From our BEST Music of the decade feature:
It’s easy to talk about live music from one’s own perspective, from the purview of the type of music we love. In America, and in the middle of the middle of the middle of America, that generally means rock, country, hip hop, EDM, and the like. Those are all great genres, we know.
But for Jason Finkelman, he has always turned his attention to the underappreciated and the sometimes unheard. Improvisation and instrumentation from abroad. Surprising yourself in the moment, and allowing the show to be the teacher, and the teacher to lecture with notes and not words.
I didn’t go to as many shows that Finkelman puts on as I should have. The ones I’ve been to leave me and my poor head spinning from how powerful they are. His Sudden Sound Series, brought to you in partnership with Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, is one of the brightest and most exciting spots we have here in Champaign-Urbana. It’s my direct goal moving forward to mark them on the calendar and celebrate the end of marijuana prohibition in tandem starting in 2020. That’s what I am going to do. Get nice and stoned, and safely arrive at these shows, and let them blanket me in their grace. I am going to leave safely, and I am going to dream about them later. That is what I am going to do.
Mark it in your memory: when you see a show being presented by Jason Finkelman, make it a point to go see it, if you are able. I can assure you, you won’t leave sorry you went. (Seth Fein)
Photo by Melinda Edwards