Hi! Sorry to make this into an annual blog but I'm pretty darn busy living life. I don't want to get to caught up in writing about it that I forget to live so please excuse the infrequency of my writing. I hope you are enjoying your life and taking the time to experience it instead of documenting it. Sometimes it can be easy to get so deep into writing or talking or taking photos of life that it takes a lot of time away from the actual experience of where you are. I'd hate for that to happen.
So anyway, I've been living while I was away from this blog. Lots of living, learning, fucking up, growing up, breaking down...and much more. My life has NOT been boring. I started off this year in London. After being out of the country for 1 1/2 years I returned to surprise my Mother on her 70th birthday. Boy was she surprised! I've been back through several cities visiting friends who I hadn't seen in years. A friend from college asked me to come to nyc to help her get settled in as she was in the process of moving from Seattle to Brooklyn. I was happy to help especially because I thought it might be an opportunity to experience the Vision Festival. I'd heard a lot of good things about the Vision Festival. From what I know about it its organized by bassist William Parker, his wife Patricia Nicholson Parker and others. Knowing what I know of William Parker's music and having seen many a years lineup of the festival I knew I had to experience this festival at some point. Well, 2012 was my year!
My budget this year has been much tighter than previous years so I was unable to attend each day of the festival. I was able to attend 4 of the 7 days so that wasn't bad. So here are the folks I saw:
Sonny Simmons Ensemble w/Thomas Bellier, William Parker,Warren Smith
The Thing+Joe McPhee
Hamid Drake Ensemble w/Jeb Bishop,Pasquale Mira, Jeff Parker, Joshua Abrams
Eternal Unity: Sabir Mateen, Dave Burrell, William Parker, William Hooker
Ivo Perelman, Michael Bisio, Whit Dickey
Joelle Leandre,Nicole Mitchell,Thomas Buckner
Trio 3: Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman,Andrew Cyrille
Jason Kao Hwang Burning Bridge:Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Swell,Sun Li, Wang Guowei,Ken Filiano,Andrew Dury
Burnt Sugar
Kidd Jordan Quintet: Charles Gayle, JD Parran, William Parker, Hamid Drake
If I could only use a few words to describe feeling about the Vision Festival 2012 I would simply say: Holy Mutherfuckin Shit!
I can't apologize for my language here. It seems appropriate for what I experienced. I go to a lot of music festivals and concerts around the world. I've been touched in different ways by music. I'm not new to that but something in this Vision Festival I experienced couldn't be compared to other concerts.
So about 4 years ago I sold all of my belongings and began to travel around the world. I haven't had one home that I could call my own since 2008. I tell people that home is wherever I am. I say that but not every place that I go feels as comfortable as 'home'. In these years I'm redefining what home is for me, whether it be a physical place or a feeling or what....I'm still not certain at this point. I do know that one concert in particular gave me the feeling of home. On June 14th I saw Eternal Unity play. That was Sabir Mateen, Dave Burrell, William Parker and William Hooker. The only way I can try to explain was feeling William Parker on bass gave this sense of strength and protection, Hooker on drums with his vocal playing offered an openness, an allowing for the horn and piano come through. Somehow the feelings that I picked up in this performance are those that give that feeling of home. At sense that you are safe, protected from outside bull but offering wide open space to explore and feel free. Get as crazy as you want to just go to sleep if you like. Priceless!
Trio 3. My goodness! It was so lovely to see Reggie Workman, Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille play. Fan-fuckin-tastic. I know I'm a sucker for a good bassline but Reggie Workman was absolutely killing it! I spent a lot of my time shaking my head in disbelief.
Jason Kao Hwang's group was a huge shock to my system. They played the same night as Trio 3 and I knew nothing of Jason or his music. So I was completely happy and content after having seen Trio 3. I think it was during the sound check that I was listening to this band and was brought to tears. I think it was the sound of the instrument called Pipa played by Sun Li. Wow, so beautiful. So when the concert actually began, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Jason's compositions. Even the bass player in the band, Ken Filiano took a moment to acknowledge Jason and his talented self. But based on what I heard of Jason's music I would venture to say that he is a really amazing composer! Not any normal kinda music. Its somehow a fusion of Asian culture and different atmospheres. Very multi-dimensional, and perplexing in a way. I love stuff like that! It brings up all kinds of conflicting emotions and desires at once. It was perplexing for me because I don't know what to do with all those conflicting emotions and stuff. Its still refreshing because its not the norm....at least not for me.
The last performance of the Vision Festival 2012 was Kidd Jordan Quintet. I'm running out of words and ways to describe this stuff. Lets just say that I felt honored to be in the room to experience what I did. The music was so great that I felt like royalty. I felt like I was privy to something not many had the opportunity to witness. I left the concert with a big smile on my face and the energy of 5 year old who'd just eaten a big stack of pancakes and downed the whole bottle of syrup to go with it. I could have run to Montana, hi-fived everyone there and run back without feeling tired. And thankfully there's been no major crash after being that high on music!!
