Liner Notes

Production:
This album is an imagined live concert. Trickster was supposed to tour the United States and Europe for six weeks in May–June of 2020, and after the pandemic shutdown I was looking for some ways to keep the band “working.” The idea of putting out a musical statement took on a new, more urgent meaning as the uprisings over racism in America took center stage. I decided to make an album of what the group might sound like after a couple of weeks on the road playing material from our last album, tempos pushed, forms stretched, risks taken. I sang an imaginary Trickster set, and we played along with it individually to make this performance in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. A few older numbers and some improvised interludes snuck into the set, as they do during gigs. Anthony Tidd worked his magic to mix and master the home recordings. In order to convey some feeling of a live concert, there are accompanying videos for each song, filmed during the taping of the music.

The idea here was to provide something for audiences who might have come out to shows, with an energy that reflects on the state of things, living with the strange combination of forced isolation and the imperative for collective action. The value of performing for live audiences lies in the moments of ecstatic and joyful creation, where the connections between people through resonating sound and emotion are undeniable. These are fleeting visions of a world where categories of race and origin have long been recognized for the absurdities that they are. Being able to visit this dreamworld of pure human connection in a concrete and consistent way is, for a lot of us, the whole point of it. I hope that, although we are separated and scattered by social distance at this time, this music has a few of those resonant moments for you. 

Inspiration:
While mixing and making the artwork and videos for this project, I was reading Freedom Dreams by the brilliant scholar Robin D. G. Kelley. This is where the album’s title comes from. I was struggling with what it means to put art into the world in the midst of political upheaval. This passage struck me: 

“Sometimes I think the conditions of daily life, of everyday oppressions, of survival, not to mention the temporary pleasures accessible to most of us, render much of our imagination inert. We are constantly putting out fires, responding to emergencies, finding temporary refuge, all of which make it difficult to see anything other than the present. As the great poet Keorapetse Kgositsile put it, ‘When the clouds clear / We shall know the colour of the sky.’ When movements have been unable to clear the clouds, it has been the poets—no matter the medium—who have succeeded in imagining the color of the sky, in rendering the kinds of dreams and futures social movements are capable of producing. Knowing the color of the sky is far more important than counting clouds. Or to put it another way, the most radical art is not protest art but works that take us to another place, envision a different way of seeing, perhaps a different way of feeling.” (p. 11)

The music for Trickster has no words, no verbal message. If it is effective, it’s purely in the realm of transporting the listener to some unvisited place in their imagination through sonic invention and energy. The way of getting there is unplanned and built on trust and risk-taking, collectively building a world in real time and inviting others into it. We are in the business of imagining colors and ways of feeling. In my writing and performances, I aspire toward something like Kelley’s description of Surrealism: “It is a movement that invites dreaming, urges us to improvise and invent, and recognizes the imagination as our most powerful weapon.” (p.159).

Coincidentally, a few days before the release of this album I was interviewed by Dr. Kelley for a podcast about the pianist Erroll Garner, who he regards as a kind of Trickster figure. We talked for a long time about the power of imagination, disruption, and improvisation. We focused on a recording from 1966, a time at the height of another reckoning with race in America. The marvelous and joyful inventions spun out by Garner in this social context meshed perfectly with the idea of the role of the Trickster as the one who exists on the border, opening doorways in consciousness of what is possible, to say “it doesn’t have to be this way.” 

Artwork:
I ended the liner notes for The Sky Below with the question: “And what became of the fox from the Trickster cover? This is another story, for another album.” Well, it seems that we find out here. In The Sky Below, Raven is threatened by rising seas, trapped on a shrinking island. Now Raven is engulfed by the sea/sky, and Fox has returned with multitudes, demanding an answer. Raven receives a message from the dog star and tells them of a dream.

Context: 
These are things that everyone knows, but may be of interest at some point in the future to get a feeling for this extraordinary moment. Early July, 2020: in the United States at the time of this album’s release, more than 125,000 people have died from the COVID-19 virus, which the President claimed in February would disappear “like a miracle.” New York City is beginning to emerge from nearly four months of lockdown, but infections are accelerating in the entire country. Widespread protests have been held continuously since the end of May, ignited by the murder of George Floyd by the police and fueled by the 400 year old legacy of racial inequality and brutality that haunts the nation. On June 1st, the President ordered his troops to attack peaceful protesters in front of the White House with tear gas in order for him to stage a photo in front of a church, holding the Bible as a prop. On June 5th, mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. had the words “Black Lives Matter” painted in 35 foot tall yellow letters on 16th St., the road that leads to the White House. 50 million people have filed for unemployment, in a crisis of joblessness that of course includes all touring musicians and venues. In the face of the existential threat of climate change, the administration continues to deny the long-established scientific consensus, rolling back regulations for their own profit. The state and police forces act with willful ignorance and impunity, and the people are demanding solutions. Our population is contending with diseases of the body, mind and government in the form of a paralyzing pandemic, entrenched and overt racism at all levels of society, and rampant corruption and denial of reality within our openly authoritarian leadership. This concert is dedicated to those who are now fighting on these fronts for health, justice, and equality.

Credits

Produced by Miles Okazaki
All music composed by Miles Okazaki, © 2020 Salish Sea Music, SESAC
Executive Producers: Seth Rosner and Yulun Wang
Recorded at the homes of Miles Okazaki, Matt Mitchell, Anthony Tidd, and Sean Rickman, May 2020. 
Mixed and Mastered by Anthony Tidd at TidbiT Sonos, Philadelphia, PA.
Folding and cover design by Miles Okazaki
Raven design by Quentin Trollip, Fox design by John Montroll
Band photo by Dimitri Louis

The creation of this album was made possible in part by funding from The Shifting Foundation