San Franciso Mime Troupe commedia dell’arte reportage July, 2023 by Earthwise

I am focusing on a very different, non-arts project this winter, after completing my last few shows for Earthwise.

We hosted Anat Cohen Marcello Goncalves duo at The Mitch, plus Ben Goldberg combo at The Art Center — two of the top five clarinets in jazz, according to Downbeat critics poll. (And with Beth Custer Will Bernard duo this summer at Lucie Stern, that’s three of the top 25 in all of jazz!)

There’s something I’m chewing on, a math problem expressed as a dinner party: how many guests must you have to ensure that there are two who do not know each other and two who definitely do. What that means to me is compiling a list of musicians who have appeared in Earthwise jazz shows since our re-start in fall, 2018, followed by some thought on creating original combos from that list. (I also have a related enterprise, Lions With Wings, that funds studio projects with some of these same people; for instance, I helped two Monk projects: Ben Goldberg, Todd Sickafoose and Scott Amendola in Eugene, OR, but also Dayna Stephens bass with Ethan Iverson piano in New Jersey – -it was actually Rudy Van Gelder’s studio).

There are some sketches of spring offerings for Earthwise that I will keep under my hat for a beat or two. (Or as Bob Marley might say: war, war, RUMOURS of a war).

To be honest, I do not have an exact count of how many shows I produced this year. I am saying 60, sometimes 61 –like Ruth and Maris. I have to go back and count my EventBrite log plus flip thru my bank statements and my camera log to get an accurate count. People like Rachael Sage, and Tony Furtado popped up so suddenly at Lytton Plaza that I almost forgot they happened.

Generally I did shows this year at or in: Mitchell Park, Mitchell Park bowl, Lytton Plaza, Cogswell Plaza, Johnson Park, the JCC, Rinconada Park and Palo Alto Art Center. Plus I produced stages of the street fair on California Avenue called 3rd Thursday. 

By style of music, what some call genre with italics: jazz, blues, folk, Celtic folk rock, classical, rock, comedia del Arte.

Thanks to all the artists for such amazing performances.

jazz subset by last name and instrument, in 2023 by Earthwise:

Scott Amendola — drums

JoVia Armstrong — percussion

Hamir Atwal — drums

Will Bernard — guitar

Anat Cohen — clarinet

Beth Custer — clarinet

Ben Davis — cello

Leslie DeShazor — viola

Jholey Garay — guitar

Ben Goldberg — clarinet

Danny Lubin-Laden — trombone

Larry Ochs — saxophone

Hana Shin — piano

Scott Sorkin — guitar

Kristin Strom –saxophone

bw found logo for Earthwise by Charlotta or as Jonathan Lethem 2023 pp 201-202 might say “wound paint for screamer”: