The new edition of The Battle of the Five Spot coincides with the appearance of a remastered version of the Shirley Clarke film Ornette: Made in America (1985) by Milestone Films in New Jersey. I have arranged with Milestone to show the film at selected readings where I talk about Coleman, his explosive debut at the Five Spot Café in 1959, and the politics and culture of jazz. Thanks to St. Catherines’ Niagara Artists Centre for putting on such an event at their great new rooftop theatre in July. I look forward to doing it as well in Guelph September 20 at Silence as part of the Guelph Jazz Festival, and in Toronto on Friday, September 25 at the Dignam Gallery of the Women’s Art Association of Canada.
Thanks to Kevin McNeilly for inviting me to present at the Vancouver colloquium Time Changes: Improvisation, History, and the Body June 20 and 21, where I was able to present on the Artists’ Jazz Band and Ornette Coleman, and present the Shirley Clarke film Ornette: Made in America. Great work from presenters Emma Cleary, Brian Jude de Lima, Julia Úlehla, Kiran Bhumber, Bob Pritchard, Neelamjit Dillon, Gerry Hemingway, Tom Scholte, Ben Brown and Michelle Lui , Geoff Mitchell (skyping from Quebec), the incredible Rupert Common and the Freestyle Rap Alliance, and many others.
It was the culmination of a great week in which I did a brief reading at the launch of the Boneshaker Anthology at the Supermarket in Toronto, along with Lillian Necakov, Bev Daurio, Gary Barwin, Stuart Ross, bill bissett and many others, and played a great set at Hamilton’s Artword Artbar with Terry Fraser, John Oswald and Mike Malone, opening this year’s Something Else! Festival.
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.
