Solo on Sunday and Updated Posts
Plus June gigs and gratitude.
This Sunday, June 9th, at 7 PM, I’m playing a solo set at Ibeam, 168 7th St, in Gowanus, Brooklyn, in a double bill with bassist Moppa Elliott’s Advancing On A Wild Pitch. (It’s not listed on the website, but the show is happening.)
I’ll be improvising and playing a few prepared ideas, like the solo shows I’ve seen by Joey Baron, Andrew Cyrille, Billy Mintz, and Tom Rainey. Solo drumset is a serious challenge for me— I’m excited to see what walls I hit.
Moppa’s best known for Mostly Other People Do The Killing, with whom I rehearsed a few times as Moppa was working out his ideas, many many years ago. This is my first solo show in about a year, and my first time playing in public with Moppa in a few decades, so it’ll be a memorable night for me.
If you’re in town, perhaps I’ll see you at Ibeam.
Some other upcoming shows, all with regular bands:
Sunday, June 16th, with Judi Silvano and trioTrio (Jacob Sacks, Dave Ambrosio, VS) and special guest Joe Lovano at Mezzrow
Wednesday, June 19th, Vinnie Sperrazza Apocryphal double bill with Loren Stillman at Nublu 151
Friday/Saturday, June 28/29, Mark Morris Dance Group The Look of Love at James K. Polk Theater, Nashville, TN
This Substack has been more fun than I could have ever imagined. I’m learning so much, I’m getting more subscribers, it’s going well. If I can be pretentious for a moment, Chronicles is now just a part of my “artistic practice”.
Here are some posts you might have missed. A few have been lightly updated with new info, relevant links, etc:
For Paul Caputo, 1932-2024. One beloved music teacher can stand for many. I added a scan of an obituary for Paul composed by his son Michael.
Yesterdays. This is the kind of writing I want to pursue more in the future, connecting jazz’s present and future to its still-unprocessed past.
Clifford Jarvis with Barry Harris and Sun Ra. Special thanks to reader Tom Gsteiger for alerting me to two Archie Shepp videos with Jarvis, linked in the footnotes; the Sun Ra/Barry Harris opening bit is a little more readable now.
Sonny Rollins Bio with Max Roach. A look at Aidan Levy’s essential and masterful Sonny Rollins biography. Levy is so precise and assiduous with Rollins’s recordings and gigs that the book almost becomes a Roach-Rollins co-biography at points.
Ed Blackwell's First Recordings. Blackwell’s earliest recordings are with the New Orleans-based American Jazz Quintet, which featured Ellis Marsalis. In this post, I survey their records and attempt to place them in context.
Right now, Chronicles is focussed on jazz drumming, but there’s so much to cover: new and new-to-me books— Phil Freeman’s Cecil Taylor overview, In The Brewing Luminous, Robert Kaplan’s 3 Shades of Blue, Ashley Khan’s entire bibliography, others.
So many important drummers are under-documented right now: last week I published my interview with Andrya Ambro, the second of what I hope are many conversations with folks whose voices we need to hear. I’ll get to it all eventually.
While I don’t have a global view of the changing “media landscape”, I know that I’m able to write the article I want to read, and share it with you, and that many full-time writers envy this freedom. For this, I am grateful every day. More soon.
Bravo, Vinnie!
You rock!
go vinnie, go!! as a drummer, i don't like the idea of a solo drum gig!! bravo to you for attempting it!