Jazz Poems

ART PEPPER

It’s the broken phrases, the fury inside him.

Squiggling alto saxophone playing out rickets

And jaundice, a mother who tried to kill him

In her womb with a coat hanger, a faltering

God-like father. The past is a bruised cloud

Floating over the houses like a prophecy,

The terrible foghorns off the shore at San Pedro.

Lightning without thunder. Years without playing.

Years of blowing out smoke and inhaling fire,

Junk and cold turkey, smacking up, the habit

Of cooking powder in spoons, the eyedroppers,

The spikes. Tracks on both arms. Tattoos.

The hospital cells at Fort Worth, the wire cages

In the L.A. County, the hole at San Quentin.

And always the blunt instrument of sex, the pain

Bubbling up inside him like a wound, the small

Deaths. The wind piercing the sheer skin

Of a dark lake at dawn. The streets at 5 a.m.

After a cool rain. The smoky blue clubs.

The chords of Parker, of Young, of Coltrane.

Playing solo means going on alone, improvising,

Hitting the notes, ringing the changes,

It’s clipped phrasing and dry ice in summer,

Straining against the rhythms, speeding it up,

Loping forward and looping back, finding the curl

In the wave, the mood in the air. It’s

Splintered tones and furious double timing.

It’s leaving the other instruments on stage

And blowing freedom into the night, into the faces

Of emptiness that peer along the bar, ghosts

Shallow hulls of nothingness, Hatred of God.

Hatred of white skin that never turns black.

Hatred of Patti, of Dianne, of Christine.

A daughter who grew up without him, a stranger.

Years of being strung out, years without speaking.

Pauses and intervals, silence. A fog rolling

Across the ocean, foghorns in the distance.

A lighthouse rising from the underworld.

A moon swelling in the clouds, an informer,

A twisted white mouth of light. Scars carved

And criscrossed on his chest. The memory

Of nodding out, the dazed drop-off into sleep.

And then the curious joy of surviving, joy

Of waking up in a dusky room to a gush

Of fresh notes, a tremoring sheet of sound.

Jamming again. Careening through the scales

For the creatures who haunt the night.

Bopping through the streets in a half-light

With Laurie on his arm, a witness, a believer.

The night is going to burst inside him.

The wind is going to break loose forever

From his lungs. It’s the fury of improvising,

Of going on alone. It’s the fierce clarity

Of each note coming to an end, distinct,

Glistening. The alto’s full-bodied laughter

The white grief-stricken wail.

EDWARD HIRSCH

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

William Stewart was born on October 1, 1957 in Glasgow, Scotland and started playing classical violin at the age of 10. After winning first prize in the Scottish Central Counties Music Festival in 1970, 1971, 1972 and first prize in the Glasgow Music Festival in 1973, he won the McFarlane scholarship to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow at the age of fourteen.

While at the Academy he won the first prize in the Robert Highgate Scholarship for violin in 1975, and went on to play with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scotland, Scottish Opera, Scottish Baroque Ensemble, Virtuosi Scotland. At 19 Stewart toured Britain as leader of the Scottish Ballet Orchestra.

When he turned 21 William left Scotland to take a position as leader of the Passau State Opera Orchestra in Germany before joining the world famous Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Herr. Prof. Karl Munchinger. By twenty-six, as a member of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra Quartet, he had played in some of the most famous concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City.

For a few years now Stewart has been working on his own compositions and music, blending influences from his traditional Scottish up-bringing, classical music, and love of Eastern-European fiddle music. After many solo concerts, and support for, among others, Nikki Sudden, and Hazel O’Conner at the “Left Bank”, he began playing with local groups like the Jazz Lads and Ellamental. He formed the Klazz with whom he played at the Derry Jazz Festival.

He has recorded with his own quintet “The Bill Stewart Quintet”, and with the gypsy-jazz trio “Gitane Swing”. Violinist William Stewart is now playing jazz, swing jazz, and composing his own works, blending influences from classical and Eastern-European violin music to create a sound that is truly unique.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Basia was born Barbara Stanisława Trzetrzelewska on September 30, 1954 in Jaworzno, Poland. Growing up in a musical household she enjoyed singing from an early age and had an extensive collection of vinyl records. Her mother played piano and gave her first music lessons.

She began singing professionally in various Polish bands in the late Sixties in a local band Astry. During her first year at Jagiellonian University, the manager of the popular Polish all-female band Alibabki asked her to join the group. She accepted, dropped out and toured with them in 1972 around Poland and abroad until 1974. She performed in Polish rock band Perfect.

Relocating to London, England with her partner in 1981 recorded demo tracks for various artists. It was there she met Danny White and his collaborator Mark Reilly. The trio performed as Bronze, but later changed the name to Matt Bianco and released their debut album  Whose Side Are You On? that became a hit across Europe. This catapulted her rise to fame.

She signed on with Epic Records and enjoyed a successful international career between 1987 and 1995, particularly in the US where her first two albums Time and Tide and London Warsaw New York both sold more than a million copies. She released several successful albums throughout the 1990s and into the new century.

She took a lengthy hiatus due to personal tragedies, then made a comeback to regular recording and performing in the late 2000s. Vocalist Basia, currently releases her music through independent labels.

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JANE IRA BLOOM

Soaring, poetic, quick silver, spontaneous and instantly identifiable are words used to describe the soprano sound of saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. She has been developing her singular voice on the soprano saxophone for over 45 years.

She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. Winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, the Downbeat International Critics Poll & Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano saxophone, the Mary Lou Williams Award for lifetime service to jazz and the Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation.

She is the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program and has an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid: 6083janeirabloom). Her critically acclaimed Cd “Early Americans” received a Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album and made numerous year end best lists.

Her duo release with bassist Mark Helias “Some Kind of Tomorrow” was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air and received 4 stars from Downbeat Magazine. Her critically acclaimed duo projects “Tues Days” with drummer Allison Miller and “See Our Way” with Helias and trio project with Helias and Bobby Previte “2.3.23” all appear on Bandcamp. Picturing the Invisible her latest project featuring duets w/ Allison Miller, Miya Masaoka, & Mark Helias was nominated for a Grammy for Best Immersive Sound Album. Bloom looks forward to the release of her most recent duet and trio recording with Bobby Previte, Mark Helias & Dominic Fallacaro on her Outline label.

Mark Helias bass, Dominic Fallacaro piano

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GARY MOTLEY QUARTET

The quartet led by pianist Gary Motley, whose exceptional skills as a performer, composer, and arranger have made him an indispensable leader in the nation’s jazz community. His compositions have premiered at national and international festivals, and his achievements have been lauded by multiple organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts. Well known to music audiences locally as both a headliner and an accompanist, Gary is also beloved on the Emory campus as a professor and the founding director of the University’s Jazz Studies program.

This is the first concert of the 2024~2025 series presented by Jazz at All Saints Episcopal Atlanta

Cover: $25 Adult | $15.00 Student

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