowl master Steve Donofrio with sextet, Patrick Conway and members of Gamelan Genta Kasturi, Dwight Frizzell’s river bridge recordings, and Ron Achelpohl of the MARC.

FEATURED PLAYERS ACCOMPANYING THE BRIDGE:

Bill Dye, lap-steel guitar soloist

Steve Donofrio, Singing Bowl master

Patrick Conway, Gamelan master

Dwight Frizzell, bridge recordings, zwoom, video and mixage

Thomas Aber, zwoom specialist

Ron Achelpohl, Director of Transportation & Environment at the MARC

Leo Wetherill, Technical Coordinator

“Bridges are expressions of our social-spiritual evolution and impulse toward transcendence.” –Rev. Dwight Frizzell

Bridges are living, resonant beings activated by our crossing formidable passageways now made passé. Crossing Liberty Bend Bridge, our concert’s featured instrument, takes a mere 14 seconds. We invite you to hang with the bridge a moment longer, entertain its own perspective, listen inside its metal structure, and hear its rhythms and singing tones as recorded and mixed by Dwight Frizzell with live performance engineer Leo Wetherill. The bridge’s harmonic sound world is joined and orchestrated by an ensemble of Tibetan Singing Bowls directed by Steve Donofrio, Balinese gamelan instruments directed by Patrick Conway, long-hose zwoomists and Bill Dye’s lap steel guitar solo.

The sonorous Missouri River bridge at Highway 291 in Sugar Creek is a magnificent traffic-activated instrument expressing a flow of people, materials, animals and plants. Its voice, animated by us humans and full of percussive and harmonic sound, is intimately heard by nestling an ear on its metal understructure (or attaching contact microphones as heard here to map the sound spatially to the performance space with the audience inside the bridge’s singing form.

Liberty Bend Bridge is actually two continuous truss bridges on Highway 291 over the Missouri River in Sugar Creek. It is the rare example of a bridge crossing the Missouri River, but not crossing a county line. The Missouri River was rerouted in 1949, leaving part of the county north of the river. The original Liberty Bend Bridge was located about two miles to the north, which then crossed over into Clay County. The main span length is 460.1 feet and the total length is 1,883.3 feet. Vertical clearance is 16.5 feet.

INTRODUCING LIBERTY BEND BRIDGE: Ron Achelpohl is the Director of Transportation and Environment at the Mid-America Regional Council, the council of governments and metropolitan planning organization for the bi-state Kansas City metropolitan area. Ron directs MARC’s transportation and environmental planning and policy work along with related implementation activities such as the Operation Green Light traffic signal coordination system, the RideShare program and public education initiatives for air quality, water quality, active transportation and transportation safety. Prior to serving in his current role, Ron was an Assistant Director of Transportation at MARC, and before that held positions with the Missouri Department of Transportation. Ron is a registered Professional Engineer with degrees in civil engineering from the University of Missouri and engineering management from the University of Kansas. He is an active member of the American Public Works Association and serves on the boards of several local non-profit organizations.

RON ACHAPOHL’S INTRODUCTION: “As alluded to, I think all bridges are poetic, but I’m not. So, I’m going to set the context for the bridge with a few facts and figures about how it fits into the transportation system in the greater Kansas City area, which is kind of my area of expertise. I’ll start by pointing out that this is one of 3599 bridges in the eight county area that we do transportation planning in. It’s one of only 10 bridges though – highway bridges – that cross the Missouri River. The farthest one in the metro area is up in Leavenworth at Route 92, and as you go down the river there are nine other crossings until you get to the Liberty Bend Bridge. The next crossing to the east is in Lexington, Missouri it’s on Route 13, which coincidentally, is about a 40 minute drive from this bridge – about as long as this piece will be this evening. The bridge, it’s purpose is carrying people and vehicles and goods across the river and it carries – the most recent stats we got about that are that it carries about 23,000 vehicles a day across the bridge and the occupancy rate for people in the Kansas City area, that translates to a little over 24,000 people a day that use the bridge. To put that perspective, there are over 100,000 vehicles that use the Kit-Bond Bridge on I-35 across the river, and about 40,000 vehicles a day on the Buck O’Neil Bridge, that is, the old Broadway Bridge across the Missouri River. The original crossing was built back in 1927, and it crossed at where the Clay County-Jackson Country line is now. The river channel was actually moved to the south, so the bridge that is there now is a twin-span, the northbound span was the first one that was constructed, and it was originally built back in 1949, it was rehabbed in 1986, and it was replaced in 2005. The southbound bridge was built new and added the pairing in 2001. It carries Missouri Route 291, which runs from the city of Liberty south to the city of Harrisonville, it crosses through three different counties and seven different cities. So, it’s an important regional connector; it doesn’t have the most traffic in the region, but it really serves an important purpose. I’m really excited to be a part of the piece this evening, I think it’s always helpful to draw attention to the invisible infrastructure that the community relies on.”

INTRODUCING TIBETAN SINGING BOWLS: Steve Donofrio has been a Free-lance Audio Engineer & Technical Consultant for the past 38 years. He is a founding member of the National Audio Theatre Festivals and served as Technical Coordinator for Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop for 10 years and its Executive Director for three. As a member of The Deli Llama Orchestra, Steve has played Tibetan Singing Bowls for over 30 years, as featured on numerous studio and live recordings from LA to Katmandu, Nepal. Steve is an avid collector of Tibetan Singing Bowls, using them as implements of music and for meditative and tonal healing. Steve has worked on many musical projects as a producer, recoding & mixing engineer, and audio artist. Currently he works at the Columbia Public Library as a technical support specialist and lives in rural Missouri with his wife, two dogs, and a charm of 1000 hummingbirds.

INTRODUCING THE BRIDGE SOUNDSCAPE: Dwight Frizzell is an internationally recognized artist/soundscape composer who began recording environments and playing with their acoustic imprints early on — a practice he calls Turtle Music — as heard on his 1976 LP Beyond the Black Crack. The complexities of place were fore-fronted in Dwight’s Peabody-awarded Center of the World (1997), which features his childhood neighbor Harry S. Truman at the shopping center that leveled the beloved Truman family farm in 1957. Recently, Frizzell was panel moderator for Sounding Sculptural Space at the International Sculpture Conference with composer Robert Carl and long-string instrumentalist Ellen Fullman. Dwight’s teachers included Sun Ra and Douglas Davis. He earned a terminal degree in Sound Design for Theatre at UMKC, and is currently Professor in Converging Media at KCAI.

Contacts: Dwight Frizzell, KCAI artist dfrizzell@kcai.edu

Frizzell works as a professor at The KC Art Institute and is a founding member of the newEar contemporary chamber ensemble. He is host & producer of “From Arc To Microchip” Wed. 11:30 PM – 90.1 FM.

Dwight Frizzell is an internationally recognized artist whose interdisciplinary work combines video, performance, installation, music, audio art and writing. He has been producing the “From Ark to Microchip” series with Jay Mandeville since 1984. Ark radio has been heard on KOPN, KCUR, KGNU, RESONANCE FM (London), RADIO NOVA (Paris), and WKCR (New York).

Dwight’s boyhood neighbor in Independence, Missouri was Harry S. Truman, who appears in Dwight’s work as a pianist, Atlantean King and time-traveler. Dwight released the “Beyond the Black Crack” LP in 1976, studied video art with Douglas Davis (1977), clarinet with Raymond Luedeke (1979) and metaphysics with Sun Ra (1980-1990). His work was exhibited at Biennale de Paris, World-Wide Video Festival (Amsterdam), and broadcast on NPR.

Dwight’s collaborative third-mind creations with writer Jay Mandeville includes plays, essays, and Ark scripts. Their work was published in “Semiotext(e) Radiotext(e)” and “Experimental Sound and Radio” (MIT Press). They edited The Pitch newspaper in the early ‘80s.

Dwight’s music is available on Paradigm discs (England). He plays Buffet clarinets and Yamaha saxophones and wind controllers. His collaborations with Michael Henry include “Sonic Force,” where AFR A10 Warthog Attack Planes were used as musical instruments. Frizzell is a founding member of the Black Crack Revue, the newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, and the National Audio Theatre Festivals. He performed recently with David Ossman and Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theatre.

Dwight Frizzell and Leo Wetherill, Thanks for being with us on WMM.

