If it’s “Labor Day” in America, Andrea and I must be in Miami, Florida, where we’re starting a third promotional swing across the US for And the Roots of Rhythm Remain (with the added bonus of a week in Mexico). Labor Day, for those unfamiliar with it, was once America’s answer to May 1st, a celebration of the country’s workers and their unions, which Trump seems determined to turn into a quaint relic of a bygone era, designed primarily for gas-guzzling beach or lake jaunts and grilling giant burgers. Signs of resistance are few and far between.
We start and finish this trip in two of the South’s best bookstores: September 2nd at Miami’s Books & Books, and September 17th at New Orleans’Octavia Books, in conversation with Jay Mazza.
In between, we’ll take part in the Hay Festival Querétaro, Mexico where I will be in conversation with journalist Mariana H before heading to the West Coast where we’ll reprise the show we put on in March at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville.
Photo: Polly Thomas
These ‘audio-visual’ cinema events combine a wonderful collection of rare film clips – Taj Mahal with Toumani Diabaté, Kate Bush with the Trio Bulgarka, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo, Ivo Papasov and David Sanborn, Ravi Shankar with George Harrison, Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly etc – interspersed with narration and readings by yours truly. This show’s first ventures outside the confines of Big Ears will take place in:
San Francisco, CA at Roxie Cinema in partnership with Book Passage, 6pm Thursday, September 11th
Ojai, CA at the Ojai Playhouse in partnership with Hotel El Roblar and Bart’s Books, 4pm Saturday, September 13th
Kulanjan recording sessions with Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabaté in 1999, Athens, Georgia / Photo: Banning Eyre
If all goes well, we may turn up with it one day in a city near you…
Meanwhile, don’t forget our two 100-song playlists, and if that’s not enough Roots Remain music for you, I’ve been doing all manner of broadcasts and podcasts. One that worked particularly well (with plenty of music) is Johnny Fewings’ Jazz, Blues and Beyond. Another one brings us full circle to the film clips, which include one from NBC-TV’s Night Music, where first-season host Jools Holland gives one of his dry-as-the-Sahara intros to the Trio Bulgarka. NBC didn’t like his attitude or accent and sent him packing back to Britain where he pitched a similar show to BBC television; Later with Jools Holland became an institution now in its 35th year. He’s recently branched out into radio with a show on BBC’s Classical Radio 3, and I had a great time being his guest on a music-filled edition of Earlier… with Jools Holland. My book is full of links between classical and traditional music and Jools and I had a fine old time showing connections that may have startled a swathe of Radio 3’s listenership. You can hear it here. (Those outside the UK may have to be inventive, but we know you can do it…)
Until the next one, as we used to sing at Harvard football games, illegitimi non carborundum!
