Abigail Twitters in China
Today's Twitter
Happy Holidays
14 Dec 08
Hello friends,
With the holidays and new year's just around the corner, we wanted to take a chance to thank you for all of your support over the past year. Thank you!
Abigail is currently in the Chinese province of Sichuan doing an artist residency at Sichuan University. She sent a note to pass along to you:
Sichuan is great. The food is spicy spicy spicy. I was here for 6 months in 1997. The city has changed drastically just like most of China as it has developed economically. The artists and students I've been working with are totally inspiring. I've been learning about different aspects of Chinese folk music, specifically the difference between the new folk music and the original folk music and their separate and unique virtues. I'm also learning about Sichuan Opera. I've been lucky enough to befriend one of the lead kungfu and face-changing artists in Chengdu. He has introduced me to the full scope of Chengdu's Sichuan Opera from the expert and formal ways of the official state troupe to the University training of the new artists to come and the folk opera in the teahouses. I've ended up teaching classes to the students and performing alongside them.... my Chinese has been getting a serious tune up. The other unexpected and very welcome performing I've been given the chance to do is in the mountain towns outside of Chengdu that were devastated by the earthquakes of 5/12. My friends at Sichuan Quake Relief asked me to accompany them on trips to set up libraries in the schools. While they set up the libraries I performed for the kids, and then they performed for me. I'm glad to report that my friend Amanda Kowalski, a rockin' photographer, is here in Sichuan with me. We are in the process of creating a series of narrative photo and written essays about a few specific forms of artistic expression in China that have given us an intimate view of the evolution of art and tradition in the midst of enormous economic and social changes here. We'll also have a piece about going up into the earthquake schools. We look forward to sharing it all with you. We'll keep you posted.
We also wanted to let you know that Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet is listed on FolkAlley.com's Favorite CDs of 2008. Our album comes in at number 8 on the list. To read more about it, and see their other favorite albums, click here.
You can vote for us as one of your favorite CDs of 2008 in NPR Music's year-end listener poll by clicking here.
Looking for that great holiday gift for your friends and family? Check out the Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet store at The Connection, where you can buy our albums, as well as our new t-shirts.
After the holidays, the Sparrow Quartet will be gearing up for a few tour dates in January and February. On January 22, 2009, we'll be stopping by Scotland's premier winter music festival, Celtic Connections. On February 5, we'll be stopping by Abigail's Alma Mater, Colorado College, for a performance with many other Colorado performances to follow. Find out more about these and our other winter tour dates on our website.
Happy Holidays!
Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet
With the holidays and new year's just around the corner, we wanted to take a chance to thank you for all of your support over the past year. Thank you!
Abigail is currently in the Chinese province of Sichuan doing an artist residency at Sichuan University. She sent a note to pass along to you:
Sichuan is great. The food is spicy spicy spicy. I was here for 6 months in 1997. The city has changed drastically just like most of China as it has developed economically. The artists and students I've been working with are totally inspiring. I've been learning about different aspects of Chinese folk music, specifically the difference between the new folk music and the original folk music and their separate and unique virtues. I'm also learning about Sichuan Opera. I've been lucky enough to befriend one of the lead kungfu and face-changing artists in Chengdu. He has introduced me to the full scope of Chengdu's Sichuan Opera from the expert and formal ways of the official state troupe to the University training of the new artists to come and the folk opera in the teahouses. I've ended up teaching classes to the students and performing alongside them.... my Chinese has been getting a serious tune up. The other unexpected and very welcome performing I've been given the chance to do is in the mountain towns outside of Chengdu that were devastated by the earthquakes of 5/12. My friends at Sichuan Quake Relief asked me to accompany them on trips to set up libraries in the schools. While they set up the libraries I performed for the kids, and then they performed for me. I'm glad to report that my friend Amanda Kowalski, a rockin' photographer, is here in Sichuan with me. We are in the process of creating a series of narrative photo and written essays about a few specific forms of artistic expression in China that have given us an intimate view of the evolution of art and tradition in the midst of enormous economic and social changes here. We'll also have a piece about going up into the earthquake schools. We look forward to sharing it all with you. We'll keep you posted.
We also wanted to let you know that Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet is listed on FolkAlley.com's Favorite CDs of 2008. Our album comes in at number 8 on the list. To read more about it, and see their other favorite albums, click here.
You can vote for us as one of your favorite CDs of 2008 in NPR Music's year-end listener poll by clicking here.
Looking for that great holiday gift for your friends and family? Check out the Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet store at The Connection, where you can buy our albums, as well as our new t-shirts.
After the holidays, the Sparrow Quartet will be gearing up for a few tour dates in January and February. On January 22, 2009, we'll be stopping by Scotland's premier winter music festival, Celtic Connections. On February 5, we'll be stopping by Abigail's Alma Mater, Colorado College, for a performance with many other Colorado performances to follow. Find out more about these and our other winter tour dates on our website.
Happy Holidays!
Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet
The Middle of the "End"
7 Oct 08
The Sparrow Quartet is in the middle of the end of our 2008 run of shows. We are planning for some shows for early next year in UK and possible CO and CA... but the big push is almost over. All we have left is Seattle, Portland, Knoxville, Eatonton (GA), Altanta and the LEAF festival. Let your friends know to come on out and check out the band!
October 7 - St. James Hall, Vancouver, BC
October 9 - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
October 10 - Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
October 16 - Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
October 17 - Ferst Center for Performing Arts, Atlanta, GA
October 18 - Plaza Arts Center, Eatonton, GA
October 19 - Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC
We had some pals take some good photos over the past few weeks and thought we'd pass them along.
Oct 3, First Parish Church, Harvard Square, Boston
This was an amazing night. 600 seats sold out. Beautiful fall day with leaves turning color and dropping on the sidewalks. One of the first Unitarian Universalist churches ever built in the US... I was raised UU and visited the old churches of boston on a trip once in the 7th grade... cool life circumstance to end up performing in one. Wandered around the graveyard out back, all kinds of old names barely legible on the worn out rocks - Cornelius, Adelle, Zeella Belle, Samuel Smith.
Our dear friend Amanda Kowalski came over to the church and took some pics during soundcheck and before the show. We'll post more as she sends them along:
Oct 4, we played the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT. I couldn't have been more pumped for a show because of my history in VT. I lived there from 1999-2003. I worked at the State House as a lobbyist for three years and also started learning banjo. I had a bunch of friends from Legislative Counsel at the State House turn up... I hadn't seen them in years. And all my pals that I had met thru music, when being a professional musician wasn't even a thought in my mind, showed up to root me on - The Cleary Brothers, and pals from Maple Corner. The Flynn is such a beautfiul and big venue that even up until the show was over I could barely believe I was the artist on stage that night. But just in case my memory fails me and I fall once again fall into disbelief, I took a picture of the sign:
Sept 27, The Dosey Doe, Houston, TX
This day was testimony to the strangeness of being a traveling musician - you just never know what each day is going to be like. We flew in from Bethesda this morning after playing The Strathmore in Bethesda, MD, an outrageously beautiful theatre with perfect acoustics built for the modern age of quartet music and filled up with over a thousand people. We weren't sure Houston was going to happen up until the last minute... no one was buying tickets, the hurricane had just pushed thru the city. Luckily the local NPR station started pushing our show the day before and the dinner theatre was almost filled to it's several hundred person capacity... very good news to hear. It's always painful to show up and realize that your gig is hurting the venue and the promoter financially... which is happening regularly as a result of the current financial crisis.
We pulled up to the venue in our rented car. A good looking man in a cowboy hat and wranglers was standing outside of a barn-looking dinner house on the side of a major noisey highway waving us in, Ben commented that at first glance it looked like a fancy Logan's Steakhouse, located next to a pawn shop called "Guitars, Guns, Gold".
As it ended up, The Dosey Doe is one of the cooler venues I've ever been lucky to play... self-made business men that brought the barn down from Kentucky and collected all kinds of awesome americana antiques to fill the place with a righteous 'old america' vibe, friendly people, gourmet food, espresso... they sent us away with piles of their fresh made coffee beans. Thanks to the coffee we made it to Austin that night after the show and pulled thru our set at Austin City Limits Fest the next day. A cool quote from a press reviewer the next day after our show in the Austin American Statesmen:
Abigail Washburn singing folk songs from Sichuan Province (in Chinese!) with Bela Fleck on banjo and the rest of the Sparrow Quartet on Sunday one definition of "art" is "a series of anticipated rewards." Washburn's set fit that definition to a T.
October 7 - St. James Hall, Vancouver, BC
October 9 - Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA
October 10 - Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
October 16 - Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, TN
October 17 - Ferst Center for Performing Arts, Atlanta, GA
October 18 - Plaza Arts Center, Eatonton, GA
October 19 - Lake Eden Arts Festival, Black Mountain, NC
We had some pals take some good photos over the past few weeks and thought we'd pass them along.
