Jazz Poems
FOUR BONGOS: TAKE A TRAIN
for Vinnie
The drummer wears suspenders to look like
an old-timer, and plays a salsa
“Caravan,” bad boy from the panyard with
an evil, evil beat. The conga man
chants Yoruba and shakes his sweat loose on
a girl up front. His hand worries the drum
like a live fish thrashing. Call the bassist
“Pops,” with his grizzly goatee, his Banshee
yelp, his rhumba step. Tha hall is fluorescent.
“Take a Train,” Lawrence Welk called that tune,
and played. Ellington, hovers above this group
like changeable weather, in gabardine.
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER | 1962
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Jazz Poems
ELEGY FOR THELONIOUSDamn the snow
Its senseless beauty pours a hard light through the hemlock. Thelonious is dead. Winter drifts in the hourglass; notes pour from the brain cup. Damn the alley cat wailing a muted dirge off Lenox Ave. Thelonious is dead. Tonight’s a lazy rhapsody of shadows swaying to blue vertigo & metaphysical funk. Black trees in the wind. Crepuscule with Nelly Plays inside the bowed head. “Dig the Man Ray of piano!” O Satisfaction, hot fingers blur on thosewhite rib keys. Comingon the Hudson. Monk’s Dream. The ghost of bebop from 52nd Street, footprints in the snow. Damn February. Let’s go to Minton’s & play “modern malice” till daybreak. Lord, there’s Theloniou wearing that old funky hat pulled down over his eyes.Yusef Komunyakaa | 1947
from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Edgar Avenir was born on May 25, 1950 in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. As a child he grew up in the University of the Philippines and lived in Area One of the campus. As a young guitarist, Avenir played with the renowned jazz pianist and composer Bong Peñera, and the Sangkatutak Band, whose members included Cariño, Ivy Violan and Richard Merk. His neighbors included Ed “Sarge” Cariño and John Lesaca, both of whom would later play with Avenir in various bands.
While he sessioned for pop acts like the Apo Hiking Society, his associations with fellow jazz musicians allowed him to explore the more eclectic side of his music. His move to jazz had him rubbing shoulders and exchanging notes with Pinoy jazzmen like Sandra Lim Viray, Jun Viray, Romy Posadas and Roger Herrera.
An excellent musician who could play with anyone, Avenir regularly performed with singer Zenaida Celdran and De la Calzada at La Cuisine Francaise in Makati. Celdran took care of Avenir in the last few months of his life. He was always willing to help fellow artists who wanted to learn more about music.
Still playing until August even though he was ill, guitarist Edgar Avenir, affectionately known as Koyang, died on Saturday, September 17, 2017 of pneumonia arising from lung cancer. He was 61.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Eric Ross was born on May 14, 1948 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and began studying piano at the age of seven under Jean Krantz-Thomas. Ten years later he started to write his own compositions and in the late 1960s and early 1970s he studied guitar and attended the electronic music composition course with Charles Dodge at Columbia University.
1972 saw him finishing college and beginning his career as a musician by playing and working in recording studios. Three years later Eric began playing the theremin and the following year he played his music exclusively, allowing him to develop it as a voice in his compositions. In 1982 he released his first album, Songs for Synthesized Soprano, and performed in concert at the Lincoln Center in New York.
He has performed throughout the United States and toured Europe, in addition to performing on radio, television and film. For over twenty years Eric’s ensemble featured John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, Youseff Yancy, Lydia Kavina, and Robert Dick, among others.
Along with his wife Mary, the couple created memorable multimedia performances that intertwined music with images, video projections, and dance. As an educator he has lectured on the theremin, piano, guitar, and electronic music at colleges, universities and schools in the USA and Europe.
Pianist and guitarist Eric Ross, who also plays synthesizers and is a master of the theremin, continues to blend classical, jazz, serial and avant-garde in his performances.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jim Douglas was born Robert James Elliot Douglas on May 13, 1942 in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland. He played drums in his youth before switching to guitar and in his teens he accompanied clarinettist Pete Kerr.
As part of a Dixieland band, he performed in Germany in 1960 and soon after Jim began playing with Alex Welsh. In 1971 he appeared on the album Freddy Randall and His Famous Jazz Band. Other than Kerr and Welsh, he worked with Alan Elsdon, Lennie Hastings, Ed Polcer, and Keith Smith.
Douglas wrote and self-published a semi-autobiographical book, Tunes, Tours and Travel-itis – Eighteen Years of Facts, Faces and Fun with the Alex Welsh Band. He followed this up three years later with Teenage to Travel-itis – Growing Up in a World of Jazz. The sequel chronicles his adventures in the Jazz world before and after his time with the Alex Welsh Band.
Guitarist, banjoist, and author Jim Douglas, who played with Red Allen, Earl Hines, and Ruby Braff from 1962 until 1981 while in the Welsh band, continues to perform.
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