Greetings, One & All~
The transition from Winter to Spring can be imperceptibly gradual or startlingly abrupt here in the Sonoran Desert, and some years (like this one) the weather just can’t make up its mind: we had a white-out blizzard on Easter Sunday one year, and in other years I’ve resumed swimming laps in our unheated pool by mid-March. As we go back and forth between seasons here, I trust your weather there has been fair, or at least fairly predictable. One thing you can count on is getting your A 440 Newsletter on the first of every month; so in the spirit of reliability and continuity, enjoy all the good news in your April 2023 issue!
Single of the Month
Saturday April 1st is the official drop date for Jupiter & Saturn, the new single from your favorite contemporary instrumental/world music fusion trio STC. Add this to our first two singles The Migration and Where Did They Go? on your Spotify or Apple Music playlist, and check out the brand new YouTube button on our website home page:
www.stcmusic.org
Indigo Social Club
Irrepressible joie de vivre + inspired musicianship x gorgeous lighting/impeccable sound = a don’t-miss concert experience when Indigo Social Club brings its sophisticated acoustic vibe to Sea of Glass Center for the Arts for one show only on Saturday April 8th. Join Marshall Jones on guitar, Rob Paulus on upright bass & violin, Cantrell Maryott on vocals, and Will Clipman on pan-global percussion for an unforgettably hip and uplifting evening of original music, creatively complemented with freshly re-imagined interpretations of your favorite jazz, r&b and pop classics.
info & tickets at
https://theseaofglass.org/events/604/indigo-social-club
Planet of Percussion
Your peripatetic pan-global percussionist will bring his aptly-titled solo concert and workshop to Wildwood Sounds in Del Norte CO on Friday, Saturday & Sunday April 14th, 15th & 16th for a heart-warming weekend of world music and mythopoetic storytelling. I’ve played this intimately charming acoustic venue a number of times as the drummer for various New Age and Americana ensembles; this is my first solo appearance!
info & tickets at
http://www.wildwoodsounds.com/concerts.html
Nakai, Eaton & Clipman
Every day is Earth Day in Willyworld, but in conjunction with the globally recognized celebratory date, your intrepid sonic fusioneers The Wilde Boys will spiral in for their latest rendezvous and lift the Old Town Center for the Arts off its foundation with their transplendent brand of improvisational alchemy on Saturday April 22nd at 7 PM for one show only!
http://oldtowncenter.org/event/15th-season/Earth-Day-04-22.html
https://canyonrecords.com/product/spiral-rendezvous-cr-7212/
Unity Duo
Speaking of rendezvouses, one of my favorites month in and month out is holding the heartbeat for folk-rock avatar Amber Norgaard at Unity in the Valley. I get to do it again on April 30th at 10 AM in scenic Sahuarita AZ!
One World Music
The boundary-transcending EP Ubiquity by Evenfall has garnered a nomination for the One World Music Awards. It is one world and we only get one spin on it, so do yourself a solid and check out this astounding music by multi-instrumentalist & producer Cass Anawaty and multi-flutist & composer Sherry Finzer, featuring pan-global drummer & percussionist Will Clipman!
https://evenfallofficial.bandcamp.com/album/ubiquity
Sol Sounds
The new album by LA-based Norwegian-American vocalist & composer Solvei, featuring Rob Paulus on upright bass & violin and Will Clipman on drums & percussion, is in the mixing stage. Thanks to Solvei, we’re blessed to have world-renowned engineer Gerard Albo mixing and mastering our music. Gerard has worked with Patti Smith, Alanis Morissette, Amy Winehouse, Sia, Charlie Haden, McCoy Tyner, Roy Ayers, George Duke, Dionne Warwick, Betty Carter, Jimmy Smith, Chick Corea and Gwen Stefani, among many others, and his magic touch is elevating our sound exponentially!
Love Is Everywhere
A while back, I had the distinct pleasure of recording with John Coinman on the songs Love Is Everywhere and Up Here for his album Under the Sun. I recently heard from John that Love Is Everywhere is climbing the HeritageChart: an independent music chart in Europe. It’s free, fun and easy to vote for as many charting songs as you’d like to, one time each week; so let’s show the folks on the other side of the pond how much we love this homegrown American music straight from the heart of The Old Pueblo!
vote for Love Is Everywhere at
https://www.heritagechart.co.uk/
Photos of the Month
As mentioned in my intro, 2023 has been a crazy weather year so far here at Rancho Improvisoso. A picture being worth a thousand words, enjoy this sampling of Winter snow shots by Shery Christopher paired with a portfolio of Spring blossom shots by yours truly that illustrate the sudden seasonal shift and the back-and-forth weather patterns here.
Poem of the Month
Weeding
What a strange thing it is to move about the world
in this atom-hive humming with uniquely dissonant harmony!
There are always a few nanoseconds of inspiration that get away
zooming through the neural net so fast they can’t be snagged; and here
is yet another technological “advance” I will summarily ignore
as I’m still getting used to fire and the wheel (the I here being I but also we).
Rather than fight the static, why not try to dial in a clear channel
and use the available signal to communicate something demonstrably true?
It’s good to be face down close to the ground on an overdue weekend date
with a garden full of weeds, knowing of course that it’s only a weed
if you don’t want it to grow there: don’t you dare be made mean-spirited
by daily disillusionment (the you here being you but also me).
So, a long lesson in patience and perseverance: a timeless musical realm
in which beats are measured by the pulsing light of distant stars.
Mustn’t there be in each thing an irreducible essence that can’t be broken down?
Relentless happiness is as good an answer as insufferable grief, one supposes
(the one here being one but also all). What a strange thing it is to uproot
only certain shoots and allow everything else to grow crazily green!
© Will Clipman 2023
~May your Spring be a season of renewed hope and possibility~
The universe doesn’t need us to be perfect; it just needs us to do our best.
~Guillaume Henri
Will Clipman
poet ~ percussionist ~ maskmaker ~ storyteller ~ performing artist ~ educator
www.willclipman.com
williamclipman@aol.com
facebook.com/willclipman
https://www.youtube.com/@willclipman4187
520.591.0776