Friday

 

In a Facebook post promoting the festival, Big Ears humbly offers the following schedule of indie folk-rock bands for one's Friday consideration:

2:00-3:!5 - Bonny Light Horseman

4:30-5:45 - Calexico

7:00-8:15 - Iron & Wine

9:30-11:00 - Andrew Bird

A fine line-up, indeed, and they're all at one seated venue, the Knoxville Civic Auditorium, so no skulking around from venue to venue.  A fine lineup, but I don't plan on seeing any of them. For the record, other than Horseman, I've seen all of these bands at least twice, if not more.

The fact that I've seen these bands before and will likely have plenty of opportunities to see them in the future is part of what makes them "not-schedule-worthy" for my Big Ears lineup.  That, and the sort of predictable (although pleasant) and mannerly nature of thier music puts them outside of what I go to Big Ears to hear.

If I had to pick a single venue for Friday (not a bad strategy, by the way), it would be the lovely Bijou Theater.  Here's the Bijou schedule for Friday:

12:30-1:45 - Gatos Do Sul (Brian Marsella)

3:00-4:00 - Mary Halvorson performing Amaryllis

4:15-5:00 - Mary Halvorson performing Bellabonna (with the Mivos Qquartet)

6:15-7:30 - Tyshawn Sorey Trio

8:45-9:45 - William Parker: In Order To Survive

11:00-12:15 - Tarbaby, featuring David Murray

A great lineup of experimental, avant-, and free jazz, and all located in a single, seated venue a short walk from my hotel.  However, spending the day at the Bijou and sitting through that entire schedule would mean missing out not only on those indie-folk bands at the Civic Center, but other worthy sets as well.

My plan, at least for now, is to start the day at the Bijou with Gatos Do Sul and Mary Halvorson. But while I consider Halvorson to be one of the most original and creative guitarists in jazz, as well as a great composer, of the two albums she's released in 2022, I prefer Amaryllis over Belladonna.   So after she's performed Amaryllis, I'm going to head in an uptown direction to hear guitarist Shane Parrish at the Jig & Reel. Parrish's discography is highly varied, covering everything from folk to punk, but I'm hoping he primarily performs pieces from his most-recent, all-instrumental Liverpool album, a great collection of innovative compositions for solo guitar.

After Parrish, it's back to the Bijou for Tyshawn Sorey. Nothing against William Parker, but after Sorey's set I'm off to the nearby Tennessee Theater, a majestic venue, to hear Pino Palladino and Blake Mills (who will be playing here in Atlanta the Sunday after their Big Ears set). I enjoyed their unclassifiable Notes With Attachments LP, but the main draw for me is another chance to hear Sam Gendel.  "Another" because I plan on seeing him with Sam Wilkes on Thursday night at Big Ears, but if I decide on Thursday that I've had quite enough Sam for one weekend, then I'll just stay at the Bijou for William Parker.

Another reason to see Palladino and Mills over Willaim Parker, though, is that due to scheduling quirks, the former lets out early enough to let me sneak in another set. So if I'm not overdosed on Sam Gendel and go to the Palladino and Mills set, then after that I'm heading to the Standard to see the debut of Marc Ribot's new organ trio, The Jazz Bins.      

The Standard isn't my least-favorite Big Ears venue (that would be The Mill & Mine), but I don't like their admission methods, which favors General Admission ticket holders over VIP.  I know how elitist that sounds, but damn it, I paid big bucks for early admission so I could be near the stage, and The Standard makes that way too difficult.  But despite my reservations, Ribot is the kind of talent that warrants the hassle.

Finally, for my Friday night headliner and as long as I'm uptown anyway, I plan on heading next to Jackson Terminal to hear Irreversible Entanglement, a "liberation-oriented, free-jazz" collective fronted by poet and spoken-word artist Moor Mother. I had wanted to see Irreversible Entanglement at a previous Big Ears (2018? 2019?) but somehow managed to miss them, and I want to make up for that loss this year.

All of these choices have tradeoffs, of course.  Not only will I miss the indie-folk bands listed at the top of this post and the latter half of the Bijou lineup, but I'll also be missing jazz artists Antonio Sanchez and Makaya McCraven, electronic musicians Grouper and Caterina Barbieri, and rapper billy woods, among many others.

These plans are all subject to change, but as it stands right now and for the reasons described above, here's my tentative lineup for Friday:

12:30-1:45 - Gatos Do Sul (Brian Marsella)

3:00-4:00 - Mary Halvorson performing Amaryllis

4:30-5:30 - Shane Parrish

6:15-7:30 - Tyshawn Sorey Trio

7:45-9:00 - Pino Palladino & Blake Mills (with Sam Gendel)

9:15-10:30 - Marc Ribot: The Jazz Bins

11:00-12:00 - Irreversible Entanglement 

That's a pretty ambitious schedule and I don't leave a lot of time between sets (when will I eat?), but hey, this is my big annual outing and I want to make the most of it.