Banner
- support -- support -- support -- support -- support -- support -- support -- support -

John Sinclair

The hardest working poet in the industry

[19] "thelonious" E-mail
We Just Change The Beat
Wednesday, 28 December 2005 09:32
Share Link: Share Link: Bookmark Google Yahoo MyWeb Del.icio.us Digg Facebook Myspace Reddit Ma.gnolia Technorati Stumble Upon Newsvine Slashdot Shoutwire Yahoo Bookmarks MSN Live Nujij

#1

thelonious 

for alfred lion & frank wolff


on the fifteenth
of october,
1947,
five days following
his 30th birthday,

thelonious sphere monk
was blessed
with his first recording session
as a leader
on blue note records 

the genius
of modern music,
prophet of bebop,
progenitor
of modern jazz,

born in rocky mount,
north carolina, & bred
in the jungles,  west
63rd street,
new york city,

where the piano players
were kings
& james p. johnson,
willie the lion  smith,
& numerous of others

populated the neighborhood
both night & day,
before blacks
took over harlem
& moved even further north, this

was the place
where the music was
in new york city,
just a few square blocks
off to the side,

dense
with negroes
from the east coast
& the south,
not mississippi

but atlanta,
charlestown, savannah,
the piney woods
& tobacco country
& virginia,

60 years
after slavery
was abolished,
300 years
after jamestown

unloaded slaves
shipped from west africa,
strangers
in a strange
land,

thelonious monk
was brought to manhattan
as an infant
& began his piano lessons
at age 6,

1923,
surrounded by genius
& the beautifully evolved culture
of africans
in america



detroit
april1984



3.1.669
 
Banner