Oct 3, First Parish Church, Harvard Square, Boston
This was an amazing night. 600 seats sold out. Beautiful fall day with leaves turning color and dropping on the sidewalks. One of the first Unitarian Universalist churches ever built in the US... I was raised UU and visited the old churches of boston on a trip once in the 7th grade... cool life circumstance to end up performing in one. Wandered around the graveyard out back, all kinds of old names barely legible on the worn out rocks - Cornelius, Adelle, Zeella Belle, Samuel Smith.
Our dear friend Amanda Kowalski came over to the church and took some pics during soundcheck and before the show. We'll post more as she sends them along:
Oct 4, we played the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT. I couldn't have been more pumped for a show because of my history in VT. I lived there from 1999-2003. I worked at the State House as a lobbyist for three years and also started learning banjo. I had a bunch of friends from Legislative Counsel at the State House turn up... I hadn't seen them in years. And all my pals that I had met thru music, when being a professional musician wasn't even a thought in my mind, showed up to root me on - The Cleary Brothers, and pals from Maple Corner. The Flynn is such a beautfiul and big venue that even up until the show was over I could barely believe I was the artist on stage that night. But just in case my memory fails me and I fall once again fall into disbelief, I took a picture of the sign:
Sept 27, The Dosey Doe, Houston, TX
This day was testimony to the strangeness of being a traveling musician - you just never know what each day is going to be like. We flew in from Bethesda this morning after playing The Strathmore in Bethesda, MD, an outrageously beautiful theatre with perfect acoustics built for the modern age of quartet music and filled up with over a thousand people. We weren't sure Houston was going to happen up until the last minute... no one was buying tickets, the hurricane had just pushed thru the city. Luckily the local NPR station started pushing our show the day before and the dinner theatre was almost filled to it's several hundred person capacity... very good news to hear. It's always painful to show up and realize that your gig is hurting the venue and the promoter financially... which is happening regularly as a result of the current financial crisis.
We pulled up to the venue in our rented car. A good looking man in a cowboy hat and wranglers was standing outside of a barn-looking dinner house on the side of a major noisey highway waving us in, Ben commented that at first glance it looked like a fancy Logan's Steakhouse, located next to a pawn shop called "Guitars, Guns, Gold".
As it ended up, The Dosey Doe is one of the cooler venues I've ever been lucky to play... self-made business men that brought the barn down from Kentucky and collected all kinds of awesome americana antiques to fill the place with a righteous 'old america' vibe, friendly people, gourmet food, espresso... they sent us away with piles of their fresh made coffee beans. Thanks to the coffee we made it to Austin that night after the show and pulled thru our set at Austin City Limits Fest the next day. A cool quote from a press reviewer the next day after our show in the Austin American Statesmen:
Abigail Washburn singing folk songs from Sichuan Province (in Chinese!) with Bela Fleck on banjo and the rest of the Sparrow Quartet on Sunday one definition of "art" is "a series of anticipated rewards." Washburn's set fit that definition to a T.
Thoughts on China
28 Aug 08
The Armpit of Capitalism, Hot Cross Buns, Fear-thee-not Meat, The Chinese Reaction, Self-Perception & The Nation State, Fun Olympics: The Review
(PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED)
In the original plan for the Sparrow Quartets Olympic Tour of China we were to play music in Sichuan where the earthquakes hit this past March. I was looking forward to the Sichuan trip because I had lived in Chengdu and care deeply about the people Ive known there and generally feel close to Sichuanese culture. I thought the tour would help me understand Sichuan since the earthquakes and would give me a chance to offer music to the reconstruction process. No such luck& re-routed to the chockablock factory towns of Dongguan, Guangzhou and Foshan, otherwise known as the geographic armpit of Chinese capitalism.
Hot Cross Buns
Despite a previous, very positive, US state department tour to Guangzhou, I was nervous about this trip. Ive done a lot of reading as of late and I feel like Ive had almost too-intimate a view into parts of business-man culture in these special economic zones (zones created in the early 80s when Deng Xiaoping opened China. The purpose of the zones was to protect the rest of china from the first experiments in opening the Chinese economy to the west, its first experiments in modern capitalism). Integrity takes on a different meaning in these towns& a thriving businessman is almost expected to practice a sort of circus of pleasures in the entrepreneurial spirit. One of the most amazing things I heard about was a businessman that, as a result of signing a lease for a certain plot of land, received a gift from the leasor, called hot cross buns. The leasee was escorted up to a suite hotel room where 30 naked women awaited him standing in a line. Of the 30 women, he could choose 15. When the 15 that he slighted left the room he would lay down on the bed and the chosen 15 would proceed to roll back and forth over him naked, hence the term hot cross buns. For some reason I can actually appreciate the hilarity of the terminology applied to this specific procedure of the sex trade. There is plenty not to laugh about a la the resurgence of concubines. This in my mind is only a step short of the tradition of bound feet of the previous dynastic empires a literal method of crippling a womans ability to make her place in the world by snapping her feet in half at a young age and binding them to stunt their growth and fit them into tiny shoes known to be highly sexually appealing. Please God, let there not be a resurgence in the popularity of bound feet.
Fear-thee-not Meat
At least equally as shocking as the sex trade bi-product of special-Chinese-economic-zone-capitalism, is the Guangdong cuisine. I know its a very refined and sophisticated cuisine, but this Midwest girl raised on tater tots, mac ncheese and cream peas on toast cannot get her head around eating the lesser known parts of strange animals and domestic pets. Just walk down an open-air meat market and youll see the equivalent of your 5th grade pet bunny (big, floppy-eared, fuzzy and white) being sold for a bunny-paw dish featuring specially cooked entrails. And then theres the dove, in my mind a symbol of peace, being sold for dove meat, cooked and served with charred head in tact. How about scorpions in a white washtub crawling on top of one another to escape certain doom (oh if only they could jump over the immense white wall to freedom! - and sometimes they do, flip flops not advised in open air markets). Then theres the under water creatures such as eels, water snakes, fish, sea horses, sharks, jelly fish, & And, oh yea, cobras for sale! All of this meat product is available on or off the menu at local restaurants. Matching my immense squeamishness is an awe, a kind of profound respect for the matter-of-factness and creativity of it all. Guangdong fare takes pride in where their meat comes from they even glorify the animal form in the final presentation. Unlike the expectations of most meat consumers in the US, in China meat is not some hunk of animal shrink wrapped and covered in a pretty plastic sticker implying that the contents were created by corporate branding and not actually the product of killing an animal. I am not proud of the fact that I cant imagine killing my own meat or that Guangdong food instills fear in me. Im, in fact, proud to report that a portion of our contingency, Casey and Bela and Ed (our kick ass, totally Chinese-fluent state dept pal) were not afraid to try things.
The Chinese Reaction, Self-Perception & The Nation State
So it seems thus far that Ive preferred sensationalist social commentary to writing about the actual experience of playing music in these parts of Guangdong province. I suppose I wanted you to understand the things that went thru my mind when we were re-routed to southeast China. In actuality we were given amazing first time opportunities to play in front of a wide array of local folks. (deep breath before this next sentence) Our third party promoter hired by the Chinese Performing Arts Association, partnering with the American Center for Educational Exchange in Beijing, our US state department, and consulate in Guangzhou, took good care of us and really tried to maximize the use or our time without running us into the ground. Our first day in Guangzhou was a masters class for students from the conservatory in the basement of our US Consul Generals home and then a full-house show at a local performing arts center. A quick testimony here to the coolness of the fact that a Consul General runs cultural programming out of his home and that our US government gives extensive training in language and culture to all the Americans coming to Guangzhou to serve in the name of diplomacy as opposed to the current trend toward militaristic reactionism.
Its always hard to know how to get people out to your shows anywhere in the world, but I would imagine it would be a special feat in the factory towns of southeast China that are consumed with business affairs and not really in need of an experimental roots chamber quartet performance. Over the three nights in Dongguan, Foshan and Guangzhou we played in front of about 1500 people, all of which were contacted by a personal call from our third party promoter who specially created a list of people in each town that might be interested in this kind of performance including intermediate school band teachers, conservatory deans, local entertainment media, retired musicians associations, owners of local music clubs, misc business partners and friends, etc. We had everyone in the audience from academic types to working class, from 5-90 yrs old. If only someone would make all those calls to get people to check out our live show in the US&
People ask me often in interviews how the Chinese people react to our music. I understand where this question is coming from but it still strikes me as a strange notion. Its about as broad as asking how Americans react to our music. Chinese are as diverse in their reactions as Americans. The conservatory students in Beijing arent just smitten with us because were foreigners, theyre waiting for us to prove to them that our music is worthy of their attention, and when hopefully proven they ask questions about harmonies, modalities and intervals. In the jazz clubs in Shanghai there is a highly discerning mix of expats and local Chinese responsive to the arrangements and individual solos. In rural Sichuan at a chemical college, the students gather in droves to check out the foreign act and instruments (i.e. the banjo) theyve rarely gotten to hear at all much less in person& every moment of the performance is a new discovery. At the animal husbandry college in Tibet we were the first foreigners EVER, period&. Alien banjobanjocellofiddle invasion& we come in peace.
