BLAHG UGH
ah DC
what a grand gig!
Burnett Thompson
pianist & wag
& wizard
put together
a cadre of brilliant
musicians
who went the limit for us
at Busboys & Poets
a celebrated cultural center
in DC dedicated to the memory of
Langston Hughes
——————————————–
BLAHGOLOGY
NOLA
in a cultural space called Zeitgeist
w/ half a dozen of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
got us out of the French Quarter
& into the reality of Katrina
how it always goes
inside the Vegas
no plan no loss
no thought no pain
loud hall space
used primarily
for movies
we’re okay
but it’s the other end
alas
of the Albuquerque gig
yet really dug the bari
Roger Lewis & we
in duet did “Brother”
wonderful re-connecting w/
Rodger Kamenetz & his wife
NOLA
like no other place
——————————————————————-
BLAHG ANEW #2
the last entry swept away
•••••••••
I got back to my apartment, my room, the bed, the debris, the habit, routine, the weight of ordinary after elated extraordinary, clumped & clamped back into daily rites, dorky, dumbfounded.
Came home filled w/ many mixed-up teachings I’ve got to learn, or question
As always, & ever, it’s the musicians who enlighten, teach me w/ their dialogic moments
It’s always about focus
listening to each other
supporting the moment’s opening
have been struggling &
puzzling over
what I
what we do
doing our poems
w/ your musics of the moment
we’re brothers
we’re strangers
have been performing words
w/ jazz musicians
since 1958
& still learning
what it is & isn’t
& is it?
geezer echoes of
Armstrong, the first jazz poet,
through King Pleasure
Eddie Jefferson
Slim Gaillard
Lambert Hendricks & Ross
Amiri Baraka
Jayne Cortez
into now Kurt Elling
where are we
Rockpile poets
in the beginning of
MMX?
the paradox is
the page
the voice
slammers
reject the page
yet require it
for mnesomy salsa
always always what one
one alone
has to say
in order to sing
still
how to work w/ music
& music work w/ us?
got a sense of it from
Kurt Elling
more to know
to learn
always
—- D.M.
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