HANK MOBLEY

One of the Blue Note label's definitive hard bop artists, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley remains somewhat underappreciated for his straightforward, swinging style. Any characterization of Mobley invariably begins with critic Leonard Feather's assertion that he was the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone," meaning that his tone wasn't as aggressive and thick as John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, but neither was it as soft and cool as Stan Getz or Lester Young. Instead, Mobley's in-between, "round" (as he described it) sound was controlled and even, given over to subtlety rather than intense displays of emotion. Even if he lacked the galvanizing, mercurial qualities of the era's great tenor innovators, Mobley remained consistently solid throughout most of his recording career. His solo lines were full of intricate rhythmic patterns that were delivered with spot-on precision, and he was no slouch harmonically either. As a charter member of Horace Silver's Jazz Messengers, Mobley helped inaugurate the hard bop movement: jazz that balanced sophistication and soulfulness, complexity and earthy swing, and whose loose structure allowed for extended improvisations. As a solo artist, he began recording for Blue Note in the latter half of the '50s, and hit his peak in the first half of the '60s with hard bop cornerstones like Soul Station, No Room for Squares, and A Caddy for Daddy.

Henry "Hank" Mobley was born on July 7, 1930, in Eastman, GA, and grew up mostly in Elizabeth, NJ.while spending a lot of his adult years in Philadelphia. Several family members played piano and/or church organ, and Mobley himself learned piano as a child. He switched to the saxophone at age 16, initially modeling his style on players like Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Don Byas, and Sonny Stitt. He soon started playing professionally in the area, and built enough of a reputation that trumpeter Clifford Brown recommended him for a job without having heard him play. That job was with Paul Gayten's Newark-based R&B band, which he joined in 1949, doubling as a composer. He departed in 1951 and joined the house band at a Newark nightclub, where he played with pianist Walter Davis, Jr. and backed some of the era's top jazz stars. That led to a job with Max Roach, who hired both Mobley and Davis after performing with them; they all recorded together in early 1953, at one of the earliest sessions to feature Roach as a leader. Meanwhile, Mobley continued to gig around his home area, playing with the likes of Milt Jackson, Tadd Dameron, and J.J. Johnson, among others; he also served two weeks in Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1953.

Mobley spent much of 1954 performing and recording with Dizzy Gillespie. He left in September to join pianist Horace Silver's group, which evolved into a quintet co-led by Art Blakey and dubbed the Jazz Messengers. Their groundbreaking first album for Blue Note, 1955's Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a landmark in the genesis of hard bop, with its sophisticated solos and bright, almost funky rhythms. Mobley led his first session for Blue Note, The Hank Mobley Quartet, in 1955, and recorded for Savoy and Prestige during 1956. In the middle of that year, the original lineup of the Jazz Messengers split, with Blakey keeping the name and Silver forming a new group. Mobley stayed with Silver until 1957, by which time he had begun to record prolifically as a leader for Blue Note, completing eight albums' worth of material over the next 16 months. Some of his best work, such as Hank Mobley and His All Stars and The Hank Mobley Quintet, was cut with a selection of old Messengers mates. Not all of his sessions were released at the time, but some began to appear as import reissues in the '80s. Often composing his own material, Mobley was beginning to truly hit his stride with 1958's Peckin' Time, when a worsening drug problem resulted in an arrest that took him off the scene for a year.

Upon returning to music in 1959, Mobley oriented himself by rejoining Art Blakey in the Jazz Messengers for a short period. His comeback session as a leader was 1960's classic Soul Station, near-universally acknowledged as his greatest recorded moment. Mobley cut two more high-quality hard bop albums, Roll Call and Workout, over 1960-1961, as well as some other sessions that went unreleased at the time. In 1961, Mobley caught what looked to be a major break when he was hired to replace John Coltrane in Miles Davis' quintet. Unfortunately, the association was a stormy one; Mobley came under heavy criticism from the bandleader, and wound up leaving in 1962. He returned to solo recording with 1963's No Room for Squares, often tabbed as one of his best efforts, before drug and legal problems again put him out of commission during 1964. Energized and focused upon his return, Mobley recorded extensively during 1965, showcasing a slightly harder-edged tone and an acumen for tricky, modal-flavored originals that challenged his sidemen. At the same time, Dippin' found a funkier soul-jazz sound starting to creep into his work, an approach that reached its apex on the infectious A Caddy for Daddy later that year.

Mobley recorded steadily for Blue Note through the '60s, offering slight variations on his approach, and continued to appear as a sideman on a generous number of the label's other releases (especially frequent collaborator Lee Morgan). 1966's A Slice of the Top found Mobley fronting a slightly larger band arranged by Duke Pearson, though it went unissued until 1979. After cutting the straightforward Third Season in 1967, Mobley embarked on a brief tour of Europe, where he performed with Slide Hampton. He returned to the U.S. to record the straight-ahead Far Away Lands and Hi Voltage that year, and tried his hand at commercially oriented jazz-funk on 1968's Reach Out. Afterward, he took Hampton's advice and returned to Europe, where he would remain for the next two years. 1969's The Flip was recorded in Paris, and Mobley returned to the States to lead his final session for Blue Note, Thinking of Home, in 1970 (it wasn't released until ten years later). He subsequently co-led a group with pianist Cedar Walton, which recorded the excellent Breakthrough in 1972.

Sadly, that would prove to be Mobley's last major effort. Health problems forced him to retire in 1975, when he settled in Philadelphia. He was barely able to even play his horn for fear of rupturing a lung; by the dawn of the '80s, he was essentially an invalid. In 1986, he mustered up the energy to work on a limited basis with Duke Jordan; however, he died of pneumonia not long after, on May 30, 1986. During Mobley's heyday, most critics tended to compare him unfavorably to Sonny Rollins, or dismiss him for not being the innovator that Coltrane was. However, in the years that followed Mobley's death, Blue Note hard bop enjoyed a positive reappraisal; with it came a new appreciation for Mobley's highly developed talents as a composer and soloist, instead of a focus on his shortcomings.

DONNA "Celestial Dancer" KIRVEN

Donna Kirven, better known in the poetry world as “Celestial Dancer,” was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa., but currently lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. Coping with life through love, laughter, music and her passion for writing she has found a way to combine the beautiful arts of poetry and music and invites the world to share the joyous blend.. She has written poetry since age 10, and had her first poem published in her high school newspaper. Donna attended Temple University, and is currently a master’s candidate in organizational psychology. Her first book, When a Band-Aid Isn't Enough, and other poetic perspectives was released in February 2005, and offers a eclectic compilation of traditional and non-traditional poetry that provokes soul deep images of any given moment in time, ones that we all, or someone close to us, have experienced but often have been unwilling or unable to express.

In addition to her career as a medical laboratory educator, Donna has extended her passion for writing to the professional arena and for the past six years has written as a dedicated columnist and editorial consultant for Advance@ Magazine for Medical Laboratory Professionals.

Her second book, The Alchemy of Understanding: Poetic Soul Therapy, will be released in a few weeks and offers more poetic word paintings of the magical and mystical moods, motives and making of understanding between us. Check out her web pages;

www.myspace.com/celdancer and www.bodiesatrest.blogspot.com for the release date.

In holding fast to the fleeting preciousness of life, Donna reflects through her poetry echoes of her mantra, “Keep your head up, your heart full and your mind moving.”

KEVIN "MizLoonar" DAVIS

Every once in a while, an artist comes along who redefines and manipulates the boundaries of his craft. Using a various array of soul stirring lyrics and a thought process that is borderline
alien, mizloonaR is well on his way to doing just that.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mizloonaR who is a poet-lyricist-singer uses the labyrinth of his life experience to paint vivid depictions of the world through his eyes. Since birth, mizloonaR and music have been
connected at the hip, and it seems like the marriage of the two has
finally come full circle. As a child of the ghetto, loonaR had a
smorgasboard of inspiration to draw from, and with his innate ability to
absorb and translate his surroundings, he sketches portraits of where
he's been and where he plans on going. He draws from the struggles
of his inner city brethren, using the remnants of their pain and the
monuments of their joy to tell the story of a world that is seldom
documented accurately. Using the lessons of life as the paint for his
canvas, loonaR touches on every aspect of life, from distant dreams
to a jagged reality.

Knowing that life is a great teacher, loonaR uses his
lessons learned to articulate the black male experience. mizloonaR
draws from the memories of his innopportune incarceration in his early
twenties, and he expresses the pain and long road back to self suffiency
after being a gunshot victim in the badlands of North Philadelphia. If u
had seen or experienced some of the events that mizloonaR has been
through and witnessed, you would indeed consider it amazing that he has
lived this long to tell about it. But through the blessing of The Most High,
and with the constant support and motivation from his family, mizloonaR
has survived to tell the world the story of his many successes and failures.
Using the fragments of an education gained at Florida Community College
of Jacksonville as well as the Community College of Philadelphia, mizloonar
uses his brilliance with the English language to go outside the boundaries
of self expression, choosing to go against the grain and show the endless
possibilities that exists within the human imagination. A loving father and a
strong advocate of family, mizloonaR is a perfect example of what we are all
capable of if we remain focused and uncompromised.

With the constant increase in brutality and racism that arise in the bowels of the ghetto, loonaR is relentless in his fight for the upliftment and educating of his community. Using music and poetry as vehicles to promote positivity and hope, mizloonaR is currently in the process of completing his double album. Celebrated for his ability to hopscotch from genre to genre, mizloonaR intends to pull from his
full arsenal of gifts and abilities to leave his imprint on the world. Join him
as he takes that long walk to forever. uno (loonaR)

CHICK COREA

Armando Anthony Corea in Chelsea, Massachusetts on June 12, 1941, he began studying piano at age four. Early on in his development, Horace Silver and Bud Powell were important piano influences while access to the music of Beethoven and Mozart inspired his compositional instincts. An interesting, little known fact is that Chick’s first major professional gig was with Cab Calloway, which came before early stints in Latin bands led by Mongo Santamaria and Willie Bobo (1962-63). There followed important tenures with trumpeter Blue Mitchell (1964-66), flutist Herbie Mann and saxophonist Stan Getz before Chick made his recording debut as a leader in 1966 with “Tones for Joan’s Bones” (which featured trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist and flutist Joe Farrell, bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joe Chambers). During these formative years, Chick also recorded sessions with Cal Tjader (1966's Soul Burst, on Verve), Stan Getz (1966's What The World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays Bacharach, on Verve), Donald Byrd (1967's Creeper, on Blue Note), and Dizzy Gillespie (1967's Live at the Village Vanguard, on Blue Note).

After accompanying Sarah Vaughan in 1967, Corea went into the studio in March of 1968 and recorded Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes. That trio album is now considered a jazz classic. In the fall of 1968, Chick replaced Herbie Hancock in Miles Davis' band. In September of that year, he played Fender Rhodes electric piano on Miles' important and transitional recording Filles de Kilimanjaro, which pointed to a fresh new direction in jazz. Between 1968 and 1970, Corea also appeared on such groundbreaking Davis recordings as In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Live-Evil and Live at the Fillmore East. He is also a key player in Davis' electrified ensemble that appeared before 600,000 people on August 29, 1970 at the Isle of Wight Festival in England (captured on Murray Lerner's excellent documentary, Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue). Shortly after that historic concert, both Chick and bassist Dave Holland left Miles' group to form the cooperative avant-garde quartet Circle with drummer Barry Altschul and saxophonist Anthony Braxton. Though its tenure was short-lived, Circle recorded three adventurous albums, culminating in the arresting live double LP Paris-Concert (recorded on February 21, 1971 for the ECM label before Corea changed directions again. His excellent Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1 and 2, recorded over two days in April 1971 for ECM, was the first indication that solo piano performance would become fashionable.

Native Sense - Chick Corea & Gary BurtonToward the end of 1971, Chick formed his first edition of Return To Forever with Stanley Clarke on acoustic bass, Joe Farrell on soprano sax and flute, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion and his wife Flora Purim on vocals. On February 2 and 3, 1972, they recorded their self-titled debut for ECM, which included the popular Corea composition "La Fiesta." A month later, on March 3, 1972, Chick, Stanley, Airto and drummer Tony Williams teamed together as the rhythm section for Stan Getz's Columbia recording Captain Marvel, which featured five Corea compositions including "500 Miles High," "La Fiesta" and the title track. By September of that year, Corea was back in the studio with Return To Forever to record the classic Light As A Feather (Polydor), a collection of melodic Brazilian flavored jazz tunes including new versions of "500 Miles High" and "Captain Marvel" along with Chick's best-known composition, "Spain." In November of 1972, Chick also recorded the sublime Crystal Silence (ECM), his initial duet encounter with vibraphonist and kindred spirit Gary Burton.

By early 1973, Return To Forever had taken a different course. Following the addition of electric guitarist Bill Connors and thunderous drummer Lenny White, the group was fully fortified to embrace the emerging fusion movement with a vengeance. Their August, 1973 recording, “Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy” (Polydor), instantly elevated them to the status of other fiery fusion bands of the day like John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Larry Coryell's Eleventh House and the Joe Zawinul-Wayne Shorter-led juggernaut, Weather Report. By the summer of 1974, with the 19-year-old speed demon guitarist Al Di Meola replacing Connors in the RTF lineup, the transformation to a bona fide high-energy jazz-rock concert attraction was complete. Hordes of rock fans embraced the group and were able to enter into the world of jazz through such important albums as 1974's Where Have I Known You Before (Polydor), 1975's No Mystery (Polydor) and 1976's GRAMMY® Award-winning Romantic Warrior (Columbia). During this same period, Chick also turned out two highly personal recordings in 1975's jazzy showcase The Leprechaun (Polydor) and 1976's flamenco flavored My Spanish Heart.

A third edition of RTF featured a four-piece brass section along with bassist Clarke, charter RTF member Joe Farrell, drummer Gerry Brown and Chick's future wife Gayle Moran on vocals. Together they recorded 1977's Music Magic (Columbia) and the four-LP boxed set R.T.F. Live (Columbia), which captured the sheer energy and excitement of the full ensemble on tour. Shortly after disbanding RTF, Chick and Herbie Hancock teamed up in early 1978 for a tour playing duets exclusively on acoustic pianos. Their chemistry was documented on two separate recordings -- 1978’s Homecoming (Polydor) and 1980's An Evening With Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea (Columbia), a two-LP set which featured renditions of Chick's "La Fiesta" and Herbie's "Maiden Voyage" along with expressive takes on Bela Bartok's "Mikrokosmos" and the Disney staple, "Someday My Prince Will Come." Also in 1978, a year marked by a flurry of activity, Chick released The Mad Hatter (ECM), with original RTF saxophonist Joe Farrell, drummer Steve Gadd and former Bill Evans Trio bassist Eddie Gomez, and followed up with the wide open blowing date Friends (Polydor), featuring the same stellar crew. Before the year was out he also managed to record the provocative Delphi I: Solo Piano Improvisations.

Secret Agent introduced a fresh new rhythm section of drummer Tom Brechtlein (currently a member of the Touchstone band) and France's fretless electric bass wonder, Bunny Brunel. Vocalist Gayle Moran and saxophonist Joe Farrell were also featured on this solid 1979 outing. At the beginning of 1981, Chick recorded Three Quartets, a swinging encounter with tenor sax great Michael Brecker, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Steve Gadd that included a piece dedicated to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Later that year he toured in an all-star quartet with saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Roy Haynes. Their near-telepathic post-bop chemistry was documented on the exhilarating Live in Montreux. That same year, Chick also had a reunion with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes for the double LP Trio Music (ECM), which came 13 years after their landmark recording of Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.


“A force that has come to the fore for these last two projects was my lifelong connection with L. Ron Hubbard’s works,” explains the celebrated pianist-composer-bandleader. “I had such an inspiring time doing the To The Stars project. There was a synergy created with me writing musical portraits of his fiction work that I didn’t want it to stop. So one project followed on the heels of the other.” Corea’s richly appointed music on The Ultimate Adventure provides a kind of sonic landscape for Hubbard’s compelling story, continuing the creative streak he established with last year’s To The Stars.

ROY HARGROVE

Roy Hargrove was born on October 16, 1969 in Waco, Texas. He manifested signs of musical aptitude as a young kid, and after borrowing an old Bundy cornet, was instructed from the elementary grades through junior high school by teacher Dean Hill. Hargrove soon became familiar with the recordings of Maynard Ferguson, Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard, and in the spring of 1987, he met the man who would galvanize his dreams of a professional career: trumpet superstar Wynton Marsalis.

When Marsalis made an unannounced visit to the Dallas Arts Magnet, Hargrove's school, he was so impressed by the young man's musical talents that he immediately arranged special studies for him. He also recommended the assistance of manager-producer Larry Clothier, and as a result Hargrove had the opportunity to travel to New York, and later to Europe and Japan. He soon became a member of the New York Jazz community, and under the supervision of Clothier started recording, as a sideman, with Bobby Watson, Ricky Ford and Carl Allen, as well as with Don Sickler's Superblue band.
After graduating from High School in June 1988, Roy spent the summer in Europe, where he had the opportunity to play in several major Festivals, sharing the stage with musical luminaries as Clifford Jordan, Jerome Richardson or Tete Montoliu. In the fall he entered college at the Berklee School of Music on various scholarships, including one from Down Beat magazine, which had selected him as best jazz soloist of the year. In 1990 Roy moved to New York, where he enrolled in the New School's Jazz and Contemporary Music program.

