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, October 22, 2025

WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community + Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, & Bess Wallerstein Huff

In recognition of our nearly 22 years on-the-radio, Wednesday MidDay Medley Celebrates 22 Musical Super Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community! We’ll spin tracks from: Making Movies, Charlie Parker, Janelle Monáe, Bobby Watson with Glenn North, Danielle Nicole, Danny Cox, Krystle Warren, Tech N9ne, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, Iris DeMent, Logan Richardson, Marilyn Maye, Calvin Arsenia, Mike Dillon, The Wild Women of Kansas City, Howard Iceberg, Monta At Odds, Shy Boys, Atlantic Fadeout with Abigail Henderson. Plus the music of John Kander performed by Louis Armstrong, the music of Burt Bacharach performed by The Chambers Brothers, and the music of Kevin Morby performed by Mavis Staples.

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
   from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / December 20, 1979
   [WMM’s Adopted Theme Song]

2. Howard Iceberg & The Titanics – “True Confession (Dance Mix)”
   from: Welcome Aboard? Vol 4. Kansas City Sessions [7-CD set, 100+ songs] / June 26, 2011
   [This incredible release was #1 on WMM’s 111 Best Recordings of 2011. 7-CD set, includes over 100 songs, feat. The Titanics: Gary Paredes on lead guitar, Dan Mesh on rhythm guitar, Scott Easterday on bass, Pat Tomek on drums. W/ contributions from over 70 local artists participating in Howard’s “never-ending recording project” conducted in Pat Tomek’s home studio. Howard Iceberg, Pat Tomek, Scott Easterday, Elaine McMilian & Danny Alexander joined us LIVE on June 22, 2011, before the tribute to Howard at Crosstown Station on June 26, 2011. // Legendary Singer Songwriter Howard Iceberg is one of the most prolific and poetic songwriters in Kansas City. He has written thousands of songs. Howard has done all of this while also leading a distinguished career as an immigration attorney (Howard Eisberg), and has donated much of his time and music to projects that serve our community. Howard Iceberg began performing in the late 1970s, and playing with songwriters Scott Hrabko and Iris DeMent in the 1980s. Over the past five and a half decades he has released countless albums, and collections of songs. In 2011, Howard Iceberg & The Titanics released a seven CD, box set, of 106 new songs, all instant classics. In 2014 he released a collection called Spring 2014, on his birthday May 9, 2015 he released, Smooth Sailing which included 13 new songs. In September 2016 Howard released a 2 CD set of 26 new tracks called, “Kansas City Songs.” On December 20, 2017 Howard Iceberg & The Titanics – released the album Netherlands with Rich Hill on organ, Bryan Hicks on electric bass, Doug Auwarter on drums, Dan Bliss on guitar. Over the past seven years Howard Iceberg has been working exclusively with Chad Brothers and Julie Bates and Andrew Morris of The Matchsellers. Recording 100 new songs. These musician met every three months for 3-hour sessions, over a period of seven years, in the basement of Chad Brothers’ house where he has a recording studio. Howard worked exclusively with Chad, Julie and Andrew with the exception of one recording session where Julie was sick and Beth Watts Nelson played in her place. And Brett Hodges plays dobro on a few tracks. Howard would run through the song once and then they would hit “record” and capture each song in one or two takes. No over dubs, no rehearsal. Howard called it “Back Porch Music.” All together 100 songs were engineered and recorded by Chad Brothers. Howard has actually written many more songs but these are the ones that made the cut to be recorded. Howard continue to collaborate with Pat Tomek, producer, engineer, former drummer of The Rainmakers who keeps all of Howards songs in his computer in his studio. When Howard first writes a song he captures the raw track in a demo recording with Pat. Howard has been working with Pat Tomek since the late 1970s. Howard, Chad Brothers, Julie Bates & Andrew Morris played on WMM on October 15, 2025.]

3. The Wild Women of Kansas City – “Don’t Let Go”
from: Live At Pilgrim Chapel 9/26/2010 / Cosmic Cowboy Records / Reissued March 14, 2021
[Reissued in 2021 on digital for the first time by Cosmic Cowboy Records, The Wild Women of Kansas City, LIVE AT PILGRIM CHAPEL 9/26/2010 is a 14-track live recording. The vocal quartet included legendary Myra Taylor (1917-2011), Millie Edwards, Geneva Price (1929-2023) and Lori Tucker, singing in harmony. More info at: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-wild-women-of-kansas-city/1557857551 from Bill Brownlee’s Plastic Sax blog: “The Wild Women’s repertoire belied its billing as a jazz group. The 55-minute recording includes readings of the disco anthem “I Will Survive,” Ray Charles’ earthy hit “Night Time Is the Right Time” and the proto-rock gem “Don’t Let Go.” // Backed by an unidentified organist, bassist and drummer, the crowd-pleasing entertainers also perform familiar warhorses like “Sentimental Journey,” “Stormy Weather” and the inescapable “Kansas City.” Edwards sings lead on “What a Wonderful World” and Taylor does her playful Louis Armstrong impression during “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” // The women assert their intent on “Let the Good Times Roll”: “Tell everybody: Wild Women are in town/Sometimes we’re serious, sometimes we got to clown/ We don’t let nobody play us cheap/We got heart, soul- ooh, listen to the beat.” Thanks to the invaluable Live at Pilgrim Chapel 9/26/2010, their vital beat plays on.” // The Wild Women of Kansas City were formed by Myra Taylor after she moved back to Kansas City in 1994, she brought together the jazz quartet with Geneva Price, Millie Edwards and Lori Tucker. After a career spanning 80 years, Myra Taylor died in 2011. She performed her last show at the age of 94. Myra is honored with an archway and historic marker at 18th and Vine at the corner of the old Attucks School, She is also honored with a medallion on the American Jazz Museum’s Jazz Walk of Fame.] [On Tuesday, February 7, 2023 Kansas City lost a vital member of our Jazz Community with the passing of the amazing Geneva Price, who died in her sleep at the age of 93. On May 15, 2022 The Wild Women of Kansas City performed as a trio, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, for Live at The Temple Honors the Kansas City Women of Jazz and The Temple Award for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to Geneva Price, (and also Diane “Mama” Ray and Julie Turner.) If you have ever met Geneva Price you knew you were in the presence of an incredible spirit who was a living example the very best a human person can be.][Myra Taylor was born February 24, 1917 and passed on December 9, 2011. She was an American jazz singer and songwriter. She began performing as a teenager and continued into her nineties. // Myra Jardine Render, later Taylor, was born in Bonner Springs, Kansas, but her family moved to Kansas City, Missouri’s historic 18th and Vine area when she was a child. Working as a housekeeper at age 14, she began dancing at the Sunset and Reno clubs on 12th street. Being underage, she entered some clubs by sneaking in through a rear window and eventually attracted attention singing. // Taylor appeared as the character Pearl in three episodes of the US television program The Jeffersons – The Arrival (Part 1) and The Arrival (Part 2) in 1980 and Men of the Cloth in 1982. // She was the lead in the 1979 women’s professional basketball comedy Scoring, as well as supporting roles in Suspect, Crossing Delancey, Lasse Hallström’s Once Around, and Ron Howard’s The Paper. // In the 1930s, she toured the Midwest with Clarence Love’s band. She moved to Chicago in 1937 and worked with Warren “Baby” Dodds, Lonnie Johnson, Roy Eldridge and Lil Hardin Armstrong. She returned to Kansas City in 1940 and Harlan Leonard hired Taylor as the featured singer for his new band Harlan Leonard and His Rockets. The band had a lengthy engagement at Harlem’s Golden Gate Ballroom. The band recorded I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire on RCA’s Bluebird Records label. Taylor wrote the song Dig It, and Leonard claimed co-writing credit, later omitting her name and denying her royalties. // Taylor and Leonard parted company, and she join Eubie Blake’s band for a USO tour. She then returned to KC to sing with the Jimmy Keith Orchestra, and in 1946 they had a hit with Spider and the Fly on Mercury Records. The Billboard review said of her performance “Miss Taylor sings with a subtle sob and a real ‘blues’ vibrato that adds up to a stellar performance”. but was denied royalties by publisher Blasco Music, who claimed that despite the record being a “smash” there were no profits. // Frustrated at the American music business, she spent most of the 1950s in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. She began touring in Europe, and in 1965 moved to Frankfurt, Germany, and started to work at the music club named Down by the Riverside. She performed in USO shows during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, performing in 32 different countries. In 1977, she moved back to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California, to work in film and television, and in 1994 relocated back to her native Kansas City. // In 2000, she recorded My Night to Dream for Analogue Production Originals records and released it on the very inauspicious date of September 11, 2001. It was re-released on SACD in 2010. // Taylor continued singing, performing with the group Wild Women of Kansas City but the only recording with the group was at the Pilgrim Chapel on September 26, 2010. A CD is available from the venue, featuring tracks including Sentimental Journey, What a Wonderful World, and Minnie the Moocher. // She celebrated her 94th birthday with a concert at Knuckleheads Saloon with Samantha Fish and Mike Zito. // Taylor’s final performance was July 24, 2011 with the Wild Women of Kansas City at Jardine’s nightclub in Kansas City. Her health declined in the last half of 2011 following a fall and she was no longer able to live at her own home. She spent the final three months of her life at Kansas City’s Swope Ridge Geriatric Center. // She died December 9, 2011, at the Swope Ridge Geriatric Center in Kansas City, Missouri, aged 94.]

4. Marilyn Maye & Dukes of Dixieland – “Everything Old is New Again” (
   from: Super Singer – Live in New Orleans / Leisure Music Group / January 14, 2016
   [Marilyn Maye McLaughlin was born April 10, 1928. She is 97 and still performing live. She is an American singer, musical theater actress and masterclass educator. With a career spanning eight decades, Maye has performed music in the styles of cabaret, jazz and pop music. She has received one nomination from the Grammy Awards and had commercial success as a recording artist. // Maye was raised in both Kansas and Iowa. With her mother’s encouragement, Maye performed onstage and on the radio during her childhood. In her teenage years, she had her own radio program in Des Moines, Iowa. Maye performed locally during the 1940s and 1950s until being discovered in 1963 by Steve Allen, later appearing on his television show. She also began a 76-episode run on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This led to her signing a recording contract with RCA Victor. // Between 1965 and 1970, Maye recorded a series of albums for RCA. Her debut studio album Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye was released in 1965. Producer Joe René brought Maye Broadway show tunes to record prior to them appearing in musicals. Many of these songs were issued by RCA as singles and some became successful. Three singles reached the American adult contemporary top ten: “Cabaret” (1966), “Sherry!” (1967) and “Step to the Rear” (1967). // By the 1970s, the nightclub circuit began to disappear and Maye found performing work elsewhere. For two decades, she made regional appearances in musicals like Hello, Dolly!, Mame and Follies. She also continued her recording career, releasing an album of music from Hello Dolly in 1985 and a tribute album of songs to Ray Charles in 2005. She also continued working across the United States in smaller venues. In 2006, she gained attention after performing in New York City at the Mabel Mercer Foundation. This led to Maye gaining a new audience in her late seventies and a renewed interest in her concert appearances. Now in her nineties, Maye has continued to appear regularly in concert. // Marilyn Maye McLaughlin was born on April 10, 1928 in Wichita, Kansas to father Kenneth and mother Lyla McLaughlin. She was named after Marilyn Miller, a 1920s singer and performer. Maye’s cousin was Broadway actress Joy Hodges. Her father was a pharmacist who relocated the family to nearby Topeka where he ran a drugstore. During this period, her mother encouraged her daughter to sing and perform. “Mother was a very strong lady, so thank God I had talent, because she was determined to make me a singer,” she told Theatre Mania in 2007. Lyla McLaughlin had her daughter begin singing and dancing at age three. She also had Maye train with a classical vocal coach in Topeka. // At age nine, Marilyn won a Topeka talent contest. This led to her landing a 13-week radio spot on WIBW and she earned a total of three dollars, which would be equivalent to $66 in 2024. In 1939, she performed in a children’s revue program in Topeka’s Jayhawk Theatre. In her childhood, Marilyn’s parents divorced. Her mother relocated to Des Moines, Iowa and Marilyn moved with her. By age 13, she was performing inside ballrooms often singing big band music. Since she was underage, prompting Maye’s mother kept a book where to record the false ages of her daughter to remember to tell it to agents. She had own her weekly radio program during her teenage years in Iowa. She often skipped her high school Spanish class so she could make regular radio appearances. In 1946, Marilyn graduated from East High School in Des Moines. // Following her 1946 high school graduation, Maye became a staff vocalist for WHAS radio in Louisville, Kentucky. There she performed with combos and orchestras. She then embarked as a solo performer throughout the Midwest United States, including nightclubs in Chicago, Illinois. Among her Midwest gigs was the President Hotel, located in the downtown district of Kansas City, Missouri. At the hotel she met dancer Jimmy De Fore, whom she later married. De Fore became the opening act in her shows. // After marrying De Fore, Maye relocated permanently to Kansas City. During this period, the couple operated a children’s dance studio in Kansas City. De Fore taught dancing and Maye taught singing. Maye also took on a gig as the permanent performer at Kansas City’s Colony Steakhouse. She worked alongside pianist (and her now second husband) Sammy Tucker. She remained at Colony Steakhouse for 11 years. The arrangements and musical routines she developed at the Colony would later be used on her first albums. Maye then recorded her first album in an attempt to bring her to the attention of major record labels. In 1961, the Holly record label released Marilyn…the Most. It featured compositions by Midwest writer Carl Bolte, Jr. and was a locally distributed album in Missouri. // In 1963, Maye was performing at a nightclub when she was heard by television personality Steve Allen. He was also brought to the attention of her debut album, which impressed him enough to book her for several appearances on The Steve Allen Show. She also continued to perform at the Colony Steakhouse in Kansas City. Maye performed on The Steve Allen Show a total of six times. On the sixth show, she was heard by a label executive from RCA Victor. She officially signed with the label in 1965. Maye then began recording with Joe René, who produced her first RCA Victor album. Titled Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye, the album was released in August 1965 and featured liner notes from Steve Allen. It was given a positive review from Billboard magazine, who named it a “Pop Special Merit” pick in its weekly list of albums. // Maye was discovered by Steve Allen in the early 1960s. Her performances on his television program led to a recording contract with RCA Victor that brought Maye commercial success during the decade. Maye was then heard at a New York City nightclub by Ed McMahon of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He advocated for her to appear on the late-night television program and she first appeared there in 1966. Maye went on to appear on The Tonight Show for a record 76 times, the most of any music artist. RCA Victor also released two albums of Maye’s material in 1966. This began with the release of a live LP titled The Second of Maye. It was recorded at The Living Room in New York City and featured accompaniment from Maye’s husband’s quartet. A studio project titled The Lamp Is Low was then released in October 1966. Most of the tracks were new material that were cut in a jazz style. // After recording “I Love You Today” for an upcoming musical, producer Joe René was inspired to bring Maye more show tune material. In 1966, René had Maye record “Cabaret” from the Broadway musical of the same name. Released as a single, “Cabaret” became her breakthrough recording. In 1966, it reached number nine on America’s Billboard adult contemporary chart. It was followed by “Sherry!”, which would appear in the Broadway show of the same name. Similar to its predecessor, “Sherry!” climbed into the top ten of the Billboard adult contemporary chart. Both were included on Maye’s fourth studio album titled A Taste of “Sherry!” (1967). It was her next single that became her most commercially successful recording. Taken from the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones, Maye’s version of “Step to the Rear” reached number two on the adult contemporary chart in 1968. It was then included in Maye’s fifth studio album of the same name. // Now in popular demand, Maye made appearances on many popular television programs. During this period, she appeared periodically on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Merv Griffin Show and The Mike Douglas Show. She continued to be a concert attraction in New York City’s nightclub circuit. She also performed at political functions, including Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray and US Senator Bob Dole. In 1966, she was nominated by the Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, but ultimately lost to Tom Jones. In 1969, “Step to the Rear” began being featured in televised advertisements for the Lincoln and Mercury automobiles. Maye recorded the song with new lyrics to match the advertisement. She received a new car from Lincoln–Mercury for several years. // RCA Victor kept Maye under contract until 1970 and she continued recording a steady output of material. Her sixth studio album The Happiest Sound in Town appeared in 1968. That same year, the song “Feelin'” became a top 20 single on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. A duet with Ed Ames titled “Think Summer” also reached the adult contemporary top 20 during this time. RCA issued Maye’s final studio album with their label in 1970 called Marilyn Maye, Girl Singer. // Maye departed RCA Victor by 1970. She found less work on the nightclub circuit as supper clubs declined in popularity. “I was too late to have a big career,” she told Theater Mania. “It was amazing that I was able to as much as I did in the 1960s, and even more amazing that I was able to carry on into the ’70s — because by that time, of course, music had totally changed.” The only concert work she could find was on the American West Coast, which had limited availability. Meanwhile, she maintained consistent appearances The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson throughout the decade. She made her final performance there in 1979. // Maye also started appearing in regional theater productions during the 1970s. She played a series of shows at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. This began in 1970 when she starred as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!. She also performed in the Starlight’s production of Can-Can. “I performed the part of Pistache and loved singing ‘C’est Magnifique’ each night,” she told Playbill magazine. In 1973, she appeared at the Starlight again in The Doc Severinsen Show. In Houston, Texas she played the lead in Mame. In 1990, Maye auditioned for the lead in a regional production of Follies. After the role was given to another actress, Maye was instead giving the supporting role of Carlotta. // Maye also continued her career as singer and recording artist. She took her concerts to performing arts centers and smaller venues around the United States. In 1981, she began working with Billy Stritch who has since been her off-and-off accompanist and music director. On her own Marilyn Maye Records, she released a studio collection called Marilyn Maye Sings All of Jerry Herman’s “Hello Dolly”. Released in 1985, the album was a collection of songs from the original musical. Writer of the show Jerry Herman penned the album’s lines notes, calling Maye an “extraordinary combination of acting and singing talent”. // More studio albums followed. In 2005, she released a studio album of songs first recorded by Ray Charles. Titled Maye Sings Ray, the album was also released on her own record label. Author Will Friedwald praised the disc, commenting that “she takes Brother Ray’s signatures and refits them for herself while retaining the essence of the original.” Maye released another studio album in 2005 featuring songs she performed on Johnny Carson’s show called Super Singer – A Tribute to Johnny Carson. The disc included “Here’s That Rainy Day”, which was Carson’s favorite song Maye sang. // espite her age, Maye stated to many publications that she refused to retire and continued performing. In 2006 at age 78, Maye gained notable attention after performing at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Mabel Mercer Foundation. With encouragement from Billy Stritch and her lawyer, Maye went on to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Room where she reportedly “blew the roof off”. From there, began returning to New York City with more frequency, doing nearly ten shows yearly. In April 2007, she returned to New York and did a 14-show engagement. “Now in her mid-70s, combines Broadway brass and jazz scooby-do with such a natural feel for both that they become twin styles that you can hardly tell apart,” wrote Stephen Holden of The New York Times. // At age 80, she returned in 2008 to the Metropolitan room with a new stage show of Cabaret music called “Love on the Rocks”. The program featured both popular nightclub songs, along with more recent covers such as songs by James Taylor. Maye continued to draw concert work in other places such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sioux City, Iowa and Provincetown, Massachusetts. In the 2010s, Maye continued a regular concert schedule throughout the United States, including continual New York City engagements. In 2010, she performed at a Carnegie Hall concert in celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday. In both 2011 and 2012, she performed at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. // Approaching the age of 90, Maye was featured in a 2018 episode of CBS Sunday Morning, with a profile by Mo Rocca. When she was 93, Rocca profiled her again for the television program. Maye discussed the loss of concert work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how she continued to perform outdoors when indoor nationwide shutdowns occurred. At age 95, Maye made her solo concert debut at Carnegie Hall. The concert drew positive reviews from critics who remarked at the singer’s age and vocal ability. “Maye is a master of the American songbook and for two solid hours, she had the crowd eating from the palm of her hand,” wrote Ryan Leeds of the Manhattan Digest. “For this writer who has, for some time, marveled at the breadth of her talent and endurance, she is The Unstoppable Marilyn Maye,” wrote Stephen Mosher of BroadwayWorld. // Nate Chinen of NPR called her “one of our greatest living songbook singers”. The New York Times called her “the last of a great generation of American Songbook singers.” Ella Fitzgerald (a friend of Maye’s and a fan of her work) referred to Maye as “the greatest white female singer in the world”. Her version of “Too Late Now” was included in the Smithsonian Institution recordings of the 20th Century. // Maye has been the recipient of awards and honors in her later years. In 2008, she received a Distinguished Arts Award from the Governor of Kansas. Other honors include the Jazz Heritage Award, the Kansas City Jazz Ambassador’s Award of Excellence, the Elder Statesmen of Jazz Award, and lifetime achievement awards from both the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and Kansas City’s CODA Jazz Fund. She was given a lifetime achievement award by the American Jazz Museum and inducted into its Walk of Fame. She has also received lifetime achievement awards from the Great American Songbook Foundation, Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, and the Chicago Cabaret Professionals Association. On September 18, 2012, the Native Sons and Daughters of Greater Kansas City honored Maye with the organization’s Outstanding Kansas Citian Award.// Maye has been married three times. She also had one long-term partnership. At age 18, she married her first husband who was a dancer. The pair briefly moved to Florida before divorcing one year later. Maye later cited his gambling and alcohol addictions for the marriage’s demise. Her second marriage was to Jimmie De Fore. Their union resulted in Maye’s only child, daughter Kristi Tucker. Maye’s daughter is a singer and vocal instructor in KC. Tucker is employed at the Marley School of Dance in Overland Park, KS. Her third marriage was to Jazz performer Sammy Tucker. He adopted Maye’s daughter. However, she found him abusive and their marriage also ended in divorce. Maye was involved in a long-term relationship with a man for roughly ten years. When the pair ended their relationship, Maye purposely sang “I Will Survive” on The Tonight Show and told her partner to watch the show.]

