M.U. PODCAST #142: JACOB WICK (NOVEMBER 2022)

Cover Art by Bruno Lopes (Mundo Urbano), November 2022.

Jacob Wick is an improviser, writer, and artist. His work is dedicated to and informed by queer feelings and queer politics. As an improviser and trumpet player, he has performed in a variety of contexts, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Kennedy Center, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC). He has performed with Matana Roberts, Andrea Neumann, Gerald Cleaver, Katherine Young, Judith Hamann, Toshimaru Nakamura, and others.

As a writer, he has published in print and online, including regular blog posts on Bad at Sports on the artists and art scenes in Los Angeles and Mexico City. He was an associate editor for What We Want is Free: Critical Exchanges in Recent Art (SUNY Press, 2014).

As an artist, he has organized projects in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the Bay Area. In 2013, with the assistance of The Think Tank that has yet to be named…, he organized Germantown City Hall, a temporary city hall for the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia modeled after 19th-century anarcho-utopian town halls. His work is currently dedicated to developing and holding workshops and working groups.

You can also indulge yourself with his new work "Standards" released September 2, on Full Spectrum Records. «a towering new collection of spontaneous reimaginings of perhaps otherwise more staid selections from the ever-outwardly expanding pop culture lexicon». The album was recorded in December 2019 and September 2021 at Mexico City’s now-defunct gallery/performance space Bucareli 69. It is in that spirit that ‘Standards’ sits before you now, dedicated with love and trust, as well as curiosity, openness, and generosity: the only things that truly matter in improvised music.

M.U. PODCAST #142: JACOB WICK (NOVEMBER 2022)

01. Jacob Wick Quintet - i'm on fire (Bruce Springsteen)

02. Arthur Russell - Calling All Kids

03. Carly Rae Jepsen - Western Wind

04. Billy Strayhorn - Lush Life

05. claire rousay & Jacob Wick - The Friendly Bar

06. Julius Eastman - If You're so Smart, Why Aren't You Rich? (1977)

07. DJ Pyromania - Samsung S22 Ultra Unboxing (CupcakKe remix)

08. Eric Dolphy - Tenderly (Gross/Lawrence)

09. Count Basie - Li'l Darlin' (Hefti)

Thoughts: "Huelga contra el tiempo," reads a recent publication/print by Big Sur Books. "Huelga contra el tiempo / Pausar lo más posible. / Poder sentir lo olvidado. / Intuir lo propio." Withdraw collectively from time / Pause the probable / Be able to feel the forgotten / Sense your own. The plodding pathos of If you're so smart why aren't you rich?, the missing bar in "Western Wind," the Count Basie Orchestra leaning so far back on the beat that they might just fall off, the man in the audience echoing Billy Strayhorn, "oh yes." Next time you're going from point A to point B, jump into a ditch instead. While you're laying there, laughing, looking at the clouds, covered in mud, a little mad, a little horny, listen to this mix. I love you skinny queen... thanks again for the invitation. this was fun! - Jacob