Bill Brownlee
Associate editor of the newsletter Rock & Rap Confidential, Danny Alexander is a music journalist based in the Kansas City area. He teaches writing and literature at Johnson County Community College. In spring 2016, University of Texas Press will publish his new book Real Love, No Drama: The Music of Mary J. Blige.
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Seventy years ago, Charlie Parker and four other be-bop legends created what many call the greatest jazz concert ever— with Parker playing a plastic saxophone. A reissue of the recording is out.
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Part of this year's Parker centennial, the American Jazz Museum's competition was well-timed for musicians out of work due to COVID-19. -
Carl Butler can quote chapter and verse of the Bible, but he’s equally comfortable citing "the great theologian" — a country singer named Tom T. Hall —... -
"Music is always evolving," says Robert Castillo, a Kansas City jazz-band leader who is broadening his city's signature sound. It's not as if he doesn't... -
Powerful women have risen from Kansas City’s hard-driving blues scene in recent years. The latest to make her mark is Heather Newman , whose first... -
At 74 years old, Kansas City pianist Jay McShann was still performing the joyous music that had entertained audiences around the world for decades. One... -
It was prom night, but the teenagers who packed Mills Record Company in Westport last month clearly had priorities. “We can’t miss a show with Addie,”... -
If you’ve been to a rock show and bought a T-shirt, there’s a chance it was made in a non-descript factory on Merriam Drive just off of I-35. That’s the... -
Justin Wilson is engaged in a consequential fight against irrelevance. As the owner and operator of Sound 81 Productions , a recording studio in... -
A legitimate rock star is leading a life of quiet anonymity in Johnson County. As front man for the abrasive rock band Sevendust , Lajon Witherspoon has...
