Sam is nine and in a CM1 class at his école primaire. There’s a lot of memorising for homework, which seems like an old-fashioned sort of way of learning. With poems it’s OK, but with history, like the reigns of Clovis and Charlemagne, and long poetry like this fable of La Fontaine I’m not so sure:

—> LE LIÈVRE ET LA TORTUE

Rien ne sert de courir ; il faut partir à point.
Le Lièvre et la Tortue en sont un témoignage.
Gageons, dit celle-ci, que vous n’atteindrez point
Si tôt que moi ce but. Si tôt ? Êtes-vous sage ?
Repartit l’Animal léger.
Ma Commère, il vous faut purger
Avec quatre grains  d’ellébore.
Sage ou non, je parie encore.
Ainsi fut fait : et de tous deux
On mit près du but les enjeux.
Savoir quoi, ce n’est pas l’affaire ;
Ni de quel juge l’on convint. …

STOP!  That’s enough, Jean! Remember kids are going to have to learn this!

So let’s brighten things up a little with a favourite illustrator, Barbara Nascimbeni. You can see a couple of her illustrations of the same fable here:

When Sam was a toddler we had Noisy Ralph:

Later on we had Archie Hates Pink:

I like her way of painting, also the way things leap all over the place, the way the point of view seems to dance.

I like the books she chooses to illustrate too. The one above, though it is German, seems to be an Anansi story (translate it please!) She’s done some Aesop’s fables, like the hare and the tortoise of course. She seems to have managed to get published in all sorts of countries too.

anansi is cool.

WHAT’S IN A SYMBOL: spider « The Crocus Chronicles.

Yeah, that’s right.  I saw Where the Wild Things Are. And it was everything I wanted it to be and more.  Parents will say that it’s dark and too scary, and while I agree that it is for very little ones, I wouldn’t mind taking my five or six year old.  Maybe I have no grasp on what age children should see certain movies… that’s probably it.  Anyways, most children’s movies are feel good, and while this movie has feel good moments, it shows how children deal with big problems (like bratty older siblings, divorce, and abandonment)  and let out their rage.  Instead of making the monsters completely CGI, Jonze uses Jim Henson puppets with CGI faces.  Of course the adults or older children in the audience quickly pick up that the monsters represent different emotions that Max feels, but it’s not too blatant.  The acting was superb; the movie is mostly carried by a 9 year old that feels like a real 9 year old that doesn’t have to overact.  I even found out that Tony Soprano voices the main monster, and somehow, it works.  Visually, it’s stunning.  The soundtrack works so well with the plot.  I know many critics have been split, but I laughed, cried, and gasped.  Overall, one of my favorite kids movies this year!

Done nerding out about kid’s movies… it has been a pretty stellar week, Monday I got to go to Bryant to do toddler story time.  I kinda flipped out because those little one intimidate the heck out of me.  No idea why, but I feel like if I don’t have their attention, then I’m not doing my job correctly.  Overall, it went well.  They were adorable and they did the craft and sang the songs… so pretty good experience!

Story time today was excellent!  I told the story, Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock, which went over exceedingly well… I was a little nervous because I haven’t told a story in a while, but they seemed to think it was funny and appreciated the audience participation.  Also, my craft rocked their socks off.  I had them draw spiderwebs with white crayons on a piece of white paper, and then they painted over with black paint… and lo and behold… MAGIC!

I also had a little girl read a story to me while I was at the desk.  My aw factor went up to about 11.

I went to dinner with a friend and then we saw that movie and I think we’re going to be hanging out again tonight!  I drove to her house last night and got to see her two Basset Hounds, which were so adorable.  Then we got Japanese, and I think I might actually have a taste for sushi… my palate is expanding!  It’s kind of exciting to have a friend, I’m not saying that I’m un-friend-able, but I just feel a little shy sometimes.  So… yeah… very exciting!

Finally, I totally freaked out a dude that was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap (even though I’m a Cleveland Indians girl through and through).  I was excited to see someone from my old neck of the woods.  And then, he told me that his family currently lives in… YOUNGSTOWN.  Note: I don’t normally go to Youngstown, I was just glad that it was someone from the same… well… outside of the same area.  But, yeah, excited Marisa freaks out patrons.  And that’s a no no.

więcej zdjęć z Poznania, od Mateusza Trzeciaka.

trochę zdjęć z Inner Spaces autorstwa Craqa.