The first recording -for RCA-Novus- of The Roy Hargrove Quintet (featuring altoist Antonio Hart), Diamond on the rough, appeared in 1990, and was followed by Public Eye in 1991. The summer of that year, Roy was featured at many European Festivals, fronting an all star package, The Jazz Futures.
The quintet's third recording, The Vibe, which appeared in the spring of 1992, was highly rated by critics all over the world, and the band toured again Europe, Japan and the US. In 1993 tenor saxophonist Ron Blake replaced Antonio Hart, and with Blake, Gary Bartz and trombonist André Hayward, Roy recorded his fourth -and last- album for RCA-Novus, ... Of kindred souls.
In 1993, before he was 25, Hargrove was already a major star in the world of contemporary Jazz, and was signed by Verve - Polygram, a label strongly committed to the promotion of young talent. For Verve Roy recorded The tenors of our time, an ambitious project featuring Johnny Griffin, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Henderson and Joshua Redman which appeared in 1994, Family (with David Newman as a special guest) and Parker's Mood (a collection of tunes associated with Charlie Parker), both published in 1995
In 1996, Roy's band appeared in La Habana's Jazz Festival, where they met pianist Chucho Valdes, of Irakere fame. Roy became fascinated with the talents of Cuban musicians, and decided to form a group featuring both Cuban percussionists, such as Anga, El Negro or Changuito, and African-American Jazz players such as Gary Bartz, Frank Lacy or Russell Malone. The group, known as Crisol (Spanish for melting pot) recorded live at the Orvieto (Italy) Jazz Festival, and the resulting CD, Habana, appeared in the market in 1997 with an imposing success. Crisol toured Europe in the summer of 1997, and returned to Cuba in the fall of the same year. Habana won a Grammy Award in February 1998.

During the late 1990's Roy has also been leading The Roy Hargrove Big Band, a large group of young musicians he started out rehearsing a few years ago to work out his talents as a composer and arranger.

CLARENCE "Nabraska" BARBEE

Nabraska, born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, is a poet, a teacher, an activist—some would say all that and then some. He began his poetic journey as a youth, and grew into his skills as a scribe through open mics, slams, features, and performances with live bands. Nabraska has toured throughout the South, Midwest, East, and West Coasts. He has also taught spoken word workshops with youth through various schools and community centers.


Who is Nabraska? Some would say a poet’s poet, because of his passion and dedication to the art form. An unadulterated supporter of various venues he can usually be found online and offline listening, speaking, and respecting spoken word. His influences can be traced back like a Black history lesson—Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Phyllis Wheatly, The Last Poets, Sonja Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Rakim and Tupac; just to name a few.


Some Performances Include
• Marietta Arts Festival in Marietta, GA
• Sweet Auburn Festival in Atlanta, GA
• Burning Mic Slam in Birmingham, AL
• Black August Festival in Omaha, NE
• The Art of Conversation in Baltimore, MD
• Untamed Tongues in Las Vegas, NV



Who is Nabraska? Some would say, a member of the community, coming to its’ aid whenever called. His inspiration comes from the community, the country, and the world. Nabraska writes what he feels through sight and sound. He is an activist cataloging information through his poetry to be called upon now, and hereafter. Attempting to right the wrong, or write the wrong so to speak, Nabraska has an uncanny spirit that must speak on injustices and understanding.

RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK

Ronald Theodore Kirk, better known as Rahsaan Roland Kirk was born in Columbus, Ohio on August 7, 1936. He was blinded soon after his birth and was educated at Ohio State School for the Blind. He played saxophone and clarinet with a school band from the age of twelve, and by 1951 was leading his own group for dances and playing with other bands around the Ohio area. At sixteen he dreamed he was playing three instruments at once, and the next day went to a music shop and tried out all the reed instruments. He was taken to the basement to be shown "the scraps", and found two archaic saxophones which had been used in turn-of-the-century Spanish military bands, the stritch and the manzello; the first is a kind of straight alto sax, and the second looks a little like an alto, but sounds more like a soprano.

Kirk took these and worked out a way of playing them simultaneously with the tenor sax, producing three-part harmony by trick fingering. As there were often slight tuning discrepancies between the three instruments, the resulting sound could be harsh, almost with the characteristic of certain ethnic instruments, and this gave Kirk's music an added robustness. He also used sirens, whistles and other sounds to heighten the drama of his performances.

His main instruments were a tenor saxophone and two obscure saxophones: the manzello (similar to a soprano sax) and the stritch (a straight alto sax lacking the instrument's characteristic upturned bell). Kirk modified these instruments himself to accommodate his simultaneous playing technique. He typically appeared on stage with all three horns hanging around his neck, as well as a variety of other instruments, including flutes and whistles, and often kept a gong within reach. Kirk also played harmonica, English horn, recorders and was a competent trumpeter. He often had unique approaches, using a saxophone mouthpiece on a trumpet or playing nose flute. He additionally used many extra musical sounds in his art, such as alarm clocks, whistles, sirens, a section of common garden hose (”the black mystery pipes”) and even primitive electronic sounds (before such things became commonplace).

He made his first album in 1956, but it went virtually unnoticed. Then in 1960, through the help of Ramsey Lewis, he recorded for the Cadet label, and immediately caused controversy. People accused him of gimmickry, and Kirk defended himself, saying that he did everything for a reason, and he heard sirens and things in his head when he played. He was, in fact, rooted very deeply in the whole jazz tradition, and knew all the early music, including thre work of Jelly Roll Morton (and Fats Waller) in which sirens, whistles, car horns and human voices had figured to brilliant effect. For Kirk, jazz was "black classical music", and he steeped in its wild, untamed spirit; in this he was "pure" - there were virtually no discernible influences from European classical music in his work.

In 1961 he worked with Charles Mingus for four months, playing on the album Oh Yeah and touring with him in California. His international reputation was burgeoning, and after his stint with Mingus he made his first trip to Europe, performing as soloist at the Essen jazz festival, West Germany. From 1963 he began a series of regular tours abroad with his own quartet, and played the first of several residencies at Ronnie Scott's club. For the rest of the 1960s and into the 1970s he led his group the Vibration Society in clubs, concerts and major festivals throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

In 1975, Kirk had a stroke which partially paralyzed one side of his body. With tremendous courage he began performing again with one arm - an almost impossible handicap for a saxophonist - and he managed to tour internationally, play some festivals and appear on TV. On Decmber 7, 1977 a second stroke caused his death.

JON LUCIEN

Jon Lucien was born on the island of Tortola in 1942, and raised in St. Thomas by a guitar-playing dad and greatly inspired by Nat "King" Cole. Arriving in New York by the mid-60s, he set about sharing the music in his head with the world at large. His 1970 RCA debut, I Am Now, was a formative step in the direction for which he would subsequently be known, presenting him as a romantic crooner with an exotic accent, but sticking largely to string-laden easy-listening arrangements. By the release of his second album, Rashida, in 1973, he had arrived at his artistic cruising speed, creating a style of R&B where the "B" stood more for bossa nova than blues, with languid samba rhythms, understated nylon-string acoustic guitar, fluid bass lines and his trademark unique scatting, occasionally eschewing lyrics altogether. This approach yielded a number of classic cuts like "Would You Believe In Me," "Lady Love" and the title track, which all found a home on the airwaves in those waning days of progressive FM.

"I would say my sound is a romantic sound...it's water...it's ocean...it's tranquility."

More than any other singer, Jon Lucien captures the essence of romance. His voice is rich and expressive, his best songs are perceptive poetic tales of devotion, trust, hope, harmony and spirituality. Three dimensional parables of love lost and love found and relationships filled with the promise of a new day. He seems to possess an innate ability to evoke an atmosphere and create images not only through his lyrics but the colors of his music.

In the 28 years since the release of his debut album, connoisseurs and assorted in-the-know types have spoken his name with the utmost hushed reverence. His seamless melding of jazz, R&B, Caribbean rhythms and Brazilian music proved to be a decisive early influence on what would be simplified and marketed as the twin formats of "quiet storm" and "smooth jazz," although very few artists working in either format approach Lucien's level of artistry or innovation, not to mention originality.



For the follow up, 1974's Mind's Eye, Lucien and producer Dave Grusin crafted an album that fulfilled and expanded upon Rashida's promise, a scintillating song cycle combining the diverse sources of Lucien's inspiration in a seamless manner. Unfortunately, this album would mark the beginning of Lucien's rather adversarial relationship with the music business establishment, with tracks like "Listen Love" and "World Of Joy" being considered too hard to pigeonhole for any one radio format.

A move to CBS the following year yielded Song For My Lady, an effort to reach the broader audiences that had proven elusive to his previous RCA efforts. Recorded with an array of studio session heavy-hitters, Song fared somewhat better, with "Creole Lady" receiving significant air play on the AC format of the era, although still falling a bit short of making Lucien a household name. The album remains, however, fondly remembered by all who've heard it, as does its 1976 follow up, Premonition, featuring such evergreen favorites as "Laura" and "Hello Like Before" with a similar stellar session lineup. After two albums, however, it became increasingly apparent that CBS scarcely understood Lucien's music and where he was trying to go with it better than RCA, especially with the disco onslaught then beginning to take place.

Feeling a tad disillusioned that music as easily likable as his should experience such difficulties gaining a wider and wider audience, Lucien stopped recording for a while and was not heard from again until the release of 1991's Listen Love on Mercury, followed by 1993's Mother Nature's Son. Both albums went a long way toward refreshing his original fans' memories of his unique artistry, picking up some new ones along the way as well. Jon explains, "Wherever I perform, I hear all the time, ‘I'm 18, I'm 19, but my mom turned me on to your music when I was 10, and this is the first chance I got to see you.' "

After a 4 year absence from the recording studio, Lucien returned to make Endless is Love for Shanachie. The spiritual warmth and romantic grace that have always been Jon's trademarks are even more powerful and profound permeating the songs and enveloping the listener in a mood best described as peaceful intensity on this release. A few months after his 17 year-old daughter Dalila perished on Flight 800 in July of 1996, Jon went into the studio and began recording Endless Is Love. His music has always been his sanctuary. "My daughter doesn't want me sitting around being unhappy. I look at her and we communicate. We make music. The music is a special force." And Lucien's message hasn't wavered since his earliest days. "I hope to heal people who are sad and spiritually dead, because even though I don't pray in the music, the spirit is still there."

1999 marked the issue of four new CDs: Jon Lucien's own production, By Request for Shanachie, and the compilations of some of Lucien's classic recorded material under the titles of Sweet Control -The Best of Jon Lucien (Razor & Tie/BMG), Love Everlasting - The Very Best of Jon Lucien (BMG/Camden UK), and Precious Is Love (Arts Records International) -- all compilations taken from previously recorded material over the years. Love Everlasting & Precious containing several never released cuts from original recording dates back in the '69 and early '70 days of youth and exuberance. The simultaneous release of these 4 CDs on 4 different labels, is further evidence to Jon's vision and his appeal that bridges generations and genres of musical tastes.

2001 signals a new era for Jon with the release of Lucien Romantico the debut CD for Jon's Sugar Apple label. "This" he says, "opens up an entirely new avenue for me, now along with so many of my unreleased music compositions, I can also expose and introduce new talent of quality."

He has garnered younger fans through samplings from the old albums turning up regularly in hip-hop and acid jams, and mint copies of Rashida and Mind's Eye exchanging hands at often absurd prices. It is a testament to that vision and vindication of his commercial struggle that his audience now encompasses jazz buffs, R&B fans, acid-jazzers, world music types and fair-weather music fans in between all of the above, all of whom continue to pack his shows. All drawn by the sound...THAT sound...the Jon Lucien sound.

Jon Lucien crossed over on August 18, 2007 in Poinciana, Florida

JAZZYBLUE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank JazzyBlue, one of Spotlight On Jazz And Poetry's most ardent supporters, for her contribution to this weeks program which Features Jeff Lorber (Keyboardist) and her friend Versatyle (Poet) as well as Rachel Stewart (Saxophonist) and Lovely Brown (Poet)

Ms. JazzyBlue did a phenomenal job on her part of the program which entailed introducing the first part of the show, reading an excerpt of a Langston Hughes classic poem "The Negro Mother" and reading the bio of her dear friend Keith "Versatyle" Washington. KUDOS to you Ms. JazzyBlue!

LOVELY BROWN

Lovely Brown aka LovelyBrnFemale, represents the new visionary vanguard of female Spoken Word artist, utilizing ground-breaking techniques such as audio loops, samples, and a combination of singing with lyrics to set a remarkable audio experience.

Lovely, born and raised in Kansas City, Mo., realized her gift for dynamic poetic expression at five years of age when she won first place for painting a picturesque image of the Kansas City Zoo and its animals. From there she developed a curiosity for the art, and gained the self-confidence needed to branch into different styles of the craft.

Her greatest influences have been her parents, who both attended the Kansas City Art Institute, allowing her to grow up in the bosom of their artistic endeavors. Other influential elements were music-of-substance of the 1960's, poetry, writing, painting, photography, drawing, and gardening. In addition, her grandmother, an educator for 36 years, was a published author of many educational books, while her other grandmother implanted the essence of quality of country-living and the value of integrity and forgiveness.

Beyond her poetic undertakings, Lovely has dedicated her life as an advocate for people with mental/physical disabilities. She has helped to organize fundraisers for Habitat for Humanity, served on the Board for The Salvation Army, assisted battered and abused women, and held a position as the youth program Director for the George Foreman Youth & Community Center in Houston , Texas .

After being a victim of life's circumstances which resulted in the loss of her job, car, and home Lovely found herself in the unfortunate station of homelessness. But rather than succumb to the negative aspect of her situation, Lovely used her adversities and life teachings to create an overcoming, and through faith to rebuild her life towards complete self-sufficiency. "This journey was meant for me to take," became her rallying cry.

Triumphing over life's pains has given Ms. Brown a keener sense of tapping into her five senses, and added on a sixth sense; the ability to smell the essence of someone's spirit through written word. This sixth sense has helped her reach new levels of writing and placing her words before the world to see in the art form of poetry and "Spoken Word."

In 1992 Lovely-Brown began using the information-highway (the Internet) by creating and moderating various writing groups. These groups started as battle text competitions, then later evolved into what’s now known as "Lovely's Flip Side, a Yahoo Group community which engages its international member base from with un-moderated life (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOVELYSFLIPSIDE). Through her online vigilance Lovely has implemented several proposals to the United States Congress, including establishing a "Campaign Against Internet/Chat Abuse," to expose "online predators and bullies." Her strong ability to network over had aided her in establishing the trust of many friend, and earned her a great deal of respect throughout the online community.

In 2007, she broadened her Web horizons to www.multiply.com for which the Producer/Author/Poet and Spoken-Word Artist Truth Theory discovered her talent and inspired her by saying: "The world needs to hear your voice."

Truth Theory asked her to become an administrator of his group named: "PO3TIC VOICES" (http://po3ticvoices.multiply.com/), a spoken-word movement which provides a mixture of experienced Spoken Word artists, poets transitioning into speaking their written-word, and new artist learning how to mix tracks to voice their pieces. PO3TIC VOICES is one of the fastest growing poetic presences in the industry, making available opportunities for "indie" artist, and since becoming a member and administrator, Lovely has had the opportunity to collaborate with many great artist such as Truth Theory &Love Oneself "Mine Own," TheNxtLevel "Yet So Far," Poetic Soul "Brown Feel," and DikaFlow "When I Believe/Move."

In association with Truth Theory, Lovely Brown co-hosts “Spoken Truth”, a Spoken Word radio show on Blog Talk Radio (http://spokentruthshow.blogspot.com) where issues dealing with black community interest are discussed. With its combination of passionate and pro-active artists, Spoken Truth is available for podcast in iTunes, and is moving towards international exposure, giving PO3TIC VOICES the ability to grow stronger in the Spoken Word movement. Lovely is also a contributing author to the online magazine “Chaotic Dreams Online”. Her work has also graced the pages for the past two years and it just signifies another facet of her bringing her thoughts and dreams to the masses.

"The Seductress of Rhetoric Frenzy" derives her diverse style from a wide array of subject matters such as politics and sensuality, spiritually driving her to a passionate design and ability to move into different genres of Spoken Word.

Lovely Brown, a spoken-word album, coming soon.

DONNA KIRVEN aka "Celestial Dancer"

Donna Kirven better known in the poetry world as "Celestial Dancer, was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa., but currently lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters, where she enjoys and copes with life through love, laughter, music and a passion for writing.

She has written poetry since age 10, and had her first poem published in her high school newspaper. Donna attended Temple University, and is currently a master’s candidate in organizational psychology. In addition to her career as a medical laboratory educator, Donna has extended her passion for writing to the professional arena and for the past six years has written as a dedicated columnist and editorial consultant for Advance@ Magazine for Medical Laboratory Professionals.

