Requiem for Elvin and Philly Joe

I really love it when a new-to-me poet submits some poetry and it's about a (slightly) less well known musician. Thank you, Glen Armstrong, for sending along this tribute to Elvin and Philly Joe Jones.

Requiem for Elvin and Philly Joe

I’ve heard bodies

become music / become other bodies

beats

experimental at first then

breathing / catching

asynchronous as all

phantasms must be

until

warming / returning

to a pulse

sometimes at night Pontiac Michigan

and the so-called Badlands

of Philadelphia

echo / ring / divide

as if by hand

and stick

dividing a ride cymbal

into unexpected 3s / galloping 4s

as if these cities

might at any moment

return.

Bio:

Glen Armstrong holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has three recent chapbooks:Set List (Bitchin Kitsch,) In Stone and The Most Awkward Silence of All (both Cruel Garters Press.) His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit and Cream City Review.

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With all this emphasis on the drums, I feel like I am back grading papers again, playing lots of drum-heavy YouTube videos to keep me going.  (I just can't drink coffee anymore.)  But let's take a listen to some videos featuring both Philly Joe Jones and Elvin Jones.

This is their "Le Roi":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXEinbbqtGY

Here they play their version of "Brown Sugar": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8bOWhK6sB8

If you want to watch Philly Joe Jones in action, watch this clip of him from 1978: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPIl4sSTtgo

It's not Halloween, and vampires are out of vogue now, but you might like "Blues for Dracula":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz3d8C6xnmU

My husband has just vetoed "Blues for Dracula," so here is a video of Elvin Jones in action:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVOd1hK0_w

I'll finish up with his "Anti-Calypso":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcxNPlGMsAE

There is a lot more that I could post, but I will finish now.  Enjoy!