Greetings, One & All~
I’m sending out a combined April-May issue of your 2019 A 440 Newsletter early to cover a peripatetic stretch of roadwork with abundant April showers and bunches of May flowers. Enjoy a lovely early Spring and be in touch!
Wildly Ethereal
Michael G. Ronstadt and I knocked it out of the park in March at LandMark Sound Recorders with whiz-kid Peter Dalton Ronstadt at the board, and are moving on to mixing and mastering an album’s worth of amazing cello and world percussion cuts for the 2019 release of Wildly Ethereal. One of the highlights of the four-day session was this watercolor by Annabelle Ronstadt, Peter’s two-year-old daughter, who joined us in the studio one day and painted this while we recorded a desert monsoon soundscape we’re calling Home. She also busted a sweet Sufi dervish dance move to our Moroccan frame drum-and-cello improvisation, which we’re calling Annabelle’s Dance.
more project info:
No Piddlin’
Once I got my mind around the fact that he was calling me from the future (it’s 10 AM tomorrow in Narrabri at 4 PM today in Tucson) my March interview with Peter Hammond of 2MAX FM Radio in Australia was absolutely delightful. In and around our fast-paced and insightful Q&A we exchanged classic sayings from our homelands, mine being I’m busier than a prairie dog in soft dirt and his being I’m not just piddlin’ in your pocket, which we’ve reciprocally appropriated for further humorous musical and cultural exchanges.
Heart Dance
Thanks to Sherry Finzer of Heart Dance Records for hooking me up with Pete for the Australian radio interview, and for blowing more incredible flute on our latest session at Clamsville Productions with wunderkind Ryan Johnson at the board and producer John Herrera lending his ears. We’ve now got an album’s worth of multi-flute-and-world-percussion cuts in the can for the 2019 release of our duo album on HDR and are mixing and mastering the latest elemental trance grooves recorded in March.
Sound Sanctuary
Alchemy Crystal Bowl artist and vocalist Tryshe Dhevney and I entered a deep current of sound creation in The Sanctuary at Canyon Ranch in March and were impeccably recorded by master engineer Jim Blackwood of Arizona Public Media for a live album we plan to release in 2019. Read on for an announcement of our April 13 performance!
Medicine Arrow
Roman Orona, Aaron White & Will Clipman delighted an intimate crowd of avant-garde global native fusion aficionados at the storied Alwun House in March, and are composing and demo’ing our original material for an album we plan to record later this Spring.
Marin TV
I’ll kick off the West Coast leg of my West Meets East Spring Tour with my third appearance on the Marin TV show Theatre from the Ground Up in San Raphael CA on March 29th with host Gino Rose and producer Lori Greenleaf.
Myths & Masks
My next stop will be Willits Community Theater in Willits CA for a workshop and performance of Myths & Masks on March 30th, produced by mythopoetic mountaintop mavens Kitty & Creek Norris.
workshop info & registration:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4057176
concert info & tickets:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4057197
Nakai & Clipman
Then it’s on to The Oregon Trail for a rendezvous with the world’s foremost Native American flutist and long-time Canyon Records collaborator R. Carlos Nakai for three duo concerts at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Pacific University in Forest Grove, and Rogue Valley Unitarian Church in Ashland.
Ashland info & tickets:
https://tickets.brightstarevents.com/event/r-carlos-nakai-will-clipman-duo-in-concert?fbclid=IwAR1zW1rCcpygthVxbj5C-a4DAjjUnlqUXPfq56kPD0SFPkQvxefMa6-HCtk
Sound Energy
I’ll circle back to Arizona for Remembering: an evening of sound creation with Tryshe Dhevney in The Sanctuary at Canyon Ranch on April 13th as the culminating event of Sound Energy Week. *This is a private concert exclusively for guests of Canyon Ranch.
Crossing Boundaries
I’ll enjoy the simple pleasures of home at Rancho Improvisoso for a few days before heading out on the Eastern swing of my West Meets East Spring Tour for Primal Voices: an evening of projections, paintings, pan-global percussion and poetry with visionary artist Virginia Maria Romero at Sinuate Media in Las Cruces NM, with tech support from Blue Fenec in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on Earth Day April 22nd.
event info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/847134518964522/
Wisdom Keepers #3 © Virginia Maria Romero
Nakai & Clipman
I’ll then rendezvous again with my esteemed colleague R. Carlos Nakai for two more duo performances at Streamside Concerts in Arden, NC on May 2nd & May 3rd.
Streamside info & tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/r-carlos-nakai-will-clipman-tickets-54406233509
Nakai & Clipman will then return to Fur Peace Ranch near Pomeroy, OH for a SOLD OUT show on May 4th. Last time we played there, guitar legend Jorma Kaukonen (founder and director of the Fur Peace Ranch Guitar Camp and founding member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) sat in with us for our encore, and I’m hoping he’ll agree to do that again if his own touring schedule finds him at home that weekend?!
Photo of the Month
Heart Dance Records President & Lead Artist Sherry Finzer brought her grandson Rex to a Planet of Percussion event I did recently at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, and Rex is now my Biggest Little Fan. He was especially intrigued by the hang, so I call this shot Hangin’ with Rex. Dig the face-painting!
photo courtesy Sherry Finzer / Heart Dance Records
Poem of the Month
Your April-May Poem of the Month re-works the old conundrum about the sound of a tree falling in the forest to explore the contrast between the transitory nature of life on the road and the relative stability of life at home surrounded by nature. Enjoy!
The Art of the Ordinary
If no one else sees
a green-orange fireball
tear apart the western sky
one winter night
did it really?
Just because the clouds obscure
a super full blood wolf moon eclipse
doesn’t mean it didn’t appear.
Embracing chaos:
does it eventually
yield some order
or just
more chaos?
Daily miracles abound:
may I always
count them as blessings
and never
take them for granted.
Why do we wait
until the people and things
we love are gone
to miss them?
Precisely because it’s unspectacular
I love returning to this place called home:
if I didn’t have to
I’d never leave.
If I’m not engaged in ceremony
in everything I do,
what is it
I’m doing?
Is refilling
the hummingbird feeder
not a genuflection?
Is pouring fresh water
into the fountain
not a prayer?
May all my arts
be one art:
revealing
the extraordinary
in the ordinary.
© Will Clipman 2019
~Wishing one and all
gentle April showers and abundant May flowers
as you spring into Spring~
If one sees the way forward clearly, it is good to speak up and lead;
if not, it is best to keep silent, listen and observe.
~Guillaume Henri
Will Clipman
poet ~ percussionist ~ maskmaker ~ storyteller ~ performing artist ~ educator
www.willclipman.com
williamclipman@aol.com
facebook.com/willclipman
youtube.com/willclipman
520.591.0776