In her first book, "When a Band-Aid Isn’t Enough," Donna has assembled a unique collection of poetic perspectives that she believes sifts far beneath the surface of words, taking the reader directly to the unwritten layers of feeling. Some poems urge tears, others extract involuntary smiles, but all will reflect that writing is not merely a pastime for her, but her passion. In holding fast to the fleeting preciousness of life, Donna reflects through her poetry echoes of her mantra, “keep your head up, your heart full and your mind moving”.

RAMSEY LEWIS

Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. (born May 27, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz and pop pianist and keyboardist.
He formed the Ramsey Lewis Trio in 1956 with Eldee Young and Isaac Holt. They started as primarily a jazz unit but after their hit, "The In Crowd", in 1965 (the single reached fifth place on the pop charts, and the album second place) the trio concentrated more and more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form the Young-Holt Trio and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White. White was replaced by Maurice Jennings in 1970. In the late 1970s an additional keyboard player was frequently added to the lineup. A contemporary version of "The In Crowd" was recorded for Lewis' 2004 album, Time Flies.
Ramsey Lewis has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.
His recent "With One Voice" release pays homage to his gospel roots all while maintaining his classic style. With the help of gospel favorites Smokie Norful, Darius Brooks, and Donald Lawrence, Lewis delivers an emotion-packed, soul-stirring, album. Lewis also enlisted the help of his church's choir, pastored by his older sister, to sing on several of the album's tracks. The J.W. James Memorial A.M.E. Church Combined Choir is breath-taking, adding so much life, freedom, and hope to "With One Voice". The CD's first single, "Pass Me Not" can be heard on Chicago's WGCI 107.5.
In addition to recording and performing, he is / has been a radio host on Chicago's Smooth Jazz station, WNUA (95.5 FM). His syndicated show Legends of Jazz, featuring classic jazz recordings from artists such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis), can be heard in 60 cities in the United States and other countries as well. His most recent venture, the Legends of Jazz television series on PBS, was first aired in April 2006.
As of 2005 he has been hosting a radio show called Legends of Jazz for London's Smooth FM (previously Jazz FM).
On December 4, 2006, the Ramsey Lewis Morning Show will become a part of Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network, simulcasting on other Smooth Jazz stations across the country for the first time. However, the show will still be based in Chicago, as it has always been.

LAMONT "Napalm" DIXON

Lamont Dixon, better known in the poetry world as "Napalm," was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa along with three brothers. He graduated from John Bartram High School where he was an art major as well as captain of the track team. He served seven years in the United States Navy and is currently employed by the United States Postal Service as Cheif Union Representative.

Lamont mentors youth through many civic and arts based associations; with Masonic Lodges, the legendary Clef Club in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Free Library. He also does community outreach thru prisons, homeless shelters, YMCA's and halfway houses. So you see, brother Lamont gives back to the community.

He has performed Spoken Word along side many Philadelphia jazz musicians including Byard lancaster, Khan Jamal, Warren oree and vocalist Denise King. He credits as his major poetic influence Amiri Baraka. Napalm writes all styles of poetry but the majority of which is influenced by Jazz.

He infuses jazz, hip hop, blues, and drama with his performances and workshops.
Napalm trained at Freedom Theater and the Phila. Univ. of the Arts, as well as a tenure with Temple U.'s Full Circle Improvisational Troupe. Napalm's poetry has been published in African Voices, The Phylaxis, New Poet's Revolution and Essence Magazine. _He is a recipient of the Phylaxis Society's Excellence in Literature Award and John G. Lewis Medal of Excellence for Art. Napalm is a teaching artist for Perkins Center for the Arts, the NJ & PA State Council for the Arts, and Rutgers and Rowan University.

Napalm appears on African Rhythm Tongues with jazz musicians Khan Jamal and Byard Lancaster, Po-Jazz Connection with Arpeggio Jazz ensemble and others.
He also served as co-executive producer for the Russell Simmon's 2001 Def Poetry Jam Tour in Philadelphia.

THELONIOUS MONK

Thelonious "Sphere" Monk was born on October 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, but was only four when his mother and his two siblings, Marion and Thomas, moved to New York City. Unlike other Southern migrants who headed straight to Harlem, the Monks settled on West 63rd Street in the “San Juan Hill” neighborhood of Manhattan, near the Hudson River. His father, Thelonious, Sr., joined the family three years later, but health considerations forced him to return to North Carolina. During his stay, however, he often played the harmonica, ‘Jew’s harp,” and piano—all of which probably influenced his son’s unyielding musical interests. Young Monk turned out to be a musical prodigy in addition to a good student and a fine athlete. He studied the trumpet briefly but began exploring the piano at age nine. He was about nine when Marion’s piano teacher took Thelonious on as a student. By his early teens, he was playing rent parties, sitting in on organ and piano at a local Baptist church, and was reputed to have won several “amateur hour” competitions at the Apollo Theater.


Admitted to Peter Stuyvesant, one of the city’s best high schools, Monk dropped out at the end of his sophomore year to pursue music and around 1935 took a job as a pianist for a traveling evangelist and faith healer. Returning after two years, he formed his own quartet and played local bars and small clubs until the spring of 1941, when drummer Kenny Clarke hired him as the house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem.
Minton’s, legend has it, was where the “bebop revolution” began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm—notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell. Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz in this period. Anointed by some critics as the “High Priest of Bebop,” several of his compositions (“52nd Street Theme,” “Round Midnight,” “Epistrophy” [co-written with Kenny Clarke and originally titled “Fly Right” and then “Iambic Pentameter”], “I Mean You”) were favorites among his contemporaries.


Yet, as much as Monk helped usher in the bebop revolution, he also charted a new course for modern music few were willing to follow. Whereas most pianists of the bebop era played sparse chords in the left hand and emphasized fast, even eighth and sixteenth notes in the right hand, Monk combined an active right hand with an equally active left hand, fusing stride and angular rhythms that utilized the entire keyboard. And in an era when fast, dense, virtuosic solos were the order of the day, Monk was famous for his use of space and silence. In addition to his unique phrasing and economy of notes, Monk would “lay out” pretty regularly, enabling his sidemen to experiment free of the piano’s fixed pitches. As a composer, Monk was less interested in writing new melodic lines over popular chord progressions than in creating a whole new architecture for his music, one in which harmony and rhythm melded seamlessly with the melody. “Everything I play is different,” Monk once explained, “different melody, different harmony, different structure. Each piece is different from the other. . . . [W]hen the song tells a story, when it gets a certain sound, then it’s through . . . completed.”


Despite his contribution to the early development of modern jazz, Monk remained fairly marginal during the 1940s and early 1950s. Besides occasional gigs with bands led by Kenny Clarke, Lucky Millinder, Kermit Scott, and Skippy Williams, in 1944 tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was the first to hire Monk for a lengthy engagement and the first to record with him. Most critics and many musicians were initially hostile to Monk’s sound. Blue Note, then a small record label, was the first to sign him to a contract. Thus, by the time he went into the studio to lead his first recording session in 1947, he was already thirty years old and a veteran of the jazz scene for nearly half of his life. But he knew the scene and during the initial two years with Blue Note had hired musicians whom he believed could deliver. Most were not big names at the time but they proved to be outstanding musicians, including trumpeters Idrees Sulieman and George Taitt; twenty-two year-old Sahib Shihab and seventeen-year-old Danny Quebec West on alto saxophones; Billy Smith on tenor; and bassists Gene Ramey and John Simmons. On some recordings Monk employed veteran Count Basie drummer Rossiere “Shadow” Wilson; on others, the drum seat was held by well-known bopper Art Blakey. His last Blue Note session as a leader in 1952 finds Monk surrounded by an all-star band, including Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Lou Donaldson (alto), “Lucky” Thompson (tenor), Nelson Boyd (bass), and Max Roach (drums). In the end, although all of Monk’s Blue Note sides are hailed today as some of his greatest recordings, at the time of their release in the late 1940s and early 1950s, they proved to be a commercial failure.


Harsh, ill-informed criticism limited Monk’s opportunities to work—opportunities he desperately needed especially after his marriage to Nellie Smith in 1947, and the birth of his son, Thelonious, Jr., in 1949. Monk found work where he could, but he never compromised his musical vision. His already precarious financial situation took a turn for the worse in August of 1951, when he was falsely arrested for narcotics possession, essentially taking the rap for his friend Bud Powell. Deprived of his cabaret card—a police-issued “license” without which jazz musicians could not perform in New York clubs—Monk was denied gigs in his home town for the next six years. Nevertheless, he played neighborhood clubs in Brooklyn—most notably, Tony’s Club Grandean, sporadic concerts, took out-of-town gigs, composed new music, and made several trio and ensemble records under the Prestige Label (1952-1954), which included memorable performances with Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, and Milt Jackson. In the fall of1953, he celebrated the birth of his daughter Barbara, and the following summer he crossed the Atlantic for the first time to play the Paris Jazz Festival. During his stay, he recorded his first solo album for Vogue. These recordings would begin to establish Monk as one of the century’s most imaginative solo pianists.