Missouri River Bridge as an Instrument, Thurs, October 3, at 7:30 PM, at 1900 Building, 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods, KS. More info at: http://www.1900bldg.com

10:50

8. Russell Brixey – “Midnight Swim (Feat. Lauren Flynn)”
from: Midnight Swim – Single / Russell Brixey / July 30, 2019
[Russell Brixey is the musical solo project of Ryan Wallace. Ryan Wallace has played with many groups over the years: Heroes and Villains, The Republic Tigers, and JAENKI. This is his first solo single “Midnight Swim” and features the vocals of Lauren Flynn from the band Olivia Fox. Hear Russell Brixey talk about “Midnight Swim” at http://speakimge.com/interview-russell-brixey/%5D

The Sextet’s upcoming album “Among Friends”

9. The Sextet – “Clare de Lune”
from: Among Friends / ARC / September 15 , 2019
[The title of the band’s third release refers to the collaboration of nine other musicians & artists who joined the six members of The Sextet: Joe Tesoro on soprano sax, Max Levy on tenor sax, Trevor Turla on trombone, Forrest Fowler on guitar, Nik Douglas on drums, and Robert Castillo on bass, in the studio to create this new 15 track release. Engineered and Mixed by J Ashley Miller. Produced by J Ashley Miller, Robert Castillo, & The Sextet. Mastered by Duane Trower @ Weights and Measures Soundlab. Recorded Jan. 17,18, & Feb. 1, 2019 @ The Infoaming Vertex. Cover Image: “Circle and Square” by Wassily Kandinsky 1943]

[The Sextet play an Album Release Show, Sunday, September 15, at 7:00 PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand Boulevard, KCMO. Joining the band are special guests: Calvin Arsenia, Poet Jen Harris, Jose Faus, Miki P, Eddie Moore, and JF Letters. Jametatone & Blastocyst will open the show.]

11:00 – Station ID

10. Fathers – “Me & America”
from Me America – Single / Fathers / August 30, 2019
[Formed in 2017 the band includes: Kenneth Storz on vocals, guitar, & keyboards; Brooke Honeycutt on vocals, bells, & percussion; David Vava Littlewood on vocals, keyboards, & bells; Matt Guilliams on bass, & percussion; Bryce Veazey on vibraphone, voice, & percussion; Josh Seerden on guitar, keyboards, bass, & percussion; Celeste Tilley on trombone, vocals, & percussion.]

[Fathers play The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, Saturday, September 14, at 7:00 PM, with Stolen Jars and Of Tree.]

Members of the band Fathers: David Vava Littlewood, Kenneth Storz, Matt Guilliams, and Bryce Veazey on the September 11, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI 90.1 FM.

11:03 – Interview with Kenneth Storz and members of Fathers

Kenneth Storz, David Vava Littlewood, Matt Guilliams, and Bryce Veazey are four of the members of Fathers the Kansas City band formed in 2017. Fathers have released several singles and on March 1 of this year they released their debut EP High Horses. On August 30 Fathers released their newest single “Me & America.” Fathers play The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, Saturday, September 14, at 7:00 PM, with Stolen Jars and Of Tree.

Kenneth Storz, David Vava Littlewood, Matt Guilliams, Bryce Veazey, thanks for being with us on WMM.

Fathers Includes:

Kenneth Storz on vocals, guitar, & keyboards;

Brooke Honeycutt on vocals, bells, & percussion;

David Vava Littlewood on vocals, keyboards, & bells;

Matt Guilliams on bass, & percussion;

Bryce Veazey on vibraphone, vocals, & percussion;

Josh Seerden on guitar, keyboards, bass, & percussion;

Celeste Tilley on trombone, vocals, & percussion.

How did this band come to be a band?

Last time the band was on the show was just prior the Fathers High Horses EP Release Party, Saturday, March 9, at 8:00 PM, at the 2016 Main Event Space at 2016 Main St, KCMO, with Eems and Belle & The Vertigo Waves.

Fathers released the 4 song EP High Horses on March 1, 2019 and now 6 months later has this new single out.

Bryce Veazey was recently on stage for the Crossroads Music Fest playing with Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear on Saturday night on the KC Crossroads stage.

The band perform live in our 90.1 FM Studios

11:12

Fathers

11. Fathers – “untitled” (LIVE)
[Kenneth Storz on vocals, guitar, David Vava Littlewood on keyboards, Matt Guilliams on guitar, Bryce Veazey on vibraphone & vocals.]

