Vijay Iyer blogs Andrew Hill

I've recently been re-reading Robert Calasso's epic retelling of Indian mythology, Ka. He approaches the body of work as a tapestry, and follows the threads through a non-linear narrative that is both fascinating and at times impenetrably dense.

There are little fragments that jump out of the text periodically, such as:

"The obscure Rudra, still lurking in that undifferentiated fullness that precedes all creation, in that state of being at once implicit and closed in upon himself, agreed to split into a double that turned to face an external progenitor, indeed his own eventual progenitor, Prajapati." (Calasso, 43)

That undifferentiated fullness that precedes all creation!

The Third Annual Umbrella Music Festival here in Chicago kicks of tomorrow, presenting a broad program of improvised musicians from Europe and the United States. Speaking only in terms of my own taste and interest, this year's lineup is the strongest to date. I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of musicians I've heard of but never seen live, and a lot of musicians that I admire and can't get enough of.

The festivities kick off tomorrow at the Chicago Cultural Center and run through Sunday.

For a complete schedule, check the Umbrella Music website or download the PDF program book.

Big ups to the Umbrella organizers and all involved for putting this together and bringing this music to Chicago.

I can only hope that the opening night will be celebratory in more ways than one. Vote early and vote often!

Many thanks to the helpful comments from a few Soundslope readers who pointed out that my links in a previous post had gone terribly awry. They are now fixed, irrelevantly late (eons in blog years), but if you are interested you can peruse the post with the fixed links here.

Braxton fever hits the press in advance of the Mosaic box set:

Not A Jazz Musician? by David Adler

Tony Award by Steve Futterman

Mike Heffley has outtakes from the liner notes available for perusal on his site.

If you haven't peeped the Destination: Out post(s) on Braxton, do so.

And if you haven't watched the video interview(s) on Mosaic's site with Braxton, do so: they are as always illuminating and engaging.

Rudresh Mahanthappa interviewed: Part One, Part Two. Thoughts on Rudresh's recent recording Kinsmen out on Pi Recordings coming soon to a Soundslope near you.

Peter Gannushkin photo blogging

Let your yeah be yeah and your no be no!

ETA: See also - electronic versions of the "Complete Arista Liner Notes" and portions of Braxton's Composition Notes. Thanks Jason.