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Big Ears Festival


BFrank

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I am working on my plan still. At present it is:

Thursday: Jaga Jazzist; Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel; Okkyung Lee

Friday: Roscoe Mitchell Trio Five; Rova, The Sound in Space Project; Milford Graves; Jenny Scheinman Mischief and Mayhem; TAL National; Jason Moran Fats Waller Dance Party.

Saturday: Wu Fei; Cyro Baptista and Banquet of the Spirits; Jason Moran and Milford Graves; Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog; Roscoe Mitchell Trios; Rova, Chanelling Coltrane Electric Ascension.

Sunday: Julie Byrne.

Unfortunately, I have to leave Sunday afternoon so I will miss Bangs. But, Roscoe Mitchell at noon, that is cool. And on the same day, TAL National from Niger.

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On 2/8/2018 at 8:20 PM, kh1958 said:

I am working on my plan still. At present it is:

Thursday: Jaga Jazzist; Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel; Okkyung Lee

Friday: Roscoe Mitchell Trio Five; Rova, The Sound in Space Project; Milford Graves; Jenny Scheinman Mischief and Mayhem; TAL National; Jason Moran Fats Waller Dance Party.

Saturday: Wu Fei; Cyro Baptista and Banquet of the Spirits; Jason Moran and Milford Graves; Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog; Roscoe Mitchell Trios; Rova, Chanelling Coltrane Electric Ascension.

Sunday: Julie Byrne.

Unfortunately, I have to leave Sunday afternoon so I will miss Bangs. But, Roscoe Mitchell at noon, that is cool. And on the same day, TAL National from Niger.

That looks good! I haven't tackled the schedule yet. I'm sure it will be challenging.

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  • 3 weeks later...

There seems to have been a fair amount of rejiggering of the schedule. Now contemplating:

Thursday: Nels Cline; Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel

Friday: Roscoe Mitchell; Rova; Milford Graves; Jenny Scheinman; Evan Parker; TAL National; Jason Moran

Saturday: John Medeski; Cyro Baptista; Jason Moran & Milford Graves; Roscoe Mitchell; Marc Ribot; Rova.

Sunday: Tyshawn Sorey

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On 2/7/2018 at 6:38 PM, randyhersom said:

Schedule has morphed, probably not for the last time

My Friday looks like:

Roscoe Mitchell kicks off Friday at Noon at the Standard

Rova, leaving early for

Rocket Science - Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Craig Taborn

Milford Graves

Possible peek in on Arto Lindsay

Jenny Scheinman with Nels Cline

Evan Parker Solo

Possible peek in on Medeski Martin and Wood

Tal National

The Thing

Jason Moran

Saturday

Scheinman

Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic

end of Bela Fleck

beginning of Peter Evans

All of Jason Moran - Milford Graves

End of Wu Fei

Roscoe Mitchell Trios

Marc Ribot

If not ready to crash then probably more Rova

wow!

 

 

Big_Ears_venues4.png

 

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I looked at the SXSW lineup, admittedly huge and sprawling, and I could only find three bands I knew I wanted to hear. Their sets were only 40 minutes. And the price of a pass was $1300+. I don't get that festival; it's not built for my tastes clearly.

Edited by kh1958
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On 3/1/2018 at 5:11 AM, kh1958 said:

I looked at the SXSW lineup, admittedly huge and sprawling, and I could only find three bands I knew I wanted to hear. Their sets were only 40 minutes. And the price of a pass was $1300+. I don't get that festival; it's not built for my tastes clearly.

SXSW focus has always been up and coming artists. So, it takes a lot of investigating to find shows that you think you might like. Sifting through the website in the weeks before help somewhat. There are always shows by more established artists, as well but you can't count on many that you're familiar with. There also happen to be dozens (hundreds?) of daytime shows that are largely free, but there's no central listing so you learn to be aware of the ones that feature bands you like, and are in venues that are interesting (e.g. back yards of bars, restaurants, parking lots ...).

If you're going for the music, the only pass you need is the Music Badge which is about $800 this year. When I started, it was closer to $500. Still a lot of money, but they were also giving discounts to "alumni".

Anyway, there have been fewer and fewer acts I'm excited to see, which is one reason me and my pals decided to try Big Ears.