[Marilyn Maye plays The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th St. KCMO, on Sunday, December 21, at 3:30pm]

5. Tech N9ne – “Kansas City Theme (FIFA World Cup 26™️)”
   from: The Official FIFA World Cup 26™️ Host City Themes / FIFA / March 16, 2025
   [The collaboration between popular artists like Tech and FIFA will be the first time in the tournaments history to feature a city host-specific Sonic ID. The concept was designed to highlight the cultural sounds of each of the 16 host cities spanning from Canada, Mexico and the US. KC Native Tech N9ne is the sole artist to contribute a track with lyrics for the KC Sonic ID release. // “Kansas City Theme x FIFA World Cup 26,” is yet another example of Tech N9ne using his iconic hip-hop sound to create a buzz. Kansas City is familiar with Tech’s song ‘Red Kingdom’ which became the KC Chief’s team anthem, often played at Arrowhead Stadium. That high energy anthem has been performed live during games and Super Bowl rallies since 2019.// Aaron Dontez Yates was born November 8, 1971. He is better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced “tech nine”), is an American rapper and singer. In 1999, he and business partner Travis O’Guin founded the record label Strange Music. He has sold over two million albums and his music has been featured in film, television, and interactive media. In 2009, he won the Left Field Woodie award at the mtvU Woodie Awards. // His stage name originated from the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, a name given to him by rapper Black Walt due to his fast-rhyming chopper style. Yates later applied a deeper meaning to the name, stating that it stands for the complete technique of rhyme, with “tech” meaning technique and “nine” representing the number of completion. // Yates was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He began rapping at a very early age, and would rap the letters of his name in order to remember how to spell it. His father Carlton Cook was estranged from the family and his mother suffered from epilepsy and lupus when he was a child, which emotionally affected him and inspired him to “search for God”. He would explore abandoned buildings with his best friend, hoping to catch a ghost on film. He attended Southwest High School in Kansas City. // Early in his career, Yates was a member of a group formed in 1991 called Black Mafia. He saw glimpses of success in the group 57th Street Rogue Dog Villians with their single “Let’s Get Fucked Up”. As a member of the group Nnutthowze, Aaron Yates signed with Perspective Records in 1993. However, the group disbanded soon after being released from the label. Yates signed with Qwest Records briefly before moving to JCOR Records. // In 1997, Yates joined the group the Regime, which was formed by rapper Yukmouth. The following year, he was featured on the soundtrack for the film Gang Related. Yates appeared on the song “The Anthem” by Sway & King Tech in 1999, which also featured artists RZA, Eminem, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Jayo Felony, Chino XL, KRS-One, and Kool G. Rap. Later that year, he and business partner Travis O’Guin founded the record label Strange Music. // In 2001, Yates released the studio album Anghellic on JCOR Records. After disputes arose about the promotion of the album, Yates and his label severed ties with the JCOR with a deal that allowed them to retain the rights to the album. The next year, he released Absolute Power, under a 50–50 joint venture between Strange Music and M.S.C. Music & Entertainment (which was founded by former Priority Records head Mark Cerami). The album debuted number 79 on the Billboard 200. The album’s sales are said to have tripled following a campaign, going by the name of “F.T.I.” was started by the rapper and his label. The campaign, which asked music listeners to legally download the album free through the artist’s own website was in response to the anti-downloading campaign by the RIAA. // In 2006, Yates released the album Everready (The Religion). The following year, he released Misery Loves Kompany. Yates announced that the album was the first in a series of “Tech N9ne Collabos” albums that feature a wide range of guest appearances. // The following year, Yates released the album Killer. That September, he exceeded one million album sales over his entire catalog. Yates remarked of the accomplishment that, “It just reminded me of all the work we’d done in the past, up until now […] I don’t think it’s sunken in yet. I’ve been celebrating for the last two days because that’s a hell of an accomplishment. I’ve been planning success all my life. I’m not even a bit surprised, I’m happy about it. That just means I was right.” Yates released his second Collabos album, Sickology 101, in April 2009. // Yates later performed at the Rock The Bells 2009 Festival and the tenth annual Gathering of the Juggalos. That October, he released K.O.D., an acronym for King of Darkness. The album featured a dark overtone, as Yates was dealing with the illness of his mother. An EP of new songs over unused beats from the K.O.D. album was released in 2010 as The Lost Scripts of K.O.D.. Later that year, Yates released his third Collabos album, The Gates Mixed Plate. In October, he released his second EP Seepage. On December 23, he released his first mixtape Bad Season.which was later released in retail CD form with a modified track list and without DJ Scream. On June 7, 2011, Yates released All 6’s and 7’s. The album features several hip-hop artists as well as rock artists including B.o.B, E-40, Snoop Dogg, Hopsin, T-Pain, Jay Rock, Mint Condition, Busta Rhymes, Twista, Lil Wayne, Yelawolf and Deftones and many others. // In 2011, Yates told 411mania.com that after All 6’s And 7’s he planned on releasing his fourth album in the Collabos series titled Welcome to Strangeland, featuring guest appearances from everyone on Strange Music, followed by the long-awaited K.A.B.O.S.H. and 816 Boyz albums. Then, in July 2011, Yates said in a blog post that Rick Ross has agreed to do a song with him for the K.A.B.O.S.H. album and that he is also hoping to have a collaboration with Jay-Z on that album. In the same blog post, he said that the K.A.B.O.S.H. album will be a rock album. In another blog post several weeks later, he confirmed that he will begin work on the album after completing Welcome to Strangeland. Following his tour, he announced that he was about to begin work on Welcome to Strangeland and Klusterfuk, confirming producers for both projects. ¡Mayday! is to entirely produce Klusterfuk. He said he will then begin work on the K.A.B.O.S.H. album. // Tech N9ne is featured on Lil Wayne’s ninth studio album Tha Carter IV on the song “Interlude”. The track features a verse from Tech and Andre 3000. During a radio interview with Funkmaster Flex in August 2010, Wayne stated that he and Tech N9ne formed a “brotherhood” when Yates visited him in jail. In a later interview, Tech N9ne claimed that he thinks the song will “awaken a lot of other people that wouldn’t usually look [his] way” and “teach all the new fans how to become technicians”. // In an interview with “Underground TV” posted on Tech N9ne’s blog, Tech N9ne spoke about his 2012 plans, confirming the release of Klusterfuk, the K.A.B.O.S.H. album, and an untitled solo album to be released in 2012. He was featured on the song “Edge of Destruction” (which also features Twista) that appears on Machine Gun Kelly’s first studio album “Lace Up”. // On September 18, Tech N9ne released an EP titled “E.B.A.H.” (Evil Brain Angel Heart). On October 30, Tech N9ne released an EP titled Boiling Point. He announced his thirteenth studio album would be titled Something Else and would be released on June 25, 2013. The first song released from the album would be “B.I.T.C.H.”, an acronym for Breaking In To Colored Houses, which features rapper/singer T-Pain. The album would end up being released on July 30, 2013, to universal critical acclaim. The album, which is broken up into three portions — Earth, Water & Fire, features guest appearances from B.o.B, Big K.R.I.T., Cee Lo Green, the Doors, Game, Kendrick Lamar, Serj Tankian, T-Pain, Trae tha Truth, Snow Tha Product, and Wiz Khalifa, among others including several artists from Tech N9ne’s Strange Music imprint. The album was supported by two singles, “So Dope (They Wanna)” and “Fragile”. // Tech N9ne announced a new “Independent Grind” tour in January 2014, which included Freddie Gibbs, Krizz Kaliko, and Jarren Benton. The tour dates were announced on January 30, 2014, and the tour ran from April 9 until June 28, wrapping up in Kansas City. Also in 2014, Yates released Strangeulation, the fifth album in his Collabos series and fourteenth album overall. // In April 2015, Yates confirmed that Eminem will be featured on a song titled “Speedom (Worldwide Choppers 2)”. The song was released on April 20, 2015, as a single supporting his then-upcoming album, Special Effects, which was released on May 4 of the same year. The rapper says Eminem collaborated on the track, free of charge, in exchange for Yates to guest on a track of his for an unknown project. Yates says he was “flabbergasted” that Eminem respected his music so much. // On May 4, 2015, Tech N9ne released Special Effects to critical and commercial acclaim. The album features guest appearances from Corey Taylor, B.o.B, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, T.I., Kottonmouth Kings, Hopsin, Captain Chronic, E-40, Yo Gotti, Audio Push and Eminem along with fellow Strange Music artists Krizz Kaliko, Big Scoob and Ces Cru. // In addition, a Special Effects tour began in early April 2015. Tech is joined on tour by Murs, Chris Webby, Krizz Kaliko, Zuse, and King 810. // On November 20, 2015, Tech N9ne released Strangeulation Vol. II, the sixth album in his Collabos series and 16th album overall. The album features the entire roster of Strange Music at the time along with JL, Ryan Bradley, and Tyler Lyon. In spring 2016, Tech N9ne went on tour with fellow Strange members for another Independent Powerhouse Tour. // In December 2016, Tech N9ne released his 17th album, The Storm, the followup to his 1999 debut album The Calm Before The Storm. // In January 2017, Tech N9ne announced his seventh Collabos album titled Dominion, released April 7, and stated plans to release a second album in his Collabos series the same year. In March, Tech began the Strictly Strange ’17 tour with fellow Strange Music artists. The same month, Tech announced on radio station GoMN plans to release his next solo album, Planet, in 2018. On June 20, 2017, Tech earned his first platinum record in 18 years for “Caribou Lou”. Tech N9ne released the eighth Collabos album, Strange Reign, on October 13, 2017, marking it the second album release that year. // On March 2, 2018, Tech N9ne released Planet, making this his 20th studio album. On April 19, 2019, Tech N9ne released N9na, making this his 21st studio album. Nearly a year later, on April 10, 2020, his 22nd album, Enterfear was released. On July 29, 2020, he was featured on “CMFT Must Be Stopped”, a single by Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor. On October 23, 2020, Tech N9ne released a new project titled Fear Exodus. // On October 8, 2021, Tech N9ne released an album titled “Asin9ne”. The album features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Mumu Fresh, Snow Tha Product, Russ, E-40, X-Raided, as well as wrestler turned actor Dwayne Johnson. // Tech N9ne features on fellow Kansas City area musician Samantha Fish’s 2021 album Faster, rapping on the song “Loud”. // On May 3, 2022, at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Tech N9ne announced his then-upcoming album Bliss, performing a song off the album titled “They Know Meh” featuring fellow Kansas City-based rapper, The Popper. // Bliss was released on July 28, 2023, after being delayed from a July 14 release. The album contains guest appearances from Conway the Machine, Joyner Lucas, X-Raided, Kim Dracula, RMR, Qveen Herby and Durand Bernarr. // On May 7, 2024, Yates was unveiled as featured artist on the Falling in Reverse track “Ronald” from their 2024 album Popular Monster. He stars in the official music video portraying a God like entity, who contrasts against the demonic final boss portrayed by Alex Terrible lead singer of the Russian heavy metal group Slaughter to Prevail. Yates will also be supporting the group on their Popular MonsTOUR II: World Domination tour, in Europe and North America. // Yates is known for his dynamic rhyme schemes and speed rap abilities known as the Chopper style. Soren Baker of VH1 states that Yates’ techniques “showcase his wide-ranging, mind-blowing flows”. Baker characterizes Yates’ earlier work as “apocalyptic music, which discussed abortion and infidelity as much as his rapping prowess”. Allmusic reviewer Jason Birchmeier calls his style “bizarre hardcore rap”. Yates stated that he purposely creates flow patterns in order to sound like a percussion while he raps. After hearing an instrumental he would come up with different kinds of patterns and then “fill in” the actual lyrics. // Yates says that he is influenced by old school hip hop, and specifically cites N.W.A, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Schoolly D, and Just-Ice. He is also interested in other genres of music, and lists The Doors, Jim Morrison, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, AC/DC, Metallica, Floetry, Outkast, CeeLo Green, and Gnarls Barkley as influences. He has remarked generally that “I love beautiful music, beautiful music no matter what type”. // Although Tech N9ne mostly collaborates with rappers from his record label Strange Music such as Krizz Kaliko, Kutt Calhoun, Big Scoob, Brotha Lynch Hung, and Stevie Stone as well as underground rappers from his hometown Kansas City, he has also worked with known rappers such as E-40, Ice Cube, Three 6 Mafia, Lil Wayne, Twista, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Machine Gun Kelly, Yelawolf, Scarface, Yo Gotti, T-Pain, Wiz Khalifa, Paul Wall, B.o.B, André 3000, T.I., and 2 Chainz. // Tech N9ne has also worked with rock and metal musicians such as Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter of Deftones, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, and Falling in Reverse. //Yates’ songs have appeared in the films Born 2 Race, Gang Related, Alpha Dog, Our Heroes: The 25 Best Black Sports Movies (Ever), and The Life of Lucky Cucumber. Yates was originally set to score the entire film Alpha Dog, but the studio decided to replace some of his music with more commercially known songs. In 2009, his song “Let’s Go” was used in an online promotional short film for AXE body spray. Yates also appears as an actor in the films Vengeance and Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D. Yates starred in the musical Alleluia: The Devil’s Carnival, which had a limited theater release July 2015. On November 25, 2015, Tech released “Shine”, a song for the Jaco Pastorius documentary, Jaco. //Several of Yates’ songs are featured in the video games Madden NFL 2006, The Crew, EA Sports MMA, 25 To Life, WWE 2K18, EA Sports UFC 3, and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, in the latter of which Yates is an unlockable character. In 2009, Yates and label mate Krizz Kaliko appeared in a promotional video for the Fight Night Round 4 video game. // Yates’ music has appeared on the television shows Dark Angel, I’m From Rolling Stone, My Super Sweet 16, The Hills, Spike Guys’ Choice Awards, and Warren The Ape. In 2008, his song “Earthquake” was featured on an episode of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew in which the crew had to visually convey the title of the song in their performance. On the Aug. 15, 2009 Strikeforce event, Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg, MMA fighter Gilbert Melendez entered the arena to Tech N9ne’s 2006 song “The Beast” for his bout with Mitsuhiro Ishida. His song “Riot Maker” was used as the official theme song for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling’s 2010 Hardcore Justice pay-per-view. Yates also appeared on the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards in the BET Cypher with B.o.B, Machine Gun Kelly, Kendrick Lamar, and Big K.R.I.T. In 2012, Tech N9ne appeared on the MTV game show Hip Hop Squares for three episodes. In 2013, Tech N9ne’s song “Demons” appeared in the pilot episode of Ironside. On June 24, 2014, Tech N9ne appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform “Fragile”, “He’s A Mental Giant”, and “Stamina”. In late 2014, Yates appeared on Wild n Out as captain of the Black Team. // In May 2015, “Give It All” from the album Special Effects was used during Inside the NBA’s “Tip-Off” for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. // In May 2018, it was announced that Yates had teamed with Boulevard Brewing Company, a brewery based in his hometown of Kansas City, to create a new beer. The beer was released on June 18 in the Kansas City, Wichita, Denver, and Oklahoma City markets. The beer is named Bou Lou as reference to his song “Caribou Lou”, which is also a cocktail with overproof rum (The song specifically mentions Bacardi 151, which has been discontinued), Malibu, and pineapple juice . The beer is a wheat beer with pineapple and coconut flavors. On July 9, Bou Lou went on sale in the St. Louis market. // Yates was married in 1995, but separated in 2005. Yates filed for a divorce in 2015 and it was finalized in November 2017, 12 years after they were initially separated. On October 23, 2024, he married his longtime girlfriend Kristen, with whom he has two daughters, as seen from their social media accounts. Yates is an avid supporter of Kansas City culture and the metro area’s pro sports teams, including the KC Chiefs, KC Royals, and Sporting Kansas City. Before the Chiefs played in the 2019 AFC Championship game, he released a song titled “Red Kingdom”. In 2025, Yates was announced as one of the remixers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup theme, representing Kansas City.]

Discography – Studio albums
The Calm Before the Storm (1999)
The Worst (2000)
Anghellic (2001)
Absolute Power (2002)
Everready (The Religion) (2006)
Killer (2008)
K.O.D. (2009)
All 6’s and 7’s (2011)
Something Else (2013)
Special Effects (2015)
The Storm (2016)
Planet (2018)
N9na (2019)
Enterfear (2020)
Asin9ne (2021)
Bliss (2023)
5816 Forest (2025)
Discography – Collabos series
Misery Loves Kompany (2007)
Sickology 101 (2009)
The Gates Mixed Plate (2010)
Welcome to Strangeland (2011)
Strangeulation (2014)
Strangeulation Vol. II (2015)
Dominion (2017)
Strange Reign (2017)
COSM (2024)]
5816 Forest (2025)

10:07 – Intro / Pledge Break #1

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI.

We bring you this show as part of our KKFI Fall Fund Drive, and this is where YOU can be involved! In the middle of this Celebration Marathon of Kansas City Musical Heroes, we’ll break into our prepared programming, to encourage YOU to call us at 888-931-0901 or http://www.kkfi.org to make a donation in support 90.1 FM KKFI.

Joining me in the studio, we have some very special co-hosts:

Betse Ellis. Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Betse received her Bachelors of Arts in Music and a Bachelors of Arts in English, from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. For nearly 50 years Betse has been playing the violin and fiddle professionally and also working as a teacher of music. Betse was a founding member of the acclaimed internationally known band, The Wilders who released 10 albums. Betse has released two acclaimed solo records, and records & performs with the bands Little Miss Dynamite, and The Starhaven Rounders and with her husband, multi-instrumentalist Clarke Wyatt, as the internationally known, Betse & Clarke.

Betse Ellis, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Also with us is Sandra Draper a member of KKFI’s Board of Directors, Sandra was born in Kansas City and attended Paseo High School. Sandra became a student at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and eventually returned to Kansas City to complete her last year graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree studying history and communications from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She is the mother of four children three sons and one daughter. While her children were all born on different years 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1981 two of her sons were born on the same day, and her daughter and other son were also born on the same day. For the past year Sandra has been volunteering at KKFI and has very recently began hosting, engineering, and producing her own radio show, Silky San’s Soul Sensations Monday mornings at 2;00am to 5:00am on 90.1 FM – KKFI.

Sandra Draper, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Also with us is Bess Wallerstein Huff 90.1 FM KKFI’s new Executive Director. Bess is an experienced executive, creative strategist, and community builder with over 20 years of leadership in the arts, media, and nonprofit sectors As a founding team member of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, she spent more than a decade developing programs, marketing strategies, and partnerships that welcomed broad and diverse audiences into the arts. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Marketing & Sales at Starlight, one of the nation’s largest outdoor performing arts venues, where she oversaw record-breaking sales growth and led strategic initiatives tied to the organization’s 75th anniversary and $40 million capital campaign. A champion of innovation, Bess co-founded Show Delivered in 2020—a pandemic-era venture that brought live performances directly to neighborhoods across Kansas City. The project reimagined connection during a time of crisis and reaffirmed her commitment to accessibility, creativity, and community. // Bess has served on numerous boards and public commissions, including the Arts & Recreation Foundation of Overland Park, the Johnson County Public Art Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts’ Challenge America grant panel. Bess holds an Executive MBA from Rockhurst University and a BFA from the University of Central Missouri. She lives in Overland Park, Kansas, and finds joy in storytelling, watercolor painting, vintage collecting, and hosting gatherings that bring people together. //Bess also worked for Heart of America Shakespeare Fest. She directed The Wiz for Shawnee Mission Theatre in The Park. Bess played lead roles in productions at Union Station’s City Theatre and The Fishtank Performance Space, and also on KKFI for “The He Touched Me Gospel Hour” a special radio play co-written and performed by a longtime KKFI listener who was sight impaired, and (so radio was an important media source for him). He was know by the moniker he insisted upon: Jim “The Blind Guy.” Bess is also the cofounder of the former Counter Clockwise Comedy Company and a theatre company where Bess staged acclaimed plays in non-traditional, environmental locations like an airstream trailer in a Brookside back yard, and a modern Art Museum.

Bess Wallerstein Huff, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio is Non-Commercial, and that means that three times a year, we interrupt our regular programming, to ask our listeners, to help us continue our unique, 24-7 programming. For 37 years 90.1 FM KKFI has been on the air. While the spirit of this station is kept alive by hundreds of volunteers who passionately donate their time and abilities to keep the transmission of our 100,000-watt-signal alive. We are a operated by a not-for-profit organization, incorporated over 40 years ago, called The MidCoast Radio Project. We are a non-profit, with a dedicated paid staff of four incredible individuals, and hundreds of volunteers, who donate thousands of hours every year, producing radio shows, training new hosts & producers, developing new radio shows, serving our vast community landscape with music and news, information and stories that reflect the many communities we serve. We do all of this because of YOU and it is because of our incredible listeners, who take a moment and call 888-931-0901 and donate, that we are able to continue. You keep us alive! Our volunteers are waiting to hear from YOU right now. WE NEED YOU – MORE THAN EVER.

Today WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Super Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community.

90.1 FM KKFI’s non-profit organization and governing body is the MidCoast Radio Project. MidCoastal is where we are, on the coasts of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers with a music community that spans the Kansas City Metro region and west to Lawrence and Topeka and south to Olathe and east to Columbia and North to St Joseph. Not necessarily the reach of our 100,000 watt signal but definitely the reach of our community.

10:15 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

6. Iris DeMent – “Workin’ On A World”
   from: Workin’ On A World / FlariElla / February 24, 2023
   [Stereogum on October 13, 2020 wrote: Other than a handful of guest appearances, Americana legend Iris DeMent hadn’t released new music since her 2015 album The Trackless Woods, a collection of Anna Akhmatova poems set to original music. But DeMent is back today in a big way with “Going Down To Sing In Texas,” a lengthy rambler that’s a lot more serious than its casual, jazzy piano groove lets on. Over the course of nine minutes, DeMent addresses police brutality, George W. Bush (“What’s the deal with all these war criminals who get to walk around free?”), Islamophobia, progressive protesters (“I’m so proud of all of these young people for taking it to the streets”), gun control, Jeff Bezos (“Ain’t we all just a little bit tired of greedy people getting a free pass?”), the Chicks, the Squad, and Jesus Christ (“He spoke truth to power, he stood up for the poor/ The church today wouldn’t even let him through the door”) among other things.It’s a hell of a song, clear and direct yet artful in its conversational ease. Never forget that DeMent can go toe to toe with songwriting legends like her old duet partner John Prine. // Iris DeMent’s 7th full length album, WORKING ON A WORLD was stalled partway through by the pandemic, the record took six years to make with the help of three friends and co-producers: Richard Bennett, Pieta Brown, and Jim Rooney. It was Pieta Brown, (Greg Brown’s daughter,) who gave the record its final push. Iris write, “Pieta asked me what had come of the recordings I’d done with Jim and Richard in 2019 and 2020. I told her I’d pretty much given up on trying to make a record. She asked would I mind if she had a listen. So, I had everything we’d done sent over to her, and not long after that I got a text, bouncing with exclamation marks: ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A World!’” With Bennett back in the studio with them, Brown and DeMent recorded several more songs and put the final touches on the record in Nashville in April of 2022. // DeMent sets the stage for the album with the title track in which she moves from a sense of despair towards a place of promise. “Now I’m workin’ on a world I may never see ‘ Joinin’ forces with the warriors of love / Who came before and will follow you and me.” // Iris DeMent, born on, January 5, 1961, in rural Paragould, Arkansas. She was the youngest of 14 children. At the age of 3, her devoutly religious family moved to California, where she grew up singing gospel music. Within her own family there were many incredible vocalists, including her mother During her teenage years, Iris was exposed to country, folk, & R&B. //In the mid 1980s Iris moved to the Midwest, and after a series of jobs as a waitress and typist, she wrote her first song at the age of 25. She moved to Kansas City and played Harling’s Upstairs and open-mic nights along side Scott Hrabko and Howard Iceberg. Iris met producer Jim Rooney from Nashville, in 1988, who helped her land a record contract. Iris Dement made her national recording debut in 1992, with her independently produced album, “Infamous Angel.” The record won critical acclaim and John Prine mentioned Iris in his list of favorite recordings of the year, published in Rolling Stone. Despite a complete lack of support from country radio, the word of mouth praise for Iris DeMent’s INFAMOUS ANGEL earned her a deal with Warner Bros Records, which reissued INFAMOUS ANGEL in 1993. The album also included the song, “Let The Mystery Be” a composition also covered by David Bryne, 10,000 Maniacs, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, Greg Brown, and it was the theme song for the second season of HBO’s The Leftovers. // Iris DeMent’s first three releases, all on Warner Brothers records, were critically acclaimed. She received two Grammy nominations during this time, in the “Folk Music” category. Meanwhile country radio completely overlooked her original songs, and her amazing voice, that has been compared to Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. For Iris’ 1992 debut album, Infamous Angel, John Prine wrote the liner notes: “One night after receiving a copy of “Let the Mystery Be,” I was listening to the tape while frying a dozen or so pork chops in a skillet. Well Iris DeMent starts singing about “Mama’s Opry,” and being the sentimental fellow I am, I got a lump in my throat and a tear fell from my eyes into the hot oil. Well the oil popped out and burnt my arm as if the pork chops were trying to say, “Shut up, or I’ll really give you something to cry about.” Of course, pork chops can’t talk. But Iris DeMent’s songs can. They talk about isolated memories of life, love and living. And Iris has a voice I like a whole lot, like one you’ve heard before— but not really. So listen to this music, this Iris DeMent. It’s good for you. And if pork chops could talk, they’d probably learn how to sing one of her songs. Then we’d all have something to cry about.” – John Prine, Songwriter, musician & president Oh Boy! Records. // Iris followed up her debut album INFAMOUS ANGEL with the autobiographical, MY LIFE, released in 1994. Iris followed with her third Warner Brother’s release, THE WAY I SHOULD, released in 1996, which contains some of Iris DeMent’s most political songs. // In the 2002 Iris DeMent did a benefit concert for The Friends of Community Radio at Unity Temple on The Plaza. I remember when Iris asked us if it was okay that she have a musician friend open the concert for her, we agreed because Iris was donating her talent to the cause of community radio. And then she told us that this musician friend was Greg Brown, who is known all over the country, but had never before played KC. // Later that year, on November 21, 2002 Greg married Iris DeMent in a private ceremony in the office of Rev. Sam Mann of St. Mark Church in East KC. // Kansas City a place where she loved living, where she found herself as a singer-songwriter, and where she doesn’t mind if we say it’s her “chosen” hometown. Iris joined us live on the show on March 22, 2023 just before her SOLD OUT show at Knuckleheads on Thursday, March 23, 2023.]

7. Making Movies – “Brave Enough (feat. Hurray for the Riff Raff & Alaina Moore)”
   from: I Am Another You / Making Movies / May 26, 2017
   [Making Movies is a KC based 4-piece band and made up of: Enrique Chi on guitar and lead vocals; Diego Chi on bass & vocals; Juan-Carlos Chaurand on percussion & keyboards; and Duncan Burnett on drums. 3rd full length release from Kansas City based 4-piece band and made up of two sets of brothers: Enrique Chi on guitar and lead vocals; Diego Chi on bass & vocals; Juan-Carlos Chaurand on percussion & keyboards; and Andres Chaurand on drums. Since this release than line up has changed: The band draws their influences from the origins of their families: Santiago, Panama, and Kansas City, Missouri, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Making Movies is kicking off their 22-date Immigrants Are Beautiful Tour, a celebration of solidarity in the face of fear-mongering and hate. Frontman Enrique Chi shared, “It’s time to realize we are all part of this continuum, this beautifully flawed human race that has migrated from every continent to bring us all the beauty we enjoy today.” The band’s social statement is straightforward enough that they can express it in four words: “We Are All Immigrants.” In supporting that cause, a portion of all proceeds from the album and tour go to the National Immigration Law Center. Enrique Chi, singer-songwriter in Making Movies describes, “since making the album, the tides have shifted and the underbelly of systematic racism has reared its ugly head. It is no longer time to be silent is time for us to raise our voices.” // On April 25, 2025 Making Movies released Baúl de las Movies: Rocky Mountain Folks Festival 2024 (En Vivo) on 3/2 Recordings captured during their 2024 magnetic set at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado, the EP offers a raw and electrifying glimpse into the band’s dynamic live energy and genre-blending spirit. / The 5-track collection includes a standout performance of “Nadie Sabe (rock’n’roll),” a powerful anthem that nods to the band’s rock roots while giving fans an early taste of their highly anticipated full-length album due out later this year. / Marking Making Movies’ first major U.S. festival appearance, the performance at Rocky Mountain Folks Festival was a milestone moment in the band’s journey—and one they’ll never forget. / “I love that we have a record of that wild and special day,” says Enrique Chi of Making Movies. “The mid-set downpour turned into a blessing—though we had to pause the show, when we returned, dancing in the rain was a pure expression of joy. We are grateful that those folks opened up their space and hearts to us, giving us the opportunity to road test some new songs and prepare for the next chapter for Making Movies.” / The Baúl de las Movies series is a nod to the band’s ongoing effort to open up their archives and share treasured recordings from the road. This latest installment captures the spontaneity and soul of a band known for merging Latin rhythms with psychedelic rock, folk storytelling, and political urgency. / Making Movies continues to carve a unique space in the music landscape, building bridges across cultures and generations. With this release, they invite listeners into the vibrant world they’ve created—live, unfiltered, and alive with possibility. // Last year Making Movies released Baúl De Las Movies (En Vivo En Folly Theater 2023) through 3/2 Recordings on September. 27, 2024, Produced by Ben Yonas, McKenzi Webster, Executive Producer Javier E. Carrizo, Production Assistant Nora Gibbons, Recording & Mixing Engineer Ben Yonas, Recording Engineer Paul Malinowski, Mastering Engineer, Dave Greenberg/Sonopod, Assistant Sound Engineers Josh Gomez, Ricky Menendez. Asdru Sierra on trumpet; Ryan Heinlein, Trevor Turla on trombone. // “Baúl De Las Movies: Folly Theater 2023” was also filmed. Directed by William J. Stribling. // Directors of Photography Adam Baron-Bloch, Alex Gallitano. // Camera Operators Cole Blaise, Nora Gibbons, Esai Saenz. // Production Designer Aisa Palomares. // Edited by Raymond Fraser. // Colorist Tam Le // DI Coordinator John Daniels-Riveros. // DI Services Provided by Sodalite Color // Stream “Baúl De Las Movies: Folly Theater 2023” – https://ffm.to/follyliveep.OYD. // Latin Grammy nominated band Making Movies released their special EP EN LA SALA containing 8 of the songs recorded LIVE, on January 12, 2024. // Before that they released their single “Medicina”. // Making Movies released XOPA through Cosmica Artists on June 17, 2022. XOPA and was recorded in Memphis, produced by Ben Yonas. More info at: http://www.makingmovies.world. Making Movies released the 5-song EP, EN VIVO (SIN APLAUSO) on February 4, 2022. Making Movies released the 6-track EP BORING BITS, on May 7, 2021. On February 5, the band released the 7-song, La Cuarentena EP which included a brand new version of the first Making Movies song, “La Marcha” and the lullaby “Could You?” (both mixed by Jim Eno of Spoon and tracked at Memphis Magnetic studio), and the love ballad “Una Vida.” The EP also includes covers of Talking Heads and Tears for Fears, plus bonus live acoustic tracks. The EP was available on BandCamp for only three days Feb. 5 through Feb. 7, 2021. // Making Movies released their single “Could You” on January 12, 2021. About “Could You” lead singer Enrique Javier Chi wrote, “I was thinking about what to share for “Could You?” and I just go back to the fact that Memphis is a profound place… it is a place where you can feel what America truly is and where it comes from. I think you see and feel the reality that so much of this nation was built from exploiting people. You can see that our pop culture is driven by the Black community and yet that community is still the most oppressed in the nation. Things are still so messed up. // Memphis is the place where Elvis started singing black music with a country twang and where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. It’s a beautiful place, it’s a charming place, it feels at times downtrodden and it’s a place that reminds me of home (both KC and Panamá) in different ways. Our experiences going to Memphis gave us the context to create “Could You?” It was filmed originally for AMERI’KANA TV.” Making Movies released their critically acclaimed album ameri’kana through 3/2 Recordings on May 24, 2019. This was #1 on WMM’s 119 Best Recordings of 2019. Produced by Steve Berlin and Ben Yonas. The notes for this album read: “ameri’kana is a canary in a coal mine, the watchman at the tower. It is a desire to remember where we come from and assure that we better ourselves in every step along our journey. Every chapter is an example, a reason to not be silent and not accept corrupt leaders as something inevitable. ameri’kana is based on faith, faith that every person on this continent carries within themselves the ability to grow, to awaken their consciousness and merits of the same rights. We were accomplices to get ourselves to this point so we will have to be accomplices in the solutions.” Making Movies released their album I Am Another You, May 26, 2017. The quartet has toured with Arcade Fire, Thievery Corporation, Cold War Kids, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, Tennis, Sergio Mendoza of Calexico, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Hurray for the Riff Raff. Making Movies released A La Deriva on October 7, 2014 with Enrique Chi (guitar/lead vox), Brendan Culp (drums), Diego Chi (bass), Juan-Carlos Chaurand (percussion /keyboard). Produced with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. In 2012 the band also released the EP “Aguardiente.” The Record Machine pressed a limited number of the 7 inch vinyl, 4 song EP. // Enrique Chi, is lead singer of Making Movies joined us on the February 2, 2014 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley to talk about the band’s recent tour in Central America, and the band’s Five Year Anniversary Show at the RecordBar, Fri, Feb. 14, with The Conquerors. The band played Puerto Rico in March 2014, and recently played Panama, where they had the opportunity to meet the President of Panama. Info at: https://makingmovies.world ]

[Enrique Chi officially founded Art As Mentorship in 2017. Enrique is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the Latin GRAMMY-nominated, Kansas City-based band Making Movies. // What began a decade ago as an after school music program for an under-served community has grown into an organized network of international performing artists committed to guiding the next generation through the power of music. // Art as Mentorship envisions an inclusive community where under-represented artists are emboldened to raise their voices through music. We will transform young artists through access to world-class mentorship, real-world skill development and mental health support. We believe the future will be made brighter by enabling the healing qualities of music to unite us and serve as a vehicle for social change. // Art as Mentorship (AM) empowers young people to write their own success stories. The non-profit organization stewards a comprehensive ecosystem that develops young artists personally and professionally through mentorship, mental health support, creative workforce pipelines, and community care. // AM serves through programs like the Rebel Song Academy, and amplifies culture through Celebrate AMERI’KANA, a free neighborhood arts festival involving students from the academy as performers and production interns. // AM taps into the frequencies that heal us by connecting musical experiences to mental health and championing arts participation as a health behavior. // Art as Mentorship is the only organization in the Midwest building a network of GRAMMY award-winning and world-class musicians to serve as mentors to young artists. As mentors, they inspire student artists to raise their voices and create original music that is grounded in their culture and personal experience. // Art as Mentorship believes in music education that encompasses the whole child, family and their connection to the community. Their programs teach them self-confidence, emotional intelligence, discipline and entrepreneurial skills, which help them create their own vision for a successful life. More info: https://artasmentorship.org%5D

8. Calvin Arsenia – “Headlights”
   from: Cantaloupe / Center Cut Records / September 15, 2018 (KC Release)
   [On June 23, 2023 Calvin Arsenia released Paradise his 14 track album. It is only available through http://www.calvinarsenia.com // A new turning point as a songwriter. His most biographical album yet, with songs about Black Lives Matter, Racism, The Police, being on probation, gay love. The album contains collaborations with Cheery, Kadesh Flow and Jametatone. Calvin Arsenia is one of our most frequent guests, who first appeared on WMM on July 25, 2012. KC Magazine has hailed Calvin as ‘equal parts opera, symphony, musical theatre, rock show, all built around its creator: a charismatic 6-foot-7-inch harpist with a 3 and ½ octave range, natural stage command and knack for gilding gold and painting lilies.’ Born in Orlando, Florida, Calvin’s creative journey began when he moved to Olathe, Kansas, teaching himself the guitar, piano, banjo. He learned his signature instrument, the harp, at the age of 20. 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 KC reborn as a humanistic songwriter / performer where at 24 he released his EP, Moments, in 2014, and his EP Prose in 2015, and his Folk Alliance exclusive EP Catastrophe in 2016. On February 14, 2017 Calvin released his critically acclaimed full length debut, Catastrophe, with a live show at recordBar in November 2016 that involved a company of 50 people, dancers, stilt walkers. After signing to Center Cut Records, Calvin released the albums: Cantaloupe in 2018, with a sold out gigantic spectacle at The Gem Theatre on Saturday, September 15, 2018. He then released, L.A. Sessions in 2019, and the EP HONEY DEW, and the EP Goddess with Quixotic, the Holiday album, ALL IS CALM. In 2020 Calvin collaborated with Mike Dillon on the Soundtrack to “Summer in Hindsight,” a feature-length film created by The West 18th Street Fashion Show that starred Calvin as an actor. Calvin is also the co-creator of the podcast “We Were Christian Kids” created with childhood friend Justin Randall who is a stand up comedian working in New York City and now Los Angeles. Calvin is also the published author of EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE, a collection of Poetry & Prose published on October 5, 2021, by Andrews McMeel Universal. Calvin was voted KC’s Best Musician in The Pitch 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2013 He has been featured in Billboard, NPR.org. Charlotte Street Foundation announced that the recipients of the 2022 Generative Performing Artist Awards are The Black Creatures and Calvin Arsenia Scott.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays recordBar 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO, Tomorrow Night, Thursday, October 23, at 7:00pm opening for Patrick Wolf.]

10:27 – Underwriting

10:29 – Pledge Break #2

Our WMM Fall Fund Drive Team: Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, and Bess Wallerstein-Huff

“Radio Powered By Diversity” For 37 Years our Kansas City Area Community Speaks Through our Airwaves and this Program.

So far… in 2025 on WMM Mark has interviewed 139 Guests: Krystle Warren, elska, Michelle Bacon, Mike Dillon, Peregrine Honig, Malek Azrael, Joshua Luke, Izzy Vivas, Julie Bennet Hume, Doug Hitchcock, Diana Watts, Kevin King, Daniel Gum, Chris Garibaldi, Mark Henning, Ross Brown, Miquel Antonio, Daniel Cole, Paul Seiz, Cody Ryan Stapleton, Matt Muckenthaler, Nathan Reusch, Zach Lamun, Les Izmore, Charlie Colborne, Billy Belzer, T.A. Rell, Just Angel, Dylan Pease, Andy Wooden, Betse Ellis, Rachel Christia, Mikal Shapiro, Seth Davis, Evan Verploegh, Shanté Clair, Benjamin Baker, SEYKO, Cole Bales, Cody Calhoun, Noah Cassity, Kole Waters, Alex May, Stephonne, Danielle Anderson, Zach Hodson, Valerie Schurman, Joe Frogge, Fally Afani, Til Willis, Heather Pontonio, Jose Faus, Elizabeth Bettendorf Bowman, Chico Sierra, Zo E., Jaclyn Danger, Simon Huntley, J. Ashley Miller, Grace Broadhead, Jason Turk, Sandra Draper, Enrique Chi, Julia Othmer, James T. Lundie, Alber, Jennie Ferguson, Scott Mize, Matt Kesler, Shaun Crowley, Paul Jesse, Alex Wong, Jen Kiper, David Luther, Sergio Anthony Gonzalez, Jeremiah James Gonzalez, Katlyn Conroy, Chris Catterall, Cheyenne Jackson, Kate McCandless, Moksha Sommer, Jemal Wade Hines, Chris Haghirian, James McGee, Meighan Peifer, Michael McQuary, Joey Arias, Lonnie Fisher, Tara Fisher, Adee Dancy aka Sisterbot, Hadiza., Suzannah Johannes, Keelon Van, Alyssa Murray, Ernest Melton, Mará Williams, J.M. Banks, Beth Watts Nelson, Spencer Thompson, Amanda Davis, Derek Trautwein, Dedric Moore, Rachel Lovelace, Kai McGarry, Alicia McGarry, Sandra Draper, Steve Tulipana, Day Shepherd, Tirzah DeMeire, Keyon Monté, Lee Sampson, Joel Stratton, Jim Hubbell, TheBabeGabe, TyFaison, Mitzi McKee, Don Simon, Morgan Holcomb, Bill Sundahl, Rick Truman, Nick Carswell, Brody Lowe, Fritz Hutchison, Mark Ronning, Iona DeWalt, Nan Turner, Amy Steinberg, Pete Kuhn, Brandon Day, Flare Tha Rebel, Margo May, Jared Bond, Tim York, Rita Hanch, Brock Johnson, Howard Iceberg, Chad Brothers, Julie Bates, Andrew Morris

10:37 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

9. Mavis Staples – “Beautiful Strangers”
   from: Sad And Beautiful World / Anti / June 10, 2025
   [Written by Kevin Morby who released this song as a single in 2016 in tribute to the victims of the Orlando Pulse shooting. Staples’ version is gentle and lived-in. It’s got electric guitars from MJ Lenderman and Staples’ bandleader Rick Holmstrom. Brad Cook plays vibraphone, and his brother Phil adds piano. Nathaniel Rateliff and Tré Burt sing backup vocals. Unsurprisingly, Kevin Morby is pretty bowled over by the existence of this cover. Morby says. “It isn’t easy to put into words what it feels like having one of the best, most important vocalists and cultural figures of both the 20th and 21st century sing one of my songs. But hearing Mavis sing “Beautiful Strangers” is hands down the greatest moment and highest honor of my career. Far beyond any kind of accolade or acclaim — having one of my biggest heroes sing something I wrote is the most validating and flattering thing that could ever happen to me as a songwriter and person. Thank you, Mavis. Mavis also wields that extremely rare power to take a song somebody else wrote and make it entirely her own. As the person who penned “Beautiful Stranger,” I feel I have every right to say: Her version is better. // This is the second single from Mavis Staple’s new album of cover songs. The first single was “Godspeed” written by Frank Ocean. A legendary performer who turned 86 next month on July 10, Mavis Staples continues to be a tour-de-force in music and a voice for the voiceless in today’s divided society. Well known for her work in the gospel and Americana space, Staples is also an R&B icon who famously worked with the one and only Prince in his 80’s heyday. // Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a GRAMMY Award-winner; a chart-topping soul/gospel/R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama’s White House. // At a time when most artists begin to wind down, Staples ramped things up, releasing a trio of critically acclaimed albums in her 70’s with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy that prompted Pitchfork to rave that “her voice has only gained texture and power over the years” and People to proclaim that she “provides the comfort of a higher power.” “I sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them,” Staples says. “I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I’m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.” // On July 9, Staples and award-winning children’s poet Carol Boston Weatherford will release the new children’s book ‘Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples’, a vibrant and poetic new picture book that introduces young readers to Staples’ life story, who began singing at age 8 and ever since has used her voice as a rallying cry to the country at numerous civil rights protests and continues to sing and share her message of love, faith and justice in front of large audiences today. // Staples recently celebrated her upcoming birthday early in stellar fashion at Los Angeles’s YouTube Theater this past April, gracing the stage alongside a star-studded lineup including Hozier, Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Black Pumas, and more. Currently on tour in Europe, Staples will return to the US and perform at Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic on the nation’s birthday. The next day she begins a run of dates with Norah Jones, who she affectionally calls “my baby sister.” All upcoming dates are listed below. // Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family’s band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again”. In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album. // Staples continued to release solo albums throughout the following decades and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Arcade Fire, Nona Hendryx, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne. Her eighth studio album You Are Not Alone (2010), earned critical acclaim, and became her first album as a soloist to reach number one on a Billboard chart, peaking atop the Top Gospel Albums chart. It also earned Staples her first Grammy Award win. Following this, she released the albums One True Vine (2013), Livin’ on a High Note (2016), If All I Was Was Black (2017), and We Get By (2019); she is also featured on the single “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier. // Staples is the recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has won three Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year as a featured artist on We Are by Jon Batiste.[6] Named one of the ‘100 Greatest Singers of all Time’ by Rolling Stone in 2008; Staples was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2018, as a member of The Staple Singers. Additionally, she was made a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2016. The following year, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame as a soloist. In 2019, she received the inaugural Rock Hall Honors Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a soloist. // Staples was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 10, 1939. She began her career with her family group in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a hit in 1956 with “Uncloudy Day” for the Vee-Jay label. When Mavis graduated from what is now Paul Robeson High School in 1957, The Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples on guitar and including the voices of Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis, the Staples were called “God’s Greatest Hitmakers”. // With Mavis’ voice and Pops’ songs, singing, and guitar playing, the Staples evolved from enormously popular gospel singers (with recordings on United and Riverside as well as Vee-Jay) to become the most spectacular and influential spirituality-based group in America. By the mid-1960s The Staple Singers, inspired by Pops’ close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. They covered contemporary pop hits with positive messages, including Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and a version of Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth”. // During a December 20, 2008, appearance on National Public Radio’s news show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, when Staples was asked about her past personal relationship with Dylan, she admitted that they “were good friends, yes indeed” and that he had asked her father for her hand in marriage. // The Staples sang “message” songs like “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?,” bringing their moving and articulate music to a huge number of young people. The group signed to Stax Records in 1968, joining their gospel harmonies and deep faith with musical accompaniment from members of Booker T. and the MGs. The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975, including two No. 1 singles, “I’ll Take You There”, produced by Al Bell and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning, “Let’s Do It Again,” and a No. 2 single “Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?” // Mavis made her first solo foray while at Epic Records with The Staple Singers, releasing a lone single “Crying in the Chapel” to little fanfare in the late 1960s. The single was finally re-released on the 1994 Sony Music collection Lost Soul. Her first solo album would not come until a 1969 self-titled release for the Stax label. After another Stax release, Only for the Lonely, in 1970, she released a soundtrack album, A Piece of the Action, on Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label. A 1984 album (also self-titled) preceded two albums under the direction of rock star Prince; 1989’s Time Waits for No One, followed by 1993’s The Voice, which People magazine named one of the Top Ten Albums of 1993. Her 1996 release, Spirituals & Gospels: A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson, was recorded with keyboardist Lucky Peterson. The recording honors Mahalia Jackson, a close family friend and a significant influence on Mavis Staples’s life. // Staples singing during the 2006 NEA National Heritage Fellows concert. // Staples made a major national return with the release of the album Have a Little Faith on Chicago’s Alligator Records, produced by Jim Tullio, in 2004. The album featured spiritual music, some of it semi-acoustic. // In 2004, Staples contributed to a Verve release by legendary jazz-rock guitarist, John Scofield. The album, entitled That’s What I Say, was a tribute to the great Ray Charles and led to a live tour featuring Staples, John Scofield, pianist Gary Versace, drummer Steve Hass, and bassist Rueben Rodriguez. A new album for Anti- Records entitled We’ll Never Turn Back was released on April 24, 2007. The Ry Cooder-produced concept album focuses on gospel songs of the civil rights movement and also included two new original songs by Cooder. // Her voice has been sampled by some of the biggest selling artists, including Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Ice Cube, Ludacris, and Hozier. Staples has recorded with a wide variety of musicians, from her friend, Bob Dylan (with whom she was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award in the “Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals” category for their duet on “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”, from the album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan) to The Band, Ray Charles, Prince, Nona Hendryx, George Jones, Natalie Merchant, Ann Peebles, and Delbert McClinton. She has provided vocals on current albums by Los Lobos and Dr. John, and she appears on tribute albums to such artists as Johnny Paycheck, Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan. // In 2003, Staples performed in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater alongside a cadre of her fellow former Stax Records stars during “Soul Comes Home,” a concert held in conjunction with the grand opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music at the original site of Stax Records, and appears on the CD & DVD that were recorded and filmed during the event. In 2004, she returned as guest artist for the Stax Music Academy’s SNAP! Summer Music Camp and performed again at the Orpheum with 225 of the academy’s students. In June 2007, she again returned to the venue to perform at the Stax 50th Anniversary Concert to Benefit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, produced by Concord Records, who now owns and has revived the Stax Records label. // In 2009, Staples, along with Patty Griffin and The Tri-City Singers, released a version of the song “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration. // On October 30, 2010, Staples performed at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear alongside singer Jeff Tweedy. In 2011 she was joined on-stage at the Outside Lands Music And Arts Festival by Arcade Fire singer Win Butler. The two performed a version of “The Weight” by The Band. // Staples also performed at the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors, singing in a tribute to honoree Paul McCartney. // Staples headlined on June 10, 2012, at Chicago’s Annual Blues Festival in Grant Park. // On June 27, 2015, Staples performed on the Park Stage of Glastonbury Somerset UK. On October 31, 2015, Staples performed with Joan Osborne in Washington, D.C. at The George Washington // University’s Lisner Auditorium as part of their Solid Soul Tour. // In February 2016, Staples’s album Livin’ on a High Note was released. Produced by M. Ward, the album features songs written specifically for Staples by Nick Cave, Justin Vernon, tUnE-yArds, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, and others. Discussing the album Staples said: “I’ve been singing my freedom songs and I wanted to stretch out and sing some songs that were new. I told the writers I was looking for some joyful songs. I want to leave something to lift people up; I’m so busy making people cry, not from sadness, but I’m always telling a part of history that brought us down and I’m trying to bring us back up. These songwriters gave me a challenge. They gave me that feeling of, ‘Hey, I can hang! I can still do this!’ There’s a variety, and it makes me feel refreshed and brand new. Just like Benjamin Booker wrote on the opening track, ‘I got friends and I got love around me, I got people, the people who love me.’ I’m living on a high note, I’m above the clouds. I’m just so grateful. I must be the happiest old girl in the world. Yes, indeed.” // In January 2017, Staples was featured as a guest vocalist on “I Give You Power”, a single from Arcade Fire benefiting the American Civil Liberties Union. In February 2017, Staples appeared on NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! in the “Not My Job” segment, answering questions about the rock band The Shaggs. In April 2017, “Let Me Out”, a single from the fifth studio album by Gorillaz, Humanz, was released, featuring Staples and rapper Pusha T. // Staples’s sixteenth album If All I Was Was Black was released on November 17, 2017. The record was again produced by Jeff Tweedy and contains all original songs cowritten by Mavis and Tweedy. Following the release, Staples toured with Bob Dylan. She also appeared on the 2017/18 Hootenanny. In 2018, she sang on Hozier’s single “Nina Cried Power”. // In May 2019, Staples celebrated her 80th birthday with a concert at the Apollo Theater, 63 years after first appearing at the theater as a teenager with her family band, the Staple Singers, in 1956. The show, which featured special guest artists, including David Byrne & Norah Jones, is one of a series of collaborative concerts she staged in May to commemorate her 80th birthday. She performed at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival. // In 2022, Staples released Carry Me Home, a collaboration with Levon Helm, recorded at Helm’s Midnight Ramble in 2011. // She released the single “Worthy” on June 18, 2024.]

[On May 13, 2022 Kevin Morby released THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH on Dead Oceans. #7 on WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2022. It was Kevin Morby’s 7th album as a solo artist. From http://www.rollingstone.com: “In January 2020, songwriter Kevin Morby witnessed his father collapse from a medical event while visiting his childhood home in Kansas. In a state of shock, the singer spent the evening looking at old family photos and fixated on an image of his father as a young man, looking, as Morby states, ‘full of confidence.’ The experience forced Morby to confront both the idea of mortality and the passage of time — and, after an extended sojourn in Tennessee, these reflections came together in the form of his upcoming album, This Is a Photograph. To mark the announcement, the singer released the record’s eponymous single, accompanied by a music video directed by Chantal Anderson. Produced by frequent Morby collaborator Sam Cohen, This Is a Photograph was primarily written in Memphis’ historic Peabody Hotel, where the singer-songwriter holed up in search of inspiration and self-realization amongst the city’s dark past.” // On October 16, 2020 Kevin Morby released SUNDOWNER, ranked #20 on WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2020 and was the 6th release from Kevin Robert Morby born April 2, 1988. SUNDOWNER was the follow up to his 2019 release OH MY GOD. Kevin Morby released CITY MUSIC in 2017. Kevin learned to play guitar when he was 10. In his teens he formed the band Creepy Aliens. 17-year-old Morby dropped out of Blue Valley Northwest High School, got his GED, and moved from his native KC to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, supporting himself by working bike delivery and café jobs. He later joined the noise-folk group Woods on bass. While living in Brooklyn, he became close friends and roommates with Cassie Ramone of the punk trio Vivian Girls, and the two formed a side project together called The Babies, who released albums in 2011 and 2012. He began a solo career in 2013 releasing his debut album HARLEM RIVER. His 2nd album STILL LIFE was released in 2014. His album SINGING SAW was in WMM’s The 116 Best Recordings of 2016. His album CITY MUSIC was in WMM’s The 118 Best Recordings of 2018.]

[Kevin Morby plays Cable Dahmer Arena at 19100 East Valley View Parkway, Independence MO., on Saturday, October 25, 2025, ay 8:00pm, opening for Lord Huron.]

10. Louis Armstrong and His All Stars – “Cabaret”
    from: What a Wonderful World / Verve / January 1, 1967
    [Written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Satchmo’s 36th album. / Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed “Satchmo”, “Satch”, and “Pops”, was an American jazz and blues trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several eras in the history of jazz. Armstrong received numerous accolades including the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance for Hello, Dolly! in 1965, as well as a posthumous win for the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1972. His influence crossed musical genres, with inductions into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, among others. // Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, he was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Around 1922, Armstrong followed his mentor, Joe “King” Oliver, to Chicago to play in Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Armstrong earned a reputation at “cutting contests”, and his fame reached band leader Fletcher Henderson. Armstrong moved to New York City, where he became a featured and musically influential band soloist and recording artist. By the 1950s, Armstrong was an international musical icon, appearing regularly in radio and television broadcasts and on film. Apart from his music, he was also beloved as an entertainer, often joking with the audience and keeping a joyful public image at all times. // Armstrong’s best known songs include “What a Wonderful World”, “La Vie en Rose”, “Hello, Dolly!”, “On the Sunny Side of the Street”, “Dream a Little Dream of Me”, “When You’re Smiling” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”. He collaborated with Ella Fitzgerald, producing three records together: Ella and Louis (1956), Ella and Louis Again (1957), and Porgy and Bess (1959). He also appeared in films such as A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932), Cabin in the Sky (1943), High Society (1956), Paris Blues (1961), A Man Called Adam (1966), and Hello, Dolly! (1969). // With his instantly recognizable, rich, gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer and skillful improviser. He was also skilled at scat singing. By the end of Armstrong’s life, his influence had spread to popular music. He was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to “cross over” to wide popularity with white and international audiences. Armstrong rarely publicly discussed racial issues, sometimes to the dismay of fellow black Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation in the Little Rock crisis. He could access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for black men.]

[John Harold Kander was born March 18, 1927. He is an American composer, known largely for his work in the musical theater. As part of the songwriting team Kander and Ebb (with lyricist Fred Ebb), Kander wrote the scores for 15 musicals, including Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), both of which were later adapted into acclaimed films. He and Ebb also wrote the standard “New York, New York” (officially known as “Theme from New York, New York”). The team received numerous nominations, including eleven for Tony Awards (won four, followed by a Lifetime Achievement Award for Kander), two nominations for Academy Awards, and five for Golden Globe Awards. // John Kander, the second son of Harold and Bernice (Aaron) Kander, was born on March 18, 1927, in Kansas City, Missouri. He has stated that he grew up in a loving, middle-class Jewish family and maintained a lifelong close relationship with his older brother, Edward, who became a sales manager at a brokerage house in the city. Kander attributes his early interest in music (starting at age four) to the family’s love of singing around the piano. His first composition was a Christmas carol, written during second-grade mathematics class; his teacher’s encouragement led to the school choir singing it for a holiday assembly. The teacher discreetly asked Kander’s parents for permission to use the song, since he is Jewish. He attended his first opera performances at the age of nine, when the San Carlo Opera came to Kansas City with productions of Aida and Madama Butterfly. According to Kander, “My mother took me and we sat in the first row. There were these giants on the stage, and my feet were dangling over my seat. It was overwhelming for me, even though I could see the strings that held the beards on the Egyptian soldiers…. My interest in telling a story through music in many ways derived from early experiences like those.” // Kander attended Westport High School before transferring to the Pembroke Country-Day School. During World War II, Kander joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Cadet Corps. After completing his training in California and sailing between San Francisco and Asia, Kander left the Corps on May 3, 1946. However, due to rule changes governing national service, Kander was forced to enlist in the Army Reserves in September of the same year, after having completed one semester at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. During the Korean War, Kander was ordered back into active duty, but he had to remain in New York City for six months of observation after a medical exam revealed scars on his lungs. He was officially discharged on July 3, 1957. // Kander graduated with a degree in music at Oberlin College in 1951 and went on to graduate studies at Columbia University, where he was a protégé of Douglas Moore and studied composition with Jack Beeson and Otto Luening. He earned his master’s degree from Columbia University in 1953. // Following his studies, Kander began conducting at summer theaters before serving as a rehearsal pianist for the musical West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins in New York. While working, Kander met the choreographer Jerome Robbins, who suggested that Kander compose dance music. After that experience, he wrote dance arrangements for Gypsy in 1959 and Irma la Douce in 1960. // Kander’s first produced musical was A Family Affair in 1962, written with James and William Goldman. The same year, Kander met Fred Ebb through their mutual publisher, Tommy Valando. The first song Kander and Ebb wrote together, “My Coloring Book”, was made popular by a recording from Sandy Stewart. Their second song, “I Don’t Care Much”, was made famous by Barbra Streisand, and Kander and Ebb became a permanent team. // In 1965, Kander and Ebb wrote music for their first show on Broadway, Flora the Red Menace, produced by Hal Prince, directed by George Abbott, and with book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut. // Kander and Ebb have since been associated with writing material for both Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera (including the musicals Zorba, Chicago, The Rink, and Kiss of the Spider Woman) and have produced special material for their appearances live and on television, such as Liza with a Z. Most notably, Kander and Ebb wrote the dramatic title song that Minnelli introduced in her 1977 film, New York, New York, at the request of director Martin Scorsese and co-star Robert De Niro. // The Broadway musicals Cabaret and Chicago have been made into films. The film version of Chicago won several 2002 Academy Awards, including for best picture, film editing, costume design, art direction and sound. In his musicological and biographical study of the collaboration of Kander and Ebb, James Leve discusses the full history of Cabaret and Chicago in chapters titled “The Divinely Decadent Lives of Cabaret” and “Chicago: Broadway to Hollywood”. As Leve notes, Cabaret, a musical adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories, was an “ideal vehicle for Kander and Ebb’s brittle and self-referential brand of musical theater.” This insight also holds true for Chicago. Kander, along with Ebb, also wrote songs for Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, which was set to premiere in London, but the rights were pulled by Wilder’s nephew. Kander also says that Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the writers of The Fantasticks, wrote a musical of Wilder’s Our Town, which took them thirteen years to write, only to have the rights pulled as well by the nephew. // Fred Ebb died in 2004, and Kander’s first musical without Ebb in many years, The Landing, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on October 23, 2013. The musical, which was a series of three “mini-musicals”, was directed by Walter Bobbie and starred David Hyde Pierce and Julia Murney. // Kander’s musical Kid Victory, with book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, had its world premiere February 28, 2015, at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. Kid Victory premiered off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on February 1, 2017, in previews, and opened officially on February 22, 2017. Direction was by Liesl Tommy, with choreography by Christopher Windom. The cast featured Jeffry Denman and Karen Ziemba. // Kander (music) and David Thompson (lyrics) wrote the dance play The Beast in the Jungle, which opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Vineyard Theatre. The play was directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, and featured Tony Yazbeck and Irina Dvorovenko. Kander (music) collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda (lyrics) for Miranda’s Hamildrops series: “Cheering for Me Now” is an uplifting track about New York’s ratification of the constitution. // James Leve discusses Kander’s prolific career and his late musical style in the essay “John Kander: the First Ninety-Two Years”. // In 2010, Kander married dancer and choreographer Albert Stephenson, his partner since 1977, in Toronto. // Kander’s grand-nephew Jason Kander was formerly the Missouri Secretary of State.]

11. The Chambers Brothers – “What The World Needs Now”
    from: The Time Has Come / Columbia / 1967 [written by Burt Bacharach
    [“What the World Needs Now Is Love” is a 1965 song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. First recorded and made popular by Jackie DeShannon, it was released on April 15, 1965, on the Imperial label after a release on sister label Liberty records the previous month was canceled. It peaked at number seven on the US Hot 100 in July of that year. In Canada, the song reached number one. // In 2008, the 1965 recording by DeShannon on Imperial Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. // Co-songwriter Burt Bacharach revealed in his 2014 autobiography that this song had among the most difficult lyrics Hal David ever wrote, despite being deceptively simple as a pop hit. He explained that they had the main melody and chorus written back in 1962, centering on a waltz tempo, but it took another two years for David to finally come up with the lyric, “Lord, we don’t need another mountain.” Once David worked out the verses, Bacharach said the song essentially “wrote itself” and they finished it in a day or two. // The song’s success caught the two songwriters completely by surprise, since they were very aware of the controversy and disagreements among Americans about the Vietnam War, which was the subtext for David’s lyrics. Bacharach continuously used the song as the intro and finale for most of his live concert appearances well into the 2000s. // In 1967, the Chambers Brothers recorded a soul version of “What the World Needs Now Is Love” using gospel harmonies and 4/4 metric. // The Chambers Brothers are an American psychedelic soul band, best known for their eleven-minute 1968 psychedelic soul hit “Time Has Come Today”. The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions with modern psychedelic and rock elements. Their music has been kept alive through frequent use in film soundtracks. There were four brothers, though other musicians were also in the group. // Originally from Carthage, Mississippi, the Chambers Brothers first honed their skills as members of the choir in their Baptist church. This arrangement ended in 1952 when the eldest brother, George, was drafted into the Army. George relocated to Los Angeles after his discharge, and his brothers soon joined him. Beginning in 1954, the foursome played gospel and folk music throughout the Southern California region, but remained little known until 1965 when they began performing in New York City. // Consisting of George (September 26, 1931 – October 12, 2019) on washtub bass (later on bass guitar Danelectro and Gibson Thunderbird), Lester (b. April 13, 1940) on harmonica, and Willie (b. March 3, 1938) and Joe (August 22, 1942 – August 15, 2024) on guitar, the group started to venture outside the gospel circuit, playing at coffeehouses that booked folk acts. They played at places like The Ash Grove, a very popular Los Angeles folk club. It became one of their favorite haunts and brought them into contact with Hoyt Axton, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Reverend Gary Davis, and Barbara Dane. When Dane spotted the brothers there, she knew they would be perfect to do these freedom songs that people wanted to hear then. Dane became a great supporter, performing and recording with the brothers. Dane took them on tour with her and introduced them to Pete Seeger, who helped put the Chambers Brothers on the bill of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The brothers were backed by Sam Lay at Newport on their first night at the festival. George Chambers was impressed by the “big sound” of Lay and asked him to back the brothers on another set. One of the songs they performed, “I Got It”, appeared on the Newport Folk Festival 1965 compilation LP, which was issued on the Vanguard label.// They were becoming more accepted in the folk community, but, like many on the folk circuit, were looking to electrify their music and develop more of a rock and roll sound. Joe Chambers recalled in a May 1994 Goldmine article that people at the Newport Folk Festival were breaking down fences and rushing to the stage. “Newport had never seen or heard anything like that.” After the group finished and the crowd finally settled down, the MC came up and said, “Whether you know it or not, that was rock ‘n’ roll.” That night they played at a post-concert party for festival performers and went to a recording session of the newly electrified Bob Dylan. Shortly after appearing at Newport, the group released its debut album, People Get Ready.]

