Greetings, One & All~
On July 20th, 1969 earthlings first set foot on the moon. That also happened to be my 15th birthday, so this event has always been indelibly etched in my imagination as a mythic moment. While the events in your July A 440 Newsletter are perhaps somewhat less momentous, I trust you’ll find them entertaining and uplifting nonetheless!
Music as Spiritual Manifestation
R. Carlos Nakai & Will Clipman will offer a very special evening of music as spiritual manifestation at Tara Mandala on Saturday July 9th at 8 PM:
Info, tickets & directions at:
http://taramandala.org/program/r-carlos-nakai-and-will-clipman-in-concert/
photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography/Canyon Records
Ambient Funk Premiere
Ambient Funk will present its premiere performance at Monterey Court on Sunday July 24th from 6-9 PM. Drawing its name from a repertoire that spans the sonic spectrum from cool listening to hot dancing, this versatile trio features AmoChip Dabney on keyboards, saxophones and lead vocals; Johnny Walker on bass and backing vocals; and Will Clipman on drums, world percussion and backing vocals.
More info on this event at:
http://bit.ly/29eG9JA
photo courtesy Shery Christopher Photography
What Lies Beyond
The first new R. Carlos Nakai Quartet album in ten years is mixed and ready to master at Canyon Records. Featuring the aforementioned threesome topped off with a heapin’ helpin’ of The Maestro himself, RCNQ dishes up a delicious menu of global native fusion on What Lies Beyond guaranteed to satisfy the most discerning musical palette. Stay tuned to your A 440 for a late-summer release date and tour details.
photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography/Canyon Records
On the Charts
Trialogue moved up two spots to #6 on the latest Zone Music Reporter chart:
http://zonemusicreporter.com/charts/top100.asp?m=5&y=2016
New Media
Music writer Robert Martin has set a new benchmark for in-depth excellence with his remarkable review of Trialogue on Gaia Prime–to say we’re honored, humbled and happy to receive such praise would be a huge understatement.
Producer and show host Ignacio Bahillo of Musicas Imaginadas in Madrid, Spain has played multiple songs from Trialogue on his radio program and now also features the video for the album’s opening cut Cote d’Ivoire on his world music podcast.
click and scroll down to play:
https://musicasimaginadas.wordpress.com/
On the Air
Trialogue has now been played on seventy radio shows and counting, throughout the US as well as in the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Spain, with every song on the album having been spun multiple times–it’s hard to pick one hit, but this reviewer on the Improvijazzation site likes Midnight in Marrakech the best:
This just in: Trialogue will kick off July with another featured appearance on Echoes, the world’s leading ambient music radio show, with renowned producer and show host John Diliberto TONIGHT Friday July 1st:
www.echoes.org
And the intrepid Sherry Finzer (who doubles as Trialogue multi-flutist extraordinaire and President/CEO of Heart Dance Records) has also placed us on a streaming station, for those of you more technologically adept than yours truly (aka, Professor LoTech):
http://ourplaceradio.com/
In the Studio
Temenos Quartet will be back in the studio in early August to finish tracking and mixing its debut album Forecast at Saint Cecilia Studios. The limited-edition six-song EP has sold out, so expectations are high for the complete 10-song LP!
Fall Stage Preview
Trialogue and Temenos Quartet will kick off the Fall concert season with a double bill at Monterey Court on the Autumnal Equinox Thursday September 22nd at 7 PM. Each band will play a long set and then close out the evening with an encore combo jam, with yours truly holding the heartbeat throughout the entire evening!
photo courtesy J. Peter Mortimer
photo courtesy Pj McArdle
Fall Workshop Now Open
Building on the success of last Fall’s Beauty & the Beats world drumming workshop at Western National Parks Association, registration is now open for this Fall’s Becoming One with Your Inner Drum at:
http://www.wnpa.org/event/national-parks-store-becoming-one-with-your-inner-drum/
Poem of the Month
As the new moon follows the full, so your July A 440 Newsletter returns to the mythic moment whence it began. This Poem of the Month tries to recapture the boundless belief and endless possibility of youth that all too often eludes us as we enter the latter stages of our journey on Earth, with a touch of ironic humor to lighten the way.
The Tang of Truth
I sipped the ice-cold Tang of truth
on the evening my fifteenth birthday
as earthlings first set foot on the moon,
and the grainy black-and-white boot prints
left in lifeless dust became indelibly ingrained
in my imagination as a mythic event:
no longer would that perfect cool white orb
make werewolves of mere men or bathe
death-pale vampires in its holy light;
no more would its thirteen ancient iterations
hold sway against the bloody tides of history,
no more its magic work against religion’s curse.
I came of modern age that fateful night
and took a half a century of lunacy
to make my way back to original wisdom.
Tonight, on the occasion of this rare coincidence
between the summer solstice and the full moon,
I’ll embrace the longest day and trace
the sun’s ultimate arc across the desert sky,
greet my muse as she ascends into the gathering dark
and try to recollect the broken fragments of belief.
The cereus will bloom according to their secret plan,
coyotes scat their dissonant celebratory jazz.
The awe-struck boy will live again inside the man.
~with thanks to Laurie Nikolski for the title
© Will Clipman 2016
Photo of the Month
And a picture sometimes being worth a thousand words, I’d like to leave you with a mythic visual moment: a gorgeous monsoon sunrise captured by Shery Christopher.
photo courtesy Shery Christopher Photography
~May your summer be blessed with many mythic moments~
Writers write not because we are convinced we have something important to say but simply because we love the act of writing.
~Guillaume Henri
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Will Clipman
musician • poet • performing & recording artist • maskmaker • storyteller • educator
office: 520.743.1347
mobile: 520.591.0776
fax: 520.743.0650
email: williamclipman@aol.com
website: www.willclipman.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/willclipman