“Fat Charlie wondered what Rosie’s mother would usually hear in a church. Probably just cries of ‘Back! Foul beast of Hell!’ followed by gasps of ’Is it alive?’ and a nervous enquiry as to wheather anybody had remembered to bring the stakes and hammers” (s.117)

Da var det på tide å hilse på Neil Gaiman. Det ble et morsomt bekjentskap.

Boka handler om Fat Charlie som har en far som gjør alt han kan for å gjøre sin sønn flau. Men så viser det seg at faren egentlig er edderkoppguden Anansi. Inn på scenen vandrer også en ukjent bror med guddommelige egenskaper, men uten moralske hemninger. Her er det duket for forviklinger!

Det er to ting som er kult med boka (eller det er sikkert flere ting, men jeg har tenkt til å nevne to). Det ene er at Gaiman kombinerer en helt syk fortelling som han selv har skapt med tradisjonelle fortellinger fra Afrika og Mellom-Amerika. Jeg kjenner Anansi og fortellingene om ham fra før. Anansi representerer det som kalles trickster tales, som ikke helt har en norsk mytologisk/eventyr parallell (det nærmeste vi kommer i sjanger er kanskje skrøner, og den skikkelsen som ligner Anansi mest er vel Loke). Anansihistorier er veldig morsomme fortellinger. Gaiman gjør en så utrolig bra jobb når han bruker Anansi og de andre arketypene fra afroamerikansk folklore; Hyene, Apekatt, og ikke minst Tiger. Han lar Fat Charlie møte de i en parallell verden, noe som ligner Platons idèverden. Det er utrolig kult laget. Han har også med Bird Woman, det tror jeg er hans egen oppfinnelse. At han kaller Anansi og de andre for guder er nytt for meg. Jeg har aldri oppfattet disse figurene som guder, men så er heller ikke min kunnskap på området spesielt stor.  

Det andre jeg skulle nevne var…..hva var det egentlig? Jo! Personene. De er råbra. Fat Charlie og broren Spider. De gamle damene som har noen skikkelig okkulte interesser og evner. Gamle Anansi selv. Og selvfølgelig, også arketypisk, Svigermor from hell. Herlig!

Fortellingen er morsom, noen dødpunkter midtveis, og Neil Gaiman virker av og til noe hyper. 

Men dette var bra! Gleder meg til neste bok.

Takk til alle som har anbefalt Neil Gaiman.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one, but I’d enjoyed ‘Anansi Boys’ and Waterstones had a 3-for-2 offer…

Shadow gets out of prison a few days early and is offered a rather vaguely defined job by a strange man who is soon revealed to be the god Odin. That’s roughly how it starts, anyway, and I don’t want to give too much away. I mean, it’s not a bad way to open a book, is it? The book is basically built on the question ‘When immigrants moved from their homelands to America, what happened to their gods?’ and takes it from there…

It’s unnerving, scary, tender, smart and mostly really quite eerie. Gaiman has the incredible knack of taking a scene from an ordinary everyday experience to somewhere really quite other, often in just the one paragraph, and in such a way that the gear-change is imperceptible. And if I was in any doubt after Anansi Boys and Good Omens (which I wasn’t, but reading this really brought it into focus) Gaiman is a bloody good writer.

If you like anything Terry Pratchett has written, you’ll like this, although the similarity is with the imaginative invention rather than the terrible puns and ridiculous humour.

James Langer, Gun Dogs (Anansi, 2009)

Through web browsing as a way of avoiding other work, I’ve come across a review in the Globe and Mail of James Langer’s first book Gun Dogs. Starnino is the reviewer and takes an interesting look at the prosody at play here and where it fits into the world of contemporary poetric expression. It’s well worth your reading, if not for Langer’s book, then for a brief commentary on the use of sound placement in Canadian writing.

I must say I feel as though I’ve been down this road as well. As writers we are often inspired by what we see/read around us. There’s a need to be connected in some way with the movement of poetry in the country (its habits, likes and dislikes) while remaining acutely singular. The idea that vowels and consonant sounds are often clustered to produce a kind of music is quite true. I guess the issue is whether or not it’s ad nauseam. I found in my earlier writing (a few pieces of which may have made it into my forthcoming book) I enjoyed this pairing of words by sound. It produced something special when read, aloud in particular. I’ve noticed, possibly as a natural progression within my own creative self, I’m moving away from this; instead of connecting words within a line I often span the sonic play across lines, sometimes three and four at a time. I feel this paces the effort, both for my writing and the reader’s experience.

