In yet another turn of fate, the game board has been flung skyward. I spent the first part of the week at the hospital getting tested for my fitness to endure an autologous stem cell transplant. The good news is that I am a picture of health, passed all my tests with flying colors. The […]
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Life since the last update has been fairly routine, if by routine one means a seemingly endless succession of inpatient chemo sessions punctuated by deep exhaustion, malaise, and occasional mild bouts of tummy tumult. The last round of standard chemo left me pretty well flattened, a piece of unidentifiable road kill sprawled on the sofa, […]
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Or maybe I’m a dog that lost his bite. The first six weeks of chemo were relatively uninteresting. Fatigued, but not hammered in the fashion all those movies of the week and after school specials had me expecting. I thought I was special, that rare creature immune to the horrors. Everything would work exactly as […]
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Dear Bill, Your wife introduced us a few weeks ago, just after the Bill Frisell Harmony performance at the Big Ears Festival. I had just finished sobbing over the “We Shall Overcome” arrangement, so not at my most composed. I tried to express a sliver of what your work has meant to me, but it […]
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From the moment Big Ears announced their grand themes for 2019 – anniversary celebrations for the Art Ensemble of Chicago and ECM Records – it was clear that this year’s hullabaloo would occasion extended reflection on my not-yet-long-enough life of digging into music. Add in my approaching 60th and the 35th anniversary of my betrothal […]
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Springtime in Tallahassee offers a glut of high-caliber creative offerings that puts our little town, if only for a few weeks, on equal footing with the most celebrated cultural capitals. This weekend (April 12-14) , the Word of South Festival hosts its annual takeover of Cascades Park with a terrific lineup of music and literary […]
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I promised daily posts from the Big Ears hoolie. I failed. I promised an all-encompassing roundup that connects the dots between Africa, Appalachia, jazz, and the Euro-derived sonic explorations of the likes of Lucier, Budd, &c. I failed. Mea culpa. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but I’ve been busy having cancer.1I […]
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(The fifth in a series of preview posts as we count down to the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. Part 1 here on the 50 year legacy of ECM Records.Part 2 here on 50 years of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future. Part 3 here on the magnificent Rhiannon Giddens and her Lucy Negro, […]
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(The fourth in a series of preview posts as we count down to the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. Part 1 here on the 50 year legacy of ECM Records.Part 2 here on 50 years of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future. Part 3 here on the magnificent Rhiannon Giddens and her […]
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(The third in a series of preview posts as we count down to the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. Part 1 here on the 50 year legacy of ECM Records. Part 2 here on 50 years of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future.) The eruption of way too many […]
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