Big Ears - Day Two

Here's the recap of who I saw at Big Ears on Friday, starting with The Nels Cline Singers. As you probably know, the name's ironic and there are no vocalists in the "Singers," but in addition to Nels on guitar, the band included saxophonist Skerit, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and bassist Trevor Dunn. Pianist Brian Marsalla was supposed to be with the band but was given the day off because he and his wife are about to have their first child.  

After the "Singers," I saw the Sun Ra Arkestra. You might notice James McNew and Georgia Kaplan of Yo La Tengo in the picture below - the set was a joint collaboration by the Arkestra and Yo La Tengo. They've played together before, and YLT has recorded Sun Ra's Nuclear War (which closed this set before the traditional curtain closer Space Is the Place). I'm a big fan of both bands, and the set turned out to be even better than I had thought.  

After SRA/YLT, I saw a set by Thor Harris at Knoxville's First Presbyterian Church. The set consisted of two numbers - a solo performance by Thor on looped electric keyboards and clarinet, and a mostly acoustic performance including members of his band Water Damage, including guitarist Marissa Anderson.  

Here's guitarist David Grubbs with the new band Squanderers, which also includes guitarists Kramer and Wendy Eisenberg (not pictured, duh). 

And here's Mike Reed's Separatist Party, which includes, in addition to drummer Reed, cornetist Ben LaMar Gay, members of electronic jazz band Bitchin' Bajas, and spoken word performer Marvin Tate. 

A highlight of the day was forward leaning, avant jazz quartet أحمد [Ahmed].

The day ended with a set by electronic producers/turntablists Maria Chavez + Victoria Shen + Mariam Rezaei. Here's Shen using her body as a string instrument, bowing a line between her neck and foot, while modulating the tone with her leg. Later she was cracking a bullwhip at the edge of the stage, terrifying those of us in the front row as she whirled the whip over our heads before cracking it down inches away from us (she nicked my thumb, not on the whip's cracking down stroke, but on the upstroke just before the crackdown). That was the day's WTF, only-at-Big Ears moment. 

Day Three starts in just a couple of hours.