The highlight of Day 2 was clearly the set with Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Grimes and Tani Tabbal.
(The lowlight was uncontestedly Roy Campbell's Akhenaten Band, but if you ask me very nicely, I will publish a clip).
Before I get to Roscoe, a word about Henry. Watching him closely on stage, that dude is LOCKED IN on the music and the other musicians. His communication with the other musicians is high-level. Pretty interesting. I like his bass playing; he gets big fat bass notes out of that green bass, and I like that.
Roscoe's set built from level to level. IIRC, he started with sopraninos, moved to shakahachi (I think), finally to the alto sax. I think the vids are in sequence, so try to watch that way. BTW, before the set, I found myself standing in the back of the theater with Roscoe. I looked over and there he was. I was kind of startled. I said, "Good luck with your set." He kind of gave me that look, and replied, "Thanks." Yes, a great moment, LOL.
Let me see if I can get this sorted out. Margaret Grimes objected to some comments posted on this blog. Since the object was never to cause offense; indeed, the thrust of the comments was quite the opposite, since. I thought Henry performed very well. I decided to edit the blog post to be responsive to Margaret's comment. In doing so, I inadvertently lost Margaret's comment (I suppose in the update process). So, to be completely transparent, follows Margaret's original comment:
ReplyDeleteThis is Margaret Grimes, Henry's wife, writing back to you. I am responding to this: "... a word about Henry [Grimes]. Henry has provided a lot of mirth amongst us... I like his bass playing; he gets big fat bass notes out of that green bass, and I like that. Off stage? Another matter .....LOL." Henry is a great musician who is one of the prime architects of this music, and he comports himself as a perfect gentleman, onstage or off. He is an elder who has been through long hard times and has endured troubles you cannot begin to imagine, and he has emerged with his artistry and his gentle, shy, sweet personality intact. He has accomplished huge achievements in the music and continues to do so to this day and into the future. What are you implying here with your ugly insinuation? Why would you and your cronies be laughing at this wonderful man? Who are you and your laughing cronies, anyway? I note that you give no I.D. for yourself and no contact information on this blog. With your blog entry, you have insulted a great musician and shamed yourself.
By posting your comment above, you have simply reiterated the insults against Henry (in the first three sentences of the second paragraph). Kindly take the whole comment down at once. Since you have edited the insults out of your original posting, you don't need the comment at all.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Marc Ribot also commented, and his comment does not appear, so he sent it to me to send in. He wrote, "... I wanted to add to what Margaret Grimes has written my own view that Henry Grimes has contributed much more than ‘mirth’ to the music, and has always been a consummate professional and artist, on stage and off. Sincerely, Marc Ribot"
ReplyDeleteTwo other people also reported that they tried to comment, but their comments did not appear.
Another person who tried to post on your blog comments and was not able to do so was journalist / musician / professor Marc Medwin. Since his post would not appear here, he also sent it to me to post. Here it is:
ReplyDelete"My name is Marc Medwin, and I have tried to post on your blog several times without success. I have known Henry Grimes for eight years, have interviewed him for 'Signal to Noise', have played music with him, and have spent much time with him as a friend. As you have removed your offensive content about him from your original post, why re-post the insults here in the comments section? Frankly, the fact that you could have said something as needlessly hurtful as you did, which I won't repeat here, makes me question your integrity, good will, good taste, and anything else good. Please just remove all reference to it immediately. Henry's one of the best musicians alive and working today, and he's also a fantastic guy."