Looking for an escape from the dreariness of superstorms cable coverage, really ball football and way too many sleazy political ads?
Take a number.
Let’s see what we can do about it. You know, entertainment-wise.
The grains of Father Time are running out of crooner Marilyn Maye‘s live performance hourglass and one of these days Kansas City is going to wake up and no more Marilyn.
Not just yet, but one of these days.
For now the 80-something jazz diva is still ticking, proving that there’s life after Jardine’s for jazz in Kansas City. And this weekend you can catch Maye’s kickass, intimate act at the Quality Hill Playhouse downtown.
I know. The QHP is a bluehair magnet of the highest order. Just attending a show there is practically like signing a public affidavit admitting you’ve been on Social Security at least 20 years.
Screw it, go in disguise if you have to just go.
Trust me, you won’t regret seeing Kansas City’s answer to Tony Bennett up close and personal. It’s honestly a heckuva show, even if you’re under – I don’t know – 30.
Quality Hill’s website is down, but you can buy $35 tickets still here or by calling the box office at 816-421-1700.
Tell ’em Hearne sent ya.
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I’m gonna go out on a limb here a little and suggest you seriously consider doing something that in all honesty I’d be loathe to…
We’re talking opera, ladies and gentlemen.
Don’t get me wrong. Just because I sense that there’s something incredibly interesting and entertaining going down in Kansas City doesn’t require that I personally like it.
I can’t tell you how many times Kansas City Star critics have tap danced their way through reviews, pretending to halfway or really like something…or…beating around the reporting bush, flooding readers with details rather than actual opinions indicating whether they liked it or not.
I’ve hung with these reviewer guys backstage, if you will, and guess what? Nine times out of 10 if they don’t actually say they really liked it, they didn’t.
Me? I’m not going to pull that kind of wool over you guy’s eyes.
I’m just going to do my due diligence and report that if you like opera (yeech), you should consider checking out Il Trovatore at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
It opens Saturday and runs Wednesday and Friday evenings next week with a matinee Sunday November 11th.
Check out what Lyric Opera artistic director Ward Holmquist says about it:
“Il Trovatore is the most vocally challenging piece in the Verdi canon.There are incredibly high expectations for all of the principal singers because each performs highly recognizable arias. They are required to deliver to the extremes of their vocal range and dynamic capabilities, and have to showcase the full color of their vocal expression. I am assembling the perfect mix of singers to compliment the Kauffman Center’s acoustics.
Obviously Holmquist isn’t going to bag on his own gig, but any opera that features thugs, love triangles, murder most foul, swearing, high society types, suicide and kidnapping can’t be all bad, can it?
I mean, you still have to deal with all of that singing in a foreign language (I checked the “subtitles” – trust me they won’t help much).
But hey, that’s what opera’s about, right?
Looks like Saturday’s performance may be sold out but check here for tickets or call (816) 994-7222.
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Wanna do something at the complete last minute – as in tonight?
Say no more. I give you Primus 3D at the Uptown.
Not to worry, it’s not one of those cheesy 3D, made-for-losers, lame 3-D movies.
Not at all.
It’s a “3-D enhanced” live musical with the band Primus touring on its new album Green Naugahyde with a two set per night live performance.
Did I mention the show is in Quadraphonic Sound?
I had a quadraphonic car stereo in Arizona and remember playing a quad recording of the band Ten Years After‘s “Space in Time” album on it.
I think quadraphonic sound might have lasted a year maybe.
But it’ll be back with a Frank Zappa vengeance tonight at the Uptown.
The reviews have generally been positive with one New York City blogger observing “the crowd really seemed to be into it…and were uber fucking high.”
And another adding, “Primus – now officially a jam band – saw it’s transformation into a modern day Pink Floyd inch closer to completion with the group adding a new toy to their current tour; a huge LED Screen that tosses 3D images at its audience.”
Check it out and be careful not to drink anything out of any punch bowls.
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Believe it or not there’s a kickass comedy show at Stanford’s that Craig Glazer didn’t even bother to hype here on KC Confidential.
Amazing, eh?
That of course qualifies it as a best-kept-secret, but Craig did tell me while I was hooking up his new audio/video system earlier tonight that it was a can’t miss, next-big-thing kind of a deal.
Oh, I know what you’re thinking alright.
That Craig’s always tooting his own horn and why should we believe him this time?
Here’s why.
Only rarely does Craig seek me out to tell me not to miss one of his comics. That the dude is incredibly dirty, smoking hot looking and a sure bet to become huge any minute now.
So you know what?
Since Craig doesn’t play that card often and I can’t remember being disappointed, I’m going to see Collin Kane at Stanford’s this weekend.
One caveat: Kane’s an “insult comic” and warned Craig that pissed off patrons rushing the stage to kick his butt is part of the territory, so be sure and take your meds before you head out so Craig doesn’t have to – you know – flatten you.
Tonight through Sunday at Stanford’s at The Legends in KCK.
I’ll be with the other blue-hairs & silverbacks catching Danny Cox at The Record Bar. chuck, pull out your 70s best and join us.
Then run down to Midwest Music and catch Tiny Horse in the Apocalypse Meow pre-party (tell Abby her big brother sent ya). The benefit for the Midwest Music Foundation goes down Sat at The Beaumont. School of Rock, The Architects, The Atlantic, Deco Auto, Cadillac Flambe, The Empty Spaces, The Blue Boot Heelers. Charity auction and raffles too.
Mister Hearne. Quadraphonic sound was never available in car stereos with true quadraphonic, discrete, 4 channel separation. The ability to fade or pan, front and rear, left and right is not quadraphonic. True quadraphonic was only available on vinyl which required a turntable with a four channel demodulator/cartridge and a receiver or pre-amp/amp with quad technology to properly interpret and route the four independent signals to four independent power sources, each one powering one of four speakers.
Many people thought they had purchased quadraphonic systems when all they had was a stereo system with four speakers. The technology was never available in any broadcast technology or tape formats available to the general public.
Au contraire.
Say what you will, but I had a brand new, state of the art quad system in my Mustang and for however many months or a year major labels released specific quadraphonic 8 track tapes to play on those systems.
And you could tell the difference between quad and stereo, especially on some of the swirling sound effects on that Ten Years After album
Perhaps you missed it.
I also before and after had four speaker stereo systems in most of my cars but obviously they were not quadraphonic.
Here ya go…
Wikipedia’s take on 8-Track Quadraphonic:
“Quadraphonic eight-track cartridges (announced by RCA in April 1970) were also produced, with the major auto manufacturers being particularly eager to promote in-car quadraphonic players as a pricey option. The format enjoyed a moderate amount of success for a time but faded in the mid-1970s. These cartridges are prized by collectors since they provide four channels of discrete sound, unlike matrixed formats such as SQ. Most quadraphonic albums were specially mixed for the quad format.”
Got it? Four channels of discrete sound.
With all due respect Mr. Hearne, the tape formats did not deliver the same quality of discrete 4 channel sound as vinyl. It is like comparing a mined diamond to cubic zirconia.
The quality of tape head required to discern true 4 channel sound comparable to a cartridge/demodulator system did not exist at the time, at least in consumer applications. Even at the height of cassette tape sales the crosstalk between channels on all but the most expensive tape decks was unacceptable to most audiophiles. The 8 track tape systems, whose heads were never close in quality to cassette or reel to reel used a synthesis algorithm to create the illusion, or as you referred to it, a swirling effect, of 4 channel sound in much the way a soundbar subwoofer system does today with a television, creating the illusion of sound emanating from somewhere it is not. Surely, you would agree a configuration of that type could not compare with a properly installed and tuned 7.1 system, would you?
With all due respect to you Mr. Hearne, and Wikipedia, I will default to my degree in electrical engineering and personal experience for evidence in this matter.
Hearne is correct, we even brought in a uniformed paid security guard to make sure all is calm at the shows for Colin Kane. Yeah he is the new Jim Jeffereis/T.J. Miller…he nearly filled it up on a Thursday and that with a telivised Chiefs Game…a stud for sure…he is crazy funny X rated, handsome white guy at its best…Dennis Miller said on his radio show..”I saw this Kane kid, rocked my world, best thing out there in maybe 2 to 3 years…went back stage to say hi, the kid left…Madison Square Gardens, drew 7,000.” He is a regular on Howard Stern and Oppy and Anthony.
The non knowing can say what they want but 8 track or cassette tapes was only a convenience for playing music on the go.
The real quality of great sound was never there. Oh yes some sounded ok and other units played better than some others and yes the so called Quadraphonic stuff had a crisper sound but vinyl was where you got great sound on a good turntable or a top of the line reel to reel deck.
Remember as well most that is posted on Wikipedia is posted by people who may not have all the facts correct either. In short don’t go flying in to a court of law using Wikipedia as your evidence.
HC: Yes Wikipedia is not an unimpeachable source but it is quite well policed and having owned a quad system, I can tell you it was the real deal.
To your main point, 8 Rack tapes were awful and cassettes quite better but still no match for vinyl. But playing a record in a car was out of the question so yes, people had to make due with what was available at the time.
And with equal respect, Mr. Anonymous Bogus Backward Spelled Name Dude…
I will default to the fact that your convenient claim of an electrical engineering degree is completely unsubstantiated on top of which you have cited no direct experience with the Quad 8-Track system.
On the other hand, I stand here by name having owned operated and experienced said quad system and can tell you it worked quite well at the time.
Your argument that it may not have been better than vinyl notwithstanding, you do in fact stand corrected in that it was a discrete four track system, which you stated incorrectly that it was not.
Perhaps you had not attained said degree at the time the quad system was in play
Here’s what Quad expert Dan Jobin had to say about Quad 8 Tracks:
“The Discrete Quad format as used in the 8-track cartridge was a natural extension of other things going on at that time. It was the early 70’s: the 8-track tape was king, the EPA was making sure that we were not going to buy factory muscle cars, and the home stereo market was enjoying four channel sound.
“How it works
With stereo 8-tracks you have separate left and right channel information. What’s missing with stereo playback is the ambient information you would get in the form of reflections off the walls of a concert hall. Prior to quad, one attempt to recreate this ambience was making a “difference” channel for the rear speakers. By simply reversing the phase of one of the front channels and adding it to the other front channel the result is a difference channel. This difference channel was sent to the rear speakers to create ambience. While this worked with limited success, someone decided that four discrete channels would be more accurate than stereo with a fabricated rear channel.
“The variety of software available for this “new” discreet four channel cartridge format was truly amazing. The tapes I remember enjoying the most were Edgar Winter’s They Only Come Out at Night, which featured the aforementioned “Frankenstein,” Santana’s Abraxas, which really made the continuous loop tape worthwhile, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, perfect for sitting in a parked car with the lights off.”
Say what you will about 8 Track versus vinyl, the Quad 8’s were indeed four discrete channels