Guessing at the Big Ears lineup rarely pays off—AC Entertainment’s annual festival of far-out music is defined by its unpredictable programming. The previous festivals have been headlined by big-name American minimalist composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley, each of whom served as artist in residence. After John Luther Adams’ 2016 tenure as composer in residence, there weren’t many obvious contenders for the office left.
So Ashley Capps and company have discarded the idea of a resident artist or composer altogether and come up with the festival’s biggest and broadest lineup yet, with a group of legendary septuagenarians, mid-career music legends in the making, and dozens of promising young artists who are redefining how we hear and think about music. There’s also lots of indie and alt-rock—notably Wilco, ’90s icons Blonde Redhead, the krautrock- and minimalism-inspired instrumental band Tortoise, the wry New York singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, and the noise-pop group Deerhoof.
The roster includes some imposing names, artists and composers of enormous talent and influence and intimidating, almost frightful reputations, most of them in the late stages of their careers: the pianist and composer Carla Bley, a towering figure in 1960s and ’70s jazz; Gavin Bryars, an English composer and bassist whose 50-year career has ranged from chamber music, opera, vocal music, to pieces that defy categorization; jazz bassist and composer Henry Grimes, who has played with dozens of important jazz artists, from Gerry Mulligan and Archie Shepp to Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Sonny Rollins, and Cecil Taylor; Meredith Monk, an experimental singer, composer, filmmaker, and artist whose wide-ranging career stretches back to the early 1960s; Musica Electronica Viva, the legendary Italian improv group featuring Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, and Richard Teitelbaum; and the prolific and eloquent jazz saxophonist and bandleader Henry Threadgill, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for music.
Henry Threadgill
The rest of the lineup: the prolific and Oscar-nominated Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson; the Norwegian jazz/improv troupe Supersilent; the electronic duo Matmos; Arcade Fire collaborator and young sax star Colin Stetson; folk legend Michael Hurley; Lisa Moore, a founding member of Bang on a Can; electronic composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith; former Sun City Girls leader Sir Richard Bishop; Ahleuchatistas; American Contemporary Music Ensemble; Claire Chase; Colleen; DakhaBrahka; the Dave Harrington Group; Deathprod; DJ Rupture; Emilia Amper; Frode Haltli; Glenn Kotche; Horse Lords; Imarhan; Jace Clayton; Joan Shelley; Julian Lage, Chris Eldridge, and Aoife O’Donovan; Junun, featuring Shye Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express; the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra; Lætitia Sadier; Maya Beiser; My Brightest Diamond; nief-norf; the Nils Økland Band; Oliver Coates; On Fillmore; Philip Jeck; Rachel Grimes; Rangda; Sarah Kirkland Snider; Steve Lehman and Sélébéyone; Shane Parish; Six Organs of Admittance; Ståle Storløkken; Ståle Storløkken and Arve Henriksen; the Crossing; Theatre of Voices; Theo Bleckmann; Wu Fei; Xiu Xiu; Yasmine Hamdan; and Yuki Numata Resnick.
Julia Drummond Colin Stetson by Julia Drummond
The 2017 festival will be held a week earlier than usual, and will last four full days, instead of just three, running March 23-26. The announced venues include the Bijou and Tennessee theaters, the Mill and Mine, the Standard, the Square Room, and two new spaces—Church Street United Methodist Church and Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral. Weekend passes are on sale; prices range from $165 for a general admission pass to $550 for VIP access. Information for daily tickets and the film schedule will be announced soon.
There’s a Big Ears 2017 preview event tonight at 7 p.m. at the Mill and Mine, with music performances by Julianna Barwick and Big Ears 2016 alum Mary Lattimore. Admission is free.
Senior Editor Matthew Everett manages the Knoxville Mercury's arts & entertainment section, including the comprehensive calendar section—Knoxville’s go-to guide for everything worth doing in the area. You can reach Matthew at matthew@knoxmercury.com.
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