In 1955, Monk signed with a new label, Riverside, and recorded several outstanding LP’s which garnered critical attention, notably Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, The Unique Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, Monk’s Music and his second solo album, Thelonious Monk Alone. In 1957, with the help of his friend and sometime patron, the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, he had finally gotten his cabaret card restored and enjoyed a very long and successful engagement at the Five Spot Café with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wilbur Ware and then Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums. From that point on, his career began to soar; his collaborations with Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, and arranger Hall Overton, among others, were lauded by critics and studied by conservatory students. Monk even led a successful big band at Town Hall in 1959. It was as if jazz audiences had finally caught up to Monk’s music.


By 1961, Monk had established a more or less permanent quartet consisting of Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, John Ore (later Butch Warren and then Larry Gales) on bass, and Frankie Dunlop (later Ben Riley) on drums. He performed with his own big band at Lincoln Center (1963), and at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the quartet toured Europe in 1961 and Japan in 1963. In 1962, Monk had also signed with Columbia records, one of the biggest labels in the world, and in February of 1964 he became the third jazz musician in history to grace the cover of Time Magazine.


However, with fame came the media’s growing fascination with Monk’s alleged eccentricities. Stories of his behavior on and off the bandstand often overshadowed serious commentary about his music. The media helped invent the mythical Monk—the reclusive, naïve, idiot savant whose musical ideas were supposed to be entirely intuitive rather than the product of intensive study, knowledge and practice. Indeed, his reputation as a recluse (Time called him the "loneliest Monk") reveals just how much Monk had been misunderstood. As his former sideman, tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, explained, Monk was somewhat of a homebody: "If Monk isn't working he isn't on the scene. Monk stays home. He goes away and rests." Unlike the popular stereotypes of the jazz musician, Monk was devoted to his family. He appeared at family events, played birthday parties, and wrote playfully complex songs for his children: "Little Rootie Tootie" for his son, "Boo Boo's Birthday" and “Green Chimneys” for his daughter, and a Christmas song titled “A Merrier Christmas.” The fact is, the Monk family held together despite long stretches without work, severe money shortages, sustained attacks by critics, grueling road trips, bouts with illness, and the loss of close friends.


During the 1960s, Monk scored notable successes with albums such as Criss Cross, Monk’s Dream, It’s Monk Time, Straight No Chaser, and Underground. But as Columbia/CBS records pursued a younger, rock-oriented audience, Monk and other jazz musicians ceased to be a priority for the label. Monk’s final recording with Columbia was a big band session with Oliver Nelson’s Orchestra in November of 1968, which turned out to be both an artistic and commercial failure. Columbia’s disinterest and Monk’s deteriorating health kept the pianist out of the studio. In January of 1970, Charlie Rouse left the band, and two years later Columbia quietly dropped Monk from its roster. For the next few years, Monk accepted fewer engagements and recorded even less. His quartet featured saxophonists Pat Patrick and Paul Jeffrey, and his son Thelonious, Jr., took over on drums in 1971. That same year through 1972, Monk toured widely with the "Giants of Jazz," a kind of bop revival group consisting of Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon and Art Blakey, and made his final public appearance in July of 1976. Physical illness, fatigue, and perhaps sheer creative exhaustion convinced Monk to give up playing altogether. On February 5, 1982, he suffered a stroke and never regained consciousness; twelve days later, on February 17th, he died.


Today Thelonious Monk is widely accepted as a genuine master of American music. His compositions constitute the core of jazz repertory and are performed by artists from many different genres. He is the subject of award winning documentaries, biographies and scholarly studies, prime time television tributes, and he even has an Institute created in his name. The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz was created to promote jazz education and to train and encourage new generations of musicians. It is a fitting tribute to an artist who was always willing to share his musical knowledge with others but expected originality in return.

The Partnership of Music and Poetry by María Teresa Fusari Buenos Aires, Argentina

The following article was posted on myspace by a regular listener of "Spotlight On Jazz And Poetry." I wanted to share this with everyone because it made me feel just that good about what people feel about my program;


Much has been said about the partnership of music and poetry. It is not new to say that they were born together; both of them are artistic expressions and they arise from the same feelings following established patterns, that being rhythm, which is common to both of them.

Consequently, it is not strange that some teachers approach poetry teaching through classical music. They encourage their students to listen to classical pieces to help them find the way to writing and, most of all, to pick up rhythm.

It is not new either, the fact that many people have united music and literature by setting poems to music Ranging from the biblical psalms to poems by Byron, Walt Whitman, William Blake, WB. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, Antonio Machado, Mario Benedetti, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Ernesto Cardenal, Joaquín Pasos, among others.

I would call this ability of getting a successful blending of poetry and music, an expression of art in itself.

Here is when Clayton Corley becomes an artist, when assembling the poem and the appropriate melody. He does not only provide entertainment but he also exposes us to different poets and their work, returning to the origin of poetry, when it was popular –Homer and the Troubadours – and not a bookish art as it has become in more modern times.

Moreover, he also contributes to education in other ways. As an ESL teacher (English as a second language teacher) I find Clayton Corley´s programme “Spotlight on Jazz and Poetry” a very useful tool to expose my students to native speaking and general culture by making them listen. In that way, main ideas coming from the poem are discussed, to end up by commenting on the jazz piece that served as background and complement.

What else may I say about “Spotlight on Jazz and Poetry”? I have only praises for him; admiration for his work of great quality and gratitude for letting us enjoy it.

DENISE KING

One day a shy girl from Philadelphia, PA, was sweeping her front stoop and sweetly singing "Summertime” when a guitarist/writer from Philadelphia International Records walked by and heard her singing. He was so impressed by what he heard that he auditioned her, hired her and the rest is history. That was the beginning of a singing career that would WOW people in Brazil, France, Africa, Japan, Turkey, and other places around the world.

Denise King was born and raised in West Philadelphia and is a graduate of West Philly High School. Denise is not only one of the best voices on the Jazz scene today, she strongly believes in giving back to the community. Through programs such as Be-Bop and Books (A literacy program for children) and A Performing Arts Program (which will cover Dance, Theater, Music, Painting and Quilting) and the Cedar Park Jazz Series which takes place on Friday evenings on 50th & Baltimore Aves in West Philly. The grand aim of all of these programs is to bridge the gap between our younger generation, our more established citizens and the variety of cultures which make up our neighborhood. Denise says "West Philly is rich in history and culture and a wide variety of people make up this wonderful community, Jazz is a great medium for communication!"

With no formal vocal instruction, it’s apparent that she was born to sing. She was introduced to Jazz at age twelve by an uncle who had an extensive collection of Jazz LP's. Her "studies" involved hours of listening to the Jazz greats, both vocalists and instrumentalists. Denise borrowed phrasing styles from Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat "King" Cole and Frank Sinatra. She gained an appreciation for lyrics from Lil Jimmy Scott, Nancy Wilson, Carmen McCrae and Nina Simone. The early gigs were difficult in that she was painfully stage shy. But with the help of Sam Reed, sax man and leader of the legendary Uptown Theater Orchestra she overcame her stage fright. Her early experiences involved sharing the stage with many legends, Butch Ballard, Arthur Harper, Sam Dougherty, Cecil Payne, Jymie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes, Lex Humphries and many, many more. They taught her the importance of having something to say every time she stepped up to the microphone. Their instruction paid off. While performing at Zanzibar Blue in Philly, Denise met Dexter Wansel, writer, producer, which opened the door to many recording experiences at Philly International Records. Denise King is a very passionate singer who has a way of pulling her audiences into her performances.

Listening to her warm tone, impeccable phrasing, and the absolute control she has of her voice is mesmerizing. Whether she's singing a Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan standard, or a Gladys Knight or Aretha Franklin cover, she puts her heart and soul into every note. Denise has mastered the art of making a song her own no matter what the genre. Over the years, she has shared the stage with such greats as Roy Hargrove, The Brecker Brothers, Phil Wright, Cecil McBee, Christian McBride, Orrin Evans, Lonnie Plaxico, Uri Caine, Sid Simmons, Dr. Guy Ramsey, J.D. Walter, Barbara Morrison, Derrick Hodge, Chris Beck, Billy Paul, Jean Carne, Celine Dion, Bunny Sigler and the list goes on and on. When performing with her band whether trio, quartet or quintet they are the driving force behind her and support her every note. They instinctively know what she's going to do next and meet her there with perfect timing. With a voice described as velvet smooth she captivates you and holds you with every note. When she's in concert, it's not unusual to see her break out into a dance on stage or with someone from the audience. Her shows are always energetic, fun and spontaneous. Her love of people, performance style, and energy are sure to always make Denise King a favorite at any venue.

Denise sings pop and jazz standards with touches of the blues, soul and even gospel in a voice steeped in a sophisticated, swinging, sometimes soulful, satin style much like one of her idols, Sarah Vaughan.
Her group includes: Aaron Graves, piano; Lee Smith, bass; Lucky Thompson, drums; Sam Reed, tenor-alto sax and Napoleon Black, percussion; a winning hand in any jazz club.

A singer, who cares about the song, Ms King said: "I am a sucker for the lyrics and not interested in vocal gymnastics. I want to hear the story the writer has to tell." And for this, those who share King"s love of Gershwin and Porter, can only be thankful. Some of her favorites: The Nearness of You, Poor Butterfly, Fever, Stolen Moments and Crazy. Her own favorite singers include: Sarah, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, King Cole, Nancy Wilson, Sinatra and, yes, even Patsy Cline.
Ms King has sung at almost all the top clubs in Philadelphia and several in New York, Paris and Japan during the past 15 years. She started in her thirties and has expanded beyond singing into Denise King Enterprises producing concerts, records and dates for herself and others. Among her childhood influences were an uncle's jazz and blues record collection and Sid Mark's weekly radio marathon of Sinatra stylings. She says now, simply, "I loved gospel, blues, jazz, pop, Sinatra and R&B stars such as Ruth Brown and Ko Ko Taylor." She sums it all up saying, "I think I am a universal spirit."

BARBARA MONTGOMERY

Barbara Montgomery has been in the entertainment field for over thirty years as a music industry executive, publisher, producer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, as well as working in production for film and television. She began performing as a jazz vocalist in 1970 but took a detour in her music career by joining the NBC/Westinghouse television station that produced the “Mike Douglas Show”, working for that program and others. The days on the Douglas Show were priceless, for she worked side by side with the greats in jazz--Ella Fitzgerlad, Tony Bennett, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, to name just a few. During this time she also freelanced, working on the seminal PBS series, “The Constitution: That Delicate Balance”, as well as touring as a lighting designer for international popular music groups. She was also the managing director of a major recording studio servicing the music, television and film businesses.

She has been Music Director for Richard Simmons since 1986. This has given her the opportunity to produce the music for over 20 exercise videos ranging from oldies to disco to Broadway to Latin music, working in studios from New York to Los Angeles with hundreds of world class studio musicians.

After a twenty-year break, she returned to her passion, performing and recording as a jazz musician. Her relationship with Chick Corea and Neville Potter led to her third CD “Dakini Land” and was a springboard for the original songs on her fourth CD “Little Sunflower”. This endeavour blessed her with the gift of friendship, performance, and collaboration with the great jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. She has produced six CDs of her own, arranging and writing original material for five of them in collaboration with Steve Giordano (“Ask Me Now”), Barry Sames (“Dakini Land” and “Little Sunflower”) and Aaron Graves (“Trinity”). Her 2005 release, “Trinity” was co-produced with pianist/composer/ arranger Aaron Graves, whose short list includes work with Stanley Turrentine, Cassandra Wilson, Dakota Staton, the legendary Jimmy Scott, and Oscar Brown, Jr. Both “Little Sunflower” and “Trinity” were honored with the Blue Chip Award for Best Jazz Vocals by Dr. Herb Wong of the International Association of Jazz Educators.

Ms. Montgomery also leads LADIES NIGHT OUT, her band of top female jazz musicians including Monette Sudler on guitar, Lynn Riley on saxophones/flute/clarinet, Lee-sa Robinson on drums, all international recording artists and performers in their own right.

She has been asked to write and contribute for jazz publications, including the premier issue of the AllAboutJazz newspaper, Jazziz Magazine, and Downbeat, and was featured in the July 2004 issue of Jazziz. She is writing a book on life as a private citizen in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

While raising her two children, she performed primarily in the PA/DE/NJ/NY area (Iridium, Borgia Cafe, Zanzibar Blue, Ortlieb's, Chris' Cafe, jazz festivals, Philadelphia Museum of Art Jazz Series among others); has had three sold out tours in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, performing in Prague, Usti nad Labem, Olomousc, Bratislava, Trencin, Piestany, Banska Biasnica, Martin, Zvolen, Banska Biastryka; and has performed often in France.

She has been volunteering with The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, an international institute that works with the families of brain injured children, since 1980, in their programs for hurt kids and well children. She home schooled her two children (now 27 and 19) from birth via the neurological program guidelines of the Institutes, teaching languages, art, music, violin, sciences, history, literature, and gymnastics among other areas in the academic and physical programs; became certified at the teaching level; has volunteered for many years in their clinical work, most recently proving translation services for the French speaking families; participated in over 20 twenty world meetings on brain research. She has received the Brazilian Gold Medal of Honor for her efforts in this field.

She is deeply involved in gun violence prevention, stemming from the years she lived in South Vietnam in the early 1960's. A more recent tragedy was the murder-suicide in January 2002 in Ardmore, Pa. of the family of five that included her daughter's dear friend, 14-year-old Alexandra Wake. Since that time she has hosted town meetings to address the dilemma of gun accessibility, has spoken at press conferences state wide, and has lobbied often in the Pennsylvania state capitol and in Congress in Washington, D.C. This led her to become the President of The Pennsylvania Million Mom Chapters of the Brady Campaign. She continuously presents s gun violence prevention workshops to youth in middle schools, high schools, community organizations, and colleges; produced a state-wide assault weapons ban conference in the spring of 2004; and has testified in front of and advised the City Council of Philadelphia and the Pa. State Senate on firearms legislation.

She also works with Mothers in Charge and Mothers Opposed to Murder, both groups of Philadelphia mothers who have lost children to homicide, as well as Mantua Against Drugs, Men United for a Better Philadelphia, Pennsylvanians Against Trafficking Handguns, and other grass roots organizations in Pennsylvania. From October 2004 through 2005 she directed weekly workshops with teens using music as the vehicle to help them work through the violence in their lives, coaching them to write poetry, song lyrics, and music, as well as coaching actual performances of their songs. She performed at the national Million Mom March on Mother’s Day of 2004 in Washington, D.C. on the west lawn of the Capitol honoring Alexandra and the many victims of gun violence, and each year produces and performs the Mother’s Day Remembrance Service for the Pennsylvania Million Mom March.

SEKOU SUNDIATA

Blues, jazz, funk, and Afro-Caribbean percussion surround the soulful voice of Harlem-born poet Sekou Sundiata on his recordings, The Blue Oneness of Dreams and Longstoryshort. His words speak of black culture and tradition, often with a political edge. "People be droppin’ revolution like it was a pick-up line," he says in Longstoryshort. "You wouldn’t use that word if you knew what it meant."

S ekou Sundiata, (born Robert Feaster), was born on August 22, 1948, in Harlem, New York. Sekou taught English literature at the New School for Social Research, Sundiata became quite a performer in his own right as well, usually leading a band on frequent club dates reminiscent of June Jordan, Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), and Quincy Troupe. Sundiata began writing for the musical theater, and premiered The Mystery of Love in 1994, with songwriting help from Doug Booth. The duo also teamed up on Sundiata's debut album, The Blue Oneness of Dreams, with Booth contributing both songs and his soulful vocals to the project. The album was released on Polygram in 1997; A Long Story Short followed in early 2000.

Sundiata recorded and performed his poetry with such renowned musicians as Craig Harris, David Murray, Nona Hendryx, and Vernon Reid. However, he did not consider himself a performance poet. "This thing about spoken word artists and performance poets, " he said in a 2003 interview, "I think of it mainly as marketing categories. I’m satisfied with just calling myself a poet."

His designation as a poet also satisfied New York City's New School University, where Sundiata was the first Writer-in-Residence. He taught literature and poetry classes, despite never having published a book of poems. Among his students was folk-rocker Ani DiFranco, whose Righteous Babe label released Longstoryshort. DiFranco has said that Sundiata "taught me everything I know about poetry. " The two performed together in twenty-three cities during her "Rhythm and News Tour" in 2001.
Despite touring and performing with musicians, Sundiata didn't consider himself a "crossover" artist. For him, being a poet necessarily implied a deep engagement with several genres. "It's damn near impossible to understand what contemporary black poets are doing without understanding what's going on with black music and its relationship to black speech and black literature, " he said.

In 2003, Sundiata toured the United States again, performing his one-man theatrical piece Blessing the Boats, a chronicle of his five-year battle with kidney failure, and his eventual recovery thanks to a transplant donated by his friend and manager Katea Stitt, daughter of jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt. The piece blends monologues, readings, stand-up comedy, spoken word, and storytelling with recorded music and video projections.

The poet's most recent theatrical piece, The America Project, contemplating America's place in the world, featured poems and a cycle of songs, accompanied by images and a ten-member ensemble of musicians and vocalists.
Television journalist Bill Moyers, who featured Sundiata in the PBS series on poetry, The Language of Life, has said of the poet: "His music comes from so many places it is impossible to name them all. But I will wager that if we could trace their common origin, we'd arrive at the headwaters of the soul. Listen carefully and he’ll take you there."

Sundiata died of heart failure early in the morning on July 18th, 2007.

GERALD L. CANNON

Gerald L. Cannon, Musician, composer, and artist was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and is a true-life 21st century Renaissance man. For that reason one should not confuse his craft with anything but genuine, from the heart artistry.

Gerald's initial inspiration was his father Benjamin, a guitarist, who bought him his first electric bass at 10 years old. At 16 he began playing bass in his father's own group, The Gospel Expressions. Gerald attended the University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse, where he met jazz great Milt Hinton. This meeting changed not only Gerald's major in college, but also the rest of his life.

At 19 Gerald transferred to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, where he studied jazz/classical bass and piano. He also studied art at Marquette University, which nurtured a natural talent and love of painting. Outside of school, Gerald began working as musical director for vocalist Penny Goodwin, who ultimately became his single greatest mentor. This experience, combined with the subsequent creation of his own quintet Gerald Cannon's Jazz Elements, laid the foundation for a solid reputation as a leader and composer in his own right.

In Spring of 1988 Gerald moved to New York City and began working with some of the most significant jazz artists of our time, including Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Frank Foster, Little Jimmy Scott, Von Freeman, Stanley Turrentine and Bunky Green. An introduction to Roy Hargrove in 1995 lead to an historic collaboration that achieved national and international success, culminating in the contribution of Gerald's original composition Peri to Hargrove's recording Moment to Moment (Verve).

In 2001, Gerald left Hargrove to join the legendary drummer Elvin Jones. "Playing with Elvin is like going back to school. He continually challenges my creativity." When not working with Elvin, Gerald fills the bass chair of the Cannonball Adderly Reunion Band with Louis Hayes. "His (Louis') sense of swing is unbelievable."

Gerald carries the knowledge passed on to him by legendary bassists such as Ray Brown and Sam Jones, and continues the legacy by conducting master classes throughout the U.S. and Europe. The consummate sideman, musical director, composer, educator, painter and producer, Gerald has now stepped out front as leader with the debut of his self-titled recording Gerald Cannon (Woodneck Records) in 2004.

Like the masters before him, Gerald Cannon has established a fearless, solid groove that distinguishes him as one of the principal figures in jazz.

TSHOMBE HARRIS

Tshombe Sekou Harris, who goes by the name Truth Theory was born April 18, 1973 in New Orleans, La. He wrote his first piece of literature in July of 2006 as a release of emotions, and continued on to write poetry. With this new found affinity for poetry combined with his love for music, he began composing tracks to flow with his written words. It was at this time he created the moniker of Truth Theory. After getting much feedback on his blogs in places like blogger, MySpace, and multiply.com, he was encouraged to continue in his craft for words and music.

After much writing, he eventually recorded his written poetry pieces for the first time in the form of a spoken word album titled "IAMNOTAPO3T" which can be purchased at CDbaby.com, an album he self produced and published as an indie artist for raising funds for his self established scholarship “The Truth Theory African American Heritage Scholarship” that is given out bi-annually to young under privileged African-Americans looking to go on to college, to find more on the scholarship you can visit www.truththeory.com.

He continues to write poetry occasionally as a form of release while managing an online poetry group "Po3tic Voices" a group of 55 poets moving to harness their skills in the spoken word realm, hear more about poetic voices at www.po3ticVoices.multiply.com. He also hosts an online spoken word talk show "Spoken Truth" over on www.blogtalkradio.com and soon here on NAL Radio, this talk show is designed for “Indie” artist to share some of their works and for providing a forum for discussing some of the issues in our community. He does all of this as he furthers his career in the US Navy and completes his Degree in Computer Engineering. He is also currently working on his second and third CD, which he is hoping to complete by the summer of 2008.

"In my opinion," Tshombe says, "poetry and jazz are one in the same in that they both are rhythmic and free flowing. Poetry is image forming and thought provoking, it allows the reader/listener to use their mind as a canvas to generate their own experiences as well as new emotions. Well, non-vocalized jazz does this very thing—it takes you to heights, new levels of highs and lows. So jazz and poetry, together are a sure fire cocktail for a mind altering experience."

JOHN COLTRANE

John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet North Carolina and grew up in High Point, North Carolina, where he learned to play E-flat alto horn, clarinet, and (at about the age of 15) alto saxophone. After moving to Philadelphia he enrolled at the Ornstein School of Music and the Granoff Studios; service in a navy band in Hawaii (1945-46) interrupted these studies. He played alto saxophone in the bands led by Joe Webb and King Kolax, then changed to the tenor to work with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (1947-48). He performed on either instrument as circumstances demanded while in groups led by Jimmy Heath, Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie (with whom he made his first recording in 1949), Earl Bostic, and lesser-known rhythm-and-blues musicians, but by the time of his membership in Johnny Hodges's septet (1953-54) he was firmly committed to the tenor instrument. He performed infrequently for about a year, then leaped to fame in Miles Davis' quintet with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones (1955-57). Coltrane was, after Charlie Parker, the most revolutionary and widely imitated saxophonist in jazz.

Throughout the 1950s addiction to drugs and then alcoholism disrupted his career. Shortly after leaving Davis, however, he overcame these problems; his album A Love Supreme celebrated this victory and the profound religious experience associated with it. Coltrane next played in Thelonious Monk's quartet (July-December 1957), but owing to contractual conflicts took part in only one early recording session of this legendary group. He rejoined Davis and worked in various quintets and sextets with Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Chambers, Jones, and others (1958-60). While with Davis he discovered the soprano saxophone, purchasing his own instrument in February 1960.

Having led numerous studio sessions, established a reputation as a composer, and emerged as the leading tenor saxophonist in jazz, Coltrane was now prepared to form his own group; it made its debut at New York's Jazz Gallery in early May 1960. After briefly trying Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, Coltrane hired two musicians who became longstanding members of his quartet, McCoy Tyner (1960-65) and Elvin Jones (1960-66); the third, Jimmy Garrison, joined in 1961. With these sidemen the quartet soon acquired an international following. At times Art Davis added a second double bass to the group; Eric Dolphy also served as an intermittent fifth member on bass clarinet, alto saxophone, and flute from 1961 to 1963, and Roy Haynes was the most regular replacement for Elvin Jones during the latter's incarceration for drug addiction in 1963.

Coltrane turned to increasingly radical musical styles in the mid-1960s. These controversial experiments attracted large audiences, and by 1965 he was surprisingly affluent. From autumn 1965 his search for new sounds resulted in frequent changes of personnel in his group. New members included Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane (his wife), Rashied Ali (a second drummer until Jones' departure), several drummers as seconds to Ali, and a number of African-influenced percussionists. In his final years and after his death, Coltrane acquired an almost saintly reputation among listeners and fellow musicians for his energetic and selfless support of young avant-garde performers, his passionate religious convictions, his peaceful demeanor, and his obsessive striving for a musical ideal. He crossed over at the age of 40 July 17, 1967 at Huntington Hospital in Long Island NY of a liver ailment. A videotape tracing his development, The Coltrane Legacy, produced by David Chertok and Burrill Crohn, was issued in 1987.

AMIRI BARAKA

Amiri Baraka, born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, USA, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.

With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renown as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics. The movement and his published and performance work, such as the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded “the cultural corollary to black nationalism” of that revolutionary American milieu.

Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979), to The Music (1987), a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina, and his boldly sortied essays, The Essence of Reparations (2003).

The Essence of Reparations is Baraka’s first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism, national oppression, colonialism, neo-colonialism, self-determination and national and human liberation, which he has long been addressing creatively and critically. It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer. He has taught at Yale, Columbia, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems is Baraka’s first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors. The recital of the poem “that mattered” engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the state’s Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up America’s provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001.

The poem’s own detonation caused the author’s photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New York’s Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city, state and national and international media.

Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka; they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble, Blue Ark: The Word Ship and co-direct Kimako’s Blues People, the “artspace” housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years.

His awards and honors include an Obie, the American Academy of Arts & Letters award, the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants, Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook, and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey.