Original image of Drekka at 9th & State by There Stands the Glass.
Attending the Big Ears festival in 2019 was revelatory. I heard a score of monumental musicians for the first time in person. Meredith Monk! Evan Parker! Caroline Shaw! Leo Wadada Smith! My wide-ranging taste in music makes me a freak in Kansas City, but in Knoxville I discovered I'm not alone.
Ambrose Akinmusire, Tomeka Reid and Patti Smith were among the luminaries who performed on the opening night of the 2022 edition of the forward-thinking music festival in the picturesque Tennessee college town on Thursday, March 24. Marooned in Kansas City, I refused to pout. A pair of uncommon shows allowed me to simulate the Big Ears experience in a minuscule way.
The longtime Kansas City jazz dissenter Arnold Young performed selections from his new album at The Ship. (A Plastic Sax album review is in the works.) Backed by his aptly named band The Roughtet, the drummer tossed out acerbic barbs as he introduced each wild and wooly selection.
A few blocks away in the West Bottoms, the Extemporaneous Music Society presented a pair of experimental touring artists at 9th & State. Sitting at a low slung table, Timber Rattle created drone-like incantations that sounded like ritualistic pagan hymns to malevolent gods.
Small-scale application of fire and gymnastics made Drekka more visually provocative. Yet the New Age-ish evocation of earthly elements didn’t stir me. As a trio of Drekka devotees at a front table gave their hero a standing ovation, I exited the historic saloon into the lonesome Knoxvillian night.