Greetings, One & All~

Your September A 440 Newsletter arrives early, as this month’s adventures begin on Day One and your peripatetic poetic percussionist will be on the road before, during and after our customary first-of-the-month rendezvous. As the Sonoran Desert emerges from the summer monsoon season and begins ever so gradually to dry out and cool down as the autumnal equinox approaches, your humble narrator has an abundance of creative good news and natural beauty to share. Enjoy, be well and be in touch!


Passion, Purpose & Personal Power

I’m delighted and excited to return to the redwood rhizome of coastal California for my new Canyon Ranch Woodside retreat Passion, Purpose & Personal Power on Thursday-Sunday September 1st-4th. As if Woodside’s regular wonder-filled wellness offerings weren’t enough, you can rendezvous with yours truly for four evening fireside chats that weave music, poetry and storytelling into the tapestry of your self-realization!

information & registration at:

https://www.canyonranch.com/stay/events/passion-purpose-personal-power-woodside-2022/?location=woodside


Redwood Light PR photo.jpg


Cultural Crossroads

Fully re-charged from my retreat at Woodside, I’ll continue up the coast for a rendezvous with Native American Flute master R. Carlos Nakai: on Saturday September 10th at Gualala Arts Center in Gualala CA, I will accompany Nakai and the Gold Coast Chamber Players in performances of his chamber trilogy Butterflies Dancing, Clan of the Mists and Honoring Song as part of the Cultural Crossroads classical-meets-world-music project, spearheaded by violist Pamela Freund-Striplen and featuring San Francisco’s Alexander String Quartet; on Sunday September 11th Nakai and I will present a duo concert/Q&A cultural outreach at Sea Ranch Lodge in Sea Ranch CA.

tickets & info at:

http://gualalaarts.org/2022/09/chamber-music-special-event/


photo courtesy Robert Doyle Photography/Canyon Records


Moccasin Tracks

On Tuesday September 20th at 12:30 PM ET, I will be interviewed via Zoom by Deb Reger & Rick Hunt, co-hosts of the indigenous world music show Moccasin Tracks on North Country Community Radio, WZNC-FM, broadcasting from the Colonial Theatre in Bethlehem NH. Deb & Rick have been spinning Spiral Rendezvous of late, and reached out to Kathy Norris, Director of Promotions at Canyon Records, to arrange a chat with that guy who plays all those exotic instruments on all those cool Canyon albums?!

find out more at

https://nococommunityradio.org/project/moccasin-tracks/



banner graphics and photography courtesy John Running Photography/Canyon Records

Unity Duo

All roads return to Baja Arizona eventually for yours truly, and my next destination will be my monthly re-Unification rendezvous with singer/songwriter and Unity in The Valley Musical Director Amber Norgaard in Sahuarita AZ on Sunday September 25th at 10 AM.





Spiral Rendezvous Tour News

The Wilde Boys (aka R. Carlos Nakai, William Eaton & Will Clipman) will resume their 2022-23 Spiral Rendezvous Southwest Tour with two shows on Friday & Saturday October 21st & 22nd at 7 PM at central Arizona’s premier concert venue Old Town Center for the Arts in Cottonwood AZ.

info & tickets for the Friday 10/21 show at:

https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/66374

info & tickets for the Saturday 10/22 show at:

https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/66375





The Wilde Boys’ next stop will be the Musical Instrument Museum Theater in Phoenix AZ On Friday October 28th at 7:30 PM. The MIM is world-renowned as one of the finest live music venues on the planet, which is why musicians from all around the globe line up to play there! R. Carlos Nakai, William Eaton & Will Clipman will bring their improvisational alchemy to this temple of sound for one show only, as their 2022-23 Spiral Rendezvous concert series continues.

MIM tickets & info at:

https://www.mim.org/events/r-carlos-nakai-william-eaton-and-will-clipman/?utm_source=mimmusictheater&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=r-carlos-nakai-william-eaton-and-will-clipman


photo courtesy John Running Photography/Canyon Records


THIS SHOW JUST ADDED: Nakai, Eaton & Clipman at Sea of Glass in Tucson AZ on Saturday November 19th at 7:30 PM. Watch this space for further info and ticket link!





And speaking of the latest Nakai, Eaton & Clipman creation: Spiral Rendezvous, the trio’s fifth studio album on the Canyon Records label, dropped on August 19th! The physical CD may be pre-ordered directly from Canyon between now and September 23rd, which is the official online street date; watch this space for that link, which will include downloading and streaming options.

pre-ordering link for the physical CD:

http://canyonrecords.com/product/spiral-rendezvous-cr-7212/




Indigo Social Club

Indigo Social Club will bring its jazz-infused, genre-transcending sound to The Century Room in the heart of The Old Pueblo on Thursday October 27th for two shows at 6 PM and 7:30 PM. Join Marshall Jones on guitar, Rob Paulus on bass & violin, Will Clipman on percussion and Cantrell Maryott on vocals for a sonic journey into joy, and watch this space for the forthcoming ticket link. Meanwhile, check out The Century Room at:

https://hotelcongress.com/family/century-room/


JY ISC PR 1 color.jpg


Ubiquitous Evenfall

From The Netherlands to Australia and everywhere in between and beyond, the new four-song EP Ubiquity by Evenfall on Heart Dance Records is living up to its title. Enjoy this latest over-the-top review from Down Under and download this ubiquitous music today!

https://bluewolf-reviews.com/music/spiritual/ubiquity/



graphic courtesy Heart Dance Records


Photos of the Month

A beautiful baby bufo I rescued from the pool early one recent morning: yes, incilius alvarius continues to be an integral and indispensable companion on my journey!


ICU Imagery


An elegant young bobcat slaking her thirst outside our kitchen window just before sunrise on another recent morning, after having left her pawprints in the dust on my windshield a few nights earlier!


Shery Christopher Photography


And later that same morning, a roadrunner locked and loaded a split second before launching into our olive tree after her breakfast; no worries, songbird aficionados–among which I number myself–she missed on this try!


ICU Imagery


Photographic proof that one needn’t look any further than out one’s bedroom window to witness the full moon’s magic and mystery!

Moonrise Mystique.jpg
Shery Christopher Photography


A sun-drenched barrel cactus brilliantly announces to those who would say the desert is drab and colorless: you’re not paying close enough attention!

Barrel O’ Beauty.jpg
ICU Imagery


And just days later, the volcanic peaks west of Rancho Improvisoso shrouded in monsoon mist–with a pair of raindrops suspended in the foreground–make the view from our little beach house on the shores of time look positively Hawaiian!


ICU Imagery




Poem of the Month


Mutatis Mutandis



In the name of getting things done

we subdivide wholeness into available geometries,

but as a wise old river guide once said

it’s never too late to stop making things worse.



Beseeched by an acolyte

for the secret of contentment

Jung is purported to have replied

do the next necessary thing,

to which one might add

may there be less and less of me

‘til all that is left is all.



Existentially consequential:

the undelivered promise of rain

taunts with a few cold drops

evanescing on burnt skin.



The Effective Altruism movement

is already fundraising in the billions

on the theory that the endgame is really

a long sequence of less bad choices.



The hundred-thousand-year war

between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals

having been lost and the chimpanzee

branch of the tree presently ascendant,

I’m starting a Pro Bono Pro-Bonobo movement!



Toad Whisperer?

Bufo Brujo?

No, just a guy with a pole and a net

rescuing the next generation of messengers

from the deep end of the gene pool.



Things having been changed that needed to be changed,

one doesn’t stroll with casual arrogance

in a straight line across a raging torrent:

one leaps with palpitating heart

from one icy boulder to the next.





© Will Clipman 2022










~May balanced abundance be yours this autumn~









Hindsight is foresight at the speed of light.

~Guillaume Henri



Will Clipman

poet ~ percussionist ~ maskmaker ~ storyteller ~ performing artist ~ educator

www.willclipman.com
williamclipman@aol.com
facebook.com/willclipman

520.591.0776