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More than lagniappe - Rocket Science, Jason Moran with Milford Graves, Brooklyn Rider, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, the Black Twig Pickers, Jenny Scheinman, Meahell Ndegeocello, Bang on a Can’s performance of Julia Wolfe’s “Anthracite Fields”, a performance of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “In the Light of Air”. Tomorrow: Tyshawn Sorey, Craig Taborn’s Quartet, Wu Fei and Jason Moran’s Bang. This is a great music festival 

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Great and exhausting.  I have returned from two days.  It's incredible to see these artists getting standing ovations from full houses.  The room filled up with hundreds still outside for Jason Moran and Milford Graves.   I was close to the cutoff point when they switched to "one in - one out" and enough people left early to see other events that I caught the end of the set.  It was well worth it.  I became a Peter Evans fan, his solo concert was a highlight along with the three Evan Parker performances, both Roscoe Mitchell performances ... and The Thing ... and Rova's Electric Ascension.  

 

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On 3/25/2018 at 1:45 PM, randyhersom said:

Great and exhausting.  I have returned from two days.  It's incredible to see these artists getting standing ovations from full houses.  The room filled up with hundreds still outside for Jason Moran and Milford Graves.   I was close to the cutoff point when they switched to "one in - one out" and enough people left early to see other events that I caught the end of the set.  It was well worth it.  I became a Peter Evans fan, his solo concert was a highlight along with the three Evan Parker performances, both Roscoe Mitchell performances ... and The Thing ... and Rova's Electric Ascension.  

 

Randy - sorry we didn't hook up. My friends and I were constantly on the run. If you go again next year, we should meet up for sure.

+++

I had a great time there! Nice town, nice people, good food and easily walk-able and I was on-the-run for 4 days straight. I really enjoyed about 90% of these shows - I'll be back next year for sure. A few highlight artists who I discovered were Peter Evans, Sam Pluta, Mazz Swift and Tyshawn Sorey. As Randy said, the ovations for many of these shows were amazing! Nice to say hi to Chuck Nessa after Roscoe's Trio Five show, too.

THURSDAY
Meshell Ndegeocello
David Hidalgo & Marc Ribot
Godspeed You! Black Emperor

FRIDAY
Roscoe Mitchell Trio Five w/Junius Paul, Vincent Davis
Cyro Baptista "Vira Loucos"
Ikue Mori (solo laptop)
Rocket Science w/Evan Parker, Peter Evans, Craig Taborn, Sam Pluta
Milford Graves (solo plus narration)
Arto Lindsey Band
Jenny Scheinman 'Mischief & Mayhem' w/Nels Cline, Scott Amandola, Todd Sickafoose
Medeski, Martin & Wood w/Marc Ribot, Ned Rothenberg
Jason Moran presents 'Fats Waller Dance Party'
Nest Egg

SATURDAY
Jon Gibson
Music for 2 Radios
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble w/Craig Taborn, Peter Evans, Ned Rothenberg, Sam Pluta, Okkyung Lee, others
John Medeski (solo piano) 
Jason Moran & Milford Graves
Roscoe Mitchell Trios
Jerry Douglas Band
Diamanda Galas
Rova Channeling Coltrane: Electric Ascension w/Jenny Scheinman, Nels Cline, Ikue Mori, Mazz Swift, Cyro Baptista, Yuka Honda, Ches Smith, Okkyung Lee, others

SUNDAY
Tyshawn Sorey
Rostam
Suuns
Kieran Hebdan & Mats Gustafsson
Peter Evans Ensemble w/Sam Pluta, Mazz Swift, Tom Blancharte, Levy Lorenzo, others
Bang on a Can All Stars: 30 Years
Craig Taborn Quartet w/Chris Speed, Chris Lightcap, Dave King

WHEW! Exhausting, but well worth it!

I thought all the venues were great too, except for the Methodist Church. Evan Parker's Electro/Acoustic Ensemble played there. They were all seated at floor level, so if you took a seat beyond about the 5th row of pews, you couldn't see them at ALL. I ended up standing on the side. Great sound - terrible sight lines

Edited by BFrank
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Impressive set of shows there, Buzz!

How were Hidalgo & Ribot?  Interesting pairing - I enjoy Ribot's Prosthetic Cubans albums.  Curious if they played Lobos material or more traditional stuff.

I would have loved to have seen every show you saw on Friday as well (Saturday too for that matter), though I'm unfamiliar with Nest Egg.  

 

Edited by Aggie87
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