Joe's Odyssey

I can't remember the last time I practiced my Odyssey.

Sure, I'll run pieces of it to warm up or after a time off from performing it.

But actual practice? It's been probably a decade since I sat down and worked on it in a conventional way.  Maybe after I didn't play it for over three years and came back to record and start performing it again in 2010.

That doesn't mean I'm not actively trying to get better at it: I know the piece so well, it's so in my blood and is such a part of me that my improvement…

I've been doing my Odyssey for a long, long, long time. 

Over 19 years to be exact, which means longer than some of my college audience members have been alive. 

(Big sigh)

This is mostly a good thing. 

No, it's entirely a good thing. To have created a piece of music and a show that has remained relevant and in-demand (or as in-demand as a folk opera based on Homeric epic can be) for almost two decades, a piece at which I'm still improving, that I still enjoy performing... what more can you ask for as a…

My take on the Odyssey tends to come across as more sympathetic to the protagonist than most modern audiences feel (or want to feel) about him. 

So much so that listeners sometimes get agitated at having to consider Odysseus as anything other than a lying murderous unfaithful sociopathic monster.

I didn't feel this sort of audience animosity during the post-show discussion with students at UIC, but the professor did ask me to expound a bit on any dissonances between my Odysseus and Homer's.

As often happens…

What could be more appropriate than an Odyssey show on April Fool's Day? The Greek hero most known for playing loose with the truth featured on a day dedicated to recreational lying.

So I set up in my office for what would be my third appearance in conjunction with the kind folks at Valencia College in Florida. I played The Blues of Achilles twice for them (once last year and once this) and I was thrilled for the chance to play my Odyssey as part of their speaker series.

After a generous introduction I…

No that's not a typo: my last Odyssey performance of 2020 was in November for Waterloo School in Texas and my first performance of 2021 is in March for... the very same Waterloo School in Texas (though a different set of students).

The four month gap between Odyssey shows is the longest such stretch for me in almost ten years. Which is crazy. There were several years that even a month break between shows was long so four months is really something. 

In the interim, I've been able to focus on a couple of…