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Klugh's quartet featured keyboardist David Spradley and two Detroit natives, Al Turner and Ron Otis on bass and drums, respectively. Spradley and Klugh have performed, recorded, and toured together since 1993. Over the years, Spradley has worked with an impressive list of artists including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Sly Fox, and George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic. Al “The Burner” Turner and Ron Otis have also worked with Klugh since the early nineties and their credits include a roster of notable figures in the realm of contemporary jazz as well. Klugh's fellow quartet members each have side projects of their own.

Songs from the first set spanned over three decades of Klugh's career. Recent tracks such as “Ocean Blue” and “Canadian Sunset” from his 2008 release The Spice of Life were thrown into the mix of earlier hits including “Kari,” Midnight in San Juan,” and “Slow Boat to Rio.” Highlights from the first set were a funky slap-bass solo by Turner in a selection from his latest album, Movin', and an extended drum solo by Otis on Klugh's “Wind and the Sea.”

The most memorable moment of the evening, however, was when Klugh began the second set alone with a guitar solo arrangement of Vince Guaraldi's “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” and “Venezuelan Nights,” an original from The Spice of Life. “Venezuelan Nights” was a classical-inspired work that reminded me of the valses venzolanos by composer Antonio Lauro. Klugh shared feelings for his love of classical guitar but remarked on his difficulty in memorizing other people's music which ultimately led to him writing his own. Klugh demonstrated his mastery of the instrument through a mix of classical, flamenco, and Wes Montgomery-style playing.

The remainder of the second set began to drag for me due to songs with similar laid-back tempos and cliché “smooth jazz” guitar licks and keyboard samples. The quartet enlivened the mood back up with the groovy guitar riffs in “Dr. Macumbo” and “Aaron's ABC's,” a tune written by Spradley that was inspired by his son and showed off his fiery fingerwork.

While I cannot say I am a huge fan of contemporary jazz, the players' abilities were definitely worth noticing. For a majority of the evening, I felt that the guitar was hidden beneath the mix which was a shame considering the amount of press Klugh receives praising his technique and the clarity in his studio albums. Amplification of the three treble strings tended to pop in the mid to high-range while the bass strings were less sonorous causing Klugh's sound to disappear whenever he ventured into the lower octave. Regardless, the concert was a success and the audience showed their support through exuberant applause.

REVIEW:
Folly Jazz Series
Earl Klugh Quartet
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown, Kansas City, MO
http://www.follytheater.com/SiteResources/Data/Templates/t8.asp?docid=574&DocName=Folly%20Jazz%20Series

By Nick Omiccioli

Classical and New Classical Contributor
Nicholas S. Omiccioli is currently a doctoral student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he is a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow.  He currently studies composition with James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Paul Rudy, and Zhou Long.  His previous teacher was Brian Bevelander at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio.  His music has been performed by the Wellesley Composers' Conference, DuoSolo, the Kansas City Chorale, Contemporaneous, the Society for New Music, members of Brave New Works, and various new music festivals around the country including Regional and National College Music Society Conferences and numerous SCI Conferences at the National, National Student, and Regional levels.

Mr. Omiccioli has received many awards and honors including a commission by the 2010 Wellesley Composers' Conference, winner and judge's choice in the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competitions, 2009 DuoSolo Emerging Composer Award, and the Brian M. Israel Prize to name a few.  Just recently, Mr. Omiccioli was nominated for an award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a winner of the ASCAP Foundation's 2010 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.  In addition to composition, Mr. Omiccioli studies guitar with Douglas Niedt and teaches at the UMKC Academy of Music and Dance and the Kansas City School of Music.