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[02] introduction by edward sanders |
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Fly Right
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Friday, 23 December 2005 10:47 |
fly right
a monk suite
This suite of poems by John Sinclair set to the excellent piano work of Ed Moss is just what the marriage of verse and jazz should be good on the page, good in the ear, and good in the mind.
Sinclair has selected and sequenced 14 poems from an ambitious project he began in 1982, what he calls an epic investigation in verse of the music, life, times and impact of Thelonious Monk. It was the year Monk passed away, and Sinclair listened carefully to the Monk oeuvre, a series of singles and LPs spanning 1947 to 1972.
While writing each poem, he listened to the particular Monk cut over and over. To date he has completed more than half of the poems for thelonious: a book of monk.
Many of these extraordinary poems trace moments and movements in the history of modern jazz poems such as fly right , bloomdido , round about midnight , monk's mood , an oscar for treadwell , and in walked bud . Sinclair is onto an important method of transmission of mind, tracks that combine the oral tradition of the bard as historian with the brilliant concept of jazz/poetry. It's a form of Investigative Poetry poetry that tells the stories that stay stories, that could be used in many fields to hand on traditions and beautiful moments.
These poems are a big work that places Sinclair on the path of Olson and other bards who have undertaken long sequences that include personal history as well as the history of a culture and civilization.
The powerful voice of the poet, trembling with the excitement of the music and the stories, plus his phrasing and his respect for his own line breaks, combine to give the tracks an historic energy. Each poem ends, and then Ed Moss paints down an almost visual tag or coda, to hang there wagging beautifully.
These poems and performances STAY in the head. It's the way poetry and music should be.
This is an extraordinary work.
Edward Sanders
Woodstock, NY
Christmas 1991
3.1.665 |
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