As a habitual qualifier, I often preclude any statement of planning with “barring life’s vagaries”. Put another way, “Man makes plans? Nothing makes the gods laugh harder”, from the Yiddish adage “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” [“man plans, god laughs”].) (Of course that’s a given, but it seems to me that its omission in general … Read More
Context/digression: I do not recall the exact circumstances of my meeting musicologist Susan McClary in the early 80s. Then a professor at the University of Minnesota, she was, for a time, an ardent supporter of my work. Though ensconced in the academy, her attitude was, at the time, and concordant with mine, decidedly anti-establishment. (At … Read More
Following on from the last post*, I am indeed moving beyond my pandemic-induced ritual of solo (in both senses of the word) concerts 6 days a week. Having received the “refresher” booster of last fall’s vaccine**, I’ve scheduled and will be scheduling private sessions with colleagues who had, over the course of the pandemic, expressed … Read More
As the pandemic continued/continues, I was/am occasionally asked when I’ll be opening Studio Toile D’Angles for sessions and concerts. (And, within the last couple months, along with two invitations for gigs, I had an inquiry from an anonymous person as to when I’d be presenting my work publicly. Seems she [?] heard about me from … Read More
A year or so before Covid hit, a dear friend/colleague attended a gig featuring another dear friend/colleague at a jazz-centric venue. There was a brief exchange with an older gentleman minding the door in part concerning free jazz. He said that “my” opening set at the Gary Burton Children’s Theater concert back in the early … Read More
For close to 4 decades, Steve was my primary collaborator. In his words, from an unpublished interview (circa 1979): “I first met Milo in late ’75 as the result of my knowing a guitarist and tenor player named Scott* who was playing with Milo at the time but was going to leave the group to … Read More
George Roberts – poet, visual artist (for example, the cover of Ananke), paper maker, hand typesetter, educator/mentor, co-owner/founder of Homewood Studios in North Minneapolis, and, in the best sense of the description, community advocate* – was unaware of free jazz/improvised music when we first officially met in 2003. (An overview of that encounter from both our … Read More