Burt Bacharach was born May 12, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri. He passed on February 8, 2023. He was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist, widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. He composed hundreds of pop songs, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. His music features atypical chord progressions and time signature changes, influenced by his background in jazz, and uncommon selections of instruments for small orchestras. He arranged, conducted, and produced much of his recorded output. // Beginning in the 1950s, Bacharach and David worked with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. From 1961 to 1972, most of the duo’s hits were tailored for Dionne Warwick. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach wrote hits for singers such as Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and B. J. Thomas. In total, he wrote fifty-two US Top 40 hits, including chart-toppers “This Guy’s in Love with You” (Herb Alpert, 1968), “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (Thomas, 1969), “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (the Carpenters, 1970), “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (Christopher Cross, 1981), “That’s What Friends Are For” (Warwick, 1986), and “On My Own” (Carole Bayer Sager, 1986). // Over 1,000 artists have recorded Bacharach’s songs. A significant figure in orchestral pop and easy listening, he influenced genres such as sunshine pop/soft rock, chamber pop, and Shibuya-kei. Writer William Farina described him as “linked with just about every other prominent musical artist of his era”; later his songs were repurposed for major feature film soundtracks, by which time “tributes, compilations, and revivals” had proliferated. He received six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and one Emmy Award. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Bacharach and David at number 32 for their list of the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time”. In 2012, the duo received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first time the honor has been given to a songwriting team. // Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1946. He was the son of Irma M. (née Freeman) and Mark Bertram “Bert” Bacharach, a well-known syndicated newspaper columnist. His mother was an amateur painter and songwriter and encouraged Bacharach to practice piano, drums and cello during his childhood. His family was Jewish, but he said that they did not practice or give much attention to their religion. “But the kids I knew were Catholic,” he added. “I was Jewish, but I didn’t want anybody to know about it.” // Bacharach showed a keen interest in jazz as a teenager, disliking his classical piano lessons, and often used a fake ID to gain admission into 52nd Street nightclubs. He got to hear bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, whose style influenced his songwriting. // Bacharach studied music (Associate of Music, 1948) at McGill University in Montreal, under Helmut Blume, at the Mannes School of Music in New York City, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. During this period he studied a range of music, including jazz, whose sophisticated harmony is a distinctive feature of many of his compositions. His composition teachers included Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell, and Bohuslav Martinů. Bacharach cited Milhaud, under whose guidance he wrote a “Sonatina for Violin, Oboe and Piano”, as his greatest influence.]

10:49 – Pledge Break #3

Our WMM Fall Fund Drive Team: Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, and Bess Wallerstein Huff

We need KKFI Now More Than Ever. LGBTQIA, Urban Issues, Black Lives Matter, Labor Rights, The Environment, The Kansas City Visual & Literary Arts , The Performing Arts, Stadium Campaigns, Women’s Issues, Native American Issues, Jazz, Blues, Reggae, Classical, Hip Hop, Folk, Women’s Music, Indie Rock, Pop, Electronica, Punk…the answer is KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio.

We’re living in an age when an entire Political Party, a President, his entire cabinet, the U.S. Congress & Senate, The Supreme Court, Kansas & Missouri State governments are eliminating healthcare & legal protections for women, equality, civil rights, jobs, minorities, people living with disabilities, children, rolling back equality for Transgender, Non-Binary & Queer friends. With the recent narrow passage of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill – ICE now has an estimated budget of $150 billion between now and 2029—an annual average of $37.5 billion, which is higher than the military expenditure of all but 15 countries.

Things aren’t so good for pubic broadcasting. Federal cuts threaten Kansas City’s music scene: a joint statement from local stations. Kansas City’s noncommercial stations provide critical pipelines for new, local artists and music to be discovered. Congress rescinded federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public radio stations such as KKFI, KCUR, Classical KC, and 90.9 The Bridge could have diminished capacity to deliver the same quality and variety of music.

The U.S. House voted on June 12th to claw back federal funding for public broadcasting — an action that directly threatened Kansas City’s noncommercial music services, including 91.9 Classical KC, KCUR 89.3, 90.1 KKFI, Kansas Public Radio and 90.9 The Bridge.

The president formally requested that Congress to rescind $1.1 billion in federal subsidies for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which lawmakers had already approved.

WHAT’S AT STAKE – Music and the arts permeate almost every aspect of public media–from shows dedicated to music discovery and local artists to live on-air performances and concert calendars, public media provides access to music genres and artists that in many cases are ignored by commercial media.

Additionally, CPB represents the public media system to music rights organizations in negotiating blanket music licenses for noncommercial uses of music, and with a portion of the federal appropriation, CPB pays those licensing fees for all eligible public media stations.

Without federal funding for the CPB and CPB’s management of these music rights, public radio stations would face a diminished capacity to deliver the quality and variety of music you rely on, both on the radio and through our streaming platforms.

It would be cost-prohibitive and burdensome for individual stations to negotiate the same licenses and fees on their own. The loss of CPB’s role in securing music licenses is truly an existential threat for noncommercial public media.

10:57 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

12. Charlie Parker – “Warmin’ Up a Riff”
    from: The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes / Savoy – Concord Records / Sept 10, 2002
    [This is a list of recordings by American jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker (“Bird”). Parker primarily recorded for three labels: Savoy, Dial, and Verve. His work with these labels has been chronicled in box sets. // Charles Parker Jr. was born August 29, 1920 and passed March 12, 1955. He was nicknamed “Bird” or “Yardbird”, was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. He was a virtuoso and introduced revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Parker primarily played the alto saxophone. // Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. // Charles Parker Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas, to Charles Parker Sr. and Adelaide “Addie” Bailey, who was of mixed Choctaw and African-American background. He was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, near Westport Road. His father, a Pullman waiter and chef on the railways, was often required to travel for work, but provided some musical influence because he was a pianist, dancer, and singer on the Theatre Owners Booking Association circuit. Parker’s mother worked nights at the local Western Union office during the 1920s. // Parker first went to a Catholic school and sang in its choir, but his parents separated in 1930 due to his father’s alcoholism and the effects of the Great Depression. By the time he was in high school, Parker, his older half-brother John, and his mother Addie were living near 15th Street and Olive Street and she was working as a cleaner in order to afford housing. // Parker began playing the saxophone at age 11, and at age 14 he joined the Lincoln High School band, where he studied under bandmaster Alonzo Lewis. His mother purchased a new alto saxophone around the same time. Parker’s biggest influence in his early teens was a young trombone player named Robert Simpson, who taught him the basics of improvisation. // Parker withdrew from high school in December 1935, joined the local musicians’ union, and decided to pursue his musical career full-time. // Upon leaving high school, Parker began to play with local bands in jazz clubs around KC and often ambitiously took part in jam sessions with more experienced musicians. In early 1936, at one such jam session with the Count Basie Orchestra, he lost track of the chord changes while improvising. This prompted Jo Jones to contemptuously remove a cymbal from his drum kit and throw it at his feet as a signal to leave the stage. // A King ‘Super 20′ alto saxophone, owned and used by Charlie Parker, now at the Smithsonian Institution. // Rather than becoming discouraged, Parker vowed to practice harder. He mastered improvisation and, according to his comments in an interview with Paul Desmond, spent the next three to four years practicing up to 15 hours a day. Parker proposed to Rebecca Ruffin, his girlfriend four years his senior, and the two married on July 25, 1936. They had two children before divorcing in 1939, in large part due to his growing drug addiction. // In late 1936, Parker and a KC band traveled to the Ozarks for the opening of Musser’s Resort south of Eldon, Missouri. Along the way, the caravan of musicians had a car accident and Parker broke three ribs and fractured his spine. Despite this near-death experience, in 1937 Parker returned to the area, where he spent a great deal of time woodshedding and developing his sound. Working with a pianist and guitarist, he practiced improvising over chord changes and began to develop the ability to solo fluently across chords and scales. // In 1938, Parker joined pianist Jay McShann’s territory band. His first gig with the band was during the summer or early fall at the Continental Club in KC, where Parker worked as a substitute alto saxophonist for Edward “Popeye” Hale. In December, he joined Harlan Leonard’s Rockets; the band played at dances including a Christmas dance for which Parker was listed in a local newspaper as one of the Rockets’ personnel. // In 1939, Parker moved to New York City to pursue his musical career but worked part-time jobs to make a living. Among the more musically significant of these was as a dishwasher for nine dollars a week at Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, where pianist Art Tatum performed. Struggling with poverty, Parker went to the home of fellow alto saxophone player Buster Smith to ask for help. Smith allowed Parker to live in his apartment for six months and gave him gigs in his band. Parker’s playing at the gigs impressed several New York musicians, including pianist and bandleader Earl Hines. // While living in New York, Parker achieved his musical breakthrough, developing a new improvisational vocabulary which later came to be known as “bebop”. Playing “Cherokee” in a practice session with guitarist William “Biddy” Fleet, he realized that the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing. Parker recalled: “I’d been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used all the time at the time, and I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn’t play it … Well, that night I was working over ‘Cherokee’ and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I’d been hearing. I came alive.” // In 1940, he returned to Kansas City to perform with Jay McShann and to attend the funeral of his father, Charles Sr. The younger Parker then spent the summer in McShann’s band playing at Fairyland Park for all-white audiences; trumpet player Bernard Anderson introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie. The band also toured nightclubs and other venues of the southwest, as well as Chicago and New York City, and Parker made his professional recording debut with McShann’s band that year. When in New York, to experiment with his new musical ideas that went beyond the bounds of McShann’s group, Parker joined a group of young musicians who played in after-hours clubs in Harlem venues including Clark Monroe’s Uptown House. Fellow musicians at the venues included developing beboppers Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, and drummer Kenny Clarke. A pianist and one of the pioneers of bebop, Mary Lou Williams, said the after-hours sessions were an opportunity “to challenge the practice of downtown musicians coming uptown and ‘stealing’ the music.” // Parker left McShann’s band in 1942 and played for one year with Hines, whose band also included Gillespie. This band’s performances and therefore Parker’s role in them are virtually undocumented due to the strike of 1942–1944 by the American Federation of Musicians, during which time few professional recordings were made. In fact, much of bebop’s critical early development was not captured for posterity due to the ban and the new genre gained limited radio exposure as a result. The few recordings in which Parker participated in 1943 took place in Chicago and included a jam session recording with Gillespie and bassist Oscar Pettiford, another session with Billy Eckstine playing trumpet, some informally recorded practice sessions, and a duo with pianist Hazel Scott.[30] Parker’s time with Hines’s band and his travel between New York and Chicago enabled him to model his style on, according to his own words, a “combination of the Midwestern beat and the fast New York tempos.” Parker began writing compositions thanks to his growing friendship with Gillespie, who began notating Parker’s solos as melodies. Among these early Parker compositions were “Koko”, “Anthropology”, and “Confirmation”. // Parker left Hines’s band and formed a small group with Gillespie, pianist Al Haig, bassist Curley Russell, and drummer Stan Levey. The group stood out from its contemporaries, as it was racially integrated and lacked a guitarist for rhythmic support. This new format freed soloists from harmonic and rhythmic restrictions, and in late 1944 the group secured a gig at the Three Deuces club in New York. The group’s name recognition spread along 52nd Street and its style was dubbed “bebop” for the first time. Musicians at other clubs came to hear bebop and reacted unfavorably to it because, according to Charles Mingus, they saw it as a threat to their style of jazz. // Only in 1945, after the AFM’s recording ban was lifted, did Parker’s collaborations with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and others have a substantial effect on the jazz world. One of their first small-group performances together, a concert in New York’s Town Hall on June 22, 1945, was rediscovered in 2004 and released in 2005. Bebop soon gained wider appeal among musicians and fans. // On November 26, 1945, Parker led a record date for Savoy Records, marketed as the “greatest Jazz session ever”. Recording as Charlie Parker’s Reboppers, Parker enlisted sidemen Gillespie and Miles Davis on trumpet, Curley Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. The tracks recorded during this session include “Ko-Ko”, “Billie’s Bounce”, and “Now’s the Time”. // In December 1945, the Parker band traveled to an unsuccessful engagement at Billy Berg’s club in Los Angeles. Most of the group returned to New York, but Parker remained in California, cashing in his return ticket to buy heroin. After he dedicated one of his compositions to local drug dealer “Moose the Mooche” at a studio session in the spring, the dealer was arrested, and without access to heroin, Parker turned to alcohol addiction. He suffered a physical and mental breakdown after a studio session in July 1946 for Dial Records, and was briefly jailed after setting the bedsheets of his Los Angeles hotel room on fire and then running naked through the lobby while intoxicated, after which he was committed to the Camarillo State Mental Hospital for six months. // When Parker was discharged from the hospital, he was healthy and free from his drug habit. Before leaving California, he recorded “Relaxin’ at Camarillo,” in reference to his stay in the mental hospital, at one of two successful recording sessions. The first took place with a septet while the other paired Parker with pianist Erroll Garner’s trio and vocalist Earl Coleman. Upon returning to New York in 1947, Parker resumed his heroin usage. He recorded dozens of sides for the Savoy and Dial labels, which remain some of the high points of his recorded output. Many of these were with his new quintet, including Davis and Roach. Parker and Davis disagreed on who should be the quintet’s pianist, with Parker originally hiring Bud Powell for a May 1947 recording session but later favoring Gillespie’s arranger, John Lewis; Davis preferred Duke Jordan. Ultimately the quintet used both, as Parker wanted to balance leadership of the group with mentoring younger musicians such as Davis. // Following the establishment of a regular quintet, Parker signed for Mercury Records with Jazz at the Philharmonic promoter Norman Granz as his producer. The partnership enabled Parker to work with musicians from other genres, such as Latin jazz percussionist and bandleader Machito, and to appear in concerts at Carnegie Hall as part of the Jazz at the Philharmonic series. Further, Granz was able to fulfil a longstanding desire of Parker’s to perform with a string section. He was a keen student of classical music, and contemporaries reported he was most interested in the music and formal innovations of Igor Stravinsky and longed to engage in a project akin to what later became known as Third Stream, a new kind of music, incorporating both jazz and classical elements as opposed to merely incorporating a string section into performance of jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians. Six master takes from this session became the album Charlie Parker with Strings: “Just Friends”, “Everything Happens to Me”, “April in Paris”, “Summertime”, “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”, and “If I Should Lose You”. // In 1950, Parker and Gillespie recorded Bird and Diz, an album that proved to be among the few times Parker worked with bebop pianist Thelonious Monk; the music was released in 1952. Meanwhile, Parker’s regular group maintained popular success with a European tour in 1950 and live gigs at New York nightclubs continued, leading to live albums One Night in Birdland (with Fats Navarro & Powell) and Summit Meeting at Birdland (with Gillespie and Powell). But Parker became frustrated and disillusioned that, due to racial discrimination, he was reaching the limits of what he could achieve in his career. // In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Powell, & Roach. The concert happened at the same time as a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, so it was poorly attended. Mingus recorded the concert, which resulted in the album Jazz at Massey Hall. At the concert, Parker played a plastic Grafton saxophone. // Other live, and often bootleg, recordings of Parker were made in the early 1950s, frequently with groups other than his usual quintet. Among the most notable of these, particularly according to critics, are Charlie Parker in Sweden (recorded during his 1950 Sweden tour), Bird at St. Nick’s (with Red Rodney), Inglewood Jam (recorded in 1952 with Chet Baker), Live at Rockland Palace (recorded live with his quintet and string accompaniment), Charlie Parker at Storyville (with Herb Pomeroy & Red Garland), and The Washington Concerts (recorded unrehearsed in 1953 with a big band). // Since 1950, Parker had been living in New York City with his common-law wife, Chan Berg, the mother of his son, Baird (1952–2014), and his daughter, Pree (who died at age 3). He considered Chan his wife, although he never married her; nor did he divorce his previous wife, Doris, whom he had married in 1948. // The death of Parker’s daughter Pree from pneumonia in 1954 devastated him and, after being fired from Birdland in September of that year, he attempted to commit suicide. He was hospitalized and made a partial recovery by early 1955 before his health declined again in March. Parker’s last gig on March 4 at Birdland ended when Powell refused to play in his group and the performance spiraled into an argument among the musicians. Parker became drunk and a few days later visited the suite of Baroness Pannonica at the Stanhope Hotel in New York City in ill health. He refused to go to the hospital and died on March 12, 1955, while watching the Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show on television. The official causes of death were lobar pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but Parker also had advanced cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack and a seizure. The coroner who performed his autopsy mistakenly estimated Parker’s 34-year-old body to be between 50 and 60 years of age. // The details surrounding Parker’s death were controversial. Doris Parker claimed that she, Parker’s mother, and Art Blakey were aware of Parker’s death before March 14, when Pannonica claimed she first revealed the news on a phone call to Chan. Pannonica, however, visited a nightclub on March 13, the day after Parker died at her apartment but before she informed Chan of Parker’s death. Further, newspapers incorrectly reported Parker’s age as 53 when he died, and Parker’s tombstone incorrectly claimed that he died on March 23. // Parker’s marital status complicated the settling of Parker’s estate and ultimately frustrated his wish to be interred in NYC. Dizzy Gillespie paid for the funeral arrangements, which included a Harlem procession officiated by Congressman and Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and a memorial concert. Parker’s body was flown back to Missouri, in accordance with his mother’s wishes. Chan criticized Doris and Parker’s family for giving him a Christian funeral even though they knew he was an atheist. Parker was buried at Lincoln Cemetery in Missouri, in a hamlet known as Blue Summit, located close to I-435 and East Truman Road. // Some controversy continued after Parker’s burial in the Kansas City area. His tomb was engraved with the image of a tenor saxophone, though Parker is primarily associated with the alto saxophone. Later, some people wanted to move Parker’s remains to reinforce redevelopment of the historic 18th and Vine area. // Parker acquired the nickname “Yardbird” early in his career while on the road with Jay McShann. This, and the shortened form “Bird”, were used as nicknames for Parker for the rest of his life and inspired the titles of a number of Parker’s compositions, such as “Yardbird Suite”, “Ornithology”, “Bird Gets the Worm”, and “Bird of Paradise”. // Parker’s life was riddled with mental health problems and an addiction to heroin. Although it is unclear which came first, his addiction to opiates began at the age of 16, when he was injured in a car crash and a doctor prescribed morphine for the pain. The addiction that stemmed from this incident led him to miss performances, and he was considered to be unreliable. In the jazz scene, heroin use was prevalent and the substance could be acquired with little difficulty. // Although he produced many brilliant recordings during this period, Parker’s behavior became increasingly erratic. Heroin was difficult to obtain once he moved to California, where the drug was less abundant, so he used alcohol as a substitute. A recording for the Dial label from July 29, 1946 provides evidence of his condition. Before this session, Parker drank a quart of whiskey. According to the liner notes of Charlie Parker on Dial Volume 1, Parker missed most of the first two bars of his first chorus on the track “Max Making Wax”. When he finally did come in, he swayed wildly and once spun all the way around, away from his microphone. On the next tune, “Lover Man”, producer Ross Russell physically supported Parker. On “Bebop” (the final track Parker recorded that evening), he begins a solo with a solid first eight bars; on his second eight bars, however, he begins to struggle, and a desperate Howard McGhee, the trumpeter on this session, shouts, “Blow!” at him. Charles Mingus, however, considered this version of “Lover Man” to be among Parker’s greatest recordings, despite its flaws. Nevertheless, Parker hated the recording and never forgave Ross Russell for releasing it. He re-recorded the tune in 1951 for Verve. Parker’s life took a turn for the worse in March 1954 when his three-year-old daughter Pree died of cystic fibrosis and pneumonia. He attempted suicide twice in 1954, which once again landed him in a mental hospital.]

11:00 – Bobby Watson Station ID

13. Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project – “My Song” [feat. Glenn North]
    from: Check Cashing Day / Lafiya Music / Digital – Aug. 28, 2013 / Physical – Nov. 12, 2013
    [From wikipedia.org: Robert Michael Watson Jr. was born August 23, 1953), he known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. // Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He had four brothers. Watson credits his father as one of his greatest inspirations. His father played saxophone in addition to being a pilot and working for the Federal Aviation Administration. The family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for his father’s work with the FAA. While Watson was in junior high school there, a jazz history class he took helped him realize he was a jazz musician. // He attended the University of Miami, at the same time as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, and Bruce Hornsby. He graduated in 1975, moved to New York City, and became music director for the Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981. After leaving the band, he was productive as a session musician, recording with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Max Roach, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy. He formed the band Bobby Watson & Horizon with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, with whom he played throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1991, they released the album Post Motown Bop on Blue Note Records, with John Fordham in Q Magazine describing it as “gleaming, glossy bebop”. // Watson also led a group known as the High Court of Swing (a tribute to the music of Johnny Hodges), the sixteen-piece Tailor-Made Big Band, and is a founding member of the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, an all-horn, four-piece group with alto saxophonist Ed Jackson, tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg, and baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog. Watson also composed a song for the soundtrack to the movie A Bronx Tale (1993). // A resident of New York for most of his professional life, he served as a member of the adjunct faculty and taught saxophone privately at William Paterson University from 1985 to 1986 and the Manhattan School of Music from 1996 to 1999. He is involved with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s annual Jazz in America high school outreach program. // In 2000, he was approached to return to his native midwestern surroundings on the Kansas-Missouri border. Watson was selected as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies. As the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, while still managing a worldwide performing schedule, Watson’s ensembles at UMKC have received several awards. Watson spent the 2019-2020 academic year as a Global Jazz Ambassador for UMKC. He retired from UMKC in 2020 and remains a Kansas City resident as he continues to tour internationally as a musician. // In 2011, Watson was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. In 2013, he received the Benny Golson Jazz Master Award from Howard University. On his 61st birthday, he was one of two living inductees into the American Jazz Walk of Fame in its first group of inductees in 2014. //Watson now has 27 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role. Watson has recorded more than 100 original compositions. Watson grew up in Bonner Springs and Kansas City, Kansas.]

[Glenn North, is Director of Inclusive Learning & Creative Impact for The Museum of Kansas City. Glenn has more than 20 years of experience in museum education along with working with numerous arts and culture institutions and nonprofit organizations. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, majoring in English and completed his undergraduate degree in English at Rockhurst University. He later received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. // Glenn’s career in museums began in 2003 at the American Jazz Museum as the Poet-in-Residence and Education Manager. In 2013, he became the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Black Archives of Mid-America. Prior to joining the Kansas City Museum staff, Glenn was the Executive Director of Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and Museum. His interest in poetry and youth advocacy led him to establish the Kansas City chapter of the Louder Than A Bomb Youth Poetry Festival while also serving as the festival’s Artistic Director. He is the author of City of Song, a collection of poems inspired by Kansas City’s rich jazz tradition. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo creative writing fellow, and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His ekphrastic and visual poems have appeared in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Kansas City Museum. Glenn is also an adjunct English professor at Rockhurst University and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District.]

14. Logan Richardson – “Red Light, Go”
    from: “Red Light, Go” Single / WAX Industry / August 8, 2025
    [“Red Light, Go” is part of an upcoming new EP called, Coloring Book. Logan writes: “It is more than music — it’s physiological. Each track is a different body state, a different way the mind and nervous system react to life. The first single, ‘Body’, was the inhale — stillness, weight, the moment of awareness before motion. ‘Red Light, Go’ is the exhale — that flash when decision overtakes hesitation, when stillness breaks into velocity. It’s 1 minute 45 seconds of ambient drum and bass that feels like a heartbeat about to sprint. I’m telling this story one release at a time, until the full EP drops. Stay with me — the next piece of the body is coming soon.” // Logan Richardson was born July 29, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and producer. // Richardson debuted as a bandleader with his 2007 album Cerebral Flow. He is also a member of the band NEXT Collective. In 2015, Richardson released his label recording debut entitled SHIFT on Blue Note Records featuring Pat Metheny, Jason Moran, Harish Raghavan, and Nasheet Waits. // Richardson grew up surrounded by the numerous LPs and 45s of his parents. He was constantly immersed in R&B, pop, rock, funk, soul, Motown, and gospel from an early age. His first musical memories include artists such as The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Prince (musician), Mahalia Jackson, Phil Collins, James Ingram, Hall & Oates, and Michael Jackson. // While attending Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, Richardson was exposed to jazz personalities who would have a profound impact on his future. Max Roach was the first jazz musician Richardson can remember seeing live. The American Jazz Museum brought Roach to Kansas City frequently in the mid 1990s as a clinician. Richardson also had the opportunity to perform with legendary Kansas City bandleader Jay McShann in the 1990s, in addition to studying with Kansas City Saxophone great, and educator Ahmad Alaadeen. In 1996 Richardson began leading his own groups in Kansas City while in high school. // Richardson performed with the Kansas City Symphony in concert February 27, 1997 at the age of 16, when he was invited by then conductor of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra Bill McGlaughlin, a performance that changed his life. // Moving to New York City in August 2001, Richardson witnessed the September 11th attacks first hand. He was enrolled at the New School University where he met, befriended, and performed with young musicians Frank Locrasto, Tommy Crane, Jamire Williams, Joe Sanders, Burniss Earl Travis, Dekel Bor, and teachers Greg Tardy, Carl Allen, Joe Chambers, Billy Hart, and many others including Stefon Harris, JD Allen, Butch Morris, Mulgrew Miller, and more….. // Since 2005, Richardson has led his own group, SHIFT. Featuring Richardson’s soloing & compositions, as well as the creative and genre-bending playing of his compatriots, SHIFT attempts to answer the question, “Can there be new music in jazz?” // Richardson has also been a member of drummer Nasheet Waits (son of jazz drummer Freddie Waits) group Equality, a band that has played many top international festivals such as “North Sea Jazz Festival”, and “Jazz Baltica” with pianists Jason Moran, Stanley Cowell, and bassist Tarus Mateen. // On February 27, 2009, Richardson was a member of the much-lauded Monk at Town Hall performance with Jason Moran & Big Bandwagon, culminating in the historic performance at Town Hall celebrating a reshaping of Monk’s music by Moran.]

[Logan Richardson is part of a new documentary film called, BIRD Not Out of Nowhere that looks back at the years Bird spent in Kansas City and his lasting legacy on the Kansas City jazz scene. The film is directed and produced by Emmy Award-winner Brad Austin and features rarely seen archival footage of Parker, and interviews with musicians and historians, and live performances from some of Kansas City’s most talented jazz musicians including Bobby Watson and Lonnie McFadden and also featuring our friend Chuck Haddix.]

15. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear – “Silent Movies”
    from: The Skeleton Crew / Glassnote Records / May 9, 2015
    [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 occasional 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. Their follow up EP Radio Winners was released July 27, 2018 and received critical acclaim. // Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear released the album TARTED WITH A FAMILY on September 6, 2019. Produced with Grammy-winner Nathan Chapman at iconic Blackbird Studios in Nashville. ] [Wednesday MidDay Medley was the very first radio show to ever play Madisen Ward and The Mama Bear ]

16. Mike Dillon – “Tony Allen At The Music Box”
    from: Rosewood / Royal Potato Family / July 17, 2020
    [Mike Dillon’s album ‘Rosewood’ musically signifies transition and transformation. The 13-track collection was written and recorded during a period of profound change. Dillon found himself relocating from his fourteen year base in New Orleans to his current residence in Kansas City. This coincided with the beginning a new relationship that would result in marriage. Recorded intermittently between January 2018 and September 2019, its 13 majestic tracks swirl with the tangled and bittersweet emotions of one chapter ending as another began. Dillon created the album solely with vibraphone and percussion instruments and titled the record ‘Rosewood’ after the type of lumber used to make marimba bars. // “I started spending time in Kansas City in August 2017, where I’d previously lived in 1997,” explains Dillon. “My friend of twenty years, Peregrine Honig, invited me to see her beautiful art studio converted from an old church building called Greenwood Social Hall. By December, I brought my marimba there and would play for hours. The songs on this record wrote themselves in that sonically sacred space.” // Furthering this metamorphosis, ’Rosewood’ also finds Dillon, who’s been hailed “a punk jazz provocateur,” shifting from the freewheeling, anything goes aesthetic that informed his primary touring unit, The Mike Dillon Band, to a more conceptual and compositional approach. He’d hinted at this side of his musical personality with the 2016 album release ‘Functioning Broke,’ as well as, three performances with his 23-piece New Orleans Punk Rock Percussion Consortium at The Music Box Village. The introspective ‘Functioning Broke,’ however, relied heavily on outside material, including songs by Elliott Smith, Neil Young and Martin Denny, while the latter performance experiment required the massive energy generated by two dozen musicians on percussion and mallet instruments. On ‘Rosewood,’ Dillon boils down the essence of those two projects into a focused auditory journey, drawing almost exclusively on his own compositions with exception of two additional Elliott Smith songs, “Talking To Mary” and “Can’t Make A Sound,” along with the ghostly take on Johnny Cash arrangement of the classic Trent Reznor / Nine Inch Nails’ song “Hurt.” Dillon performed all of the parts himself with exception of contributions by drummer and frequent collaborator Earl Harvin and the guiding hand of Dillon’s old friend, recording engineer Chad Meise.// “When I decided to record in Kansas City, I immediately recruited Chad. He and I made several Malachy Papers’ records, the Go Go Jungle album ‘Battery Acid’ and the Mike Dillon Band record ‘Urn.’ Our chemistry in the middle of a really bittersweet time for me simplified the process. We layered the songs on 24-track, 2-inch tape. Some songs I would start on the vibes, other times I put on a marimba first before fleshing out the rest. My old pal, the incredible drummer Earl Harvin, visited KC from his home in Berlin during the summer of 2018 and played drum kit on several of the tracks. By recording to tape, we captured the warm relationship of the percussion/mallet family.” // All of the sounds on ‘Rosewood’ are from Dillon’s collection of mallet instruments ranging from the rare Deagan Electric Bass Marimba to the Deagan Electro Vibes, a 1942 Leedy Marimba to his primary touring instrument, the Majestic Electric Vibraphone, running through a collection of analog peddles. The only non-percussion sound was a synth on “Bonobo” that was triggered by a MalletKat. The crescendo of timpani and tabla pulsate beneath the Sonic Youth-like layers of vibes on “Drone” set against the Kraut rock drumming of Harvin. The ambient Steve Reich-inspired pulsations of marimbas on “Vibes at the End of the World” capture the feeling of being in New Orleans when the Hurricane Gustav evacuation order was given to Dillon back in 2007. There are also several moments of joyful percussive optimism with tracks like “Rumba for Peregrine” and “Beignet’s Bounce.” “Sober on Mardi Gras” was composed in New Orleans on Mardi Gras Day 2019 before Dillon marched behind Big Chief Monk Boudreaux alongside Stanton Moore and Joe Gellini. “Tiki Bird Whistle” and “Earl’s Bolero” were also composed in New Orleans in an apartment that was home for many NOLA musicians, including Brian Blade, Doug Belote and John Ellis. // “Much of the feeling of this record is dealing with the sadness of moving out of a great city like New Orleans, but with the optimism of a fresh start in Kansas City,” explains Dillon. “To this day it’s hard for me not to say I live in New Orleans. However, in reality, prior to the pandemic, I lived a nomadic lifestyle in my Chevy van going wherever the next gig leads me. And yet now, in the age of Covid-19, we’re faced with change again. It is the only constant.” // Mike Dillon has been an integral member of bands including Garage A Trois, Dead Kenny Gs and Critters Buggin. He’s served as a key sideman to artists like Rickie Lee Jones, Les Claypool and Ani DiFranco. He’s amassed an extensive catalog of genre-defying recordings. He’s taken to the road relentlessly, building one of the most loyal underground fanbases on the contemporary music scene, while being invited to share bills with bands including Clutch, Dean Ween Group and Umphrey’s McGhee. For nearly three decades, Dillon has played exclusively by his own rules. With his latest work, ‘Rosewood,’ he once again embraces the philosophy of change and evolution.// Mike Dillon (a.k.a. Mike D) is an American percussionist, vibraphonist, bandleader, and vocalist born in San Antonio, Texas. He is a member of Critters Buggin, Les Claypool’s Fancy Band and Garage A Trois. He has performed with many musicians including Ani DiFranco, Galactic, Brave Combo, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Marco Benevento, Clutch, Claude Coleman Jr., and New Orleans musicians Kevin O’Day, Johnny Vidacovich and James Singleton. // Dillon’s love of playing percussion was born out of his love for the band Rush as a teenager. He originally performed in the 1980s with local Dallas and Denton favorites Ten Hands. In the 1990s he led Dallas-based Billy Goat, In the late 1990s, Billy Goat disbanded and he performed in the Kansas City-based Malachy Papers and the Austin-based Hairy Apes BMX (HABMX). // In 2006, Dillon started a project “Mike Dillon’s Go-Go Jungle” which included members of Billy Goat, drummer Go-Go Ray, and bassist, J.J. Jungle. The live Go-Go Jungle also performs songs from Dillon’s prior projects. They released their second CD entitled Rock Star Bench Press in 2009. // Dillon contributed the majority of compositions to Garage A Trois’ Power Patriot CD released in 2009. // Dillon and saxophonist Skerik perform as a trio called “The Dead Kenny G’s” with alternate third members. National tours have included keyboardist Brian Haas and bassist Brad Houser. With Houser they have also toured as “Critters Buggin Trio”. They released a CD entitled Bewildered Herd in 2009. As a trio with bassist James Singleton, Dillon and Skerik have toured as “Illuminasti” and as a trio with Les Claypool they have been billed as “The Fancy Trio”. // Dillon is married to artist Peregrine Honig, whom he resides with in Kansas City and New Orleans, but a busy touring schedule keeps him on the road much of the time.]

11:08 – Pledge Break #4

WMM’s Fall Fund Drive Show w/ Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, & Bess Wallerstein Huff

Last year on May 15, 2024 – WMM celebrated 20 Years on the radio w/ LIVE performances from: Calvin Arsenia, IVORY BLUE, Stephonne, Julia Othmer, Kasey Rausch and guests Marion Merritt, Maria Vasques Boyd, Nico Gray, and Necia Gamby.

As of this week WMM has done 1118 weeks, equal to 2236 hours of radio, over 17,000 hours of preparation, nearly 3000 Interviews, over 3000 guests, and nearly 20,000 songs, from thousands of musical artists. We have made it our mission to mix musical genres, playing with themes, diversity, equality, free speech, connecting artists and venues and listeners and communities. Wednesday MidDay Medley has proudly endeavored to help tell the story of our growing Kansas City area music community, “The Midcoast Sound,” as we like to call it. We have dedicated a majority of our programming to New & MidCoastal Releases.

WMM has presented new formats in radio, with our “A Story In A Song” series, our shows featuring: Apocalypse Meow, Juneteenth, Power to The People Fest, Crossroads Music Fest, Folk Alliance International, Manor Fest, The Outer Reaches Festival, Boulevardia. KC Fringe Festival, Waldo Folk Series, Shuttlecock Music, The Folly Theatre, Owen Cox Dance Group, Bach Aria Soloists, KC Pride, our annual tribute shows to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., David Bowie, Iris Dement, Pioneers of Punk, LGBTQIA Themes, Black Lives Matter and interviews with Joey Aria, Cheyenne Jackson, Lily Tomlin, Laurie Anderson, Tommy Ramone, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Iris Dement, Flamy Grant, Members of Fanny, Regina Spektor, Regina Carter, Tom Miller, Nick Cave, Holly Near, Sam Harris, our annual 4-week special: WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of the Year.

To say this WMM has been inspired by the KC music community. The KC music community is fueled by a collaborative and generous heart that is beating in so many of the artists we’ve met while doing this show.

We are inspired by the Fearless Women who created radio on 90.1 FM long before us: our friend April Fletcher who plays bass professionally in Los Angeles, and hosted Mix Well Before Serving on 90.1 in 1988 on KKFI’s first year of broadcast, and two years ago returned after 37 years to host and produce WMM.

We are inspired by our friend Anne Winter, who left us in 2009, and reminded us how we’re all connected. At Anne’s funeral we realized that we are connected to hundreds of other people who Anne had touched with her gentle, wise, guidance and had nudged into taking a job, going out on a stage, organizing an event, doing a radio show. We were all connected, she had loved us all and supported us, and some of us made a pact to do just a little bit of what Anne did, if we all did a little we could continue her work to help build our community, that is how we keep Anne alive in our heart.

And through collaboration, and shining a light, like Abigail Hope Henderson, who we lost in 2013, but not before she ignited a movement to create the Midwest Music Foundation supporting heath care needs and mental health care for the music community. I’m inspired by the diverse , intelligent, motivated, listeners, looking for place on the dial, where they can connect to the stories & music & voice of our community.

Today we celebrate the pure idea of community radio, free form radio, radio that tells the story of the people who live here, the artists, the writers, the teachers, the performers.

Together we are building our community. We celebrate 1118 weeks of WMM, the show that has brought us together, at this time, on this frequency, in these community airwaves.

KKFI is an Independent, non-commercial radio station!

Now, more than ever, Independent, Community Media is important for our world. We are here to listen to you, to share your concerns, and offer resources and information. Along with our National Public Affairs shows like Democracy Now and Alternative Radio we offer more locally produced public affairs programs than anywhere else on the dial.

We offer programs for Women, the LGBTQIA Community, Native Americans, Black Public Affairs, Labor & Worker’s Unions, Middle Eastern Music & Information, Latino Programming, prison & justice system, environmental programming, Visual & Performing Arts, KC Tenants, Economics for the People, Understanding Israel Palestine.

At KKFI there is no automated robot playing the same 40 songs in a “rotation,” based on a formula, created by a singular programmer of the robot. KKFI is the opposite of a robot.

There is almost always a human on the end of the phone line when you call 816-931-KKFI.

90.1 offers 100 different radio programs. 85 of these programs are locally, produced, hosted, engineered and written by over 100 different people, who create content, and personally handcraft each show, each week. There are 64 local music shows and 21 locally produced News, Public Affairs, Arts & Talk shows.

There are 140 hours each week of locally produced handcrafted programs.

You will not find this kind of representative diversity anywhere else on your radio dial. Or from any singular source on your computer. It is very special. It needs to be nourished and kept alive in a world of corporate, nationally owned, commercial or religious broadcasting.

Not only do we bring the most diverse and unfiltered news and information, but our musical playlists are deep, and comprehensive. In one week you can hear over 2000 different songs played, in Blues, Jazz, Folk, Hip Hop, Reggae, Classical, World, Americana, Southern Soul, Fusion, Soul, Rock, New Wave, Electronic, Native, Local, Old Timey, Rockabilly, Women’s, Children’s, Gospel, and Experimental.

With all of this, you hear the voices from the hundreds of KKFI volunteers, and thousands of guests from the community, who share their stories, broadcast live from our non-commercial, midtown studios, at 39th & Main, in the center of our metro, across two states, a collective of communities, and thousands of listeners. What is this worth to you?

11:16 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

7. Atlantic Fadeout – “Better Run of Bad Luck”
   from: Better Run of Bad Luck / Flyover Records / May 23, 2011

[In the fall of 2003, singer/songwriter Abigail Henderson and guitarist Chris Meck got together and started writing songs. They confessed that their first songs were “pretty country…pretty… cow-punkish.” Mike Stover wrote on facebook that, “Trouble Junction (Abigail’s first band) had to end so that Abigail could start the next chapters.” In 2003, Abigail started the band The Gaslights with Chris Meck, who would later become her husband.. // Atlantic Fadeout (with Abigail Henderson: Vox, Guitar, Chris Meck: Guitar, Steel Guitar, Vox, Dutch Humphrey: Bass, Vox, Amy Farrand: Drums) was created from the ashes of The Gaslights, combined with the super powers of Amy Farrand who played bass in American Catastrophe (among several other bands) and Dutch Humphrey who sang lead in Cherokee Rock Rifle. // The Gaslights recorded five albums, releasing three of them: Midwest Hotel (Self-released) in 2004; Lines and Wires (Self-released)in 2005; 16 Addresses (Self-released)in 2007; and the single “Last Dollar’ on Flyover Records in 2007. Gaslights included Abigail Henderson, Chris Meck, Glen Hockemeier. / / The Gaslights toured & recorded from 2004 to 2008. After 9 bass players, 3 drummers, 2 vans, 1 dead moose, 1 impromptu marriage, countless tours of the United States, 3 tours in Europe, 3 full length releases. The Gaslights ended. // On tour in New Orleans with her band The Gaslights, Abigail Henderson began experiencing abdominal pain. Packing only a copy of one of the band’s albums, she visited the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, a comprehensive health services provider for working musicians without health insurance. Abby was diagnosed with a hernia and received treatment instructions she could rely on throughout the remainder of the tour. // Feeling gratitude for care she received in New Orleans, Abby returned with the vision to create a healthcare coalition for her fellow musicians at home in Kansas City. // Her plans stalled when she was diagnosed with Stage III inflammatory breast cancer. The Kansas City music community came to her aid through a benefit concert in 2008—Apocalypse Meow—which gave Abby and her husband and bandmate Chris Meck a platform on which to establish a coalition, now known as the Midwest Music Foundation. // Midwest Music Foundation, a group that sponsors health care programs and provides financial relief to local musicians who have suffered a health care crisis. Since 2009, the MMF has distributed thousands in health-care grants. It also co-sponsored the Well Women’s Clinic, which provides free screenings for female musicians. Abigail also founded Apocalypse Meow, an annual fundraiser for the MMF. // Doing this radio show has taught me about the growing & fertile KC Music Scene. Abigail was always fostering the community, as a songwriter & performer, but also as an organizer. A frequent guest on WMM, she came on the air to talk about Apocalypse Meow & The MidCoast Takeover. On one of her earliest appearances, Abigail told me,”We think of this as OUR radio show.” She was right. In fact, 90.1 FM, belongs to all of us. She knew that. // Abigail had undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy treatments. In January 2012 her cancer reappeared and she tried an experimental treatment. As reported in the KC Star, “She took a last-ditch experimental drug and recovered, but not unscathed. The cancer had paralyzed one of her vocal cords. Still, she did not give up her music. Instead, she and Meck started Tiny Horse, a folk duo that would grow into a full band.” She told The Star in October 2012, just days before the 5th annual Apocalypse Meow, “I used to nail notes to the walls, I can’t do that anymore. I had to find a different path. It’s like a guitar player who loses fingers: You can still play, you just have to figure out how to do it differently.” Abigail Henderson and Chris Meck released the beautiful EP, “Darkly Sparkly” from their band: Tiny Horse. Abigail’s final live performance in KC was at Knuckleheads on July 11, 2013 when Tiny Horse opened for the BoDeans. // Abigail Hope Henderson Meck’s life was cut short, way too early, but in 10 years she did more than many will do in 60 years, and left us better off than we were before she was here. We will keep her light shining!// Abigail Hope Henderson Meck, 36, died Aug. 27, 2013 at her home in Kansas City after a five-year battle with cancer. Abigail was born April 8, 1977, in New York. In 1984, she moved to a suburb of Detroit. In 1999, she moved to KC to live with her mother, Carol Pfander, who preceded her in death. Abigail attended the UMKC. She graduated in 2002 with a bachelor of arts in English. While at UMKC, she was co-founder and co-director of the Association of Women Students. The association sponsored several events, including an appearance by Angela Davis, a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” and a “Take Back the Night” vigil. After college, she also helped organize “Beauty Slays the Beast,” a benefit for political-activism and voter awareness. While in college, Abigail started playing guitar. In 2001, she started her first band, Trouble Junction. In addition to her mother, Abigail was preceded in death by her father, Frank Henderson, who died in 2007. Abigail is survived by her husband and many friends and music fans in the KC and Lawrence area. A memorial in her honor was held Sat, Aug. 31, 2013 at Unity Temple on The Plaza. After the services, a wake was held that lasted until the sunrise / In August of 2013, Abby passed away at age 36 after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer. Her passion for music is the deepest inspiration for MMF, which continues to provide musicians with opportunities for career development. Abby’s Fund for Musicians’ Health Care was established in her memory, and dispenses funds to area musicians in need of emergency medical care.]

[APOCALYPSE MEOW 18 is November 16, 2025 at recorder, 1520 Grand Blvd. KCMO on Saturday, November 1, at 7:00pm with Lava Dreams, Steddy P, Betse & Clark, Nathan Corsi & My Atomic Daydream Auction Link at http://www.32auctions.com/AM18 – Sondra Freeman will be on WMM next week to share all the details as we have done on WMM for 18 + years.]

18. Krystle Warren – “Born In The Fall”
    from: A Time to Keep Love Songs EP / Parlour Door Music / August 12, 2011
    [Originally from KC, Krystle learned to play the guitar by listening to Rubber Soul & Revolver from The Beatles. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career in collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and NYC, Krystle was signed to a French label, Because Music, and moved to Paris to release “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created, Parlour Door Music, to release “Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace” a recording from a 13-day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections. // Krystle Warren began performing in her native KC at the age of 16. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy and in 2001 began her musical career collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After moving to New York City, she started busking on the streets and later formed her regular band, The Faculty. // Krystle Warren & The Faculty’s first official release, ‘Diary’, has been remastered by chief-inspector, Ben Kane, who not only recorded those clandestine sessions at Electric Lady Studios; he also co-produced and mixed their conclusion with his then mentor, the legendary Russell Elevado. With KW and The Faculty at the time ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-three, ‘Diary’ is a snapshot of youth and discovery; a “baby-band” finding their sound, and pushing their creativity into uncharted territory. // After DIARY was released Krystle was signed to Paris based music label Because Music who sent her a one-way ticket. Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the album CIRCLES in 2009. Their epic sophomore release, LOVE SONGS… followed in 2011, and contained twenty-four songs about love and was recorded in New York City over the span of two weeks, with close to thirty musicians. Around this time, Krystle joined forces with one of her musical idols, Rufus Wainwright, on his world tour as opener and bandmate. Krystle Warren then released her solo album THREE THE HARD WAY, in 2017 where Krystle played every instrument. On May 31, 2019 Krystle Warren & The Faculty released heir single “Rising” written especially for Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed television mini series WHEN THEY SEE US. When her band’s full length album was put on hold, Krystle released the 4-song EP THE CREW on September 15, 2020. Krustle released the single “Macca” on May 22, 2023, and the single “La Dolce Vita” on March 1, 2024. // On November 1, 2024 Krystle Warren & The Faculty release EXTENDED PLAY which was #1 on WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2024. // Krystle Warren played the 21st Annual Crossroads Music Fest, Sat, September 6, at 9:30pm at Lemonade Park 1628 Wyoming St., West Bottoms.]

Krystle Warren & The Faculty Discography

Krystle Warren & The Faculty has released the EP “Diary” on May 1, 2007

Krystle Warren released “The Up Series – EP” on November 10, 2008

Krystle Warren releases the 13-song Album CIRCLES on March 13, 2009

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released “A Time To Keep – Love Songs EP”, Aug. 12, 2011

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the double album 24-song “Love Songs” on vinyl in Europe on April 9, 2012 as “Love Songs: A Time to Embrace,” and “Love Songs: A Time to Refrain from Embracing.” And released on separate digital and CD albums in the United States as: “Love Songs: A Time to Embrace,” on March 13, 2012 and “Love Songs: A Time to Refrain from Embracing” on February 27, 2015

Krystle Warren released the album THREE THE HARDWAY on August 18, 2017

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “Rising” on May 31, 2019

Krystle Warren & The Crew released the 4-song EP, THE CREW on September 15, 2020

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “Macca”on May 22, 2023

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “LA DOLCE VITA” on March 1, 2024

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “LA DOLCE VITA” on March 1, 2024

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released EXTENDED PLAY on November 1, 2024

From Diary EP to Extended Play A Truncated History of Krystle Warren & The Faculty – From http://www.krystalwarren.com written by Phil Anderson

Krystle Krystle Warren met Solomon Dorsey some weekend at a high school debate competition in KC. After she had trounced Solomon’s debate partner, the two ended up in an open classroom where they began playing music—Krystle had brought her guitar and was practicing chords, and Solomon, then an accomplished violinist, cellist, bassist, and singer likely had some sort of instrument on him, and even if he didn’t he had his voice. // Due to some specific details we’re not going to get into, Krystle was already living on her own; she was eighteen and he was seventeen. But she had a friend who had an apartment near hers, and this friend was having a party. “Wanna go?” she asked Solomon. And, as Solomon puts it, he has seen or spoken to Krystle every single day of his life since. // So when Solomon decided to attend the jazz program at New School in New York, he asked Krystle, “Wanna go?” And a few months after he moved, Krystle showed up. On her first night in the city, Solomon introduced her to Zach Djanikian, a saxophonist he’d become fast friends with at school. They lived in the same dorm, and Zach and Solomon took Krystle to a practice room in the basement and the three of them played musical games. According to Zach, “We’d sing as many melodies as we could over four open strings of the upright bass, plucked successively. ‘Norwegian Wood’ and the theme to ​Family Matters​ were a couple favorites.” // This led to busking as a trio, and each of them was hustling for gigs. An Italian restaurant that featured live music gave Krystle a regular night, and she often had Solomon and Zach play with her. Zach’s friend from Philadelphia, Ben Kane, would come to these nights, and he brought Mike Riddleberger. // In Philly, Zach was in a band called The Brakes, and Ben Kane was producing an album for Zach’s band in a windowless apartment that he shared with Riddleberger. Kane and Riddleberger had become friends a year earlier at NYU, bonding over their love of D’Angelo’s album ​Voodoo​. Riddleberger says that even though he saw Krystle perform, he didn’t speak to her until after she saw him play with his band, Quintus. Zach had brought her, and she approached him after the show to play in a band she was starting. // The Faculty was formed with Krystle, Solomon, Zach, Riddleberger, and Dave Moore, a keyboardist from Kansas who was at New School, too. While the four boys had classes and gigs, Krystle floated around New York and made a lot of friends. She busked and wrote songs, and, with the help of her band members and Ben Kane, who had an internship at ElectricLady Studios and was sneaking them in at odd hours, Krystle turned those songs into an EP called DIARY. // And it was a diary. The songs were about her daily experiences in this new place and with these new people. “I’ve Seen Days” has a title that implies a reflection, but it’s about how the world is new to her, how she’s “a frightened child” in a new city. “The New Astrologer” is about a new and exciting love, one that remains a good friend of hers. “A Song For Holly” is a letter to family explaining her new quotidien life (“your big sister / out in New York on some subway / your big sister, out trying to get paid”). And “Central Park” is a document of a night she had in Central Park with Zach and his boyfriend (now husband) Jesse, and how she is coming to embrace this new city, these new people, and this new chapter of her life. // If DIARY, the Faculty’s first recordings, is Krystle’s “Songs of Innocence,” then EXTENDED PLAY, the Faculty’s latest, is Krystle’s “Songs of Experience.” // Diary led to CIRCLES, which Ben Kane co-produced with Voodoo engineer Russell “The Dragon” Elevado. Circles was bought by Because Music in France, and Krystle had her next move. She stayed in France even when her relationship with Because ended because she found Vanessa, and Vanessa was worth staying in France for. But Krystle still recorded ​LOVE SONGS in New York, a double album that invokes a Blakean duality with its two subtitles, “A Time to Refrain from Embracing” and “A Time You May Embrace.” LOVE SONGS was produced with most of the Faculty (Zach was on tour with Amos Lee) and a slew of guest musicians in Brian Bender’s Brooklyn studio. Bender’s assistant, Jonathan Anderson, would later go on to replace Dave Moore on keys in the Faculty. // The Faculty has always been a tenuous project for everyone involved because of the distance and the schedules. While everyone remains close friends, the band members are spread across the globe. Krystle in France. Riddleberger in NYC and Zach in Woodstock. Solomon and Jonathan in LA. And then they are all working musicians, touring, recording, and collaborating with an impressive list of artists. Musicians like: D’Angelo, Hercules and Love Affair, Donald Fagen and the Nightfliers, Joan As Policewoman, Jose James, Emily King, Janet Jackson, Ron Sexsmith, The Dixie Chicks, Amy Helm, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Rufus Wainwright, Kylie Minogue, Sara Bareilles, Natalie Merchant, Kesha, Bleachers, Emylou Harris, Amos Lee, Lana Del Rey, Broken Social Scene, Teddy Thompson, Lakecia Benjamin, Jenny Lewis, that’s less than the half of it. // So they have been busy, and they have gained a lot of experience since the days of sneaking into ElectricLady late night or playing for meager pay and free wine at an East Village Italian resto. And while DIARY and CIRCLES and LOVE SONGS were recorded with everyone in the same room (THREE THE HARDWAY was just Krystle & Kane together), EXTENDED PLAY was recorded disparately and assembled together by the steady hands and ears of Kane and Krystle. There is distance between the musicians in the recording process, but there is still a close emotional connection that can be heard in these songs. //And Krystle is writing with a close emotional connection to the distant past. The songs that make up Extended Play are songs of experience—the lyrics reflect on a crush from high school, a departed musical hero, and others who live in memory. There is nostalgia in ​EXTENDED PLAY and a forlornness. These songs are filled with references, musical and otherwise, to those who have inspired Krystle over the years, from Les Mis​ (specifically the song adopted by ACT UP) to Gregory Djanikian, Zach’s poet father, and Audre Lord. // Krystle describes “When I Look Back,” the last song of ​Extended Play​, as “an apology to my teenage self.” Seventeen years ago she was writing songs about what happened day-of because being young is about immediacy and living in the present tense. Now the songs are about years past because life slows down, and we are allowed the time to “look back.” // But as Krystle sings in “Rising,” “Future lingers while past is present.” She’s writing about the past because we are all our collected histories—or as she puts it in “When I Look Back”: “there’s still something of her that stays.” The future, of course, still lingers, always there waiting for us, for the next move. The album ends with a recording of Audre Lorde’s gravelly voice. She says, “I’m going on to something else, the shape of which I have no idea. ‘Only thing I know, is it’s going to be quite different. What I leave behind has a life of its own. I’ve said this about poetry… Well in a sense, I’m saying it about the very artifact of who I have been.” //Krystle Warren & The Faculty still have more to come. They have built seventeen years of memories, experiences, recordings, and shows, and with the release of ​Extended Play​, they continue to show a commitment to growing as musicians together, even if apart. – Written by Phil Anderson.]

[Krystle Warren and 90.1 FM KKFI – Mark first interviewed Krystle Warren for The Tenth Voice, back 2002. Mark first interviewed Krystle Warren for The Tenth Voice, back 2002. Mark waited several hours, during a winter snow storm, at a huge party, where Krystle played with her band including her longtime friend Solomon Dorsey on bass, in a packed, smoke filled apartment near Community Christian Church across the hall from where Solomon lived, to be given a 2 song demo CD, that contained Krystle’s first recorded music, including a song called “Chanel #5.” Krystle has since gone on to be known all over the world, but still maintains contact with her hometown of Kansas City. // Krystle was on WMM on June 29, 2016 as “Guest Producer” to share inspirations for her new record, THREE THE HARDWAY playing early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from: Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones. Krystle’s critically acclaimed album, Three The Hard Way was #1 on WMM’s 117 Best Recordings of 2017. Wednesday MidDay Medley was the first to play tracks from Krystle’s album, before it was released. Krystle came on the show months before the release, to share music that was the inspiration for the recording. Released on Parlour Door Music, on August 18, 2017 and Produced by Krystle Warren and Ben Kane. Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Ben Kane. Written & performed by Krystle Warren. Mixed at The Garden, Brooklyn. Mastered & cut by Alex DeTurk at Masterdisk. In 2015 in Krystle Warren premiered new songs from this album at the Middle of the Map Fest in a packed room at Californos in Westport and later at The Polsky Theatre for the Performing Arts Series of Johnsons County Community College. For this record Krystle decided to play every instrument and vocals & back up vocals, “playing bass, drums, lap steel, piano, guitar, and vocals directly to analog tape. She and Ben Kane recorded in Villetaneuse, France, a small town on the outskirts of Paris in a vintage 70s era studio that offered just the right, rich sound to suggest the musical foundation for the record, and to do justice to the duo’s carefully balanced arrangements.” On the Wednesday MidDay Medley radio show in 2016 Krystle shared inspirations for this record, early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from: Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones. // Krystle was on the show on Oct. 16, 2019 with Brad Cox when she was in KC to present LoveSongs with Owen/Cox Dance Group at Oct 19 & 20, 2019 at Polsky Theatre at JCCC. // We talked with Krystle on September 23, 2020 about The Crew EP where Krystle and friends recorded unique versions of four classic songs with the hope of encouraging the rallying cries of the moment: the movement of the people. Warren embarked on the project after her newest album, with her band The Faculty, was stalled due to COVID-19. When her band’s full length album was put on hold, Krystle released the 4-song EP THE CREW on September 15, 2020. Krystle released the single “Macca” on May 22, 2023, and the single “La Dolce Vita” on March 1, 2024. Krystle Warren played the Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM. Krystle Warren played Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center. More info at: http://www.krystlewarren.com]

19. Janelle Monáe – “Lipstick Lover”
    from: The Age of Pleasure / Wondaland Productions – Badboy Records / June 8, 2023
    [The Age of Pleasure is the fourth studio album by Janelle Monáe. Two singles have been released so far to promote the album: “Float” and “Lipstick Lover”. Monáe announced the album alongside the release of “Lipstick Lover”, which they first previewed at their Met Gala after-party in early May. It is her first studio album in over five years since her previous album Dirty Computer (2018). // Janelle Monáe Robinson was born on December 1, 1985 in Kansas City, Kansas and was raised in a working-class community of Kansas City, Kansas in the neighborhood of Quindaro. Her mother, Janet, worked as a janitor and a hotel maid. Her father, Michael Robinson Summers, was a truck driver. Monáe’s parents separated when Monáe was a toddler and her mother later married a postal worker. Monáe has a younger sister, Kimmy, from their mother’s remarriage. // Monáe was raised Baptist and learned to sing at a local church. Her family members were musicians and performers at the local AME church, the Baptist church, and the Church of God in Christ. Monáe dreamed of being a singer and a performer from a very young age, and has cited the fictional character of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz as a musical influence. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which Monáe bought two copies of with her first check, was another source of inspiration. She performed songs from the album on Juneteenth talent shows, winning three years in a row. // As a teenager, Monáe was enrolled in the Coterie Theater’s Young Playwrights’ Round Table, which began writing musicals. One musical, completed when she was around the age of 12, was inspired by the 1979 Stevie Wonder album Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants”. // Monáe attended F. L. Schlagle High School, and after high school, moved to New York City to study musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where she was the only black woman in her class. Monáe enjoyed the experience, but feared that she might lose her edge and “sound, or look or feel like anybody else”. In a 2010 interview Monáe explained, “I felt like that was a home but I wanted to write my own musicals. I didn’t want to have to live vicariously through a character that had been played thousands of times – in a line with everybody wanting to play the same person.” // After a year and a half, Monáe dropped out of the academy and relocated to Atlanta, enrolling in Perimeter College at Georgia State University. She began writing her own music and performing around the campus. In 2003, Monáe self-released a demo album titled The Audition, which she sold out of the trunk of a Mitsubishi Galant. During this period, Monáe became acquainted with songwriters and producers Chuck Lightning and Nate Wonder. The three would eventually form the Wondaland Arts Collective. She worked at an Office Depot but was fired for answering a fan’s e-mail using a company computer, an incident that inspired the song “Lettin’ Go”, which in turn attracted the attention of Big Boi. // Janelle Monáe Robinson (/moʊˈneɪ/;[9] born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and record producer. Monáe is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Monáe won an MTV Video Music Award and the ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2010. Monáe was also honored with the Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award in 2015 and the Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2018. In 2012, Monáe became a CoverGirl spokesperson. Boston City Council named October 16, 2013 “Janelle Monáe Day” in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in recognition of her artistry and social leadership. // Monáe’s musical career began in 2003 upon releasing a demo album titled The Audition. In 2007, Monáe publicly debuted with a conceptual EP titled Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase). It peaked at number two on the US Top Heatseekers chart, and in 2010, through Bad Boy Records, Monáe released a first full-length studio album, The ArchAndroid, a concept album and sequel to her first EP. In 2011, Monáe was featured as a guest vocalist on fun.’s single “We Are Young”, which achieved major commercial success, topping the charts of more than ten countries and garnering Monáe a wider audience. Her second studio album, The Electric Lady, was released in 2013 and debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, serving as the fourth and fifth installments of the seven-part Metropolis concept series. // In 2016, Monáe made her theatrical film debut in two high-profile productions; Monáe starred in Hidden Figures as NASA mathematician and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson, and also starred in Moonlight. Hidden Figures was a box office success, while Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 89th annual ceremony. Monáe’s third studio album, Dirty Computer, also described as a concept album, was released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim; it was chosen as the best album of the year by several publications and earned Monáe two nominations at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and was further promoted by Monáe’s Dirty Computer Tour, which lasted from June to August 2018.]

20. Danielle Nicole – “Make Love”
    from: The Love You Bleed / Forty Below Records / January 26, 2024  
    [Danielle Nicole is one of the finest singers and bassists in roots music today. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, she has spent her life making music and pleasing fans, both domestically and abroad. Her stunning new album, The Love You Bleed, includes twelve heartfelt tracks exploring themes of love, loss, and perseverance. It will be released this Friday, January 26 on Forty Below Records. // The Love You Bleed was co-produced by Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Eric Burdon, Robert Cray) and Nicole, with John Porter (B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bryan Ferry) mixing. The tight-knit group on the album features Danielle on bass guitar and vocals; Brandon Miller (electric, acoustic, pedal steel, mandolin, and 12-string guitar), Damon Parker (keyboards); Go-Go Ray (drums), and Stevie Blacke (violin and cello). // Nicole was inducted into the Kansas City Hall of Fame and has been the recipient of seven Blues Music Awards.  Her last release Cry No More was nominated for a Grammy in the Contemporary Blues category, debuted at number one on the Billboard Blues Charts and boasts over 10 million streams on Spotify. // Danielle Nicole’s last release, CRY NO MORE, released February 23, 2018, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.. Her self-titled solo debut EP was released March 10, 2015 on Concord Records. The self-titled EP features Grammy Award-winning producer-guitarist Anders Osborne, Galactic’s co-founding drummer Stanton Moore and keyboardist Mike Sedovic. On February 25, 2015, American Blues Scene premiered the track “Didn’t Do You No Good” off the new EP. Danielle Nicole was previously in the band Trampled Under Foot with her brothers Kris and Nick Schnebelen. At the 2014 Blues Music Awards, Trampled Under Foot’s album, Badlands, won the ‘Contemporary Blues Album of the Year’ category. At the same ceremony, Danielle Nicole, under the name of Danielle Schnebelen, triumphed in the ‘Best Instrumentalist – Bass’ category. The band was also nominated in the ‘Band of the Year’ category. In September 2015, her debut album, Wolf Den, was released on Concord Records. It reached number 2 in the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart in October that year. Danielle Nicole’s second solo album, Cry No More, peaked at # 1 in the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. Bill Withers wrote one of the tracks on the new album.]

