Sasha Weiss
speaker
220 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 3 May
Sasha Weiss’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
But at the same time, she's so playful. I mean, there's the chair and there's the scepter-like cane, which looked to me to be gilded. There's like a wolf.
Something metallic and glinting. And, you know, it's like she's wielding it, but she's so playful. And as you were talking about earlier, you know, her rhythms, her rhythms are so unusual. And she's tapping them and tracing this kind of rhythmic rhythm. idiosyncratic signature throughout the songs. And it's just incredible.
So she's at once grand, and there's just something droll and fun and playful about her in her posture. It's both. It's both ends. And also, I would say that the way the stage looks, it's a recreation, as I understand it, of the Joanie jams that took place in her living room.
Yes.
over the course of many years, which, you know, led up to this moment of coming back to the stage, you know, where she'd gather with musician friends. And I think Brandy really facilitated it and all these different people would come.
But it seemed like there was a core group.
Those were the people on stage who clearly had a long running experience singing with her. Like an ability to improvise that seemed to me to be drawing from the experience of having done a lot of work together. But the stage, I mean, it felt very intimate. And from where I was sitting, like everyone sort of seemed in a pile. So it was like, you know, it was both really like an ensemble.
And yes, Joni was this commanding presence. Yeah.
Part of the feeling that I got of her being in command was the set list, which I felt like she was preaching. She was not bringing nostalgia and comfort.
I did feel like I was being schooled in a really good way. I mean, there's a quality of attention that you have to bring to her new register. And there's such a depth and a richness. I mean, I kept thinking of wood grain, like it just felt so rich and, you know, so much to hear and think about and movement. But I mean, maybe it's also about the reverence. Like, you could hear the crickets.
Maybe you always can in the Hollywood Bowl. But I felt it was about a sense, again, it's this kind of energetic gravitas. And I did feel she was demanding a kind of listening, partly in the choice of song. She wanted a hush. And choosing those later songs, like, it didn't create the excitation, right? Like, it created something else that was unusual, right?
I also think... there is a really special kind of listening going on on the stage.
Well, I think this gets back to the way that these concerts came about. I mean, you know, this is what I understand from reading and listening around, you know, that she had these regular gatherings.
And at first she wasn't singing much because she couldn't and she was still recovering. And I think over time she started to chime in, you know, and sometimes it was just with a line or two. Sometimes, you know, I think as her voice strengthened, it was more and more. And eventually she started to pick up the guitar. Mm-hmm.
I felt very much the attunement of the other musicians to her, which I guess with any great band, you feel that. But it felt really potent because I felt like they really understood when she was taking over the song.
To me, it was like really utopian. It modeled something really beautiful. Like, they were partners and they could recede. And I really liked watching them do that. So I think... You know, they're doing really intense listening and you kind of feel that atmosphere and it kind of invites you to listen in a different way.
I mean, there's some kind of intimate, communal, collaborative act of attunement that was going on in this concert. But whatever's happening and however they're following along, there is a shagginess and an imperfection, you know? And I mean, on the one hand, Joni is such a virtuosic, like she does have a kind of like... consummate Apollonian artistry to her.
Like, everything she does is excellent. But I did feel that there was a... You know, sometimes, like, the starts of songs were a little... a little off. And I loved that. And I love that she let us hear that and see that.
I'm really taking all I have to not burst into song. You can do it!
I love when you sing.
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