2023 recap (in progress)
Peace I wish you all the very best in 2024 ... Since around 2010, at the close
of almost every year, I find myself under a cloud of "undone homework" regret...
It's self-inflicted, thus a lil silly, but surely serious ... How and why you
ask? Well, explain it I shall... I've been accused more than a few times by
people I love, they say, "you don't take time to appreciate your life!!" "you
don't realize how Blessed you are!!" etc etc etc .. I love them, plus they can be very suggestive, so I listen ...
of course the problem is that I'm ungrateful It's more like I'm always reaching
toward the next goal, because I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for the opportunities ...
I don't want to waste a second. So time to take a break, and buckle-down to the
FUN homework of my review of 2023 .... (when my grades were not steller in
elementary school Mother would tell me, "you need to just BUCKLE-DOWN" :P
Heeeeeeeeere we go ..... (Slick Rick voice)
DISCLAIMER : I'm just gonna get started, adding as many photos, videos & descriptions as I can, if I don't start here I'll never finish ... cause I know I won't be able to share everything
The year began with the closing of an exhibition and the Cincinnati Contemporary
Art Center featuring my large format Toussaint Louverture and Millie-Christine
paintings, along with collaborative multimedia works that resulted from my
workshops with students at Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy. Taking the
student pieces down and delivering them to school to be displayed there was a
proud moment.
A week and half later I was back on the other side of the Atlantic ... getting ready to blast into 2023 with L'Ouverture de Toussaint !!
We were about to play this show in BESANÇON for the first time
January 26 in Besancon at La Rodia
L'Ouverture de Toussaint - Live à La Rodia (Besançon, 2023)
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As you can see, mentioned on the poster below, a conference / panel discussion was organized at the hall near the bar before the concert.
It was skillfully moderated by Nicolas Sauvage, and our special guest speaker was artist, writer, lecturer and film-maker, Madafi Pierre-Long (pictured below)
She engaged the public and band (Sorg, Jowee, Carl-Henri & myself) in enlightening discussion and mezmerizing poetry about the beautiful multiplicitous contributions of Haiti to the African diaspora and humanity. (view video above)
Went on another of several citizen diplomacy trips to Nancy, France on behalf of UnderWorld Black Arts Festival, Cincy-Nancy Sister Cities Program ... Following a Radio Jam theatric performance in Nyon, Switzerland
After a 2 week run of Radio Jam shows in Geneva at Grutli Theater, I was honored to be able to head back home to Cincinnati for the NCECA conference to lead a collaborative performance with poet - Dawn Crooks, saxophonist - Dan Barger, flutist - Johnny Ruzsa, bassist - Brent Olds, drummer - Isaiah Cook, dancers - Camille Jones & Anaya Ni'Kole
Had an AMAAAAAZING time in Sotteville / ROUEN (Normandy - the town of Jeanne of Arc) with Les Vibrants Defricheurs' Bal Zetwal ... there was so much beautiful communal energy and soul and dance and love in the room ... we did some Alain Peters, some James Brown, some FatBack Band, some Bill Withers, some Abbey Lincoln and some folk / traditional songs that I hadn't heard before
Sorg and I wrapped up our Orchestre a L'École workshops in Montbeliard / Audincourt with a restitution performance at La Moloco
Whewwww June !!! 2023 was dope .. but FRFR it popped off starting in June !!
I was like in June the comrades and I said, 'we been playin wit'yall for January till now... but from here out IT'S GON BE TOO WET TO PLOW' ...
"It's gonna be too wet to plow" is something my father used to say when us kids was about to be shocked (unpleasantly) about what was about to happen if our current behavior continued (you gotta know a lil bit about agriculture to really get it) ... put simply, he was bout to BRING it, if we didn't cut it .. all that to say .. for several months we kept at it, making trips to and buidling connections in Naples, Italy ... then on June 2nd, 2023, we brought it !!!
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Back in France we were welcomed by a 4 episode prime-time broadcast on France 3 Televison channel following the trajectory of my work with Sorg, including my residency, L'Ouverture de Toussaint and my visual art practice.
Among the various beautiful wirlwinds that we twirled within in the month of JUNE was the return to Nancy ... this time with Sorg and Kim to dig deeper into Sister City possibilities between Cincy & Nancy / Lycée Loritz and UBAF .... AND perform with Sorg at the 2nd edition of GRAND RUE STREET ART FAIR .. including a presentation of a sound collage created with English students of Lycée Loritz
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THENNNN.. I got back on stage with BAD FAT in La Roche Sur Yon it had been a while since I'd played w/ Bad Fat. In the months prior to the pandemic I was on the road with them more than any other project. I love being on the road with those cats, always on a mission back then. It was great to bust out again
The other special thing about that show was the city of La Roche sur Yon! In a big way that city played a pivotal role in the advancement of ISWHAT?! as a band, and my career in general. The same team that operates Quai M where Bad Fat played on June 27, 2023 used to run a festival called Fuzz'Yon. In 2007 ISWHAT?! was booked for that festival as part of a 7 date tour. The line-up was myself, ISWHAT?! co-founder, the late great Jack Walker (sax & flute) R.I.P. .. phenomenal bassist, Chris Walker (also deceased) R.I.P. and the youngest in the quartet at the time, Anthony Lee (drums). That entire tour was special, each date was meaningful building block toward what the future would hold. For example, on that tour we played the town of Angers, there we'd find our agent & friend Guillaume Bourreau. I'd need a seperate post to express our gratitude we have for Guillaume's work.
I also remember Guru's Jazzmatazz (R.I.P.) was set to play Fuzz'Yon that year (2007), but he didn't make it, so KRS-One performed in his place! needless to say, words cannot capture the awesome of those moments ...
OK ... back to 2023 .... BAD FAT ... QUAI M ... La Roche Sur Yon ... there was VIBE !!!
The next day (June 28) ... I played the Niort Jazz Festival with Rodolphe Lauretta
BOLOGNA, ITALY ... celebrating Hip-hop 50th with creme de la creme of Hip-hop scholars, activists and DJs
Made it back home to the NATI for the Cincinnati Music Festival and an UnderWorld Black Arts Festival collaboration with ROMAC (Robert O'Neal Multi-Cultural Arts Center) to present a free concert on Fountain Square, downtown Cincinnati featuring the legendary Grandmaster Caz the next day the collab between ROMAC & UBAF continued with Turntable Talks at the CAC the NATI was full of Hip-hop : Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, The Roots, Snoop Dog, Common and more !!!
Had a great time in the US !!
Rocked out with my musical fam in the NATI
Then drove to Massachusetts to see my biological Fam for a beautiful reunion in Springfield
Then after a few more days in the NATI
On my way back to France, during my connection in North Carolina American Airlines pulled one of these ......
So of course BROTHER BROWN had to investigate
Since it's called Theatre de L'Orangerie, I thought we were gonna be inside on a nice stage, but we were outside the theater on an even more amazing stage in the middle of a gorgeously arranged garden, with a bar and kitchen serving food mainly sourced from the garden! It was marvelous! All the flowers & edible vegatation made me think of my Mother & her miraculous green thumb <3 the poetry of it all was that it was AUG 13, my birthday
The beautiful garden in Geneva made me think of my mother ... weeks later in Besançon it was the Vesontio car show that made me remember my father .. Growing us I watched him resurrect so many vehicles I lost count .. Prior to the the computer chipped (INDUSTRY RIGGED) vehicles came out, (the ones programmed to require a service check or break down, so that car buyers would be force to spend more money) .. up until then, my father could fix ANY vehicle with wheels .. PERIOD .. he even constructed his own tow trucks by weilding together large metal beams and securing them to the back of pick-up trucks, he also added an extra (reserve) gas tank to our family van, along with a switch, to change the fuel source from the main tank to the reserve. He had a passion for cars that went all the way back to his childhood in the 1920's ... So when I see old cars, I think of him immediately.
Next we had the honor to join our old friends in Dijon at Festival Tribu to play L'Ouverture de Toussaint - click here for a pre-show interview ...
Then we were off again .. back home to NATI .. to prep for the 5th annual UnderWorld Black Arts Festival and a return to Whiteville, North Carolina to celebrate Millie-Christine Day !!
Time to deliver the 5th annual UnderWorld Black Arts Festival ... WE are overwhelmed with gratitude for the LOVE, support and camaraderie ... Regina Carswell & RRight Now Communications did more than a phenomenal job; guiding, connecting and uplifting our work this year !!! Thanks to RRight Now Communications our work was acknowledged by the City of Cincinnati at City Hall, AND in a beautiful profile piece in Cincinnati Magazine , AND on FOX 19 Television not once but TWICE !!!
------ so ... upon recovery from that debacle and arrived safely in Besançon 2 days later than planned ... I hopped the train from Besançon over to Geneva to split wigs with the deep grooving players in Rodolphe Lauretta's Kreolia ... the music was imaginative and invigorating as I knew it would be ... what I didn't expect that day was that unique NATURE of the venue we played ....
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