BY JOE KLOPUS
Jazz is a music of individualism, but some are much more individual than others. Fortunately, we have some truly one-of-a-kind jazz individuals coming through our area this week.
First up is flutist Holly Hofmann, a strong advocate for her instrument as a commanding voice in jazz, who comes to the Blue Room on Saturday. To mix a metaphor, the flute is frequently second fiddle to the saxophone in this music. More often than not the flutist in a jazz band is a saxophonist doubling on the smaller instrument. As a result, a lot of jazz flute sounds like a player giving their second-best. Not so with Hofmann, a flute specialist through and through, a passionate defender of the flute as the equal of any horn.
Hofmann brings along her husband, pianist Mike Wofford, a first-call West Coast player who’s been relied on by people including Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy, Shelly Manne, Benny Carter and Chet Baker. He fits in well with the jazz mainstream, but just listen closely — those are truly individual ideas coming through his hands, presented with the taste of someone whose experience gives him an unerring sense of what’s real and what’s jive. No jive is allowed when Wofford plays.
Holly Hofmann and Mike Wofford
Hofmann and Wofford have been friends with KC’s Bobby Watson for a long time, even including one of his songs on their recent CD. So the alto saxophonist will be joining them. Think on this for a minute: Watson is another one of those real individualists, one of the remarkably few altoists to establish a really personal identity on the horn after Charlie Parker. So a Hofmann-Wofford-Watson group is really a summit of jazz thinkers.
A second promising collaborative show in the coming days involves guitarist John Stowell, an individual whose playing speaks loudly by speaking softly. He teams up with one of Kansas City’s most outstanding players, tenor saxophonist Matt Otto, whose horn also speaks quietly but eloquently, for an intimate concert at the Westport Coffee House Theater, 4010 Pennsylvania Ave., at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Stowell doesn’t dazzle with chops, though he certainly has them — he lets his inventions flow like a stream, though it’s a stream with rapids, undertows and sharp twists. He made a deep impression with a show here in 2008. And he and Otto have teamed up before, but not in these parts — so this occasion should be an evening to remember.
Read more on: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/27/3936560/jazz-artists-assert-their-identities.html
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