Part of the recording of High Horses was done in the Yoga studio of Bodyfit

Several reviews have compared Fathers to The Beach Boys and to Olivia Tremor Control.

Fathers has played Middle of The Map Fest, The Buzz Homegrown Showcase, recordbar, the Brick, Power and Light District, The Rino, sharing stages with many area bands including Pink Royal, Y God Y, Pageant Boys, The Fey, Calvin Arsenia, and others. How do you feel about the Kansas Area music scene?

10:23

Kenneth Storz, David Vava Littlewood, Matt Guilliams, Bryce Veazey, thanks for being with us on WMM.

Fathers play The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, Saturday, September 14, at 7:00 PM, with Stolen Jars and Of Tree.

10:24

12. Fathers – “PRTND”
from High Horses / Fathers / March 1, 2019
[Formed in 2017 the band includes: Kenneth Storz on vocals, guitar, & keyboards; Brooke Honeycutt on vocals, bells, & percussion; David Vava Littlewood on vocals, keyboards, & bells; Matt Guilliams on bass, & percussion; Bryce Veazey on vibraphone, voice, & percussion; Josh Seerden on guitar, keyboards, bass, & percussion; Celeste Tilley on trombone, vocals, & percussion.]

[Fathers play The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, Saturday, September 14, at 7:00 PM, with Stolen Jars and Of Tree.]

Jen Harris with Members of the band Fathers: David Vava Littlewood, Kenneth Storz, Matt Guilliams, and Bryce Veazey on the September 11, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI 90.1 FM.

11:28 – Underwriting

Jen Harris and Lori Chandler on the Sept. 11, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley on KKFI 90.1 FM.

11:30 – Interview with Jen Harris & Lori Chandler

Nationally recognized, KC based Poet Jen Harris is the founder of The Writing Workshop KC, and the Kansas City Poetry Slam, she is a TEDx fellow, She has been nationally recognized for her writing and advocacy. She was recently seen in the 3rd season of Queer Eye on Netflix. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts. She is the recipient of the 2015 Jim Wanser Pride Award for outstanding LGBT community activism. She is the recipient of The Pitch Magazine’s 2017 Poet of the Year award, and was nominated as the 2017 Spoken Word Host of the Year by the National Spoken Word Awards. She was the 2009 ACP Kansas Journalist of the Year. She has two published books of poetry titled: Slammed and Lust & Disdain. Her spoken word record, Flaunting Her Mediocrity was released Oct 9, 2016. More info at: http://www.poetjenharris.com

Along with her husband Doug Chandler, Lori Chandler is founder of Take Five Music Productions. The company grew from their earlier experiences as owners of Take Five Coffee + Bar where they presented innovative Jazz performances. After Take Five Coffee + Bar closed in 2015 the Chandlers decided they would continue presenting collaborative Jazz events and shows in multiple venues all over the metro area. More info at http://www.take5kc.com

Lori Chandler and Poet Jen Harris joins us today to talk about the release of Jen’s third book of poetry and essays, Unconfirmed Certainties, and special show called “Poet Jen Harris & The Fellas” on Sunday, September 22, at 7:00 PM, at Ça Va 4149 Pennsylvania Ave, with Jen Harris collaborating with Eddie Moore on keyboards, Jason Emmond on bass and Brian Steever on drums. Poet Jen Harris & The Fellas is produced with Take Five Music Productions.

Jen Harris, and Lori Chandler thanks for being with us on WMM.

Jen this is a busy time for you. You are also playing The Sextet’s Album Release show Sunday, September 15, at 7:00 PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand Boulevard, KCMO. Joining the band are special guests: Calvin Arsenia, Poet Jen Harris, Jose Faus, Miki P, Eddie Moore, and JF Letters. Jametatone & Blastocyst will open the show.

Lori Chandler, you wrote: “I first heard Jen Harris at the Fahrenheit Valentine’s Ball in February and she literally took my breath away. Six months and many coffee-fueled discussions later, I’m so privileged to announce this performance. The creative process between Jen, Eddie Moore, Brian Steever and Jason Emmond has been absolutely mind blowing.”

This event includes the jazz accompaniment of “The Fellas,” renowned musicians Eddie Moore (keys), Jason Emmond (bass) and Brian Steever (drums), bringing Jen’s performance to sonic life.

