Big Ears Festival Report, Days 1 and 2

This is a quick rundown of the shows I saw at the 2022 Big Ears Festival this past weekend. A note about the photos here: I am not a photographer. For the most part, photographing (and videoing) were discouraged if not outright prohibited, so I just snapped a shot on my phone of each act I saw.

Thursday started with a wonderful duo of Tomeka Reid on cello and poet Nikki Finney. Reid's sensitive renderings and responses to the poetry made the words come alive in non-semantic ways. 

Next up was Trefoil, the powerhouse trio of Kris Davis on piano, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet. Davis is an amazing improvisor. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch the first half-hour of this show, but they announced at the beginning that the whole set was being recorded, so I am looking forward to that. (They also asked that everyone turn their phones off at the beginning for that reason, so that's why I was unable to grab a shot.)

The highlight of Thursday evening was Sparks. If you follow my playlists, you know that Sparks has been in heavy rotation for the last few months as I've become acquainted with their vast catalog. The show was spectacular....frankly, I was take aback by how truly powerful they were live. Clips on youtube don't do them justice... at all. The band was tight and punchy, and Russell Mael was in fine voice. Hell, he sounded fantastic. Kick-ass drummer, too (Stevie Nistor). This was easily one of the best rock shows I've ever seen.

I began Friday by going to the only speaking event I attended, which was Kris Davis and Julian Lage being interviewed by Nate Chinen. Very interesting discussion about the hypothetical tension between tradition and innovation.

Friday's music started off with the Craig Taborn Trio, with Tomeka Reid on cello and Ches Smith on drums and percussion. Another beautiful set that became quite trancy as it went on. It was a blast starting off a day with a show that any other time would have been the highlight of an evening. 

From there I went to Harriet Tubman, and while I enjoy their dark brooding sensibility, for some reason this didn't do it for me. It was too gaddam loud, way past the point where they needed volume to make a statement, where it was more a stance of disdain for the audience. I used to dig Melvin Gibbs with Ronald Shannon Jackson, but the bass this time was so loud it was painful (even with my old-guy earplugs). I split.

That afternoon there were two sets from Kris Davis's Diatom Ribbons, billed as a trio with Terri Lynne Carrington on drums and Val Jeanty on samples and laptop, and joined by bassist Trevor Dunn. Both sets were heavily composition-based with little improvisation. The first set was a bit tentative, but I appreciated Davis's use of synth and electric piano in addition to her regular piano--I felt she was pushing herself and the band to play outside their comfort zones. The second set was more cohesive, helped with a jumpstart by the inclusion of Marc Ribot on two tunes, Ronald Shannon Jackson's "Alice in the Congo" (what a thrill!) and "Golgi Complex" (from the Diatom Ribbons album).

I wrapped up Friday by checking out Animal Collective. Evidently they have a new album out, which I haven't heard, and maybe they played most of it? They started off with a slow groove and then... got slower.. with stretched-out longeurs where not that much was happening except Panda Bear's wailing. When a beat did happen, it perked up a bit, but there were too many long stretches that were pretty boring. I guess you had to be there. No, wait, I was there... oh, well, they didn't click for me.

That's it for the first two days! More to come...