I quite enjoyed Langer’s book and, though at times, I have to agree with Starnino that the word play is a little intense I recognize where it’s coming from and the tradition that’s been cultivated in this country. Anyway, the article does provide some food for thought.

     Dwayne McDuffie’s two-year run on Justice League of America is just about at its end, and I have to say that the man never really got the leeway and the time he deserved on this title.  Between Salvation Run and Final Crisis, he only really had time for two full arcs of his own.  This second one, in which he is incorporating his own Milestone Comics characters into the DC Universe, was stopped halfway through for a post-Final Crisis tie-in before continuing.  And the series has suffered greatly.  After the events of last issue, Dr. Light navigates through the dark matter that Shadow Thief left behind.  Firestorm, Green Lantern (John Stewart), and Vixen find Hardware and ask for his help in finding Dr. Light.  Then, Anansi, Vixen’s mystical master, brings forth an alternate version of Bruce Wayne, named Paladin, to assist.  This group finds Dr. Light in the Shadowspire, the Shadow Cabinet’s lair in the Himalayas, fighting Shadow Thief and Starbreaker along with Icon.  And that’s where we’re left off.

     Dwayne McDuffie may have been a bit too vocal about his anger with DC Comics.  But it was warranted.  Ultimately, he will leave the title without really getting the chance to leave his stamp on the JLA.  We all know that, if he was given the latitude he needed, he would do wonders with the title, just as he did in Justice League Unlimited.  He’s certainly doing well with this arc, even considering the difficulties he’s seen with it.  He writes all the few remaining members of the Justice League extremely well, Dr. Light and Firestorm in particular.  I love the way they play off each other, even though neither of them likes the other.  And he naturally gets his own characters extremely well.  Hardwire’s inner monologue was interesting enough that I’d like to see him do more.  Maybe he’ll join the JLA.  Rags Morales also does a great job visually with this title, as it gives a nice, rounder alternative to people who found Ed Benes’ crisp, sharp, butt-focused style not to their liking.  I don’t know who’ll be taking over this title, but I’m still sad to see McDuffie go.

Plot: 8.5      Art: 8.8      Dialogue: 8.8      Overall: 8.6

In February of 1982 the Ocean Ranger, a large “unsinkable” oil rig sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Newfoundland. All 84 crew members (men) working aboard were killed, 67 were Canadian, 59 were from Newfoundland.  At the time, it was the largest offshore drilling accident in Canadian history and devastating to the families of the drowned men.

I wish I could say I remembered this, but I don’t. I have, however, recently watched news reports on the tragedy and it’s scope is pretty amazing, the confusion around the causes pretty evident. You see all the hallmarks of modern PR there, spin, denial, deflection. In the end, several new safety and training procedures were adopted around, what was then, fairly new oil drilling technology. A little too late for the loved ones of the lost.

The sinking of the Ocean Ranger lives on in the hearts, minds and memories of Newfoundlanders. An internet search brings up literature, music and films that document the event and its after effects.

In her new book, February (Anansi, June 2009), Lisa Moore has imagined life after this tragedy for a young family. It’s a powerful novel full of insight into how life goes on, in spite of us, even if it leaves broken slivers of hearts in its wake.

It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that one result of losing a brother, husband, father or son to the sea would be loneliness. Loneliness is hard to write about without becoming maudlin, or cliche. Lisa Moore does not have that problem. She seems to understand this very human facility. It’s amazing just how well she can put words to an extremely indescribable emotion.

Ms. Moore is a new author to me. Though she’s been twice nominated for the Giller Prize, I have not read any of her previous books. I like knowing I can go back to her list, learn more about her craft and lose myself in her stories.

Of course, I recommend this book. You’ll be surprised how it makes you feel.

I just learned that Dwayne McDuffie has been fired from his position as writer for DC Comic’s Justice League of America series. The firing comes as a result of comments he made regarding “behind-the-scenes creative discussions” in response to fan questions on Rich Johnston’s column, Lying in the Gutter (More on that in a moment).

This makes me sad for a few reasons:

1. I have heard nothing but good things about McDuffie as a person from people who know him (and he always seems like a nice and honest guy in interviews).
2. I like his work when he isn’t excessively restrained.
3. It has been so clear that DC really did tie his hands on JLA with all of the damn event comics. As a consequence, the run has been weak (when he confirmed this on Lying in the Gutter it wasn’t even remotely shocking).
4. The circumstances of his termination seem harsh to me. The guy never had a regular artist, and wasn’t given control over his book. That is a pretty bad creative environment.

Books and their writers suffer when they are stuck writing supplementary content for someone else’s larger story. This is a problem that plagues a lot of Marvel and DC books because they force so many massive event stories.

I give McDuffie a lot of credit for his “Anansi” storyline. It was really cleaver of him to write a story arc about his lack of control over his own book.

In other news, Rich Johnston, the writer of the aforementioned comic industry gossip column Lying in the Gutter is calling it quits after seven years. Johnston’s column has been a staple read of mine for years. I will miss watching him start trouble and fan the flames within the comic industry.

I have no doubt that both McDuffie and Johnston will continue to provide great entertainment over the coming years. I wish them both the best of luck.

Mole (2009, Anansi)

Mole
Patrick Warner
Anansi 2009
ISBN: 978-0-88784-821-6

Some poets have the ability to take the mundane or often uninteresting and through a rebranding in depth and metaphor present to the reader something fresh and attention-grabbing. Patrick Warner has just this talent and throughout his new collection, Mole, creates an assortment of vignettes that draw on everyday happenings.

Many of the poems in Mole are brief meditations on discussions, places, or tasks that take the reader deeper into the mind of the poet, but also father into the impact these things can have on the person involved. One such case is the poem “Picket”, in which the speaker recounts work scraping and painting a fence. This is tedious and repetitive, but the longer the task takes the greater the intrinsic reward. Warner refers to a scraper as “long handled…with cupboard-door grip, / its buttoned-down blade like a hieroglyph.” Later he uses terms such as “rote”, “bubble jet’s ink” and “actor on stage” to compare painting a fence to an act of creation, in particular that of knowledge, writing or the arts in general. To an extent, there is rote learning and study, but these later give way or provide a basis to higher learning that comes through in an artist’s work, whether it is on paper or the stage.

The settings chosen for poems throughout the book highlight the scope and variation of the writing. At times these places are local or personal in nature (around a mother’s sewing machine, a small town with which the speaker is intimately acquainted); at other times there is an element of labour involved (painting a fence, conducting research in the archives of Minneapolis); at others still a social quality, a sense of relaxation (a southern sun-bathed beach, a Japanese restaurant hosting social events). This mixing of place and situation allows Warner much creative leeway when exploring the intense personal and reflective effects these varying occurrences can spark within us. In this endeavor the poet does not disappoint.

Through a combination of place, task and a mind occupied with focusing on similarities between the personal, social and educational, Warner leads the reader through his own backyard on an enlightening tour of what is at once known but strange, delving into experience and the sense made of them.

DUBSTEP AHEAD!

05.06 krakowskie Krzysztofory po raz kolejny nawiedzi solidna porcja basu najniższych częstotliwości. Swoim setem uraczy nas świetny producent z UK – mieszkający w Leeds  J. Sparrow znany z producenckiej różnorodności, wydający swoje single w kilku uznanych labelach. Kolejnym gośćiem będzie nasz rodzimy najstarszy dubstepowy dj i producent – ANANSI, tworzący niepowtarzalne, ciepłe, transowe i hipnotyzujące utwory z ogromną ilością dubowej przestrzeni, wydajacy swoje produkcje w labelu Dubkraft records. Skład imprezy dopełni śląski dubstepowy kolektyw dj’ski Dub Lovin’ Criminals, a o lokalne wsparcie zadba Dubseed.

zagrają:

J.SPARROW Tectonic / Earwax / Contagious / Senseless (UK)

ANANSI DubKraft Records ( Lublin )

DUB LOVIN’ CRIMINALS ( Katowice )

DUBSEED Dub Chanters ( Kraków )

05.06.2009 [piątek]
start: 21.00
wjazd: 15pln
miejsce: Krzysztofory

I am currently reading Neil Gaiman ’s 2005 fantasy novel, Anansi Boys. Early on, Gaiman’s protagonist, Fat Charlie Nancy, discovers to his alarm and dismay that he is a son of the ancient West African god Anansi. His neighbor, Mrs. Higgler, tries to explain:

Anansi was a spider, when the world was young, and all the stories were being told for the first time. he used to get himself into trouble, and he used to get himself out of trouble. The story of the Tar-Baby, the one they tell about Bre’r Rabbit? That was Anansi’s story first….

Anansi stories go back as long as people been telling each other stories…. (42)

Anansi gave his name to stories. Every story is Anansi’s. Once, before the stories were Anansi’s, they belonged to Tiger…, and the tales were dark and evil, and filled with pain, and none of them ended happily. But that was a long time ago. These days, the stories are Anansi’s. (43)

Stories are like spiders, with all they long legs, and stories are like spiderwebs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another, each to each.

What’s that? You want to know if Anansi looked like a spider? Sure he did, except when he looked like a man.

No, he never changed his shape. It’s just a matter of how you tell the story. That’s all. (45)

Bingo!

In those words, “It’s just a matter of how you tell the story,” Gaiman gives me another way to express a central theme of this blog.

Religious language is about how we perceive and experience the numenous, not about the numenous itself—the larger, intermingling realities which we sense yet which operate beyond the reach of conceptualization and language.

I celebrate storytelling, the only truthful way we have to tell each other about the awe-inspiring, powerful reality of the Great Mystery.

And so it is.

Blessèd Be.

     Since its relaunch a little over two years ago, Justice League of America has been plagued by constant editorial mandates and crossover storylines.  First, it was the Lightning Saga crossover with Justice Society.  Then, it was the Injustice League Unlimited arc leading up to Salvation Run.  Then it was the Salvation Run and Final Crisis tie-ins.  Then, with the subsequent arc, Dwayne McDuffie and Ed Benes were finally given the chance to write their own stories for the JLA.  The arc focused on Vixen and Red Tornado, bringing to a close their long-standing character arcs that began with the series.  McDuffie also tied together the origins of Vixen and Animal Man in an excellent way, creating a new character, Anansi, who acted almost as his own voice in the world of DC.

     Sure, no one would call McDuffie’s run on Justice League groundbreaking.  But, largely, due to his work on the spectacular Justice League Unlimited cartoon, he has a natural grasp for the characters of the team in a way that many writers today do not.  Another excellent continuing character arc is Black Canary’s conflicts with the Trinity, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  This conflict shows McDuffie’s understanding of the Trinity’s importance as well as allows for a natural evolution of Canary’s character.

     The current story arc involves the introduction of McDuffie’s own Milestone Comics characters into the DC Universe proper.  For some reason, the Shadow Cabinet is after Dr. Light (Kimiyo Hoshi, not the villain).  Immediately, the Justice League and the Shadow Cabinet are thrust into confrontation.  McDuffie is equally proficient with the Milestone characters, largely due to the fact that he created most of them.  As such, this is a very obvious choice for McDuffie to make.  It allows him to tell his own stories with his own characters and finally not have to write whatever he is told to write.

     Although there are many complaints about Ed Benes’ work on JLA, I actually share almost none of them.  Admittedly, a few less butt shots would be nice, but I find his art very crisp and polished.  There aren’t many people who consistently draw such dynamic poses and excellent group shots.  So I hope that he stays on the title for a good long time, so long as women get a bit better of treatment.  At any rate, this is a rising title that will finally be able to satisfy people craving for good JLA action for the first time since the cancellation of the last volume.

Plot: 8.8      Art: 9.0      Dialogue: 9.0      Overall: 9.0

Au mois de Septembre, j’avais participé au concours Figures Futurs [ avec cette proposition ] .

Ce concours, organisé à l’occasion du salon du livre et de la presse jeunesse, consistait à illustrer une histoire. Cette année, le thème s’étalonnait sur un mythe, les histoires d’Anansi, un être mi-homme, mi-araignée.

Peu connu par chez nous, ce mythe nous vient d’Afrique. Qui est Anansi? Un homme? Un homme-araignée? Une divinité déchue ? En fait, Anansi, c’est un peu de chacun d’entre nous. C’est le prétexte à une histoire vertueuse qui nous donnera une bonne leçon de vie. Avare, menteur, cupide, maléfique, il jongle avec des caractères trempés qui le distinguent, le rende humain.

