It's pronounced Ah-Knee
This was my first exposure to Ani Difranco:
And I know this won't import to Facebook correctly, so here's the link: Ani DiFranco - 32 Flavors (Live on PBS' Sessions at West 54th)
I think I saw this at around 16. Watching and listening to Ani in subsequent years fundamentally changed how I played guitar. She taught me to be political without being abrasive. "Tiptoe" was the first slam poem I ever heard. I owe a lot of who I am as an artist to this one woman, whom I always assumed would be there, somewhere in the background, still creating, still doing things at a great distance from me. I lost track of her over the years, returning every now and then to albums like "Not a Pretty Girl" or "Dilate."
In 2006, through a bizarre series of events, I became acquainted with, and eventually became good friends with Andrea Gibson. Andrea and I have had a lot of conversations about art, and a lot of conversations about where it should go. We did a quick collaboration on a track last year called Glider Plane. I had been working on a project called "Anchors and Oceans" at the time, but it wasn't supposed to be music for poetry. It was just instrumental stuff. We talked about working together on something else, but nothing happened until Andrea drove up to San Francisco in March(?). We got together the night before her show and write five songs to back her poems. By the way, five songs in one night is too many. The show went really well, so when Andrea got picked up to open for Ani DiFranco for two shows in August she called me to freak out, and then, a few weeks later, she asked me to come to Colorado and back her up. I did my best not to shit a brick (unsuccessfully).
I won't be reading poems. I won't be shredding. I won't be singing or dancing or doo-wopping. I'm just the backup band, and that's all I want to be. Some people dream of being James Brown (or the equivalent front man/woman of any other band). Not me. I always wanted to be in the backup band. I really did. It takes a special kind of person to fill the spotlight, but it takes another kind of person to create that spotlight, and to make it bigger and brighter for someone else. There is an art to being in the background. People remember the crazy Charles Mingus or Art Blakey solos, but for most of those songs, those guys were making other people look good. I dig that. I dig it a lot. And when you're working with someone as good as Andrea, that's really all you need to do.
If you come to Colorado, don't expect much more than a dim stage light on me. But expect Andrea to shine. Expect the show to be new and interesting and maybe even brilliant. I'm very excited about this project. I'm practicing several hours a day. I'm Joe Pass compared to the guitarist I was even two months ago, but there is still work to do.
Here are the dates if you're in the area:
August 14, 2010 @ The Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, CO
August 15, 2010 @ The Belly Up in Aspen, CO
See you soon, my lovelies. But not until after the 15th. The world is big and bright and everything is vibrating with electricity.
-J
Click to viewAnd I know this won't import to Facebook correctly, so here's the link: Ani DiFranco - 32 Flavors (Live on PBS' Sessions at West 54th)
I think I saw this at around 16. Watching and listening to Ani in subsequent years fundamentally changed how I played guitar. She taught me to be political without being abrasive. "Tiptoe" was the first slam poem I ever heard. I owe a lot of who I am as an artist to this one woman, whom I always assumed would be there, somewhere in the background, still creating, still doing things at a great distance from me. I lost track of her over the years, returning every now and then to albums like "Not a Pretty Girl" or "Dilate."
In 2006, through a bizarre series of events, I became acquainted with, and eventually became good friends with Andrea Gibson. Andrea and I have had a lot of conversations about art, and a lot of conversations about where it should go. We did a quick collaboration on a track last year called Glider Plane. I had been working on a project called "Anchors and Oceans" at the time, but it wasn't supposed to be music for poetry. It was just instrumental stuff. We talked about working together on something else, but nothing happened until Andrea drove up to San Francisco in March(?). We got together the night before her show and write five songs to back her poems. By the way, five songs in one night is too many. The show went really well, so when Andrea got picked up to open for Ani DiFranco for two shows in August she called me to freak out, and then, a few weeks later, she asked me to come to Colorado and back her up. I did my best not to shit a brick (unsuccessfully).
I won't be reading poems. I won't be shredding. I won't be singing or dancing or doo-wopping. I'm just the backup band, and that's all I want to be. Some people dream of being James Brown (or the equivalent front man/woman of any other band). Not me. I always wanted to be in the backup band. I really did. It takes a special kind of person to fill the spotlight, but it takes another kind of person to create that spotlight, and to make it bigger and brighter for someone else. There is an art to being in the background. People remember the crazy Charles Mingus or Art Blakey solos, but for most of those songs, those guys were making other people look good. I dig that. I dig it a lot. And when you're working with someone as good as Andrea, that's really all you need to do.
If you come to Colorado, don't expect much more than a dim stage light on me. But expect Andrea to shine. Expect the show to be new and interesting and maybe even brilliant. I'm very excited about this project. I'm practicing several hours a day. I'm Joe Pass compared to the guitarist I was even two months ago, but there is still work to do.
Here are the dates if you're in the area:
August 14, 2010 @ The Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek, CO
August 15, 2010 @ The Belly Up in Aspen, CO
See you soon, my lovelies. But not until after the 15th. The world is big and bright and everything is vibrating with electricity.
-J