The more I think about it the more I appreciate this question because it brings up one of the things I spend a lot of my time thinking about the role of the nation state in self-perception. Does a persons nationality imply a pre-ordained reaction in any instance to anything? I believe that the human is as diverse as there are people, no two humans alike. I hope that the unique and special qualities of each human being become the guiding light of the future of the goals of any evolving citizenry. I hope that the attachment to the nation-state is shortlived on this planet and merely used as a stepping stone from the more feudalistic forms of organized societies to a sense of ourselves as global citizens committed to the well-being of all souls caught in this web of existence, and committed to the preservation and dissemination of that which is beautiful about who we are, where we come from and where we are going.
Fun Olympics: A Review
What better is there to bolster a strong sense of nationality in people than the Olympics? After my last blog about the No-Fun Olympics I got different reactions from different friends. Some of which agreed with me and some of which didnt. I admit that I only got to see a part of one Japan-USA baseball game and only really had 4 days in Beijing to soak it all in on top of the performing obligations. Friends who spent a lot of time going to athletic events and hanging out in Chinese and non-chinese sections of the cheering crowds had an awesome time. They always seemed to come away with a newfound pile of international friends from their fortuitous spot in the stands. Friends also reported that the cheering was intense all around for generally great acts of athleticism. And as for my statement about tickets not being available, here is my friend, Todd Steeds response:
Anyone, including Chinese- can walk up to something like boxing and get tix at face value (8 dollars) or below. I have heard the police have been sending scalpers away, but it seems that's not so true anymore- a police guy helped me negotiate a ticket to the US Woman's b-ball game with a scalper. I thought he was coming to bust up the sale.
A fact that until now has flown low low below the radar is that The Sparrow Quartet was supposed to play an Olympic venue in Beijing. We did some very cool stuff like playing for a pile of students from Universities all around Beijing at a private event arranged by the ACEE, taping a webchat for china.com, playing live on China Radio International and the Ambassadors residence, but we didnt play an Olympic venue. Early in the trip we were told that we were going to play Ditan Park last Thursday 8/21, at a time to-be-determined. On 8/20 we still had no certain location or time. There are a million reasons it may not have worked out the most likely of which in my mind is the Chinese authorities concern about the shenanigans and protests that might occur as a result of a convening crowd, much in the image of the protests that occurred on the torch runs journey of harmony thru France and some parts of the US. In China you have to apply and receive approval for a protest. In order to win approval a boatload of information must first be supplied including the names and ID #s of all protesters. When I left, the tally of protests that had been applied for and denied were up well over 40.
In review, we were originally supposed to play an event in celebration of the opening of the new US embassy, play in cities in Sichuan dealing with the aftermath of the earthquakes and play an Olympic event& none of which happened. After 5 music tours in China since 2004, and general sino-to-and-fro since 1996, I am not surprised at the immense last minute change in plans. Its always an adventure and as always all kinds of cool stuff did happen. I feel unending gratefulness to our US government for supporting our trip, afterall, in the words of Yann Martel, If we do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination to the altar of cruel reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
(PARENTAL DISCRETION ADVISED)
In the original plan for the Sparrow Quartets Olympic Tour of China we were to play music in Sichuan where the earthquakes hit this past March. I was looking forward to the Sichuan trip because I had lived in Chengdu and care deeply about the people Ive known there and generally feel close to Sichuanese culture. I thought the tour would help me understand Sichuan since the earthquakes and would give me a chance to offer music to the reconstruction process. No such luck& re-routed to the chockablock factory towns of Dongguan, Guangzhou and Foshan, otherwise known as the geographic armpit of Chinese capitalism.
Hot Cross Buns
Despite a previous, very positive, US state department tour to Guangzhou, I was nervous about this trip. Ive done a lot of reading as of late and I feel like Ive had almost too-intimate a view into parts of business-man culture in these special economic zones (zones created in the early 80s when Deng Xiaoping opened China. The purpose of the zones was to protect the rest of china from the first experiments in opening the Chinese economy to the west, its first experiments in modern capitalism). Integrity takes on a different meaning in these towns& a thriving businessman is almost expected to practice a sort of circus of pleasures in the entrepreneurial spirit. One of the most amazing things I heard about was a businessman that, as a result of signing a lease for a certain plot of land, received a gift from the leasor, called hot cross buns. The leasee was escorted up to a suite hotel room where 30 naked women awaited him standing in a line. Of the 30 women, he could choose 15. When the 15 that he slighted left the room he would lay down on the bed and the chosen 15 would proceed to roll back and forth over him naked, hence the term hot cross buns. For some reason I can actually appreciate the hilarity of the terminology applied to this specific procedure of the sex trade. There is plenty not to laugh about a la the resurgence of concubines. This in my mind is only a step short of the tradition of bound feet of the previous dynastic empires a literal method of crippling a womans ability to make her place in the world by snapping her feet in half at a young age and binding them to stunt their growth and fit them into tiny shoes known to be highly sexually appealing. Please God, let there not be a resurgence in the popularity of bound feet.
Fear-thee-not Meat
At least equally as shocking as the sex trade bi-product of special-Chinese-economic-zone-capitalism, is the Guangdong cuisine. I know its a very refined and sophisticated cuisine, but this Midwest girl raised on tater tots, mac ncheese and cream peas on toast cannot get her head around eating the lesser known parts of strange animals and domestic pets. Just walk down an open-air meat market and youll see the equivalent of your 5th grade pet bunny (big, floppy-eared, fuzzy and white) being sold for a bunny-paw dish featuring specially cooked entrails. And then theres the dove, in my mind a symbol of peace, being sold for dove meat, cooked and served with charred head in tact. How about scorpions in a white washtub crawling on top of one another to escape certain doom (oh if only they could jump over the immense white wall to freedom! - and sometimes they do, flip flops not advised in open air markets). Then theres the under water creatures such as eels, water snakes, fish, sea horses, sharks, jelly fish, & And, oh yea, cobras for sale! All of this meat product is available on or off the menu at local restaurants. Matching my immense squeamishness is an awe, a kind of profound respect for the matter-of-factness and creativity of it all. Guangdong fare takes pride in where their meat comes from they even glorify the animal form in the final presentation. Unlike the expectations of most meat consumers in the US, in China meat is not some hunk of animal shrink wrapped and covered in a pretty plastic sticker implying that the contents were created by corporate branding and not actually the product of killing an animal. I am not proud of the fact that I cant imagine killing my own meat or that Guangdong food instills fear in me. Im, in fact, proud to report that a portion of our contingency, Casey and Bela and Ed (our kick ass, totally Chinese-fluent state dept pal) were not afraid to try things.
The Chinese Reaction, Self-Perception & The Nation State
So it seems thus far that Ive preferred sensationalist social commentary to writing about the actual experience of playing music in these parts of Guangdong province. I suppose I wanted you to understand the things that went thru my mind when we were re-routed to southeast China. In actuality we were given amazing first time opportunities to play in front of a wide array of local folks. (deep breath before this next sentence) Our third party promoter hired by the Chinese Performing Arts Association, partnering with the American Center for Educational Exchange in Beijing, our US state department, and consulate in Guangzhou, took good care of us and really tried to maximize the use or our time without running us into the ground. Our first day in Guangzhou was a masters class for students from the conservatory in the basement of our US Consul Generals home and then a full-house show at a local performing arts center. A quick testimony here to the coolness of the fact that a Consul General runs cultural programming out of his home and that our US government gives extensive training in language and culture to all the Americans coming to Guangzhou to serve in the name of diplomacy as opposed to the current trend toward militaristic reactionism.
Its always hard to know how to get people out to your shows anywhere in the world, but I would imagine it would be a special feat in the factory towns of southeast China that are consumed with business affairs and not really in need of an experimental roots chamber quartet performance. Over the three nights in Dongguan, Foshan and Guangzhou we played in front of about 1500 people, all of which were contacted by a personal call from our third party promoter who specially created a list of people in each town that might be interested in this kind of performance including intermediate school band teachers, conservatory deans, local entertainment media, retired musicians associations, owners of local music clubs, misc business partners and friends, etc. We had everyone in the audience from academic types to working class, from 5-90 yrs old. If only someone would make all those calls to get people to check out our live show in the US&
People ask me often in interviews how the Chinese people react to our music. I understand where this question is coming from but it still strikes me as a strange notion. Its about as broad as asking how Americans react to our music. Chinese are as diverse in their reactions as Americans. The conservatory students in Beijing arent just smitten with us because were foreigners, theyre waiting for us to prove to them that our music is worthy of their attention, and when hopefully proven they ask questions about harmonies, modalities and intervals. In the jazz clubs in Shanghai there is a highly discerning mix of expats and local Chinese responsive to the arrangements and individual solos. In rural Sichuan at a chemical college, the students gather in droves to check out the foreign act and instruments (i.e. the banjo) theyve rarely gotten to hear at all much less in person& every moment of the performance is a new discovery. At the animal husbandry college in Tibet we were the first foreigners EVER, period&. Alien banjobanjocellofiddle invasion& we come in peace.