This was my first time seeing Charles Gayle live. He played piano most of the show and saxophone on the last tune. Lovely, wonderful, fantastic. Yay!
Ok, I'm getting tired of my own writing so I'm going to stop here. Until next time.....
So anyway, I've been living while I was away from this blog. Lots of living, learning, fucking up, growing up, breaking down...and much more. My life has NOT been boring. I started off this year in London. After being out of the country for 1 1/2 years I returned to surprise my Mother on her 70th birthday. Boy was she surprised! I've been back through several cities visiting friends who I hadn't seen in years. A friend from college asked me to come to nyc to help her get settled in as she was in the process of moving from Seattle to Brooklyn. I was happy to help especially because I thought it might be an opportunity to experience the Vision Festival. I'd heard a lot of good things about the Vision Festival. From what I know about it its organized by bassist William Parker, his wife Patricia Nicholson Parker and others. Knowing what I know of William Parker's music and having seen many a years lineup of the festival I knew I had to experience this festival at some point. Well, 2012 was my year!
My budget this year has been much tighter than previous years so I was unable to attend each day of the festival. I was able to attend 4 of the 7 days so that wasn't bad. So here are the folks I saw:
Sonny Simmons Ensemble w/Thomas Bellier, William Parker,Warren Smith
The Thing+Joe McPhee
Hamid Drake Ensemble w/Jeb Bishop,Pasquale Mira, Jeff Parker, Joshua Abrams
Eternal Unity: Sabir Mateen, Dave Burrell, William Parker, William Hooker
Ivo Perelman, Michael Bisio, Whit Dickey
Joelle Leandre,Nicole Mitchell,Thomas Buckner
Trio 3: Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman,Andrew Cyrille
Jason Kao Hwang Burning Bridge:Taylor Ho Bynum, Steve Swell,Sun Li, Wang Guowei,Ken Filiano,Andrew Dury
Burnt Sugar
Kidd Jordan Quintet: Charles Gayle, JD Parran, William Parker, Hamid Drake
If I could only use a few words to describe feeling about the Vision Festival 2012 I would simply say: Holy Mutherfuckin Shit!
I can't apologize for my language here. It seems appropriate for what I experienced. I go to a lot of music festivals and concerts around the world. I've been touched in different ways by music. I'm not new to that but something in this Vision Festival I experienced couldn't be compared to other concerts.
So about 4 years ago I sold all of my belongings and began to travel around the world. I haven't had one home that I could call my own since 2008. I tell people that home is wherever I am. I say that but not every place that I go feels as comfortable as 'home'. In these years I'm redefining what home is for me, whether it be a physical place or a feeling or what....I'm still not certain at this point. I do know that one concert in particular gave me the feeling of home. On June 14th I saw Eternal Unity play. That was Sabir Mateen, Dave Burrell, William Parker and William Hooker. The only way I can try to explain was feeling William Parker on bass gave this sense of strength and protection, Hooker on drums with his vocal playing offered an openness, an allowing for the horn and piano come through. Somehow the feelings that I picked up in this performance are those that give that feeling of home. At sense that you are safe, protected from outside bull but offering wide open space to explore and feel free. Get as crazy as you want to just go to sleep if you like. Priceless!
Trio 3. My goodness! It was so lovely to see Reggie Workman, Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille play. Fan-fuckin-tastic. I know I'm a sucker for a good bassline but Reggie Workman was absolutely killing it! I spent a lot of my time shaking my head in disbelief.
Jason Kao Hwang's group was a huge shock to my system. They played the same night as Trio 3 and I knew nothing of Jason or his music. So I was completely happy and content after having seen Trio 3. I think it was during the sound check that I was listening to this band and was brought to tears. I think it was the sound of the instrument called Pipa played by Sun Li. Wow, so beautiful. So when the concert actually began, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Jason's compositions. Even the bass player in the band, Ken Filiano took a moment to acknowledge Jason and his talented self. But based on what I heard of Jason's music I would venture to say that he is a really amazing composer! Not any normal kinda music. Its somehow a fusion of Asian culture and different atmospheres. Very multi-dimensional, and perplexing in a way. I love stuff like that! It brings up all kinds of conflicting emotions and desires at once. It was perplexing for me because I don't know what to do with all those conflicting emotions and stuff. Its still refreshing because its not the norm....at least not for me.
The last performance of the Vision Festival 2012 was Kidd Jordan Quintet. I'm running out of words and ways to describe this stuff. Lets just say that I felt honored to be in the room to experience what I did. The music was so great that I felt like royalty. I felt like I was privy to something not many had the opportunity to witness. I left the concert with a big smile on my face and the energy of 5 year old who'd just eaten a big stack of pancakes and downed the whole bottle of syrup to go with it. I could have run to Montana, hi-fived everyone there and run back without feeling tired. And thankfully there's been no major crash after being that high on music!!
This was my first time seeing Charles Gayle live. He played piano most of the show and saxophone on the last tune. Lovely, wonderful, fantastic. Yay!
Ok, I'm getting tired of my own writing so I'm going to stop here. Until next time.....
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