"Hey, Fred!" 09/18-09/24/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Ming Smith openings at Wexner Center and CMA | Rotimi Fani-Kayode | Meshell Ndegeocello | Matt Wilson's Good Trouble | Mathieu Sylvestre and Pas Musique
Quicker, bullet-pointed thoughts on good stuff this week as I’m trying to double up to be prepared for Gonerfest right after next week’s goes out. Obviously still working on a format, etc, for this stuff-in-retrospect section to not make this too much of a time/headspace commitment.
My favorite cultural thing of the week was an ekphrastic workshop led by Geoff Anderson of Diverses Poetry, at the Columbus Museum of Art. I’ve written up Diverses’ work in this newsletter before and they’re the rising organization doing the most exciting work for my taste right now. I think they’re going to continue doing these once a month, but check out their entire schedule.
I posted about this on social media, and it bears repeating - Short North Stage’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a magical ebuillent fireball. That’s coming from a Fats Waller freak, but judging from the audience, it works even if you walk in not knowing the material. A beautiful showcase of one of our great American songwriters, I talked about at length for Columbus Underground. Runs one more week - get out and see that.
Loved Brother(hood) Dance’s Black on Earth, a beautifully, considered look at the often ignored history of black growers, the way agriculture - food and work intertwined - informs our memories and the way the physical nature of dance gets to a more direct experience of those memories. An act of gorgeously crafted conjuring. Look for whatever they do next.
Also reviewed for CU The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio’s take on Andrew Lippa’s Big Fish. Mixed bag, but Brian Gray gives an electrifying, indelible performance as Edward Bloom; if you’re a fan of the novel or film, it’s worth seeing.
Visual Art
09/18/2024
Ming Smith, Transcendence and August Moon
Various Artists, Fragments of Epic Memory
Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E Broad St
September 19 through January 26
Member Party September 18: 5 pm
Included with Museum Admission, Free on Sundays
I caught a little taste of August Moon, an exhibition of Ming Smith’s (born in Detroit but raised here in Columbus) striking early ‘90s photography investigation of Pittsburgh, grappling with the work of August Wilson. On a personal level, seeing this look at a city I love so much, in direct dialogue with one of my all-time favorite writers in the galleries that I grew up seeing art - as Smith did - was the kind of confluence that shot sparks up my spine.
It officially opens this week alongside Transcendence, another exhibit that has Smith directly addressing her hometown (and the music of Alice Coltrane, hence the title, and a fascinating-looking touring show about the Caribbean diaspora, Fragments of Epic Memory, organized by Julie Crooks from the Ontario Gallery of Art. Beautiful piece on the exhibit by Julie Raghubir for Momus.
09/20/2024
Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Tranquility of Communion
Ming Smith, Wind Chime
Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St
September 21 through January 5
Opening: September 20, 5:30 pm
Free
For not having a head curator for a while, the Wexner Center’s visual arts program has been extremely strong lately and these Fall 2024 exhibits look to be no exception. Ming Smith - having a moment with this exhibit and the two at CMA organized in conjunction with one another and in the context of the FotoFocus biennial, which I’ve talked about before and always love. Her piece at the Wex, Wind Chime, combines her Africa series with a new installation, including a soundscape by her son Mingus Murray.
Tranquility of Communion is the first North American survey of Nigerian photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode, organized alongside the Autograph gallery in London, curated by Mark Sealy from Autograph, who wrote this gorgeous piece on Fani-Kayode for the Tate.
Music
09/19/2024
Matt Wilson’s Good Trouble
Lincoln Theatre, 769 E Long St
September 19: 8 pm
$34 Tickets Available at the JAG Site
One of my favorite working drummers, composers, and bandleaders - I saw Wilson play one of those Becky Ogden shows at her house if I’m not mistaken, back when she lived just south of 5th Ave, and was blown away by him in a rhythm section with the great Buster Williams supporting and elevating Danny Zeitlin at the terrific Manhattan basement bar Mezzrow (couldn’t find photos of either) - returns to Columbus with his best project in a while, Good Trouble.
