big ears 2024

Seen this year at the Big Ears Festival: Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus (repertory band); Mary Halvorson Amaryllis; Tyondai Braxton; Jlin; Unwound; Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant Extra; Claire Rousay; Ikue Mori / Fred Frith; Kristin Hersh; Brad Mehldau; Tomeka Reid; Bitchin’ Bajas; Carl Craig; Min Xiao Fen; Colleen; Myra Melford Fire & Water; Colin Stetson; Beth Orton; JG Thirlwell & Ensemble; Bar Italia; Shabaka; Ches Smith’s Laugh Ash; Matt Mitchell; Void Patrol; KMRU; John Paul Jones / Thurston Moore (*not seen due to delays); André 3000

Big Ears Festival, 2023

Yarn / Wire performing Lucier / McIntosh and Mochizuki

Sam Gendel / Sam Wilkes

Phill Niblock

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet

Rob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra

David Byrne’s Reasons to Be Cheerful

Wendy Eisenberg

Mary Halvorson Amaryllis

Kali Malone’s Living Torch

The Meridian Brothers

Tyshawn Sorey Trio with Bill Frisell & Joe Lovano

Pino Palladino & Blake Mills

Irreversible Entanglements

Tarbaby with David Murray

Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba

Catherine Lamb performed by Jack Quartet

William Parker Mayan Space Station

Vinicius Cantuaria

James ‘Blood’ Ulmer

Xylouris White

John Zorn’s Gnostic Trio

Theon Cross

Éliane Radigue performed by Nate Wooley

Kate NV

Oneohtrix Point Never

Big Ears Festival, 2020

Knoxville, TN March 24-27

As opposed to most of the drawings below, the sketches from this event were made live, in pencil, rather than in ink and after-the-fact from photographs I took.

Kronos Quartet; So Percussion˚; Tomeka Reid & Nikky Finney; Black Monument Ensemble; Fennesz; MSSV˚; Low˚; Kris Davis & Julian Lage (talk); Craig Taborn Trio; Claire Rousay; Kris Davis Diatom Ribbons; Sons of Kemet˚; Ensemble dal Niente with Ken Vandermark; Kim Gordon˚; Ben Lamar Gay, Damon Locks & Angel Bat Dawid (talk); Brian Marsella Trio; Ches Smith / We All Break; Yasmin Williams; Sarah Davachi; Ben Lamar Gay; Circuit des Yeux; Annette Peacock; Dead Rider˚; Sarah Davachi; Hanif Abdurraqib (talk); Bill Frisell Trio; Sudan Archives˚; John Zorn New Masada

˚-not pictured.

Big Ears Festival, 2019

Knoxville, TN

Rachel Grimes; Joan la Barbara; YoshimiO / Ibarra / Lowe; Mercury Rev; Lonnie Holley with Messthetics; Larry Grenadier; Harold Budd + Nief Norf; Evan Parker Trance Map; The Comet Is Coming; Absînt (Berne + Frisell); Spiritualized; Jlin; Fire!; Nate Wooley; Amirtha Kidambi and the Elder Ones; Kayhan Kalhor; This Is Not This Heat; Jon Mueller; Abstract Black; Bill Frisell (livescore to Bill Morrisson); Sons of Kemet; Alvin Lucier & Ever Present Orchestra; Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin; Arvo Pärt’s Passio performed by the St. John’s Episcopal Choir; Sun of Goldfinger; Art Ensemble of Chicago + guests

Joan al Barbara

Comet Is Coming

Amirtha Kidambi and Elder Ones

Alvin Lucier