[Danielle Nicole plays The Uptown Theatre, 3700 Broadway Blvd. KCMO, on Saturday, November 29, 2025, at 8:00pm.]

11:29– Underwriting

11:31 – Pledge Break #5

WMM’s Fall Fund Drive Show w/ Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, & Bess Wallerstein-Huff

We offer Live in studio performances from: Howard iceberg & The Matchsellers and Chd Brothers, Marmppes, Beth Watts Nelson, ALBER, True Lions, Lonnie Fisher, Mitzi McKee, Calvin Arsenia, Ivory Blue, Stephonne, Julia Othmer, The Swallowtails, Danny Santell, Krystle Warren, MusicbySkippy, Lone Stranger, Just Angel & T.A. Rell,

We make radio shows that cover: The Folly Theater, Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society, Lotus Pool Records, KC Rep, Outer Reaches Fest, Owen/Cox Dance Group, No Divide KC, recordBar, Lawrence Arts Center, Manor Records, The Rino, KC Blues Society, KC Star, Lawrence Music Alliance, MixMaster Music Conference, Kosmic City Records, Midwest Music Foundation, Artists Thrive!, KC Gift, Juneteenth, Power to The People Fest, The Record Machine, Whim Theater, Lemonade Park, Crossroads Music Festival, The Ship, The Black Box Theatre, Amplify Lawrence, Quindaro Ruins, Queer Narratives Fest, Art in the Loop, The film: “I’m So Glad” documenting the KC Gospel Music, KC Fringe Festival, Make Music Day, Boulevardia, Arts in The Park, UMKC Conservatory of Music, The Crossroads Hotel, High Dive Records, Greenwood Social Hall, KC Folk Fest, Manor Fest, Center Cut Records, KKFI Band Auction, Charlotte Street Foundation, Women’s History Month!, University of Missouri at Columbia, Lawrence Public Library, I Heart Local Music, Black History Month, Bach Aria Soloists, Folk Alliance International, Martin Luther King Jr., Tribute to David Bowie, Tribute to Iris DeMent, the music of Palestine and Gaza

KKFI’s Mission Statement: KKFI is the Kansas City area’s independent, noncommercial community radio station. We seek to stimulate, educate and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the local and world community, and to provide a channel for individuals and groups, issues and music that have been overlooked, suppressed or under-represented by other media.

KKFI’s Philosophy Statement: KKFI is committed to diversity in programming and discourse and seeks to create a climate of mutual respect and collaboration among volunteers and staff.

11:39 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

21. Monta At Odds – “The Perfect Kiss”
    from: Peaked – Alternative Takes and Remixes / The Record Machine / June 24, 2022
    [This cover of the New Order classic is part of the companion album called PEAKED – ALTERNATE TAKES AND REMIXES that has remixes and alternative versions of Monta AT Odds’ 2021 album, PEAK OF ETERNAL LIGHT. On the track the band is: Dedric Moore on synths & programming, Mikal Shapiro on vocals, Matthew Heinrich on drums, Lucas Behrens on baritone guitar, Krysztof Nemeth on baritone guitar, and Kenn Jankowski on synths. // The Perfect Kiss” is a song by the English band New Order. It was recorded at Britannia Row Studios in London and released on May 13, 1985. It was included on a studio album, Low-Life. // The song’s themes include love “We believe in a land of love” and death “the perfect kiss is the kiss of death”. The overall meaning of the song is unclear to its writer today. In an interview with GQ magazine Bernard Sumner said “I haven’t a clue what this is about.” He agreed with the interviewer that his best known lyric is in the song: “Pretending not to see his gun/I said, ‘Let’s go out and have some fun'”. The lyrics, he added, came about after the band was visiting a man’s house in the United States who showed his guns under his bed before they went out for an enjoyable night. It had been quickly written, recorded and mixed without sleep before the band went on tour in Australia. // The song’s complex arrangement includes a number of instruments and methods not normally used by New Order. For example, a bridge features frogs croaking melodically. The band reportedly included them because Morris loved the effect and was looking for any excuse to use it. At the end of the track, the faint bleating of a (synthesized) sheep can be heard. Sheep samples would reappear in later New Order singles “Fine Time” and “Ruined in a Day”. //Despite being a fan favorite, the song was not performed live between 1993 and 2006 due to the complexity of converting the programs from the E-mu Emulator to the new Roland synthesizer. However, it returned to the live set at a performance in Athens on June 3, 2006. // Monta At Odds released their 7th album PEAK OF ETERNAL LIGHT on July 23, 2021.. // Monta At Odds is a Kansas City combo led by the brothers Dedric and Delaney Moore. The two have played music together all their lives and have been exploring the Monta At Odds sound since the band’s debut in 2000. Dedric’s pulsing, melodic bass and Delaney’s artfully unhinged synthesizers frame the band’s central character, which is fleshed out by a talented cast of musicians and collaborators. The result is a heady sonic pool that has been inscrutably referred to as ‘Ummagumma meets Arthur Russell’s mutant disco at Vangelis’s house.’ // In 2020 the band added acclaimed vocalists, guitarists, and songwriters Mikal Shapiro and Teri Quinn to the lineup. With Mikal and Teri’s otherworldly vocal contributions, Monta At Odds continued to push their alternate reality into streamlined consciousness. With Lucas Behrens on guitar and synth and Matthew Heinrich on drums both rounds out the stellar lineup. The nad releaased a remix of their single “When I’m Gone” mixed by The Record Machine label mate Kenn Jankowski, lead singer, co-founder of The Republic Tigers. The remix featured Kenn’s voice singing with Teri’s voice. The collaboration led to Kenn joining Monta At Odds as a voclist and synth player. And when Kenn plays out as The Republic Tigers the members of Monta At Odds become The Republic Tigers. On December 18, 2020 Monta At Odds released A GREAT CONJUNCTION their 5-song EP released just in to coincide with the ‘double-planet’ convergence of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21 2020, which last occurred in 1226. These tunes form a soundtrack to the planetary event, five songs linked together by the vastness of space and as a meditation on our infinitesimal place in the universe. The EP featured Krystof Nemeth, Teri Quinn, Alexander Thomas, Dedric Moore and Matthew Heinrich. // In late 2020 Monta At Odds released the single “When Stars Grow Old.” // Monta At Odds released their 4-song EP Zen Diagram on May 1, 2020. The album was a more post-punk leaning follow-up to Argentum Dreams. Expect minimal rhythms set to maximum noise, shoegazed guitar signals, slo-mo psychedelic darkwave, endless dub echo, and extended-cut warped disco. Live musicians manipulating time and space via knob turning, cymbal cracking, and pedal pushing as they interlock into hypnotic moments of heavenly bliss. // Pn July 9, 2025 Dedric Moore joined us live on WMM. // Dedric is a Kansas City, Kansas based musician, producer, songwriter, vocalist and co-founder of the bands: Religion of Heartbreak, Re:Vis:Er, Monta At Odds, Static Phantoms, Gemini Revolution, Mysterious Clouds and founder of Kosmic City Records. More information at http://www.kosmiccity.com. Religion of Heartbreak released the single “Love Tourniquet” through Kosmic City Records on June 27, 2025 “Love Tourniquet,” the first taste of their forthcoming EP Lunate released in September, 2025.. Mikal Shapiro’s cool, detached vocals float over Dedric Moore’s pounding rhythms and bright-yet-gothic synths, resulting in the ideal soundtrack for stumbling through a fog-drenched nightclub where the lights have just cut out. // The track captures that intoxicating rush when desire floods the system—blood to the head, pulse in your throat—only to fade as quickly as it arrived, leaving you back on the dance floor, chasing the same high again. Moore’s growling bass anchors the swirling soundscape while subtle dark-disco elements lift the arrangement into urgency. // “Love Tourniquet” thrives where euphoria meets emptiness, where the black mirror of the dance floor reflects nothing but your own endless cycle of want. Repetition becomes ritual and desire becomes devotion. // Religion of Heartbreak formed out of a desire to make music with a darker dance floor focus. The combination of Mikal Shapiro’s vocals battling against Dedric’s icy synths, mechanized beats and dub-inflected electro-bass creates a juxtaposition that works in all the right ways. // Religion of Heartbreak delves into the sounds of Darkwave, EBM, and the darker side of Synth Pop. The grooves are there. The songs are clever and always filled with a sense of lost love as we follow our dark hearts. // ROH is the band formerly known as Monta At Odds. It was recently announced that Krysztof Nemeth was stepping away for Religion of Heatbreak to focus on his band ReViser also with Dedric Moore and with Breaka Dawn. // On February 3, 2025 Religion of Heartbreak released the 5 song EP Dream Reflection with Dedric Moore on vocals, guitar, synths, programming; Mikal Shapiro on vocals, Krysztof Nemeth: baritone guitar, electronic percussion; Alexander Thomas on electronic percussion on MGGG, Dream Reflection, Skeptic; Regan Moore on electronic percussion on Dark Hour of Meditation // Dream Reflection EP carries forward the motorized heartbeat of classic darkwave while forging its own metallic path. Drawing from EBM and Synth Pop traditions, this five-track release sees the Monta At Odds offshoot strip away unnecessary embellishments, leaving only the essential elements and textural remnants that speak to our collective digital malaise. // The EP’s centerpiece and title track emerges like a ghost in the machine, with Mikal Shapiro’s coolly delivered vocals floating above Dedric Moore’s gritty synth programming and precision-guided guitar along with Krysztof Nemeth’s synth pad percussion. Each track builds upon this foundation, from the robot-dance urgency of “Forget About You” to the beautiful desolation of “Skeptic,” creating a cohesive statement about modern isolation and the personas we construct. The result feels familiar and alien—like catching your reflection in a black mirror and seeing someone else staring back.]

[Re:vis:er and DJ EJ open for Lene Lovich, the Post-Punk/New Wave icon who could count John Lennon and Frank Zappa among her fans, is set to return to the US for the first time in 18 years with a show at recordBar, 1510 Grand Blvd KCMO., next week on Wednesday, November 5, 2025]

[Religion of Heartbreak play miniBar, 3810 Broadway Blvd, KCMO on Friday, November 7 with Pop Ritual and Las Cruxes]

[Both shows are part of a 4-night Dreams Never End Concert Series More info at http://www.kosmiccity.com]

22. Shy Boys – “View From the Sky”
    from: Talk Loud / Polyvinyl Record Co. / September 25, 2020
    [3rd album from the KC band Shy Boys. New music follow up to the Dim The Light / Brick By Brick, singles released February 15, 2019. Shy Boys released their 2nd album and Polyvinyl debut, Bell House on August 3, 2018. Shy Boys line-up consists of brothers Collin Rausch and Kyle Rausch, Konnor Ervin, Kyle Little and Ross Brown. Kyle Rausch and Konnor Ervin were already band mates in the indie-pop band The ACBs and Collin had been playing for years in the Kansas City area in various bands including The Abracadabras, and The I’ms with brother Kyle. The three shared a love for 1960s era pop rock and soon started writing their own music. In 2014 they released the self-titled Shy Boys on High Dive Records. // On September 16, 2025 Shy Boys released their latest single “Upperclassmen” through Polyvinyl Records. // Written by Collin Rausch. Engineered by Ross Brown. Mixed by Ross Brown. Mastered by Mike Nolte. Recorded in Kansas City, KS.With additional vocals by Sadie Rausch. From Polyvinyl Record Co. “The energetic single, “Upperclassmen,” is a freewheeling anthem for the underdog that rides high upon bright jangle-pop verses, and charming vocal harmonies led by the commanding falsetto of singer / guitarist Collin Rausch. // Capturing Shy Boys’ ever so gentle punk proclivities, “Upperclassmen” is charged with nimble guitars that evoke the early 80s spirit of South Bay SST bands like Minutemen and Descendents. // Meanwhile, Kansas City artist Diyana Shipp’s beautifully detailed cover illustration of two leaping ‘letter-jacket jocks’ (who will undoubtedly “kick your ass”) calls to mind the iconic pen and ink contrast work of Raymond Pettibon. // Saved by the bell, yet again, “Upperclassmen” gets in and out quicker than you can make it to homeroom. “ // Shy Boys line-up consists of brothers Collin Rausch and Kyle Rausch, Konnor Ervin, Kyle Little and Ross Brown. Members of Shy Boys represent the bands: The ACBs, Ghosty, The I’ms, Fullbloods , and Koney. The group formed shortly after Collin Rausch, Kyle Rausch and Konnor Ervin became roommates in 2012. Kyle Rausch and Konnor Ervin were already band mates in the indie-pop band The ACBs and Collin had been playing for years in the Kansas City area in various bands. The three shared a love for 1960s era pop rock and soon started writing their own music. Soon the band became a 5-piece. In 2014 they released the self-titled Shy Boys on High Dive Records. The album received generally positive reviews and the single “Bully Fight” was featured on Spin.com. In June 2014 the band recorded and released two more singles and one of them, “Life Is Peachy,” was featured on Stereogum. On April 4th, 2018, it was announced that the band had signed to Polyvinyl Record Co. Shy Boys release Bell House on Polyvinyl Records on August 3, 2018. Shy Boys released their third album Talk Loud on Polyvinyl Record Co. on September 25, 2020. More info at: http://www.shyboys.com]

[Shy Boys play SISTER ANNE’s 7th Birthday on Friday, October 24, 2025 at 8:00pm, with 2W33DY at 901 E. 31st St. KCMO. More info at: http://www.sisterannes.com]

11:45 – Pledge Break #6

WMM’s Fall Fund Drive Show w/ Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, and Bess Wallerstein-Huff

In 1988 folks from the Kansas City Community launched onto our airwaves KKFI 90.1 FM with hopes that through community radio we could help build our community, make it a better place, for our future, for those that follow and take our place. Today 37 years later 90.1 FM offers 100 radio programs, and 85 of these programs are locally produced, locally sourced, locally researched, locally presented by passionate and dedicated members of our Kansas City Community. Bucking all trends of commercially owned media, at KKFI, Diversity and Inclusion are part of our mission. Telling the stories of people who are under-represented is our mission. In a world where national corporations have purchased almost all local TV & Radio stations, KKFI has fought hard to remain free, locally loyal, a voice for those not repented in the corporately owned & cloned stations, or the rightwing talk, church owned christian stations, that proliferate the frequencies, through all of this, KKFI has worked hard to keep a little slice of the public airwaves alive for all of the people in our collective communities.

With shows locally produced about Native People, LGBTQIA People, Women, Working People, Black People, Ecological People, People in Prison, Stories of Middle Eastern and Latinx, KC Tenants, Understanding Israel Palestine, Economics For The People, Local elected leaders, Creatives, Artists, Poets, Musicians, Teachers, Theatre People, Dancers, Writers, Environmentalists, Historians, Activists, Survivors, KKFI’s News, Public Affairs, Arts & Culture programs go the distance with every show to represent and report of what is going on in our world here in Kansas City and the surrounding metro in our 80 mile radius of signal, and even farther on line digitally.

KKFI offers music shows produced by steadfast representatives from the diverse Music Community of Kansas City: Jazz shows 7 days a week hosted by professional Jazz Musicians; Reggae Shows throughout the week hosted by Reggae Royalty, Folk and Americana shows all week long hosted by folk musicians with decades of performances; Blues shows hosted by women & men who dearly love and live in KC’s enduring and nationally recognized blues community. Music shows that celebrate Independent, Local, Alternative, Soul and R&B, Punk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Vinyl Only, Glam Rock, New Wave, Rockabilly, Tejano, Classical, K-Pop, LIVE!, Gospel, Wymmyns Music, New!, World, Experimental, Old-Timey, House, Country, Heavy Metal, and so much more. Every show is produced, engineered and hosted by a real live person on the other end of the telephone.

90.1 FM is a miracle in broadcasting because hundreds of volunteers and active members keep it alive with their passion for the possibilities of radio, our most accessible media, available online, but also over the airwaves from our 100,000 watt tower that we own as a station and non-profit membership based organization.
Please help us survive. Reports show that 1 to 10 percent of listeners actually give back and donate in support of community radio. With your donation, YOU are the funder of something 100 other people will enjoy (for free) because of your donation. You are helping to build our community. – Please donate. Thank you!

For Betse Ellis, Sandra Draper, and Bess Wallerstein Huff, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening!

11:54 – WMM Celebrates 22 Musical Heroes of Kansas City’s Music Community

23. Danny Cox – “Gimme Some”
    from: Feel So Good / Casablanca Records / 1974
    [Recorded at Bell Sound Studios, New York, January-March, 1974. In 2021 Danny Cox digitally released YOUNG AND HOT (LIVE AT COWTOWN BALLROOM) EP on July 27, 2021. Danny Cox was born in 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a folk singer and songwriter best known for his 1974 LP album Feel So Good. Danny Cox moved to Kansas City, Kansas in 1967. As a youth, he sang in a church choir together with Rudolph Iseley, and in the 1960s he started his professional career performing on a Hootennany Folk Tour. Cox has recorded albums for ABC Dunhill, Casablanca, MGM and others. He also partnered a company called Good Karma Productions, run by the KC based Vanguard Coffee House owner Stan Plesser, who managed the acts of Brewer & Shipley, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. // Danny Cox recorded albums for Casablanca Records, ABC Dunhill and MGM. Many of these albums were recorded in Kansas City through Good Karma Productions run by Vanguard Coffee House owner Stan Plesser who managed Cox’s career along with Brewer & Shipley, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. // Danny Cox was born in 1943 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Bessy and Daniel Cox. He was the seventh of eight children. In 1963 a 20 year old Danny visited Kansas City while on a tour and was denied entry to the Muehlebach Hotel, but was accepted across the river at a Holiday Inn in Kansas City, Kansas. He would make his home in Kansas City, Kansas. // Danny moved to Kansas City in 1967, where he continued his over 6 decade long career. Danny Cox was a singer, songwriter, actor, playwright, jingles writer and father of 10 children, and grandfather. He wrote the jingle “The Grass Pad’s High on Grass.” He performed and acted on multiple stages in Kansas City, The Vanguard, The Cowtown Ballroom, The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Theatre for Young America. He sold out Carnegie Hall four times, toured the world. When Danny performed live he elevated the stage and electrified the room with his spirit and voice. // He was such a power house of a human. He was so many things. He always stood for justice and equality and being a good human. His beautiful family is a testament to his character and love. When you find his music it will move you. Look for his earlier work, it stands the test of time and was always crossing over multiple genres. // I introduced Danny Cox at the Crossroads Music Festival with a band of KC veteran musicians plus his children and grandchildren were performing with him. I had worked with his grandchildren at Quindaro Elementary with the KCK Organic Teaching Gardens. I was able to witness the love of this family, and the harmony they created. Danny Cox’s work and art and love will live on forever.]

Danny Cox Discography:
Live at 7 Cities (1963)
Sunny (1968)
Birth Announcement (1969)
Live at the Family Dog (1970)
Danny Cox (ABC Dunhill Records) (1971)
Feel So Good (Casablanca Records) (1974)
Troost Avenue Blues (3-track EP) (2006)
Bring Our Loved Ones Back (one track) (2007)
Sack of Trout (Single) (2015)
Vandalism in Eb Minor (Coin Heaven) (Single) (2015)
Kansas City – Where I Belong (Recorded at Pilgrim Chapel) (2012)
Time Is What I Need (Single) (2020)
Young and Hot (Live at Cowtown Ballroom) (5-track EP) (July 27, 2021)
Big John Buck O’Neil (Single) (December 7, 2021).

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

NEXT WEEK, on October 29 we’ll play more New & MidCoastal Releases. At 10:30 we’ll talk with Christopher Ruiz from Underground Productions who are presenting a Grinders Halloween Special – Saturday, October 25 at 2;00pm to 9:30om at Grinders Pizza

At 11:00 musician Wills Van Doorn joins us to share a single from his new record

At 11:30 Sondra Freeman joins us to share details about APOCALYPSE MEOW 18 on at recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO, on Saturday, November 1, at 7:00pm with Lava Dreams, Steddy P, Betse & Clarke, Nathan Corsi & My Atomic Daydream. Auction Link at http://www.32auctions.com/AM18

You can find our playlists at: http://www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & http://www.kkfi.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.instagram.wednesday_midday_medley http://www.bandcamp.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley

A really big THANK YOU to those who donated during Wednesday MidDay Medley and our Fall Fund Drive for KKFI 90.1 FM.

Thanks to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein-Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver. And Shaina Littler – Office Manager Book Keeper

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made extra effort to keep our station alive.

For WMM, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening!

Show #1118