A Blog Supreme will be on vacation until after Labor Day. Until then, we are periodically leaving you with some photographs from The NPR Jazz Photography Pool, like the one below.
Photographer Tom Wiebe writes:
As part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad at the Roundhouse in Vancouver, Anthony Braxton was in town for the premiere public performance of his Sonic Genome project. For 8 hours, 60+ musicians moved organically through 3 rooms at the Roundhouse, "breaking apart and reforming into new organisms performing Braxton's compositions and using his improvisational languages to create a living sound world where the audience is free to listen and wander at will" (to paraphrase from the event description).
Sounds like a recipe for utter musical wankerism and self-indulgence of the worst variety but, as is so often the case with Mr. Braxton, it instead turned into an utterly engaging, immersive and moving experience. His enthusiasm with the local high school musicians who formed part of the "ensemble" (to use the term very loosely) was absolutely amazing to watch. The 2010 Winter Olympics brought a lot of great moments and memorable experiences to Vancouver this winter, but, for me, this was a very close second to Sidney Crosby's overtime goal for the Gold Medal in men's hockey.
Here's the original, and links to Tom Wiebe's website and Flickr photostream. Feel free to contribute your jazz shots to the NPR Jazz Flickr group.
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