Unconfirmed Certainties “is the intersection of suspicion and intuition” and follows Harris’ year-long exploration, documentation and in-process recovery from flashbacks, suicidal ideation and a significant mental breakdown following a devastating, unexpected public breakup and facing, head-on, a C-PTSD diagnosis.

An outspoken advocate for an accessible mental health system, Harris was relieved to finally put a name to symptoms she had experienced since her early teens. She fought for decades to overturn the misdiagnosis of Bipolar II disorder, which she was given around age 15 as a way to “medicate away her queerness and creative spirit.” Due to the limitations set upon her by the current health care system, this endeavor took Harris nearly 20 years to accomplish.

As the public has come to know from her career, Harris spares no one’s feelings or privacy in her searing truth-telling performance.

Take Five Music Productions. http://www.take5kc.com

Additional notes: This performance contains mature subject matter and is not recommended for young children.

Jen Harris would you share a piece from the show?

11:50

13. Jen Harris – “Love and Other Ghost Stories”
original piece written and performed by Jen Harris from Unconfirmed Certainties

11:53 – Interview with Jen Harris and Lori Chandler

We are talking with Lori Chandler and Poet Jen Harris about the release of Jen’s third book of poetry and essays, Unconfirmed Certainties, and special show: “Poet Jen Harris & The Fellas” on Sunday, September 22, at 7:00 PM, at Ça Va 4149 Pennsylvania Ave.

Jen Harris and Lori Chandler thanks for being with us on WMM

Jen Harris releases her third book of poetry and essays, Unconfirmed Certainties, with a special show called “Poet Jen Harris & The Fellas” on Sunday, September 22, at 7:00 PM, at Ça Va 4149 Pennsylvania Ave, collaborating with Eddie Moore on keyboards, Jason Emmond on bass and Brian Steever on drums. Poet Jen Harris & The Fellas is produced with Take Five Music Productions. More info at: http://www.take5kc.com

11:55

13. The Ghost Wolves – “Crooked Cop”
from: Crooked Cop / Third Man Records / September 9, 2019
[The Ghost Wolves are Carley “Carazy” Wolf on guitar & vocals and Jonathan “Little Hammer” Wolf on drums & vocals. Third Man Records is excited to release the newest songs from Austin, TX’s Ghost Wolves. Formed in 2011 and hardly taking time to sit since then, the Ghost Wolves create, record and tour at a rapid clip. Blending rock n’ roll, punk rock, garage and blues with electronic elements, the duo has earned a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the modern rock n’ roll underground, touring internationally for almost 8 years straight, with nearly 1000 shows between them in 23+ countries including most of western Europe, the USA, U.K. and Japan. The duo recorded these three new tracks in early 2019 with engineer/producer John Michael Schoepf (bassist for Ray Wylie Hubbard, Night Glitter) in his Austin living room studio. The recording took place during a very dark time for Carley and Jonny, who have been married for 7 years. Jonny’s father received a terminal cancer diagnosis in late 2018. These songs came together while Jonny was tending to his father in Connecticut, with Carley sending demo songs to him from Texas. When his father stabilized somewhat, Jonny returned to Austin to take a break and they both therapeutically recorded these songs. As can be heard, these recordings are darker, more intimate and more pressing than previous material. Produced by John Michael Schoepf and The Ghost Wolves. Engineered by John Michael Schoepf. Mixed by John Michael Schoepf, Kyle Ellison and Jonas Wilson.]

[The Ghost Wolves play recordBar, 1520 Grand, TONIGHT, Wednesday, September 11, at 7:00 PM with Freight Train Rabbit Killer]

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

Next week on Wednesday, September 17 – special guests include: Calvin Arsenia who plays an LA Sessions Release Show at recordBar, September 19. We will also talk with Dedric Moore and Nathan Reusch about their 3 Deep Chromadepth 3-D Concert Friday, September 20 with Jaenki, Pala Zolo, Flaural, Triptidesm and Monta At Odds, at recordBar, 1520 Grand. Also next week, singer-songwriters Rigby Summer and Ed Dupas play live in our 90.1 FM Studios.

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

On your local radio dial 90.1 FM or
STREAMING LIVE at: kkfi.org

Show #802