Greetings, One & All~

What an autumn it’s been so far, and what a momentous season yet to come. Wherever you are on our little oasis in space as it orbits our local star, I trust you are keeping your cool amidst record-setting heat, natural disasters, catastrophes of human nature, and a persistent inkling of what the Hopi call koyannisqatsi: life out of balance. I invite you to take a refreshing respite from the overwhelm to enjoy some creative good news in this Autumn 2024 issue of your A 440 Newsletter. Be well, be in touch, and may cooler heads prevail!


GRAMMY News

First-round GRAMMY voting opened on 0ctober 4th and will close on October 15th; I’m delighted and excited to share that Wait For Me by Will + Rob is on the ballot in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category. For those of you who are Voting Members of the Recording Academy, we welcome and appreciate your vote; for those of you who are not, we equally welcome your good wishes and support.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0OZIgEtL8LI9lHMdsLXCzL





Cultural Crossroads

My signature event for the fall season will be my appearance with Cultural Crossroads: Dvorak in America at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC on Sunday November 24th at 3 PM. The brainchild of Artistic Director and principal violist Pamela Freund-Striplen, CC:DiA features Native American flute maestro R. Carlos Nakai leading a stellar cast in three of his original compositions for chamber ensemble, Native American flute and world percussion, and showcases the virtuosity of the renowned Ciompi Quartet and the incomparable operatic vocalist Kenneth Kellogg.

required registration for FREE tickets at:

https://www.nga.gov/calendar/concerts/82nd-concert-series/cultural-crossroads–dvoak-in-america-.html/2024/11/24/1500





Quiet Power

This handmade book by Catherine Nash and other collaborating artists, featuring the text of my poem The Quiet Power, has been archived in University of Arizona Poetry Center Rare Book Room. This poem, which is the official dedicatory poem of the Joel M. Valdez Main Library in the heart of downtown Tucson, is one of my most widely-read. It is an honor to have had it rendered with such artistry by Catherine and her cohorts, and to have this uniquely original piece of handmade book art archived at the Poetry Center, an institution with which I have over forty years of personal history. I’ll include the full text of the poem beneath these lovely images of the book art, courtesy of Catherine Nash.










The Quiet Power



As a child I loved the smell of thousands of books:

some thumb-worn and dog-eared, some pristine

with bindings that crackled and pages redolent

of pulp and ink, into which I’d plunge my face

and deeply inhale the aroma of wisdom. Others

had gone unread for ages: thick leatherbound ones

coated with dust and loaded with unpronounceable

words. These I would open like a tomb-robber

and plunder for treasure with archaeological lust.



I walked in constant terror and beauty, then as now,

on a thin sheet of ice over an infinite abyss,

and the quiet power of the alphabet always calmed me

with a sense of something larger and longer-lived:

the simple act of opening and leafing through,

the abstract sculpture of the poems, the stories

that never ended even when the pages went blank.



Those moments spent in solitude and silence

let me believe life would be livable after all,

gave me courage to walk back out of the library

into the noise and glare of the ordinary world

carrying my cargo of books, my language, my love.



© Will Clipman 2024



WEE Reunion

Emerging from a decade-long performing and recording hiatus, the fabled William Eaton Ensemble will reunite for a one-night-only concert at Old Town Center for the Arts in Cottonwood AZ on Saturday October 19th at 7 PM, celebrating the music from a new album-in-progress that is in the mixing and mastering stages at Wisdom Tree Studios in Sedona AZ, and is slated for a late 2024/early 2025 release.

Led by visionary instrument inventor, composer and lyraharp-guitar master William Eaton, and featuring Claudia Tulip on concert and indigenous flutes and vocals, Allen Ames on violin, violyra, mandolin and guitar, and yours truly on pan-global percussion, WEE will take the audience on a uniquely unrepeatable improvisational sonic adventure, with stops along the way to revisit classic selections from our four previous award-winning Canyon Records albums, available for purchase and signing at this show.

info & tickets at

https://cur8.com/projects/317




Green Jaguar

One of my favorite cuts from Spiral Rendezvous, the most recent Canyon Records album by the Nakai, Eaton & Clipman trio, Green Jaguar will air on October 8th on WEVL FM 89.9, broadcasting out of Memphis TN during the noon hour CST, as part of the Black Soul show hosted by Menelik Fombi, who plays a lot of Miles, ‘Trane, Pharaoh and Fela among many other musical heroes of mine; needless to say I’m honored to have our music played in such great company!

tune in and check it all out at

https://wevl.org/

and enjoy Spiral Rendezvous at

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





Barrio Jam

On Friday October 25th I’ll make a four-song cameo appearance on drumkit with Wayback & Friends as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the classic Barrio Jam album in a fundraising event for the annual Tucson Folk Festival. The festivities kick off at 7 PM at The Old Pueblo’s iconic live music mecca Monterey Court.

reservations recommended at

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





Seko House

Between Lives, the first single from my newest collaboration with Cambridge MA whiz kid Seko House, drops at midnight on October 17th. This musical meditation on friendship, mortality, loss and transcendence blends the lush electronic soundscapes and multi-harmonic vocals of Seko House with the pan-global percussion of yours truly, recorded live in The Boom Boom Room here at Rancho Improvisoso in Tucson AZ, and which–for all its deep lyrical content–is entirely danceable and ultimately uplifting. We plan to release a full-length album eventually, so watch this space for the forthcoming singles It Pulls You and Who Knew en route the full platter!

pre-save the Between Lives download at

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/sekohouseandwillclipman/between-lives





Jaguar Rising

As an outgrowth of the on-going Jaguar Rising project and its inaugural multi-media event in the border city of Nogales last May (the brainchildren of visionary eco-activist Kate Scott, Director of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center) filmmaker Tony Heath has created this half-hour video in seven acts, incorporating footage from various actions along the border wall and excerpts from the Nogales event, which included–among many other storytelling, visual art, performance and panel discussion components–poetry and live musical accompaniment by yours truly. While I personally recommend a full viewing, you CAN dip in and out as you wish. . . and of course you CAN skip the ads!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqulQq3E33s



graphic art courtesy Virginia Romero


Orkneyology Podcast

A highlight of our recent adventure in the Orkney Islands was being interviewed by native Orcadian storyteller and author Tom Muir and his American wife and creative partner Rhonda Muir for their monthly podcast Ower wi’ the moon, a reference to the ancient Orkney tradition of visiting neighbors on full moon nights when there was enough light to find one’s way through the impenetrable island darkness. This wide-ranging and free-flowing two-hour conversation with R. Carlos Nakai and myself will air on November 15th, which–in keeping with tradition–will be a Full Supermoon!


https://www.orkneyology.com/orkneyology-podcast.html





photo courtesy Shery Christopher, Soul Life Journeys



Rancho Photos

Who says we don’t have fall color in the Sonoran Desert? This brilliant barrel cactus bloom says otherwise!




My “Pool Hawk” has become fascinated with the presence of cool water in the middle of the desert, and now comes to hang out with me almost every day during my noontime Hour of Pool Power. . . sometimes even calling in her mate to join us!







Our shy and elusive rock squirrels are seldom seen, but this one paused long enough at the waterbowl under the olive tree to display its intelligent gaze and gorgeous camouflage.





The much smaller but no less charming antelope squirrels are cagey critters: they’ve learned how to climb down the chain and into the cage feeder to enjoy their fair share of gourmet songbird seed!




We’ve enjoyed many generations of the spiny lizard family that resides inside our walled yard; this little one–whose body is no bigger than my thumb–recently started coming to the ramada with Mom and Dad for a dinner of mealworms in the evening.




This handsome Gila woodpecker gifted me with a perfect profile portrait outside our kitchen “Window on the Wild” as I stood at the sink washing my morning coffee service.






New Poem



A Season of Reason



In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no

time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.



~Don Juan Matus, Journey to Ixtlan



Triple-digit heat persists into autumn

so we continue to meet at noon

for an hour of sacred pool power:

you, observing with calm curiosity

from your perch on the stone waterbowl

in the shade of the mesquite bosque; me

slowly stroking back and forth

in my larger body of cool water.



I’ve seen you snatch your prey mid-air

with such delicate, graceful precision

that the action had no violence in it, only

necessity; I’ve learned from you

(as Jung once intimated in his reply

to an acolyte’s inquiry about the nature

of inner peace) to find contentment

in doing the next necessary thing.



We’ll figure out once and for all this fall

whether hope is more powerful than despair;

whether reason can overrule mass insanity;

whether moving fearlessly into the future

is more promising than clinging desperately

to the past. We’ll test the theory that to let

even a small gift go unbestowed is wasteful.

Take the waning crescent moon as she rises:



she hasn’t much light left to spare,

but what there is of it is cool, calm

and platinum-gold, and she smiles

as she shares it. We can’t all be geniuses,

but we can all be generous with what gifts

we have, and there is a kind of genius

in generosity. There is always a decision

to be made: this one a matter of life and death.







© Will Clipman 2024









~May your autumn be a season of reason~







The present is realized not by clinging to the past
but by charting a way forward into the future.

~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