2014 was a great year, with the New School launch for The Battle of the Five Spot in New York City, the Rhythm Changes Conference in Amsterdam, and a visit to Paris where Maureen and I hit all the high spots: the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and of course the great store “souffle continu.” Guillaume Belhomme has written a very generous review of “Five Spot”: http://grisli.canalblog.com/archives/2015/01/26/31411574.html
August 2014: As well as getting considerable writing done this summer, I played a lot of music—some of it in new and intriguing contexts. My fellow PhD student Kimber Sider is researching animal-human communication, and asked me to be part of her research on improvised music and horses.
At a ranch outside of Guelph, I spent some time with Shiva (l) and Stuie (r), playing in different ways. But only when we moved into the barn, and I began doing some nice slow low bowing sounds, did they come in so close that I had to be careful not to poke Shiva with the bow–so close that while I continued to play, Stuie rested his snout on my tailbone.
June 2014: Just got back from New York where I was able to launch the new edition of The Battle of the Five Spot at The New School! The event, which presented me in a panel with Stacy Dillard and Howard Mandel, was documented on video: The Shape of Jazz to Come (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XshPLvD35ww)
I am currently working on a PhD at the University of Guelph’s School of English and Theatre Studies. Andrew Vowles wrote an excellent article about me and my studies for the university website.
http://atguelph.uoguelph.ca/2013/12/improvised-music-a-universal-language/
I also appear briefly in the university’s 50th anniversary commemorative video! It is around the 4:10 mark:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/50/video/
