John Zorn
At the end of March, the scintillatingly eclectic Big Ears Festival is headed back to Knoxville for its 10th iteration — it hasn't been a consecutive decade-long run, thanks in part to COVID. The initial lineup announcement has arrived, and it’s chock-full of innovative and fascinating performers.
While the fest marks a significant milestone of its own, it will also feature a 70th birthday celebration for prolific and voracious composer, saxophonist and avant-garde label head John Zorn. There will be eight different performances in this series throughout the fest. Those include an improvised performance called “Cobra” featuring a 12-member ensemble, as well as a trio performance called “Painkiller” featuring Zorn, experimental bassist extraordinaire Bill Laswell and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo.
That’s the tip of the iceberg. Pakistani American songsmith Arooj Aftab, one of the most exciting performers at Big Ears this year, returns with her ensemble Love in Exile. Boundary-expanding banjo maestro Béla Fleck leads an enormous program called “My Bluegrass Heart” with players like fiddle hero Michael Cleveland and mandolin maestro Sierra Hull. Among a suite of performances celebrating the work of composers active in the past 50 years, Nate Wooley and Carol Robinson will perform a selection of works by French electronic music pioneer Éliane Radigue, who you'll have seen and heard in the documentary Sisters With Transistors. (Other related performances present the work of Annea Lockwood, Steve Reich and Catherine Lamb.)
Powerhouse poet and composer Moor Mother returns to the fest, this time with 700 Bliss, her hip-hop collaboration with DJ Haram. Legendary free-jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd will appear as part of his Chapel Trio (with Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan), as will jazz bass hero William Parker. For experimentation that goes so far as to require new instruments, check out Fuji||||||||||ta, aka Yosuke Fujita, who’s known for his work on his homemade pipe organ.
The Mountain Goats, Calexico, Iron and Wine and many, many more are also among the artists on deck for this run of the fest. It will take place at more than a dozen venues across downtown Knoxville from March 30 to April 2, 2023. Passes go on sale Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 8 a.m. Central via Big Ears’ website.
