Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Sweet Sovereign Fleurs de Mal


Poet and visual artist Ed Schelb returns with a new poem "Sweet Sovereign Fleurs de Mal," which, as he points out, "is about the weird intersection of teaching and jazz."  Both involve improvisation within a set structure. On the other hand, clerical work reminds me more of classical music where one has to follow the notes, the composer's intention, and the conductor.  I am sure that I am oversimplifying classical music, though, but my impression of that genre is based on what a musical friend of mine told me when we were arguing about Shakespeare.

 The images in this entry are all by Ed. My husband just remarked on how striking they are.  Enjoy! 
Sweet Sovereign Fleurs de Mal

play Baudelaire backwards
on your hi-fi and you hear
Pastor Edwards
gravitating towards cool jazz
icy androgynous sweetness
to his voice like Chet Baker
or Tiresias and then unwound
into some perilous improv
melody burnt up like
an Apollo capsule swallowing
its long chute you know
his band would’ve split
his tyrannical arrangements
a form of penance
each solo bound to the next
with a mad logic sweet inward
sense of things lightning mutilated
rapture crackle like Django
Reinhardt’s gypsy fingers
felix culpa in a nutshell bombshell
electron shell jumpin’ its orbit
its habitual groove
and I scramble for a Chet Baker
tape but the cover’s empty
so what if I lecture on the Great
Awakening by blasting
“My Funny Valentine” knowing
time won’t evaporate
as long as you blow
sweet sweet sweet sovereignty
steady on the hi-hat now


































Do you recognize Chet Baker above?  He was so handsome and haunted, even into the 1970s.

I am including links to a few of his songs.  Late in life he covered Elvis Costello's "Kind of Blue."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGAcP7Zh6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGx67-CttaA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4PKzz81m5c

Costello has also covered "My Funny Valentine."  But is he a jazzman?  (He is younger than Ron Carter though!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL0M9P1TXk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zju3lT02PiE

Ed also mentions jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt in his poem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpmOTGungnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS2ylPAUxzA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QATIHWbN-sM



Ed Schelb has more graphic work at this site.  I encourage you to explore it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/124865990@N06/sets/72157645321953464/

You may also enjoy Changming Yuan's poems from last week:
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/musicand-other-poems-by-changming-yuan.html
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/jazz-on-animal-farmand-other-poems.html

For other poems from the contest, see the link to Dr. Michael Ingram's "Billie in the Morning":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/billie-in-morning.html

If you would like to contribute to the contest, this entry has more information for you:
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/06/lively-up-blog.html

If you are also a visual artist or have performed your poem live, I urge you to submit your work as well.  The Song Is...is more than just text!
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Monday, July 28, 2014

Music...and other poems by Changming Yuan





Apologies for the late posting as we were offline for most of the weekend, but I think that you will enjoy Changming Yuan's poems this morning.  His first poem "Music" reminded me of the yoga studio that I visited Saturday and Sunday morning.   

 This is not one of the classes I attended, but Vanessa T.'s photo gives you a sense of what the studio is like.


Samuel A.'s photo is very evocative as well.




Music

Ancient Indian legend has it
That the origin of music
Was an om, supposedly the very
First and the most primitive note
(Whose frequency can cause resonance
If you adapt yours to it)
While most educated people today would say
It is the big bang
That has been pushing its sound waves
Farther and farther
Beyond the boundaries of the universe

A fundamental feature
That can offer profound pleasure to any human
Ears anywhere anytime
Is this silence, a blank absence
Where the yin and yang reach
A higher balance within
A meditating mind

A sound of silence
A note whose frequency resonates with your inner being

 "The Cosmic Music" reminds me a little of a fragment from Whitman.  Whitman may be on my mind as I was reading a cultural biography this weekend *and* my friends & teachers Michael Oliver & Elizabeth Bruce had been staging Song of Myself: The Whitman Project at D.C. Fringe & Bloom Bar.  The picture below is from the guide for the play, a one-man show by Michael.  Here is a link to an excerpt from a preview of his performance:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLtudHomutI&list=UUlH63XHk_vbjAcEm6eVKS3Q

The performance is actually a preview at Bloom Bars.  During the Fringe Festival itself, the performance was more elaborate, with a film and music.  The stage was an art gallery with brighter lighting.



The Cosmic Music

With your heart’s ear can you clearly hear
The sound from an unknown planet far beyond our galaxy
A few tender grasses whose deafening snoring has awakened a whole new world
Where the souls of our relatives are traveling all in a hurry

As if to attend a spring gathering?



Rhapsody of Night Sky

A cosmic mirror
      Smashed into small
And bright dots of light
Most of them become
So stained with time
Until darkness grows
      Thick enough to glue
Earth with heaven
      With debris possessed
Still glistening high above
Among hardening silences



Intermezzo of the Flute

I saw a flute in Henan,
And slim it was, at an archeological site.
It made the noisy quietude
Overwhelm that muted site.

The quietude agitating underground,
And spread around, no longer quiet.
The flute was slim upon the sound
And long and of a melody in the air.

It was carved out of a whole eagle bone,
With a stone chisel by the same hands
That played a song, its pitch rose
As high as the eagle could fly.