Named for the famous quote from Representative John Lewis, this project finds terrific material - new originals from Wilson and tenor player Jeff Lederer, alongside classics by Gary Bartz, Ornette Coleman, and John Denver - played with loose precision by a killing band including alto player Tia Fuller, bassist Ben Allison, and pianist Dawn Clement. Maybe the best small-group jazz show of the season.
09/20/2024
Mathieu Sylvestre, Pas Musique, and Collector of Dust
Old First Presbyterian, 1101 Bryden Rd
September 20: 8 pm show
$10 at the door
Another stunning get at the Old First Presbyterian Church, a recent bastion of forward-looking music in Olde Towne East. French-born and Berlin-based Mathieu Sylvestre makes gorgeous, dynamic collages and soundscapes that remind me of what I think of as a golden age of Columbus instrumental music with artists like Luasa Raelon or Scenic Railroads.
Pas Musique is the musical outlet of Robert L. Pepper, who I think of as more a visual artist, and it’s as wide-ranging and open-hearted as the work I knew better from him. Casting a wide influence net and with a true collaborative spirit, but filtered through a specific point of view, it’s stunning work.
The Reon Moebius (Collector of Dust) stuff I’ve heard has an invigorating no-wave energy to it that seems like it’ll be a perfect opener for this. If I’m out of the Wexner in time and not still babbling, this show is my first choice.
09/22/2024
Meshell Ndegeocello, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St
September 22: 7 pm show
Tickets start at $15 at the Wexner Center site
I don’t remember a time I wasn’t a fan of Meshell Ndegeocello. Her work’s been speaking to me since hearing Plantation Lullabies at 13 - Bitter is one of my favorite records of all time - but somehow I missed her previous trip (trips?) to the Wex and didn’t get to see her until the Blue Note in January of 2023 (photo is bad because sightlines are bad - that club would be terrible if it didn’t consistently have some of the best music in the world and way better sound than you’d expect from somewhere with weak drinks and a $28 steak sandwich) which was every bit as revelatory as I hoped.
I practically danced down a rainy winter street, floating after. I talked about her a little with Jeff Parker - sitting in on that gig - when I previewed Parker’s March show for Pencilstorm, and Ndegeocello gave a stunning interview to great UK personality Gilles Peterson in August, (hat tip to great friend and DJ/Poet/Organizer Dorian Ham for turning me onto that).
I’m on record as saying last year’s Omnichord Real Book was one of my records of the year, calling it “a high watermark…for someone I don’t think has ever made a bad record.”
Well, her tribute to James Baldwin, in honor of his centennial (I’d recommend re-reading Amiri Baraka’s stirring eulogy - which I can admire without turning a blind eye to what’s problematic about Baraka) expands and explodes that. In turns laser-focused and a kaleidoscopic explosion, with collaborators including her longtime guitarist Chris Bruce (who I’d never seen before that Blue Note show, and if he’s part of the live version of this, holy shit, is Columbus in for a treat), saxophonist Josh Johnson (who blew me away at that Parker show earlier this year), some of my favorite writers including poet Staceyann Chin (who I saw once at Bowery Poetry Club - I think, could be conflating two different memories of the same NYC trip - and took the top of my head off) and longtime inspiration as a critic, curator, and advocate Hilton Als, and so many more - No More Water is a masterpiece, full stop.
The subtitle, The Gospel of James Baldwin, acknowledges the debt any of us who pick up a pen in the shadow of the 20th century owing to Baldwin but also points a way out beyond the bland hagiography and the shallow twisting of the work to meet our age’s preconceptions. The gospel has to be a living document, a vessel and a lens, that needs breath, new voices, and new eyes. The record does that. The live show of this gets my highest recommendation.