Bob Schwartz

All you children, gather ’round
We will dance and we will whirl
All you children, gather ’round
We will dance together
We will dance to our own song
We must spin to our own world
Won’t you dance with me?
All You Children, Jamie xx/The Avalanches from In Waves (2024)

Memorable music moments can be big or little, big or little artists, big or little venues.

Big Ears is the most creative and eclectic music festival in America. Held in Knoxville, Tennessee, founded in 2009, we attended the festival in 2015.

There were artists familiar and unfamiliar, performing in concert halls and smaller sites. One night we went to a tiny downstairs club to hear producer and DJ Jamie xx (Jamie Smith). I didn’t know that he was a founding member of the xx, an award-winning young British group. I didn’t know much about him or about the music he was producing for others and creating for us and himself.

What I heard was unforgettable. What I didn’t know was that at that moment his first solo album (his only one until this month, nine years later) was being released. In Colour (2015) became and remains one of my favorite recorded works.

There are so many talented artists in so many media. That is abundantly the case with music and with Jamie xx. As overwhelming as the art may be, there is a distinction that some artists express. As vague and wispy as it may sound, it is an expression of humanity. When I heard Jamie xx creating in that club, when I heard In Colour (again and again), that’s the distinction I still note.

Now we have, after nine years, In Waves. I will also be listening to this again and again. You should try too.

More about Jamie xx now.