BIG EARS 2022: Zorn, Shabaka, Low, Arooj Aftab, Annette Peacock, Dawn Richard, Nubya Garcia, L'Rain, Damon Locks, Lido Pimienta, more more more!

The SPIN writeup is funny because there's a lot of grousing about what a comped journalist VIP badge can and cannot get you, to which I'd say, "know your audience" but SPIN doesn't exactly have an audience in 2022

And the entrance and seating coordition was inconsistent venue to venue, at least for us critics. (At one show, my credentials allowed me to access the VIP section; at the next, I’d wait in the VIP line, only to be rerouted to the Premier, and then denied VIP seating. I overhead other people, both press and non-, vent similar frustrations. Overall, not enough to warrant any real complaints — but hopefully 2023 will run a bit more smoothly.)

really bummed i missed all of sunday's zorn :(

overall an outstanding time, though! will be back next year

According to that article with Ashley Capps there were 30% more attendees this year than 2019.

I suspected as much! I wasn't sure if I was just being overly conscious of crowd sizes after the pandemic or if there were actually way more people there

Yeah this was the first year of a complete sell-out. There weren't even any day tickets left.

the ppl were ready

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/big-ears-festival/recap-arooj-aftab-joe-henry-caroline-shaw/?fbclid=IwAR1G0KOmaKcwkSz-3258FdqAmi6P6EoHFvdOKcBgsLkNpSCCkPHKdzFrWi8

Geoff Himes writeup in Paste

Himes makes big pronouncements-

re Jason Moran--

The 47-year-old pianist, perhaps the best jazz artist of his generation,

And the central paradoxes of our lives—the tension between creation and destruction, between hope and loss—are never fully resolved, and we can always use new approaches to the same old problems.
Every year, the Big Ears Festival provides a useful arena for reconsidering these issues.

Immanuel Wilkins, the alto saxophonist who is justly being hailed as the best young jazz artist of the decade

I'll suggest "a useful arena for reconsidering the central paradoxes of our lives" as the festival's new tagline.

Good idea. Ha.

Just reading author N*d S*blette in an email talk about his faves at the fest. He was there showing his work in progress movie "Tierra Sagrada (Sacred Ground)" about religious Cuban singing and dancing rituals. His faves were:

Miguel Zenón with the Spektral Quartet; Val Jeanty; and Jason Moran

I saw about 15-20 minutes of the movie, taking a breather between other things. It was cool. I also saw some of Val Jeanty, who was also cool. I heard raves about Zenon. (And Moran, I mean, of course.)

Dude the Moran set got absolutely batshit. He started just playing this low piano noise rumble that turned into a sucking abyss somehow?

I didn't make it to Moran, which I hated to miss. The two sets I saw by him a few years back (including w/Milford Graves!) were amazing.

This festival sounds amazing.

just got my pass for next year :)

got mine too

Thread for next year's:

Big Ears 2023