Pour le concours, j’avais proposé une vision personnelle du mythe, en rédigeant une histoire complètement originale, une approche colorée, contemporaine et ludique de ces légendes ancestrales. Je n’ai pas eu la chance d’être sélectionné… 

Voici la lauréate du concours :

Julia Marty lauréate du concours figures futurs 2008

On Friday, November 14th and Saturday, November 15th, cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum will perform with three of his own bands over the course of two nights at New York’s Jazz Gallery.  These performances are part of a larger tour celebrating both the release of the Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet’s second recording, Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (hatOLOGY 675), and the most recent performances of his secular oratorio, Madeleine Dreams, with his improvising chamber jazz ensemble, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings.  The latter will be recorded at the end of the tour for Firehouse 12 Records.

Bynum will kick-off his two-night stand on Friday night at 9:00 p.m. with an opening set by his longstanding trio, featuring fellow Boston natives, Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums).  His sextet, which on this night will augment his trio with Jason Kao Hwang (violin and viola), Matt Bauder (tenor sax and clarinet) and Evan O’Reilly (guitar), will then perform a 10:30 p.m. set featuring music from its latest CD.  The following night, Taylor Ho Bynum & SpiderMonkey Strings will perform Madeleine Dreams, as well as other original material and music by Ornette Coleman, Duke Ellington and Sun Ra, at 9:00 and 10:30 p.m.  The group will feature Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Jessica Pavone (viola), Tomas Ulrich (cello), Pete Fitzpatrick (guitar), Joseph Daley (tuba) and Luther Gray (drums), with special guest, Kyoko Kitamura (vocals and electronics).

The Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet’s multiple guitar line-up was inspired by bands such as Miles Davis’ Dark Magus and Agharta groups, Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time and Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus.  Two chordal instruments, along with the rest of the flexible and unusual instrumentation, also allows Bynum to juxtapose independent sub-ensembles within a larger group (including the core trio), a compositional method inspired by the music of Charles Ives and Anthony Braxton.  Critics called the group’s 2007 debut, The Middle Picture (Firehouse 12 Records), “consistently compelling listening” (Time Out New York) and “the shape of jazz to come” (Philip Clark, The Wire), noting that the band “is like no other outfit around” (Brent Burton, JazzTimes).

Named after two mythic tricksters, Anansi the Spider of West Africa and the Monkey King of China, SpiderMonkey Strings has performed a diverse range of Bynum’s extended suites with a genre-defying spirit and distinctive sense of humor.  In March 2008, the group presented the world premiere performance of Madeleine Dreams at Roulette in New York before embarking on a tour of Belgium and The Netherlands.  The piece was inspired by the novel Madeleine is Sleeping (Harcourt), a 2004 National Book Award finalist written by Bynum’s sister, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, drawing text from the book and further exploring its theme of “the logic of dreams,” a recurring thread in Bynum’s work as a composer.  The band will document Madeleine Dreams in the studio on November 22nd after additional performances in Boston and New Haven as the follow-up to its 2003 debut, Other Stories [Three Suites] (482 Music).

“Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum is at the forefront of a younger generation of creative musicians in New York,” writes AllAboutJazz.com’s John Sharpe. “He combines thrilling improvisation with stealthy composition, unconfined by genre.”  Other critics agree, calling him “one of the most exciting figures in jazz’s new power generation” (Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago), “a strong cornetist and serious-minded composer with experimental tendencies” (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and “an agile and creative improviser who sounds like no one but himself” (Chris Kelsey, JazzTimes).  Jazzwise reviewer Kevin Le Gendre adds, “Bynum is thinking outside of the jazz box without getting trapped inside another in the process.”

Bynum’s expansive resume includes a wide variety of work with both his contemporaries and legendary figures alike, most notably the iconic saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, with whom he has performed and recorded extensively over the past decade.  Along with The Middle Picture, his most recent releases as a bandleader include True Events (482 Music, 2007), a recording of cornet/percussion duets with Tomas Fujiwara that veteran jazz writers Howard Mandel, Brian Morton and K. Leander Williams, among others, included on their top 10 lists for the year.  In addition to leading his own bands, Bynum is a member of such groups as Jason Kao Hwang’s Edge and the large ensembles of Bill Dixon and Cecil Taylor.  He is also a curator for the annual Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) in New York and a partner in New Haven’s Firehouse 12 Records label.  Learn more at http://www.taylorhobynum.com

Anansi es un curioso personaje protagonista de numerosos cuentos de tradición africana. A veces aparece como hombre y a veces como araña; representa, entre otras cosas, la astucia y el engaño por excelencia. Ha sido el tema escogido para el concurso Figures Futur 2008 de París. Esta es mi visión del relato “Anansi y la Muerte”