Fluted descants were delicious,
But those un-fluted are even more so;
Hark, even after eight thousand years
They still echo from soul to soul…

I want to include a few YouTube videos, starting with Ahmad Jamal's Blue Moon and Saturday Morning.  I think that his music fits very nicely with Changming Yuan's poetry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUvkO4A5Vo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krSst6_voEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vttrJskBF38



Years ago I heard Natraj at the late lamented Willow in Somerville, MA.  This group performs jazz on Indian instruments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvJQT3NgHfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF4dalvIkAI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_fToNc4jyQ


I will conclude with some performances by Herbie Mann, the jazz flutist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjMDESjuYEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHAbuuWMpu4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM8D2W0f-KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYMgKwfqO5M



Changming Yuan, an 8-time Pushcart nominee, grew up in a remote village, began to learn English at 19, and published several monographs before leaving China. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently tutors and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Since mid-2005, Yuan’s poetry has appeared in nearly 900 literary publications across 30 countries, which include Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry (2009;12;14), BestNewPoemsOnline and Threepenny Review. 



Links to his websites, including the journal Poetry Pacific are below:


For more of Changming's poetry, see the previous entry in The Song Is...:



You may also enjoy Changming's poems and photographs at The Peregrine Muse:


There is still time to enter the contest!

For the other contest poems that I have published, see the link for Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's "Billie in the Morning":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/billie-in-morning.html

At that entry, scroll down to the bottom for the other poems (Joan McNerney's "Jazz," Avis D. Matthews' "Metaphorical," H.R. Holt's "Mehliana exorcism," Ed Schelb's "Blue Logic," and several ingenuous poems by the dynamic Felino A. Soriano).

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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Jazz on the Animal Farm....and other poems




International poet and editor Changming Yuan reveals other aspects of music in his poems: "Jazz on the Animal Farm," "Jazz Impromptu for Allen and George Yuan," and "The Harpist and His Audience."  The last poem, in fact, takes us out of jazz and into world music itself.  I think that you will enjoy seeing jazz in context.  Even though my father is a big fan of Dixieland jazz and used to play tapes of the Dukes of Dixieland on our road trips, I had forgotten that jazz was once rural or at least drew on rural roots.

Jazz on the Animal Farm

Buzz! Baa! Bark! Bray! Bow-wow!
Chirp! Cluck! Coo! Croak!
Growl!
Hiss!  Howl!
Moo! Meow!
Oink!
Purr!
Quack!
Rattle! Roar!
Slurp! Sniff! Squeal!
Tweet!
Woof!
Yap!

Shh ! Who’s winning the vote 

On the animal farm?



 Jazz Impromptu: for Allen and George Yuan

There is often such a time when you, a tone-deaf 
Would want to sing aloud to yourself, a song
That everyone else might also love to sing; the song
Whose lines you never remember, nor can you
Control your pitch as it rises and falls randomly
On its own, nor will you keep the tune on the
Right track; the song whose rhythm you do not
Care to follow, while lost in your little privacy
The song that has an evasive melody
Deeply encoded in your heart

Although you sound like a duck or donkey
Your voice is full of euphonies






 The Harpist and His Audience

more than two thousand earthly revolutions ago
somewhere on the other side of this new world
a horizontal harpist named bo ziya
burned his bare but beloved instrument
and never sang to any more human ear
upon hearing the news of zhong ziqi’s death
the only one who understands and loves his music
                                    even until now

As it turns out, there is a jazz harpist, Dorothy Ashby (1930-1986).  


Here are some YouTube videos of her work.  As you can imagine from these videos in chronological order, the songs she covered and her style changed radically.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwCQZa03MbA




I also want to include videos of Chinese harpists:



And, of course, Livery Stable Blues and a little Dukes of Dixieland for traveling music!








Changming Yuan, an 8-time Pushcart nominee, grew up in a remote village, began to learn English at 19, and published several monographs before leaving China. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently tutors and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Since mid-2005, Yuan’s poetry has appeared in nearly 900 literary publications across 30 countries, which include Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry (2009;12;14), BestNewPoemsOnline and Threepenny Review. 

Links to his websites, including the journal Poetry Pacific are below:



There is still time to enter the contest!

For the other poems that I have published, see the link for Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's "Billie in the Morning":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/billie-in-morning.html

At that entry, scroll down to the bottom for the other poems (Joan McNerney's "Jazz," Avis D. Matthews' "Metaphorical," H.R. Holt's "Mehliana exorcism," Ed Schelb's "Blue Logic," and several ingenuous poems by the dynamic Felino A. Soriano).

I hope that today's entry with its links inspired you!




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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Billie in the Morning



Today I'd like to share with you Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's poem, "Billie in the Morning."  I have seen him perform it several times, and the experience is superb!  At some point, I hope that someone will record his performance--even if it is my husband with his flip video!!  (The next opportunity might be the open mic at Philly Steak and Cheese in August.)


Billie in the Morning

Natural low in calories
Containing no Trans-fat,
A little Billie in the morning
Goes better with my coffee
Than either sugar or cream

SHE as a jazzy, melodic aroma
And a fine and mellow taste
Still bittersweet to the tongue,
Like the strange fruit which grows sadly
On the blood colored dark-green leaves
Of a Mississippi moaning tree

Yes, a little Billie in the morning
Goes better with my coffee
Than either sugar or cream

I savor every taste;
Because I can already tell
It’s going to be a bad day. 



Michael also mentions that he has written another piece, which he performs to Lady Day's "Fine and Mellow."  However, his piece has not been recorded, so I am just posting a You-Tube of her song.


Here are some more of her most memorable songs:








To hear "Strange Fruit," follow this link.  It is a very explicit song about lynching, but this makes it all the more powerful:

The contemporary vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater has done a tribute to Lady Day.  My husband says he wishes that someone would write a poem about Ms. Bridgewater.  I must add that she is fabulous live and on CD.





There is still time to send your poems to this "contest."  For more details about what I am looking for, see this entry:

Some possible topics are Latin Jazz, the act of performance, the lives of musicians, women in jazz, and perhaps even musicians who do not play the piano!!  

On August 19, I will post the voting rules and prizes for this contest!!

For the previous poems that I've posted, see the links below:

We'll start with Joan McNerney's "Jazz," a tribute to the music itself (and the neighborhoods that nourished it):

Next are poems by Felino A. Soriano and a haiku by Gabrielle Grunau.


For more of Felino's poems and Kuroda's music, see this link: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/takuya-kuroda-and-kris-bowers.html

Felino and H. Holt are also collaborating on a project linking word and image:  http://www.pinterest.com/poetnpractice/experiential-cycles-of-elwood-oris-splaven/

It's really cool that they are using Pinterest to present poetry!  (A number of journals are on Tumblr, so it's really not surprising.  But it is.)

H. Holt's poem "Meliana exorcism" recently appeared in The Song Is...  
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/mehliana-exorcism.html

You may also like Avis D. Matthews' "Metaphorical":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/06/metaphorical.html

Russell Streur's "Johnny James":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/johnny-james.html

Or Ed Schelb's "Blue Logic":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/06/blue-logic.html


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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Jazz...by Joan McNerney



Today, as the weather in Rockville, MD cools down for a spell, I'd like to share with you Joan McNerney's lovely, atmospheric poem "Jazz."  It is not inspired by a specific artist or song but by her immersion in Greenwich Village's jazz scene.  She mentions having read some of her early poetry to the accompaniment of Karl Berger on the vibes as well as experiencing the "startling energy" of Gene Krupa's drumming.



Jazz

the kitchen sits
in fruit soup...
steamed apricot
mango shadow

down thru spinning
smoke into hot light
blink beat

body ends dangle
lead eye skin cement
high on tongue

night pasted among
buildings Styrofoam clouds
moon hung beneath billboard

rolling pass wet
rocked streets
soul tramp
diamond panhandlers watch
paper birds slices of
the daily news drift in air

comes cool ether
whispers up door
climbing dusty corridor

tree windows lapping lisp
door slams again noise again
then none void nothing syncopates
noise again door slams tree bare frozen

caught in the image of 7 candles
within 7 candles flames of air
7 light bulbs growing out of each other
7 silver circles coined from 7 silver rings

clear as blazing sheets
of glass yet
vague as dust
an ice cube on wood table
in front of crushed velvet
   melt
   poured
   peeled

when this sky now boiling with
stars is strapped black
in pinched air thru sucked mind
swimming pass spaced time
will be one silent
note up.


Here are links to Karl Berger's work over the years:








For Gene Krupa's work, see these links:







Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Spectrum, three Bright Spring Press Anthologies and several Kind of A Hurricane Publications.  She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net.  Poet and Geek recognized her work as their best poem of 2013.  Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses and she has three e-book titles.

Twelve Months, one of her e-books, is available at Kind of a Hurricane Press' bookstore:
http://barometricpressures.blogspot.com/2013/06/twelve-months-joan-mcnerney.html




There is still time to send your poems to this "contest."  For more details about what I am looking for, see this entry:

Some possible topics are Latin Jazz, the act of performance, the lives of musicians, women in jazz, and perhaps even musicians who do not play the piano!!  

Watch this space for how you can vote in this contest and what the prize will be!!

For the previous poems that I've posted, see the links below:

We'll start with poems by Felino A. Soriano and a haiku by Gabrielle Grunau.


For more of Felino's poems and Kuroda's music, see this link: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/takuya-kuroda-and-kris-bowers.html

Felino and H. Holt are also collaborating on a project linking word and image:  http://www.pinterest.com/poetnpractice/experiential-cycles-of-elwood-oris-splaven/

It's really cool that they are using Pinterest to present poetry!  (A number of journals are on Tumblr, so it's really not surprising.  But it is.)

H. Holt's poem "Meliana exorcism" recently appeared in The Song Is...  
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/mehliana-exorcism.html

You may also like Avis D. Matthews' "Metaphorical":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/06/metaphorical.html

Russell Streur's "Johnny James":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/07/johnny-james.html

Or Ed Schelb's "Blue Logic":  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/06/blue-logic.html



at 3 comments: