The Big Ears Festival, an annual weekend celebration of experimental music held in Knoxville, is announcing the initial lineup for their March festival. This year’s festival features Diamanda Galás, Jenny Hval, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
The first headliner, Diamanda Galás will be supporting her new album, At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem, and will play some fan favorites as well, Janny Hval will be sure to play music from last year’s album Blood Bitch, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor is sure to put on a spectacular show with music from their new album Luciferian Towers.
“Well, you know, I’ve been a jazz fan for almost as long as I can remember,” says Big Ears artistic director Ashley Capps, who was also responsible for bringing Ornette Coleman to the 2007 edition of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. “I discovered Miles Davis and Duke Ellington and Lee Konitz and Thelonious Monk in my father’s record collection before I was a teenager. I played saxophone when I was growing up, so I been a jazz fan for a long time. … I brought the Art Ensemble of Chicago here in 1980. … To me, if there’s a surprise about the jazz on the lineup it’s that it took it this long to get here.”
“Ultimately, we’re going to have a Big Ears fiddler’s convention this year, probably a square dance, there’s gonna be some jam sessions and a lot of surprises in the realm of exploring the indigenous music of the region and Appalachia and how that connects to these other musical traditions,” says Capps. “It’s gonna be woven in through the experience of the festival all weekend long but some of it’ll be on the streets, actually.”
Photo Credit: Adam Blyweiss
Leave a Comment