BLUE IN GREEN by MILES DAVIS. Poem by D.R. James.
...he watched winter turn/his red wine black, fell asleep weeping...
Solo by Charles Mingus. Poem by D.R. James.
D.R James riffs on jazz, bass solos, and too much audience chit-chat.
SO WHAT by MILES DAVIS. Poem by D.R. James.
Divorceville, Michigan, December 1999. Mind/ful/l of Miles What’s new? I too am kind of blue, ear buds soothing “So What,” Chambers and then Evans noodling Gil E.’s intro. Sooo what? Upright walks in the tune, conjures modal three-part sooo what’s. No mute for Miles, just cool, [...]
WALTZ NUMBER 1 Grande valse brillante by CHOPIN. Poem by D.R. James.
The lilac beaches, the rough promenade,/have frozen over in the night.
MOONGLOW by ARTIE SHAW. Poem by D. R. James.
Until/somebody’s wedding, I only saw Mom/dance big-band behind an ironing board...
VOODOO CHILE by JIMI HENDRIX. Poem by D. R. James.
Rural Illinois, 1969 Kissed-Off Lord knows I’m a voodoo chil’. —Jimi Hendrix Until that night a girl had only kissed me. Not I a girl. I was fifteen and for over a year Jimi’d been telling me he was a voodoo chil’, yeah, and I wasn’t. No moon had [...]