Art Kumbalek
I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, we’re going musical this week: You have got to hear and know and read this, like a regular record review:
MRS. FUN Scale ‘The Summit’
(FunTime Records)
By Art Kumbalek
Full disclosure: I am not a record reviewer by trade, but I have dabbled in musical performance here and there over the years, just so you know.
Another disclosure: I’ve had the pleasure, musically and personally, to know the MRS. FUN of Connie Grauer and Kim Zick for a long, long time (Café Melange, anyone?).
And, what the fock, one more disclosure: The Summit, musically/sonically/creatively, is brave, bold and beat-down beautiful, track-to-track, gems polished to perfection. Fabulous.
Here’s more. How ’bout this opening paragraph from a reviewer out of Canada:
With none other than Victor Wooten [five-time Grammy winner] volunteering not only to join this duo onstage once in a while but also to provide their album with a cover photo, any music lover would feel obliged to pay attention to Connie Grauer and Kim Zick’s highly original material. In any case, there aren’t many two-lady jazz units who seek the validity of existence over the course of more than thirty years and who seemed to have located it like the pair of Milwaukeeans did on "Truth" seven years before “The Summit” found them still trying to figure out what happened to us all in the interim. Dealing with Covid and losing their mothers to Alzheimer’s could derail lesser mortals, yet global and personal tragedies strengthened the lifelong friends’ resolve to stay fierce in terms of creativity – and, despite everything, remain delicate.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Read the full review here: dmme.net/mrs-fun-the-summit/
So, don’t know from MRS. FUN? Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) Awards winners more than a couple, three times? What the fock.
Connie Grauer with a right-hand ala Bud Powell with the imagination of Monk? Kim Zick, sublime percussionist who always presents an onstage tutorial on what the skins are all about?
From the FUN website: mrsfun.com
Complex. Sophisticated. Adventurous. The music of MRS. FUN is a unique blend of off-center jazz, ultra-funk, spoken word rap, and neo-cabaret.
And FUN!
And let me tell you’s, the dynamic duo out of southeastern Wisconsin and beyond commands the band-stand like a mongoose on a cobra, or something like that.
Need more?
Then you abso-focking-lutely must make your way to the intimate The Estate, 2423 N Murray Ave. for a record/release performance, Thursday, April 10, 7p.m. and 9:30 p.m. estatemke.com
And when you’re there, request they play “Memory Hoops,” track 3 from off The Summit, just so you know.
Final disclosure: I hope Zoila the Magnificent approves this review, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.
And as a musical bonus to this essay:
How ’bout you listen to this: “And the Angels Sing,” (I will hear them soonish, you betcha, when we meet and I hear the sweetest song I ever heard, I hope) from the Benny Goodman Orchestra pre-war WWII featuring the chanteusely Martha Tilton on the vocal and trumpeter’s Ziggy Elman’s iconic solo break (Zig wrote the music for the tune while Johnny (“Moon River”) Mercer tossed on-top the lyrics.
And so this week, I recommend all around known world that we smile muchly so that angels sing, what the fock, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.
