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It’s been quite a long time since I posted any writing on my website or anywhere else for that matter… but guess what- I am back… and it’s a big one. Since the academic year is almost over, and since the fraught state of higher education is a big topic everywhere right now, I decided to write an epic essay about education- my education in particular and my work as an educator- in the context of one of the most momentous events in my educational life this year, my reunion with my great teacher and mentor Anthony Braxton. If you’re a Ted Reichman completist you may recognize some of this material from things I’ve written before, but since a lot of that is out of general circulation, and since I no longer assume what anyone knows anymore, and since I can’t really tell the story of this year without also telling my “origin story,” I decided to include all of that here- once and for all. For a long time I’ve wanted to write something called “I Was A Teenage Avant-Garde Accordion Player,” and this is not exactly that essay- but it sort of is. It gets at the strangeness of the situation I found myself in this year, looking back on the moment when Braxton recruited me into this crazy world while trying to convey some of what he taught me to my students - especially in his actual presence. Thanks to Stephen Malagodi for the cover pic. Link in comments.

Boston area people - this excellent feature documentary which I scored last year is showing at the Somerville Theater on Monday. Touching on complex issues of race, spirituality and medical ethics- I think many of you will appreciate it!

TREE (Ted Reichman Electronic Ensemble) in action last night with special guest @manwithsign aka Warren Senders. @1git.git1 @natbihag @mcfluffy_elfie @davidwarrenharewood @oscarmop99. Thanks to all who came to the gig. There’s lots more electronic music happening in the nec black box over the next couple of weeks in the CHIRP series.

Tomorrow (wednesday) night in the NEC Black Box- a double bill of two of my electro-acoustic projects, the Ted Reichman Electronic Ensemble (aka TREE) and Mela Mantilla Reichman. TREE will be @1git.git1 (voice and theremin), @mcfluffy_elfie (vibraphone and electronics), @natbihag (laptop),@davidwarrenharewood (laptop) and @oscarmop99 (electric bass). We will be featuring special guest Warren Senders (voice) performing an epic piece by him, as well as a couple of my open form pieces. TREE is on first at 8. This is the first concert in CHIRP- a series of electronic-oriented concerts in the Black Box by NEC faculty, students and guests happening over the next couple of weeks.

Finally got some better photos of my most recent painting… provisionally titled “whitewash 1.” I chopped up the 1965 world book encyclopedia, made a collage, then painted over it. 36x48” paper collage and acrylic on canvas. One more of these in the works right now.

Had the honor of hosting the legendary Dave Eggar in my studio last night. Among his many achievements in classical, new music and pop- you know that cello intro on Coldplay’s big hit? That is him. The last time we worked together was towards the end of the last century at Ornette Coleman’s notorious housewarming party… The stories from that are so good that they can only be told IRL…

In almost 35 years of gigging on accordion I never got close to sounding like electric Miles - until last night. #melamantillareichman

Our Colombian/Cuban/American improvising electro-acoustic trio will be playing in Brookline this Saturday. #melamantillareichman details and tickets via the link in comments.

This band made a record today… #melamantillareichman

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been coaching Frank Carlberg’s NEC Jazz ensemble on one of Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance compositions from the first quartet session I played on in 1995 with Joe Fonda and Kevin Norton. That was the session when we drove up from NYC and found Braxton making copies of what seemed like hundreds of pages of unbeamed noteheads- the first encounter with the Native American-inspired compositional language he’d use for the next 20-odd years. This is not intuitive music. There’s a lot of information that isn’t on the page and I think I was able to convey some of that to them. The students were just confused enough to get to that multilayered zone in between composition and improvisation that is one of the goals of the Tricentric system as I understand it. But working on Braxton’s music with the students was only one aspect of the scenario I found myself in when Braxton walked in the door bright and early on Tuesday morning, ready to put some “Special Sauce” on the students’ excellent performance. It’s been a long time (decades) since we had a real interaction and now here we were… the man who brought me into a life in music and took me with him around the world for a few years, and me, trying to convey some of what he taught me to the next generation. To be with him for the last few days meant more than I can possibly say to him or to you, but things were said, and music was made, and the students rose to a level that I knew was possible because I did it too thirty-five years ago. Thanks to Frank and Anna and Joe and James and to the NEC Jazz department and to all the people who came to Jordan Hall last night. We all witnessed something. There is only one Anthony Braxton and as he would say, “Hooray for music!”

Still experimenting… making some progress. No title for this one yet. 78 rpm record, gesso and paper collage on 9x12” panel.

Solstice greetings from our local Paleolithic sacred site King Phillip’s Cave. First time in about ten years I’ve been able to experience it filling with light on the winter solstice.