The more I think about it the more I appreciate this question because it brings up one of the things I spend a lot of my time thinking about the role of the nation state in self-perception. Does a persons nationality imply a pre-ordained reaction in any instance to anything? I believe that the human is as diverse as there are people, no two humans alike. I hope that the unique and special qualities of each human being become the guiding light of the future of the goals of any evolving citizenry. I hope that the attachment to the nation-state is shortlived on this planet and merely used as a stepping stone from the more feudalistic forms of organized societies to a sense of ourselves as global citizens committed to the well-being of all souls caught in this web of existence, and committed to the preservation and dissemination of that which is beautiful about who we are, where we come from and where we are going.
Fun Olympics: A Review
What better is there to bolster a strong sense of nationality in people than the Olympics? After my last blog about the No-Fun Olympics I got different reactions from different friends. Some of which agreed with me and some of which didnt. I admit that I only got to see a part of one Japan-USA baseball game and only really had 4 days in Beijing to soak it all in on top of the performing obligations. Friends who spent a lot of time going to athletic events and hanging out in Chinese and non-chinese sections of the cheering crowds had an awesome time. They always seemed to come away with a newfound pile of international friends from their fortuitous spot in the stands. Friends also reported that the cheering was intense all around for generally great acts of athleticism. And as for my statement about tickets not being available, here is my friend, Todd Steeds response:
Anyone, including Chinese- can walk up to something like boxing and get tix at face value (8 dollars) or below. I have heard the police have been sending scalpers away, but it seems that's not so true anymore- a police guy helped me negotiate a ticket to the US Woman's b-ball game with a scalper. I thought he was coming to bust up the sale.
A fact that until now has flown low low below the radar is that The Sparrow Quartet was supposed to play an Olympic venue in Beijing. We did some very cool stuff like playing for a pile of students from Universities all around Beijing at a private event arranged by the ACEE, taping a webchat for china.com, playing live on China Radio International and the Ambassadors residence, but we didnt play an Olympic venue. Early in the trip we were told that we were going to play Ditan Park last Thursday 8/21, at a time to-be-determined. On 8/20 we still had no certain location or time. There are a million reasons it may not have worked out the most likely of which in my mind is the Chinese authorities concern about the shenanigans and protests that might occur as a result of a convening crowd, much in the image of the protests that occurred on the torch runs journey of harmony thru France and some parts of the US. In China you have to apply and receive approval for a protest. In order to win approval a boatload of information must first be supplied including the names and ID #s of all protesters. When I left, the tally of protests that had been applied for and denied were up well over 40.
In review, we were originally supposed to play an event in celebration of the opening of the new US embassy, play in cities in Sichuan dealing with the aftermath of the earthquakes and play an Olympic event& none of which happened. After 5 music tours in China since 2004, and general sino-to-and-fro since 1996, I am not surprised at the immense last minute change in plans. Its always an adventure and as always all kinds of cool stuff did happen. I feel unending gratefulness to our US government for supporting our trip, afterall, in the words of Yann Martel, If we do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination to the altar of cruel reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
Blogging from China
19 Aug 08
Note: Abigail is blogging about the band's trip to China for Paste Magazine. This is her latest installment:
The Ambassador, A Famous Opera Singer, Hot Dogs & The Great Hall of the People
Ambassador Randt and his wife have welcomed me into their home four years in a row to play for them and 80 of their closest friends. This time with the Sparrow 3 was no exception. The guests filter in thru the courtyard and into the venue which is the long living room overlooking the courtyard and the dining room with a big impressionist painting of W Jr. and steaming handmade hotdogs waiting for the conclusion of our show to get munched up.
(at the Ambassador's house)
Among the guests were Mingsai, the Chinese-American chef famous for his regular appearances on the Today show, longtime Beijing artist Betty Eck, and the stunning opera singer Renee Fleming... and thats just the start. Needless to say the post-show dinner conversations were rockin.
We even got to go to the Great Hall of the People the next night to see Renee sing with other Opera greats for an Olympic Cultural event Despite the challenging circumstances of an ill-rehearsed orchestra and a not-so-ideal-acoustics venue she blew everyone out of the water whether you like opera or not this woman is an absolutely power house& definitely something to see.
The entrance to The Great Hall of the People is off of Tiananmen square. Im used to seeing major political speeches on TV in this hall, like the peaceful handover of power from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao at the 16th Party Congress in Octobr of 2002. Odd feeling to walk in thru the heavy red velvet curtain-ed entry way in my finest wears to see a pile of normal Chinese folks dressed in street clothes sitting in the congress seats napping, chatting, texting while the performance was going. We sat near the front and center. The Soviette-style communist symbols on the star-studded ceiling are awe-inducing. On the other hand, the guy next to me answering the phone for one of his mistresses giving him the address of their next rendez-vous was not.
Fluffballs of Fury!
This is all the talk in Beijing.
A quick Chinese lesson for those who dont already know is that each monosyllabic muttering could have a large array of different meanings depending on which tone it is attributed and what context or word pairing it is presented in. For example, the word ma has at least five different meanings based on the four primary tones and the neutral tone: horse, scold, trouble, question mark, mom. When paired with another monosyllabic word it can take on a whole nother meaning in this new context.
So, anyhoo, there are these little stuffed animals, called fuwa, recognized around here as the general mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are named by the Beijings Olympic welcome: Beijing huanying ni which is also the title of their Olympic song, translated: Beijing welcomes you. Their names are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. Each one represents a different wondrous aspect of China. Their background is extremely elaborate, but for now Ill try to keep it simple:
Beibei- Fish design from Neolithic artifacts, denoting prosperity, the Chinese lunar new year and water sports
Jingjing- The endangered panda from Sichuan province, representing global environmentalism
Huanhuan- Fire design from the Mogao Grotto, representing the Olympic flame and the push for excellence
Yingying- From Chinas western provinces, the Tibetan Antelope with Xinjiang ethnic costume elements
Nini- A swallow wearing Beijing kite headgear to symbolize the arrival of spring and the emergence of old to new Beijing
My natural western leaning is definitely not to get sucked into infantile adorance of little fluffy objects. In the case of the fuwa I have to admit that there is something irresistible about them. Despite the cute factor and their representation of the brilliance of Chinese culture, at this point the little creatures have been tainted with heavy conspiracy theory. It is believed that these little stuffed animals actually foreshadowed major disasters in China leading up to the Olympics and perhaps even became conduits for the age old Mandate of Heaven, now known as the curse of the fuwa:
Beibei- 2008 south China floods covering 13 provinces, massive forced evacuations and hundreds of reported deaths
Jingjing- 2008 Sichuan earthquakes killing at least 70,000, at least 20,000 missing and 5-11 million homeless with continuing aftershocks
Huanhuan- Summer Olympic Torch , named the Journey of Harmony met intense relay protests around the world concerned about Chinas human rights, also met with counter-protests by Chinese nationals
Yingying- 2008 Tibetan unrest, known as the 3-14 riots in China started on the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising when 300 monks demanded the release of many monks being detained. Death toll is unkown and issue continues to be highly sensitive.
Nini- 2008 T195 train accident in the kite city of Weifang causing app. 80 deaths and 416 injuries
(at the China.com interview)
Depressing but convincing coincidences& Oh little fuzzballs& let your wrath subside!
No-Fun Olympics (I hung with Cui Jian!)
So people are calling this the no-fun Olympics. So far, Id have to agree. Everywhere you go in Beijing the general development, the ability to have changed the face of the city so quickly, on an absolutely gargantuan level, is profoundly eye-opening and possibly tell-tale for the future of Beijing and China as a whole on the world stage. Nonetheless, the attempt to appear, and in fact, be a 5 star international city has lead to an obsession with order and control& no surprise given the amount of wrangling it must have taken to pull it all together. But, unfortunately, the guards and police everywhere telling the onlookers theyre not allowed to look, the general lack of availability of tickets, the huge posters and banners all over the city guarding the Olympic-comers from the unfinished sides of town and blocking views of the new Olympic architectural wonders is needless to say a bummer. Of course if you have tickets to events on the Olympic Green you can pass tru in an orderly manner. No photos of beer shots or full moons in front of the birds nest for the foreigners this time round&. Maybe Vancouver 2010.
At this point, the only way to experience the mélange of athletes, watchers, corporate hangers-on and stars-gone-olympics is to roam around town dropping into bar areas. A pile of my old Beijing buddies got together at my friends, Toby and AWens restaurant, Purple Haze, near the Gongti stadium. Its always beer-full-endless-conversation excitement, catching up from the last time thru Beijing. My buddies from the bands Random Ke and Bad Cat Bone, and all time pal Jon Campbell were there. About an hour into the hang, I was introduced to the demure and kind-eyed guy sitting to my left. None other than Cuijian, the father of Chinese Rock .
In case you dont know Cuijian you need to. I would encourage learning about him before listening to his recordings. Especially not understanding the Chinese lyrics it can come off as not-all-that-original poppy rock music. But when you understand his impact and the actual challenge this music represented to the listeners and the government of his times, earlier and currently, it takes on a whole new life. He uses revolutionary, heavily metaphored lyrics to express his displeasure with the authorities without being too overt, full of energy and very experimental, especially for Chinese music.
Yi Wu Suo You (Nothing To My Name) is his most famous song&he sang it at talent showcase contest and won, and it became the theme song of the 1989 Tiananmen student movement. Deep deep lyrics about what the country was going through leading up to 1989, and really the very first introduction of rock and roll into Chinese music. Yi Kuar Hong Bu (A Piece of Red Cloth) was probably the song that got him banned in the 90s&he would perform it live wearing a red blindfold, and the lyrics go something like, That day you used a piece of red cloth, you covered my eyes and bound my hands. You asked me what do I see, I said I see happiness. Red, of course, symbolizing the Chinese communist party. No surprise he had to hide in the outer provinces for years.
He drinking beer and wearing a ballcap, myself still in my gig-clothes & a black dress with purple fringe, I asked him what hes up to now. He put out an album this year called, Gei Ni Yidian Yanse (Show You Color), heavy on the noise and samples, something he took several years off to learn about. Now hes finishing up his home studio and thinking about the next project. Being the banjo player that I am, I asked him why he didnt incorporate more traditional Chinese intstruments. He responded that hes really about rock and new composition, his mission, unlike mine, isnt to bring old sound into new times, although he uses Chinese traditional sounds when it fits the lyrics and the composition. But his love for China and things Chinese is clear. He could have left China a thousand times, much loved by big factions of the western world for his subtle, lyrical, melodic way of challenging the status quo and his persistence in the face of adversity.
He said he had seen me perform before. He came to see Ben and Casey and I play with friends from the band IZ at South Gate Space in the 798 district of Beijing 3 yrs ago. He got Song of the Traveling Daughter and said he liked it a lot and had played it for other people as they drove around Beijing. He then invited the band to come check out his home studio. We only have 36 hrs in Beijing and our schedules dont match up& next time, pleeeez?
p.s. thanks to my pal, Peter Fasnacht, at the US Embassy, for giving me the necessary info and helping me understand
The Ambassador, A Famous Opera Singer, Hot Dogs & The Great Hall of the People
Ambassador Randt and his wife have welcomed me into their home four years in a row to play for them and 80 of their closest friends. This time with the Sparrow 3 was no exception. The guests filter in thru the courtyard and into the venue which is the long living room overlooking the courtyard and the dining room with a big impressionist painting of W Jr. and steaming handmade hotdogs waiting for the conclusion of our show to get munched up.
(at the Ambassador's house)
Among the guests were Mingsai, the Chinese-American chef famous for his regular appearances on the Today show, longtime Beijing artist Betty Eck, and the stunning opera singer Renee Fleming... and thats just the start. Needless to say the post-show dinner conversations were rockin.
We even got to go to the Great Hall of the People the next night to see Renee sing with other Opera greats for an Olympic Cultural event Despite the challenging circumstances of an ill-rehearsed orchestra and a not-so-ideal-acoustics venue she blew everyone out of the water whether you like opera or not this woman is an absolutely power house& definitely something to see.
The entrance to The Great Hall of the People is off of Tiananmen square. Im used to seeing major political speeches on TV in this hall, like the peaceful handover of power from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao at the 16th Party Congress in Octobr of 2002. Odd feeling to walk in thru the heavy red velvet curtain-ed entry way in my finest wears to see a pile of normal Chinese folks dressed in street clothes sitting in the congress seats napping, chatting, texting while the performance was going. We sat near the front and center. The Soviette-style communist symbols on the star-studded ceiling are awe-inducing. On the other hand, the guy next to me answering the phone for one of his mistresses giving him the address of their next rendez-vous was not.
Fluffballs of Fury!
This is all the talk in Beijing.
A quick Chinese lesson for those who dont already know is that each monosyllabic muttering could have a large array of different meanings depending on which tone it is attributed and what context or word pairing it is presented in. For example, the word ma has at least five different meanings based on the four primary tones and the neutral tone: horse, scold, trouble, question mark, mom. When paired with another monosyllabic word it can take on a whole nother meaning in this new context.
So, anyhoo, there are these little stuffed animals, called fuwa, recognized around here as the general mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They are named by the Beijings Olympic welcome: Beijing huanying ni which is also the title of their Olympic song, translated: Beijing welcomes you. Their names are Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini. Each one represents a different wondrous aspect of China. Their background is extremely elaborate, but for now Ill try to keep it simple:
Beibei- Fish design from Neolithic artifacts, denoting prosperity, the Chinese lunar new year and water sports
Jingjing- The endangered panda from Sichuan province, representing global environmentalism
Huanhuan- Fire design from the Mogao Grotto, representing the Olympic flame and the push for excellence
Yingying- From Chinas western provinces, the Tibetan Antelope with Xinjiang ethnic costume elements
Nini- A swallow wearing Beijing kite headgear to symbolize the arrival of spring and the emergence of old to new Beijing
My natural western leaning is definitely not to get sucked into infantile adorance of little fluffy objects. In the case of the fuwa I have to admit that there is something irresistible about them. Despite the cute factor and their representation of the brilliance of Chinese culture, at this point the little creatures have been tainted with heavy conspiracy theory. It is believed that these little stuffed animals actually foreshadowed major disasters in China leading up to the Olympics and perhaps even became conduits for the age old Mandate of Heaven, now known as the curse of the fuwa:
Beibei- 2008 south China floods covering 13 provinces, massive forced evacuations and hundreds of reported deaths
Jingjing- 2008 Sichuan earthquakes killing at least 70,000, at least 20,000 missing and 5-11 million homeless with continuing aftershocks
Huanhuan- Summer Olympic Torch , named the Journey of Harmony met intense relay protests around the world concerned about Chinas human rights, also met with counter-protests by Chinese nationals
Yingying- 2008 Tibetan unrest, known as the 3-14 riots in China started on the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising when 300 monks demanded the release of many monks being detained. Death toll is unkown and issue continues to be highly sensitive.
Nini- 2008 T195 train accident in the kite city of Weifang causing app. 80 deaths and 416 injuries
(at the China.com interview)
Depressing but convincing coincidences& Oh little fuzzballs& let your wrath subside!
No-Fun Olympics (I hung with Cui Jian!)
So people are calling this the no-fun Olympics. So far, Id have to agree. Everywhere you go in Beijing the general development, the ability to have changed the face of the city so quickly, on an absolutely gargantuan level, is profoundly eye-opening and possibly tell-tale for the future of Beijing and China as a whole on the world stage. Nonetheless, the attempt to appear, and in fact, be a 5 star international city has lead to an obsession with order and control& no surprise given the amount of wrangling it must have taken to pull it all together. But, unfortunately, the guards and police everywhere telling the onlookers theyre not allowed to look, the general lack of availability of tickets, the huge posters and banners all over the city guarding the Olympic-comers from the unfinished sides of town and blocking views of the new Olympic architectural wonders is needless to say a bummer. Of course if you have tickets to events on the Olympic Green you can pass tru in an orderly manner. No photos of beer shots or full moons in front of the birds nest for the foreigners this time round&. Maybe Vancouver 2010.
At this point, the only way to experience the mélange of athletes, watchers, corporate hangers-on and stars-gone-olympics is to roam around town dropping into bar areas. A pile of my old Beijing buddies got together at my friends, Toby and AWens restaurant, Purple Haze, near the Gongti stadium. Its always beer-full-endless-conversation excitement, catching up from the last time thru Beijing. My buddies from the bands Random Ke and Bad Cat Bone, and all time pal Jon Campbell were there. About an hour into the hang, I was introduced to the demure and kind-eyed guy sitting to my left. None other than Cuijian, the father of Chinese Rock .
In case you dont know Cuijian you need to. I would encourage learning about him before listening to his recordings. Especially not understanding the Chinese lyrics it can come off as not-all-that-original poppy rock music. But when you understand his impact and the actual challenge this music represented to the listeners and the government of his times, earlier and currently, it takes on a whole new life. He uses revolutionary, heavily metaphored lyrics to express his displeasure with the authorities without being too overt, full of energy and very experimental, especially for Chinese music.
Yi Wu Suo You (Nothing To My Name) is his most famous song&he sang it at talent showcase contest and won, and it became the theme song of the 1989 Tiananmen student movement. Deep deep lyrics about what the country was going through leading up to 1989, and really the very first introduction of rock and roll into Chinese music. Yi Kuar Hong Bu (A Piece of Red Cloth) was probably the song that got him banned in the 90s&he would perform it live wearing a red blindfold, and the lyrics go something like, That day you used a piece of red cloth, you covered my eyes and bound my hands. You asked me what do I see, I said I see happiness. Red, of course, symbolizing the Chinese communist party. No surprise he had to hide in the outer provinces for years.
He drinking beer and wearing a ballcap, myself still in my gig-clothes & a black dress with purple fringe, I asked him what hes up to now. He put out an album this year called, Gei Ni Yidian Yanse (Show You Color), heavy on the noise and samples, something he took several years off to learn about. Now hes finishing up his home studio and thinking about the next project. Being the banjo player that I am, I asked him why he didnt incorporate more traditional Chinese intstruments. He responded that hes really about rock and new composition, his mission, unlike mine, isnt to bring old sound into new times, although he uses Chinese traditional sounds when it fits the lyrics and the composition. But his love for China and things Chinese is clear. He could have left China a thousand times, much loved by big factions of the western world for his subtle, lyrical, melodic way of challenging the status quo and his persistence in the face of adversity.
He said he had seen me perform before. He came to see Ben and Casey and I play with friends from the band IZ at South Gate Space in the 798 district of Beijing 3 yrs ago. He got Song of the Traveling Daughter and said he liked it a lot and had played it for other people as they drove around Beijing. He then invited the band to come check out his home studio. We only have 36 hrs in Beijing and our schedules dont match up& next time, pleeeez?
p.s. thanks to my pal, Peter Fasnacht, at the US Embassy, for giving me the necessary info and helping me understand
Thinking about Sichuan
18 Aug 08
I just found out from the folks at the State Department that we wont be able to go to Sichuan in August: We had wanted you to go to Chengdu& but the local authorities feel that it is still too soon.
When the earthquakes hit several months ago, I felt a strange void settle inside& a loss that I dont understand. I know there are a lot of folks that Ive only known thru performing in rural areas that likely have been affected if not directly hurt or killed by the earthquakes. My old teacher at Sichuan University, Lao Wang, has passed on and I dont have the same intimate link to life in Chengdu as I once did. I was hoping that the August visit to Sichuan with The Sparrow Quartet through the State Department would help me make sense of Sichuan now.
Ive tried to keep up with the general media about the multi-level after-effects of the earthquakes in Sichuan. Chinese press seems to spend all their ink hailing the good works of the people and the triumphant efforts of the national army and local party saints. The US media allots their ink, as usual, exploiting the dirty underbelly of relief efforts and righteously probing the source of further wounding. Not that I think there arent acts of heroism and generosity on the part of party cadres and that there arent terrible atrocities occurring in the recovery effort, but I just want something to hold on to, something real to make sense of it& a chance to go to Sichuan and play music was my hold out.
I am sitting in a Ford Taurus rental, driving from Calgary to Helena just trying to get where I am going to play music for new people, this side of the pacific. I am thinking about the fact that I play the banjo because of my days sitting in the bamboo gardens in Chengdu playing mahjong and sipping jasmine tea, watching a local elderly man paint calligraphy and old ladies dancing with red ribbons in the next grove. I wanted to love something in American culture as much as that moment.
I love the music of Washington Phillips, his songs and voice are compelling to cut thru the gritty sand paper sound of the old 30s recording technology. These days, when I have the banjo in my hands, I want to sing one song, What are They Doing in Heaven Today?.
Its never too soon to make music in hope of healing and recovery and to admit the losses, as poignant and painful or obtuse and confused as they may be.
When the earthquakes hit several months ago, I felt a strange void settle inside& a loss that I dont understand. I know there are a lot of folks that Ive only known thru performing in rural areas that likely have been affected if not directly hurt or killed by the earthquakes. My old teacher at Sichuan University, Lao Wang, has passed on and I dont have the same intimate link to life in Chengdu as I once did. I was hoping that the August visit to Sichuan with The Sparrow Quartet through the State Department would help me make sense of Sichuan now.
Ive tried to keep up with the general media about the multi-level after-effects of the earthquakes in Sichuan. Chinese press seems to spend all their ink hailing the good works of the people and the triumphant efforts of the national army and local party saints. The US media allots their ink, as usual, exploiting the dirty underbelly of relief efforts and righteously probing the source of further wounding. Not that I think there arent acts of heroism and generosity on the part of party cadres and that there arent terrible atrocities occurring in the recovery effort, but I just want something to hold on to, something real to make sense of it& a chance to go to Sichuan and play music was my hold out.
I am sitting in a Ford Taurus rental, driving from Calgary to Helena just trying to get where I am going to play music for new people, this side of the pacific. I am thinking about the fact that I play the banjo because of my days sitting in the bamboo gardens in Chengdu playing mahjong and sipping jasmine tea, watching a local elderly man paint calligraphy and old ladies dancing with red ribbons in the next grove. I wanted to love something in American culture as much as that moment.
I love the music of Washington Phillips, his songs and voice are compelling to cut thru the gritty sand paper sound of the old 30s recording technology. These days, when I have the banjo in my hands, I want to sing one song, What are They Doing in Heaven Today?.
Its never too soon to make music in hope of healing and recovery and to admit the losses, as poignant and painful or obtuse and confused as they may be.
2006 and 2007 China Retrospective
18 Aug 08
China 2006 & 2007 Retrospective
Heading back over the pacific to China has me looking over old pics and remembering some highlights from the 2006 and 2007 tours to China.
2006 tour to China was month long adventure with the Sparrow Quartet that included indie shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as US State Dept sponsored events in all the same places as well as sponsoring to do the first ever US cultural mission to Tibet. All pics and video courtesy of Casey Driessen.
In Beijing at lunch with the Dolan singers from Xinjiang Province before their show:
At their show at the South Gate Space:
Singing Keys to the Kingdom and playing chopsticks with Dolan singers:
Pass to Linzhe, Tibet
In 2007, I spent 10 days in Beijing visting good friends and playing music with some traditional Chinese musicians for a sino-american girl band: Dongnan on pipa, Wangyiping on zhongruan and vocals, and Changjing on guzheng (quiji at midi jazz fest). This is a picture of us rehearsing at Dongnans apartment
We recorded a few tracks on my garage band at a house concert. Its very rough recordings&
Heading back over the pacific to China has me looking over old pics and remembering some highlights from the 2006 and 2007 tours to China.
2006 tour to China was month long adventure with the Sparrow Quartet that included indie shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou as well as US State Dept sponsored events in all the same places as well as sponsoring to do the first ever US cultural mission to Tibet. All pics and video courtesy of Casey Driessen.
In Beijing at lunch with the Dolan singers from Xinjiang Province before their show:
At their show at the South Gate Space:
Singing Keys to the Kingdom and playing chopsticks with Dolan singers:
Pass to Linzhe, Tibet
In 2007, I spent 10 days in Beijing visting good friends and playing music with some traditional Chinese musicians for a sino-american girl band: Dongnan on pipa, Wangyiping on zhongruan and vocals, and Changjing on guzheng (quiji at midi jazz fest). This is a picture of us rehearsing at Dongnans apartment
We recorded a few tracks on my garage band at a house concert. Its very rough recordings&
An interview with Zoe Trischka
5 Aug 08
My friend, Zoe Trischka just sent me her fifth grade class project, Modern Women in Progressive Acoustic Music. She ended up choosing two subjects, myself and Aoife ODonovan. When she sent me her list of questions I was overwhelmed& they were such simple questions and yet required intense introspection and careful articulation. I wasnt sure I was ready for the task but tried my best.
I was inspired personally by Zoes project. Her questions helped me understand why I play music clearer than ever. I thought Id make it available to you all in case you might find her inquiries and results inspiring as well. Below youll find the full-length interview between Zoe and me.
Zoe Trischka was born in Fairlawn, NJ to mother Assunta Trischka, 7th grade teacher at local public school, and father Tony Trischka, contemporary hero of progressive banjo music. Zoe is getting ready to enter 6th grade. She loves to dance and spends a lot of her daydreaming hours thinking about interior design.
Id like to thank Zoe for including me in her project&. Im glad to know the future is in the hands of beautiful young women like her!
1. Why do you play music?
I play music because it makes me feel more fully alive, and it gives me a way to express outwardly what my feeling of being alive is like. Everyday is a new opportunity to express this array of emotion and experience of being human. Music gives me a deeply creative ability to express how I feel things and see things as I go through my days.
Take a sad moment for instance...When I see something sad my mind and body deliver me tons of information about my experience of that sad moment. i usually feel a heat in my belly that turns cold and leads me to feel afraid and lonely... i can see a deep blue color, deep like the place in the ocean where the light on the surface starts to fade... this feeling and color leads my intellect to search for way to express this to the people around me that might help me feel better. Often i just express myself with words and emotion... but the most meaningful way i have ever expressed the feeling of sadness is to sing... to cultivate a sound that releases the heat and coldness, the darkening color. And when I sing I can share this experience of sadness with others in a way that unites us in a moment of attention to sound and, ultimately, gratitude for what it means to be alive. I've seen over and over again that singing heals and inspires. i can see no greater purpose in life.
2. Who were your influences or inspirations (musical or otherwise)?
My biggest influences musically are my friends, family, teachers and all the personalities and artists that made me think and feel the way I do. My favorite piece of music from when i was a small child until now is Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech. They say he was speaking but I think he was singing. Not only did MLK have something so important for the American people to hear but he presented it with such gorgeous syntax, vocal lilt and chest voice conviction. It is the most beautiful song of hope I've ever heard, and it makes me want to sing for freedom and love.
Other huge influences are Gandhi, my teacher in China Lao Wang, the great old time singers Hazel and Alice, the old recordings of George Washington Phillips, the amazing gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, the old time banjo playing of Riley Baugus and Dirk Powell, the great African singer Oumou Sangare, the folk music-oriented classical music of Bela Bartok, Chinese Folk music, Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and the list goes on.
All of the other musicians I get to share time with on the road, and see perform have a heavy influence on my music as well.
3. How do you think your music differs from the women who came before you (in Bluegrass & Old Time music)?
None of the women of old time music in the US that I know of had spent a lot of time in china, and sing in chinese. I suppose it is because of the modern age of travel and easy access to personal experience in other cultures that has made me a different kind of folk singer. I'm a product of my times to a certain extent. And I can see that people are becoming more and more of a global race.. I am probably just one of many early signs of this. Women of old time music in the early twentieth century were playing the folk music of their times. The generation prior to mine, folk revival of the 60s and 70s were obsessed with preserving and copying the sounds of the folk music. I am the newest generation and I am obsessed with incorporating my experience of a transforming geopolitical reality into my folk music.
4. Did you mean to have your music sound so progressive, or did it just happen?
It just happened. I lived in China, came back, bought a banjo, started writing songs in both of the languages I speak, and before you know it people thought of me as different and expressive... and I've embraced the role! the most authentic progressive concepts seem to be those that organically emerge from a world in need of a next step of evolution. i believe that this can not be conjured but must be an expression of a concept with an already intense inertia.
I was inspired personally by Zoes project. Her questions helped me understand why I play music clearer than ever. I thought Id make it available to you all in case you might find her inquiries and results inspiring as well. Below youll find the full-length interview between Zoe and me.
Zoe Trischka was born in Fairlawn, NJ to mother Assunta Trischka, 7th grade teacher at local public school, and father Tony Trischka, contemporary hero of progressive banjo music. Zoe is getting ready to enter 6th grade. She loves to dance and spends a lot of her daydreaming hours thinking about interior design.
Id like to thank Zoe for including me in her project&. Im glad to know the future is in the hands of beautiful young women like her!
1. Why do you play music?
I play music because it makes me feel more fully alive, and it gives me a way to express outwardly what my feeling of being alive is like. Everyday is a new opportunity to express this array of emotion and experience of being human. Music gives me a deeply creative ability to express how I feel things and see things as I go through my days.
Take a sad moment for instance...When I see something sad my mind and body deliver me tons of information about my experience of that sad moment. i usually feel a heat in my belly that turns cold and leads me to feel afraid and lonely... i can see a deep blue color, deep like the place in the ocean where the light on the surface starts to fade... this feeling and color leads my intellect to search for way to express this to the people around me that might help me feel better. Often i just express myself with words and emotion... but the most meaningful way i have ever expressed the feeling of sadness is to sing... to cultivate a sound that releases the heat and coldness, the darkening color. And when I sing I can share this experience of sadness with others in a way that unites us in a moment of attention to sound and, ultimately, gratitude for what it means to be alive. I've seen over and over again that singing heals and inspires. i can see no greater purpose in life.
2. Who were your influences or inspirations (musical or otherwise)?
My biggest influences musically are my friends, family, teachers and all the personalities and artists that made me think and feel the way I do. My favorite piece of music from when i was a small child until now is Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech. They say he was speaking but I think he was singing. Not only did MLK have something so important for the American people to hear but he presented it with such gorgeous syntax, vocal lilt and chest voice conviction. It is the most beautiful song of hope I've ever heard, and it makes me want to sing for freedom and love.
Other huge influences are Gandhi, my teacher in China Lao Wang, the great old time singers Hazel and Alice, the old recordings of George Washington Phillips, the amazing gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, the old time banjo playing of Riley Baugus and Dirk Powell, the great African singer Oumou Sangare, the folk music-oriented classical music of Bela Bartok, Chinese Folk music, Woodie Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and the list goes on.
All of the other musicians I get to share time with on the road, and see perform have a heavy influence on my music as well.
3. How do you think your music differs from the women who came before you (in Bluegrass & Old Time music)?
None of the women of old time music in the US that I know of had spent a lot of time in china, and sing in chinese. I suppose it is because of the modern age of travel and easy access to personal experience in other cultures that has made me a different kind of folk singer. I'm a product of my times to a certain extent. And I can see that people are becoming more and more of a global race.. I am probably just one of many early signs of this. Women of old time music in the early twentieth century were playing the folk music of their times. The generation prior to mine, folk revival of the 60s and 70s were obsessed with preserving and copying the sounds of the folk music. I am the newest generation and I am obsessed with incorporating my experience of a transforming geopolitical reality into my folk music.
4. Did you mean to have your music sound so progressive, or did it just happen?
It just happened. I lived in China, came back, bought a banjo, started writing songs in both of the languages I speak, and before you know it people thought of me as different and expressive... and I've embraced the role! the most authentic progressive concepts seem to be those that organically emerge from a world in need of a next step of evolution. i believe that this can not be conjured but must be an expression of a concept with an already intense inertia.
5. What is your biggest or most significant contribution to Bluegrass or Old Time music?
Probably the Chinese... or the global sense of being a folk musician. I am not acting a part, I am internally all the things I express in my music... this is not necessarily a contribution but a necessity of our changing times.
6. Do you wish to have other women follow in your footsteps?
I love nothing more than seeing women feel full of the ability to share music. I wish that every woman in the world felt she had a voice to sing the struggle and joys of life. I also love seeing women playing instruments. The stronger women's voice become in music, the more the beauty of femininity will add to the power of music.
7. Do your band members contribute to your musical success and/or progress?
Band members are a huge part of the sound and experience myself and the audience experience during a show or on a recording. I've been very picky about the people I want to work with and I get pickier everyday. I don't mean that I'm picky about the musical hang... I love folk music because it's not elitist, it's about everyone making music... ilove being a part of this community. When it comes to the small group of musicians that I take the time to make recordings and performances with, I become very picky. i need to work with people that share a common mission to move the audience in a similar way. It's like a sports team with a goal of winning... you create rules and strategies for success... and if every member is not on the same page, the important stuff falls thru the cracks, and it becomes hard to "win". I need to work with people that feel like theyre on a team. I need total empathic and virtuosic commitment to a common sound. I have high ideals!
8. What are your thoughts about the future of progressive acoustic music?
Well, I think the future of progressive acoustic music should help influence the way we as humans morph further and further into a global species. I want my contribution to music to change the way people think about the term world music. I would like to see music help dissolve the barriers between people... the barriers of nationhood, race, gender, class. I would like to see us calling ourselves global citizens... keepers of the earth, keepers of a world civilization full of miraculous diversity that gives us richness of experience rather that reason to find fault.
9. Can you comment on Alison Krauss and Aiofe?
In my eyes both Aoife and Alison are phenomenal and talented women. They are so strong and beautiful and uncompromising of this in the presentation of their music. They are both magnetic creatures. I look to both of them as cohorts in the music world... i watch them to see how to change and grow my music. I watch them to see how they navigate the music industry and I take notes on their successes. I can feel that the greater their success the greater mine as well. I would like all of us to be on stage together some day singing.
10. Is there anything youd like to add, especially about your music?
i think i've said enough crazy stuff!
go banjo!!
zoe rocks!!!!
Tales from the road
22 Jul 08
Tales from the road
I was on the phone with my friend the other day and she said, "You really should write about your crazy schedule. People that aren't traveling musicians don't know what it's like. Personally& I think you're insane."
Until this conversation with my friend I thought it impossible that there could any broad interest in The Sparrow Quartet travel schedule& but maybe there is. I think I agree with her, I'm insane, but still I feel lucky to get to play music for a living. For those of you that are interested this is what the past 2 weeks have looked like, also see the pics of us waitingwaitingwaiting in airports.
7/9 -travel day- fly Nashville to Duluth, MN - Connection in Minneapolis, dinner at an airport café while waiting for delayed flight. Arrive Duluth 12:30am.
7/10 Big Top Chattaqua Show- noon departure for Duluth airport hotel for two hour drive to Bayfield, WI for No Depression 3pm photoshoot, 4:30pm soundcheck and 7:30pm show. 10:30pm tear down. 11:30pm drive
two hours back to Duluth airport hotel. Sleep by 2am.
*Country Inn & Suites next to the Duluth airport has a rockin' waterslide that Ben and Bela and I took advantage of&
7/11 Winnipeg Folk Festival- 4:45am lobby call for shuttle to airport for 7am flight to Winnipeg by way of Minneapolis. Sit on runway for 3hours, flight cancelled. Scramble for new flight. Arrive in Winnipeg 3pm, Bela and I go direct to world music workshop. Sleep in trailer backstage for 2hours, play mainstage set at 9:30pm. Midnight return to hotel.
7/12 -Winnipeg Folk Festival- 10am lobby call for shuttle to festival. Noon workshop in rain and wind...water dripping from our instruments. 2pm shuttle to airport. 3pm flight to Vancouver Island via Calgary. Night off of good food at The Atlas Café and five pin bowling.
7/13 Vancouver Island Music Fest- 12:45pm banjo workshop, 3:30pm songwriting workshop, 7:30pm mainstage set. 11pm return to hotel pack up and drive 3 hours to Victoria. Asleep by 3am.
7/14 Benaroya Hall- 9am lobby call to return rental cars and catch the Victoria Clipper ferry to Seattle. Meet my mom in Seattle to borrow van and drive to downtown hotel. 30 min break before walk to venue for soundcheck. 5pm soundcheck, 6:30pm nap, 7:30pm show, opening for Earl Scruggs. Out to dinner with promoter and musicians
at 11pm. Asleep by 2:30am.
7/15 Aladdin Theatre- 11am lobby call for 3.5 hour drive to Portland. 3:45pm load in and soundcheck. 5:30pm 20 min nap in van. 8pm show. Asleep by 1am.
7/16 travel day- lobby call 9am for airport. 11am flight to Boston by way of Chicago. First flight late, miss second flight. Re-booked on later flight. Later flight mechanical problems, fly to Providence instead, rent two cars, asleep in Lowell, MA by 4:30am. Bags lost.
7/17 Lowell Summer Music Series- 2pm lobby call. Delay departure for bags. 3pm load in. 4:30pm soundcheck. 7:30pm show. Midnight departure for three hour drive to Ancra, NY. In bed by 3am.
7/18 Greyfox Bluegrass Festival- 9am rehearsal with Uncle Earl. 11am 20 min nap. Noon departure for festival. 2pm mainstage set with Uncle Earl. 4pm dance stage set with Uncle Earl. 7:30pm mainstage set. 11:30pm departure for Albany slow driving thru torrential rains. In bed by 2am.
7/19 Vancouver Folk Festival- 5:30am lobby call for airport. Fly Albany to Vancouver, BC by way of Chicago. First flight fine. Second flight sat on runway in rainstorms for an hour, began to accel up ramp and came to a sudden screeching, smoking stop before lifting off. Apparently the engines were running at different speeds. Plane no good. Back to airport, wait on runway for gate. De-plane. New
plane found. Immediately before boarding crew hours expire, flight cancelled at 2pm. Re-booked standby on oversold 3pm flight& starting to cut close to set time at Vancouver. Last minute confirmation of seats. Arrive Vancouver 6pm. 8:25pm set time.
*Albany flight attendent announces: "Any instruments without passports may not board the plane." And, "Anyone with a Boston Red Sox shirt on can board the plane first."
7/20 Vancouver Folk Festival/Showcase- 9am departure for 10am workshop with Red Chamber and John Reishman & the Jaybirds. 11:30am media tent for TV interviews. 1:20pm for workshop. 4pm depart festival for Nettwerk Headquarters to play showcase. 8pm leave for airport. 11:10pm flight to Nashville thru Chicago. 5am arrival in Chicago, customs, and now I'm sitting at the gate for a return home to Nashville at 6:40am, arrive Nashville 8am. Go home and sleep! Repack to leave for another tour 48 hours later& first stop Colorado, Rockygrass.
USA Today Backstage Pass
25 Jun 08
Just a quick note to let you know about a whole bunch of stuff happening right now.
I got to be the Backstage Pass correspondant for USAtoday.com for both Bonnaroo and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. They gave me a little flip camera to document the experience from head to toe, I took hours and hours of footage. I'm not sure how I feel about the gold jumpsuit making it into the Bonnaroo segment! The Telluride piece should be up soon if it isn't already lots of candid Uncle Earl shots, and a bunch more folks you might recognize. Check it out here.
New website is up. We had to make some changes in order to make the website easier to use and more content friendly. I love my old website and we're looking into ways to use it for archived content. There is a bunch of new stuff posted that wasn't on my old site like e-town, world café, pics from 'the road' and bonnaroo in the gallery& go check it out!
Unfortunately our show at the Troubadour has been postponed to a later date& and we're not sure what the date will be. We're sad we won't be able to play for our LA friends but we'll be sure to make it happen again down the road. If you live in LA and want to see us we'll be in Santa Barbara and San Diego on Sunday and Monday. You can find links on the website to purchase tickets thru the venues.
WE'RE ON THE ROAD! Hope to see you out at a show& and let your friends know too:
June 27 Paramount Theatre, Charlottesville, VA
* **CANCELLED - June 28 Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA***
June 29 - SoHo Restaurant, Santa Barbara, CA
June 30 - Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach,CA
July 3 - High Sierra Music Festival, Quincy, CA
I got to be the Backstage Pass correspondant for USAtoday.com for both Bonnaroo and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. They gave me a little flip camera to document the experience from head to toe, I took hours and hours of footage. I'm not sure how I feel about the gold jumpsuit making it into the Bonnaroo segment! The Telluride piece should be up soon if it isn't already lots of candid Uncle Earl shots, and a bunch more folks you might recognize. Check it out here.
New website is up. We had to make some changes in order to make the website easier to use and more content friendly. I love my old website and we're looking into ways to use it for archived content. There is a bunch of new stuff posted that wasn't on my old site like e-town, world café, pics from 'the road' and bonnaroo in the gallery& go check it out!
Unfortunately our show at the Troubadour has been postponed to a later date& and we're not sure what the date will be. We're sad we won't be able to play for our LA friends but we'll be sure to make it happen again down the road. If you live in LA and want to see us we'll be in Santa Barbara and San Diego on Sunday and Monday. You can find links on the website to purchase tickets thru the venues.
WE'RE ON THE ROAD! Hope to see you out at a show& and let your friends know too:
June 27 Paramount Theatre, Charlottesville, VA
* **CANCELLED - June 28 Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA***
June 29 - SoHo Restaurant, Santa Barbara, CA
June 30 - Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach,CA
July 3 - High Sierra Music Festival, Quincy, CA
Obama
11 Jun 08
Yesterday was a good day. It started with a 10am visit to our little friend Quincey's Asheville montessori preschool. Bela and I played double banjos to a room full of 3-5 year olds and a handful of teachers. I was nervous. It's a different kind of crowd. A pile of little faces looking up with wide open eyes and little bodies full of and power packed energy ready to burst and bounce all around the room... i must say it's rare to have that kind of raw open energy flowing from an audience. It's hard to know what to do with it... these kids are REALLY listening and watching and likely to copy anything I do-pressure's on.
We started with a couple of double banjo tunes without words. After the first number I asked them if they had ever heards banjos before and 3/4 of the room raised their hands at the same time. Then I asked if any of them played banjo... two kids raised their hands and then the whole room caught on, threw their hands into the air and started yelling "I do, I do, I do!". I could see that are questioning would be subject to contagious answering. So, next I asked, "How many of you love the banjo?" and, waddaya know... a cacaphony of "I do!" My confidence increased...
Next a rendition of Jenny Jenkins that I learned from an old radio recording of E.C, and Orna Ball. Every verse the kids gave me a color and Bela and I would have to make up a rhyme to it, preceded by the songs ever-so-compelling lyric, "so i'll buy me a sillysollyseekeydoubleuseitcuzitrollybindings".... due to the contagion of speech we ended up doing blue, pink and red about 4 times each. One kid even told us to rhyme pink with sphinx. Then a splendid audience reaction to one of Bela's nose tricks on the banjo. Keys to Kingdom came next to the accompaniment of little snapping fingers, and a final song in chinese. The announcement of the title in chinese was met with roaring laughter... huh. I think they might have liked the chinese song the best ... after Bela's nose trick.
The middle of the day was spent rehearsing with Ben for a Sparrow Trio performance. Casey's mid-recording his new solo record so no casey. We worked up an hour worth of material for our opening slot for Arrested Development at The Orange Peel. My friend Mary Alice coordinated the show to raise awareness on the first day of early voting in the NC primary. Things changed in NC since the last presidential primary... now you can register and vote at the same time at any voting location in NC.
Ben, Bela and I worked up a version of Ben's song A Few Honest Words with an intro and outro of Bob Dylan's The Time's they are a-Changin'. Hope for change, a better time ahead with leadership that represents what we care about... everybody sang along. They even sang the words to Imagine while bela played the melody (minus the nose this time).
Arrested Development rocked out. I've loved their music for a long time - it just doesn't get better than Everyday People and Tennessee. I got to meet Speech backstage - extremely swoon-worthy. Such a positive force. Some distant talk of a possible remix... we'll see where it all leads.
I hope Obama wins. I believe in a better future when I think about him as President. And I hope there are more and more people that band together to make nights like this happen again and again.
Check out the poster:
