Kansas City Blog

The Miles Bonny Show #001 from miles bonny on Vimeo.

If you've got 48 minutes and 37 seconds of time to kill (in front of your computer, naturally) and can bear the sound of ice clinking in large tumblers of beverage to a greatly amplified degree followed by the sound of said tumblers being placed loudly onto the same table on which the microphone/camera is resting, then check out the Miles Bonny Show, now playing at the venerable local DJ and musician's Vimeo site, or watch it above.

As I write this, I'm at the 12-minute mark, and Miles and his co-host, Beatbroker, have gone over the latest issues of both The Pitch and Ink. Well, "riffed on" is a better term than "gone over." The important thing is that Miles reads aloud something I wrote about the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City in which I compare them to Charles Mingus and then says, "I don't know if I trust Jason's opinion regarding Charles Mingus or not, but I guess ... the truth will be demonstrated."

To that I say, What cheek!

Not trust my opinion of Mingus!?!?!?

Well, I wouldn't trust my opinion on Mingus, either, but let me tell you why I thought of Mingus while watching People's Lib BB.

In short, it's because, for me, Mingus' band was the first large ensemble -- sax section, brass section, rhythm section -- that I ever heard that played its own progressive, non-swing-oriented big band jazz music. The term "big band," for me, conjures anything from Ellington to Basie to the King of Swing, Benny Goodman -- and all of them swing. Mingus' band sometimes would swing, or for that matter bop, but -- again, for me -- at its height, the Mingus was all about the longer, exploratory, thematic stuff, like everything on the mindblowing masterpiece The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, which brings together bop, swing, latin and modern composition.

That's what I hear in PLBB -- and, I think, what I would hear more of if the band were fully funded so that its members could come together and focus on it as close to full-time as possible. Also, I've read that Mingus used to yell and howl during gigs and recording sessions when he got excited. It got to be a problem. No one in PLBB does that to my knowledge, but when the group gets whipped up on a hard, climactic groove, I can hear, in the back of my head, a maniacal voice bellowing in approval.

Anyway, all I'm saying is if you like Mingus, check out the PLBB. We got some awesome pics of the group last week.

Well, crap, I just spent what little time I had for the viewing of Miles' show on my little Mingus rebuttal. If you MAKE IT THROUGH, let me know how it ends -- and, more important, if I am mentioned again. Also, tell me what you think of Mingus and his work. And if there's anywhere in the area where you can get a real, like, serious, New York deli-style reuben sandwich with nice big thick fresh cuts of corned beef on it, then call my Uncle Morty and give him that info, please.

Lastly, I demand to be a guest on the Miles Bonny Show.

-- Jason Harper