Greetings, One & All~

Equipoised between the Full Wolf Moon and the Full Snow Moon, your February A 440 Newsletter rings out to you with the clarity of its namesake perfect musical note at this time of contemplation and restoration. I trust you’ll enjoy these February fables from Willyworld, and that the depth of winter finds you in good health and spirits. Be well and be in touch!

Wolves and Moon
Full Moon images courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac; all rights reserved to TOFA



Rhythmic Retreat

On Friday February 4th at 7 PM, your peripatetic pan-global percussionist will provide intimate musical atmosphere for the meet & greet at Stream of Consciousness, a writer’s retreat lead by author and lifestyle coach Gloria Coppola at the Wilde Resort & Spa in Sedona, Arizona.

You can find out more about Gloria’s work and this event at

https://www.gloriacoppola.com/



photo courtesy John Running Photography / Canyon Records


White Buffalo

Shortly after we began working on the Canyon Records album White Buffalo over a quarter-century ago, Miracle, the first white buffalo to appear in over six decades, was born in Jamesville, Wisconsin. For us, the coming of this female white buffalo calf was a powerful sign. My friends Cynthia Hart-Button and Charles Button of the White Bison Association have been working all this time to ensure that these extraordinary creatures continue to survive and thrive, giving us hope in a troubled time for Mother Earth and Father Sky and All Our Relations. Cynthia and Charles recently offered me free ad space for a recording of my choice in their monthly newsletter, and the obvious choice for me was White Buffalo with Native American flutist Robert Tree Cody and keyboardist Rob Wallace. My share of any proceeds from CD purchases or digital downloads in conjunction with this co-promotion with go to the WBA.

You can find out more about the WBA at

https://whitebisonassociation.org/

and you can sample and order White Buffalo at

https://canyonrecords.com/product/robert-tree-cody-rob-wallace-white-buffalo-cr-555/


cover art courtesy Canyon Records


Willyworld Canyon

While I was authenticating the White Buffalo linkage, curiosity led me to click on my artist listing at the Canyon Records landing page, and I was delighted to find an eclectic sampling of some of my thirty-five recordings for the world’s foremost Native American music label displayed there. I know many of you already have a substantial Willyworld section in your music library, for which I am endlessly grateful; but there may be some less well-known titles here that will spark your interest, and which may surprise you to discover as much as they continue to surprise me!

https://canyonrecords.com/search/will+clipman



photo courtesy John Running Photography / Canyon Records


Trinity Trio

Continuing to weave this thread of connectivity, a number of the aforementioned recordings are by the fabled Nakai, Eaton & Clipman trio; and wouldn’t you know it, The Wilde Boys have a new album coming out in 2022! In support of this forthcoming Canyon Records release, we’re doing carefully selected live performances where and when they can be mindfully and healthfully presented, and one you won’t want to miss is a FREE concert at Trinity Cathedral in the heart of historic downtown Phoenix, Arizona at 4 PM on Sunday March 6th.

You can make REQUIRED reservations for limited seating at

https://trinitymusicaz.org/r-carlos-nakai-sunday-march-6/



photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography / Canyon Records



Myths & Masks

I’ll be in my studio here at Rancho Improvisoso this month creating and developing new work for my Myths & Masks concert at the historic Sherbino Theater in Ridgway, Colorado on Friday March 11th, and preparing for my workshops there on Saturday & Sunday March 12th & 13th. These events are jointly presented by Weehawken Creative Arts and the Ouray County Performing Arts Guild, and this Rocky Mountain High wonder-filled weekend promises to be an epic chapter in the storied lore of Myths & Masks!

concert information & tickets at

https://sherbino.org/event/myths-masks/?mc_cid=5a499b8e24&mc_eid=d02c5fde10


workshop information & registration at

https://weehawkenarts.org/class/myths-masks-a-wonder-filled-workshop-weekend-with-will-clipman/2022-03-12/



photo courtesy Shery Christopher Photography



Evenfall

Luminous Depths, the first of four singles from Evenfall: Sherry Finzer & Cass Anawaty, featuring Will Clipman, is scheduled to drop from Heart Dance Records on March 11th. I’m excited and delighted to be featured on these four recordings, which I would describe as intense chill groove, with multi-instrumentalist/composer/arranger Cass Anawaty (who also recorded, mixed and mastered all these tracks) and multi-flutist Sherry Finzer (who also happens to be the Owner & CEO of HDR). The release map calls for each of the four singles to be dropped one at a time, and the full EP to be dropped simultaneously with the fourth single; so watch this space for release dates and ordering links!



cover art courtesy Heart Dance Records



Rhythm Spirit

Rhythm Spirit rarely performs in public, but when we do we deliver a big bang for your entertainment buck: this sizzling Sonoran sextet plays a high-energy blend of new world music guaranteed to get your heart pumping and your feet jumping! We’ll take the stage at Monterey Court, Tucson’s premier outdoor venue for live music, dining and dancing, on Thursday March 24th from 6-9 PM.

make your reservations at

https://www.montereycourtaz.com/reservations.html





Photo of the Month

Visionary nature photographer Shery Christopher captured this exquisitely detailed and painterly profile of Harriet II, the matriarch of the second generation of our resident Cooper’s hawk clan, sipping a cool drink from the waterbowl outside the kitchen window here at Rancho Improvisoso with the morning sun warming her back. Enjoy!


Profile of Poise, courtesy Shery Christopher Photography




Poem of the Month


Ones and Zeroes



I’ve acquiesced out of necessity

to the reduction of physical reality

to abstract ones and zeroes, but

I’ll always prefer cradling sacred clay

against my solar plexus and echoing

its visceral pulse with my heartbeat,

caressing skin stretched taut across

the carved-out trunk of a tree grown

to be a drum with my skin, to anything

that must be plugged in to make sound;



and while I get it that even those electrons

whizzing around their nuclei sing their own

particular songs in harmony with the music

of the spheres, I hold on to the quaint notion

that things rubbed, shaken or struck speak

a more intimately rhythmic language and

make our aptly named tympanic membranes

vibrate more subtly, sending signals to that

fleshy web of neurons and synapses encased

in fragile bone, at which point we magically



hear, and become our whole selves a living drum

like the tom-tom on my dad’s vintage Slingerland

Radio King drumkit built during World War Two

when there wasn’t any metal available for anything

as frivolous as a musical instrument, which had

shells and rims and lug mounts all made of wood

and heads of skin with a warm and vibrant tone that–

when I struck it with a drumstick early one morning

at the age of three in the basement of our house

in Philadelphia–went right through my body,



completely re-arranging my molecular structure

with the certainty that I wanted to do this forever.

I wasn’t even sure what this was, I just knew

I wanted to have that feeling as often as I could

and for as long as I could; and here I am twenty

years later (cue rimshot, splash cymbal, laughter)

but seriously folks going on sixty-five year later,

that instinctive toddler’s intuition having morphed

into a passion and profession, still doing this mostly

just to have that feeling, while the ones and zeroes



march together with digital precision off the edge

of a glowing screen into oblivion, virtual symbols

of actual sound, having no more substance now

than they ever had, seismographically recording

not so much our passage through time as time’s

passage through us: we see some fleeting evidence

of the muse’s presence, but what those binary on/off’s

don’t reveal while we still have enough of it to matter

is that time passes faster and faster the less and less

of it we have, and once it’s gone we never get it back.











© Will Clipman 2021












~May February find you poised and balanced~