I was lucky enough to be able to attend two days of the 2018
Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, and it was a deeply overwhelming experience, full of positivity, good vibes, and unbelievably challenging and inspiring music. Here's a brief report on what I saw. I took all these pictures; yes, they suck but there are
plenty of
places where you can see
better ones.
Friday started of with a major implosion of space and time in my mind, with
Roscoe Mitchell Trio Five:
Vincent Davis on drums and
Junius Paul on bass. I could quibble a little with the standard inclusion of bass and drum solos--they seemed to be there mainly to give Roscoe a chance to rest--but when he was playing, all three were on fire: high, high free energy in the finest, classic sense of that music. I was not familiar with Junius Paul, but Vincent Davis I knew from the excellent trio album
No Side Effects. Much of this set was similar to that record: fiery, out, intense explosions of energy from one of the masters.
Well, that set alone would have been enough to last me a year, but there was much more to come. After catching most of a solo set from
Ikue Mori (loud and intriguing), we had to split to catch
Rocket Science.
A quartet organized by trumpeter
Peter Allen, the main draw for me was sax giant
Evan Parker. They played a brilliant hour-long improvisation, and I loved how Parker and Allen played off each other. Rarely subtle, the electronics punctuation and sound manipulation of
Sam Pluta added a layer of noise to the proceedings that worked most of the time, but I felt he ran out of ideas halfway through. Not true for
Craig Taborn, whose brilliant command of the piano varied between quiet, subtle ruminations to aggressive counter-attentions to the electronics. This was my first time seeing all these folks, and they just blew me away, Taborn especially.
From one giant to another: the majestic
Milford Graves doing a solo set in a big theatre setting at the Bijou. Anything I say about this set will sound hokey, but it was truly transcendent and life-affirming. Graves expostulated about life, his approach to the drums, his approach to life, in a thoroughly engaging and sometime hilarious manner. He talked about applying martial arts movements and actions to his drumming, and he demonstrated on the drums. He vocalized in... Japanese? American Indian? gibberish? ( I heard "big ears" in there somewhere.) And he did things on and with the drums that I've never seen or imagined before. It was truly amazing.
The evening ended with an
Evan Parker solo performance in a church with gorgeous acoustics. Another mind-blowing stunner of a set! This was my favorite of the three contexts I saw Parker participate in--amazing dexterity, breath control, multiphonics, throat singing, interstellar space-out virtuosity. Check out this
sample.
The next day got jump started with a high-energy duo from skronk-samba guitarist
Arto Lindsay and powerhouse Thing drummer
Paal Nilssen-Love (this was to make up for my wimping out and missing
The Thing's show late Friday night!). Wake up!
After that, it was back over to another church with great acoustics for a stellar set from the
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Hard to see, since all the band member were on the same level as the audience (here you can just see
Craig Taborn at the piano and
Ikue Mori on laptop), but wonderful to listen to. This was a beautiful, wide-ranging improvisation, with excellent contributions from all involved, especially
Taborn on piano and
Ned Rothenberg on bass clarinet and flute.
I didn't get in line in time to see the duet performance of
Milford Graves with pianist
Jason Moran, dammit. I did manage to get in for most of the encore, and what I heard was a fiery
Cecil Taylor-ish maelstrom of energy. Here's a short
video clip. I loved Moran's playing when I saw with
Anthony Braxton at the Kennedy Center; he should take it out more often, he fits right in!
The final show I saw, and the absolute highlight of the entire festival was
Roscoe Mitchell Trios back at the Bijou. Oh my gawd. Similar to the structure of
Bells for the South Side, Mitchell conducted and played through a series of sub-set trios with the large band he had assembled, in differnt configurations, before finishing with a heart-stopping crescendo climax with the entire group--and what a group.
Craig Taborn again--on piano and electronics--was simply outstanding, and in his short statement on electronics said more than any other single electronic artist I saw the whole festival. The
Sound Ensemble rhythm section of
Tani Tabbal and
Jaribu Shahid, plus percussionist
Ches Smith and Chicago drummer
Mike Reed, plus
Tyshawn Sorey on drums, percussion, piano, and toy piano, plus
James Fei on reeds and electronics and
Hugh Ragin on trumpet! Damn! I am not doing this music justice--I hope it was recorded. Here are a
couple of video
snippets to whet your appetite.
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).
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