In Memoriam

[butters]

shame. always enjoyed seeing him on tv in all his roles

 

[Tzara]

McCoy Tyner (1938-2020)

Iconic jazz musician famous for both his time with the John Coltrane Quartet and as a solo artist/group leader. Angie could probably give a more comprehensive biography and better YouTube clips, but here's a selection:

• Autumn Leaves
• Giant Steps
• Moment's Notice

 

[Angeline]

Iconic jazz musician famous for both his time with the John Coltrane Quartet and as a solo artist/group leader. Angie could probably give a more comprehensive biography and better YouTube clips, but here's a selection:

• Autumn Leaves
• Giant Steps
• Moment's Notice

Thank you for sharing this sad news. He was a jazz giant.


Sublime~
When Sunny Gets Blue

 

[Tzara]

William O. Smith (1926-2020)

William O. Smith, classical composer and sublime clarinet virtuoso, a/k/a Bill Smith, jazz clarinetist and bandmate of Dave Brubeck, whom he met while studying with Darius Milhaud at Mills College in Oakland.

Some samples of his work with Dave Brubeck, as Bill Smith:

• Blue Rondo a la Turk
• One for the Kids

And with his work as a classical composer:

• Five Pieces for Clarinet (1959)
• Solo for Clarinet with Delay System (1980)
• Variants for solo clarinet (1963)

 

[Tzara]

Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)

One of the most prominent composers of classical music in the later 20th and early 21st centuries, Penderecki's music was also prominently featured in films like The Exorcist, The Shining, Wild at Heart, and Shutter Island.

Here are two of his better known works:

• Threnody (Lament) for the Victims of Hiroshima
• String Quartet

I know most of you won't like it, but I'm posting it anyway.

 

[Angeline]

One of the most prominent composers of classical music in the later 20th and early 21st centuries, Penderecki's music was also prominently featured in films like The Exorcist, The Shining, Wild at Heart, and Shutter Island.

Here are two of his better known works:

• Threnody (Lament) for the Victims of Hiroshima
• String Quartet

I know most of you won't like it, but I'm posting it anyway.

I don't like it, but I like reading your posts so it's all good.

 

[Tzara]

Charles Wuorinen (1938-2020)

Wuorinen was, at the time (1970), the youngest person to ever win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, though he has since been eclipsed in that by Kendrick Lamar. His award-winning work, Time's Encomium, is also noteworthy as being one of the first, I think the first but I can't document that, electronic pieces commissioned by a record company (Nonesuch Records) and issued directly to the public rather than being initially performed in concert.

He was known, at least in his early career, as a serialist composer, though he personally later rejected that label. Here are two of his works:

• Symphony No. 3 (1959)
• Time's Encomium (1969)

As with my previous post about Penderecki, I doubt many of you will find Wuorinen's music attractive, especially Time's Encomium, which was composed on the RCA Mark II Synthesizer at Columbia University and which sounds really dated now.

Welp, that's how it goes. (Though I do admit I prefer the symphony.)

 

[Piscator]

Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., who died Wednesday of complications from covid-19. Full obit here.

Here with son,Branford playing Sweet Lorraine

 

[Angeline]

Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., who died Wednesday of complications from covid-19. Full obit here.

Here with son,Branford playing Sweet Lorraine

Thank you for sharing this P'tor. I was so sad to hear this. He was the patriarch of one of America's great jazz families. So much loss in New Orleans and everywhere. RIP.

 

[Tzara]

John Prine (1946-2020)

John Prine, prickly American songwriter, two-time Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Folk Album. During 2005 at the request of U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, John Prine became the first singer/songwriter to read and perform at the Library of Congress (reference from Wikipedia).

I think there are others here who perhaps appreciated Prine's work more than I do, but I'd like to post this youtube, which seems appropriate: When I get into Heaven.

RIP, John.

 

[Piscator]

John Prine, prickly American songwriter, two-time Grammy winner for Best Contemporary Folk Album. During 2005 at the request of U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, John Prine became the first singer/songwriter to read and perform at the Library of Congress (reference from Wikipedia).

I think there are others here who perhaps appreciated Prine's work more than I do, but I'd like to post this youtube, which seems appropriate: When I get into Heaven.

RIP, John.

Thanks Tzara, sad news but given Angie's earlier note, not entirely unexpected. However as a long time Prine fan, this is the song I'll remember him by.

 

[Angeline]

Diane DiPrima, feminist beat poet and contemporary of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Frank O'Hara among others has died at the age of 86. Her excellent poetry mixes form and stream of consciousness. You can read about her here.

The Window

you are my bread
and the hairline
noise
of my bones
you are almost
the sea

you are not stone
or molten sound
I think
you have no hands



this kind of bird flies backward
and this love
breaks on a windowpane
where no light talks

this is not time
for crossing tongues
(the sand here
never shifts)



I think
tomorrow
turned you with his toe
and you will
shine
and shine
unspent and underground

Diane di Prima, “The Window” from Pieces of a Song. Copyright © 1990

ETA: https://youtu.be/-F_HVvPe22g

 

[Piscator]

Diane DiPrima, feminist beat poet and contemporary of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Frank O'Hara among others has died at the age of 86. Her excellent poetry mixes form and stream of consciousness. You can read about her here.

ETA: https://youtu.be/-F_HVvPe22g

Thanks Angie, as a Luddite in modern poetry, I'm always grateful for the new windows you and Tzara open for me.

 

[Angeline]

Thanks Angie, as a Luddite in modern poetry, I'm always grateful for the new windows you and Tzara open for me.

Thanks P'tor.

To be honest, our buddy Tzara knows a lot more modern poetry than I do, but I especially love the Beats and associated artists and the generation of poets that followed them.. DiPrima is a poet I first encountered (and immediately loved) in one of the Young American Poets anthologies. So yeah it was a long time ago: mid 1970s.

 

[Tzara]

To be honest, our buddy Tzara knows a lot more modern poetry than I do. . .

You are too modest, Missy. You introduced me to, hey, Ted Berrigan and Bill Knott, among others. That I might pull some backwards neo-formalists out of my, um, "backlog" of modern poets is in no way superior to those poets you have mentioned and highlighted over your time here.

Just sayin' how I have appreciated your recommendations over the years

Hope you are doing well, anyway.

 

[Angeline]

You are too modest, Missy. You introduced me to, hey, Ted Berrigan and Bill Knott, among others. That I might pull some backwards neo-formalists out of my, um, "backlog" of modern poets is in no way superior to those poets you have mentioned and highlighted over your time here.

Just sayin' how I have appreciated your recommendations over the years

Hope you are doing well, anyway.

We could argue this in a friendly, mutual admiration society, kind of way. I've learned a lot from you and especially appreciate your deft touch as a teacher and your kindness.

I'm doing ok. Still in lockdown mode and tested often. I haven't been able to see my kids since last March and that is the hardest part. We talk daily and Zoom together but this mom misses the hugs!

I'm pretty adjusted to my life as is these days and I'm slowly learning how to find quiet times here when I can write.

I miss you! I miss us writing together here.

 

[Angeline]

This video pays short tributes to a number of poets who we lost in 2020. I knew of some but by no means all of them. As sad as their loss is we haven't lost their words, and there is opportunity here to discover new voices or revisit familiar ones.

https://youtu.be/TIIkdYIBDno

 

[Angeline]

Lawrence Ferlinghetti dies, aged 101

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ny...bituaries/lawrence-ferlinghetti-dead.amp.html

He was perhaps the best friend Beat Poetry ever had and the owner/publisher behind the renowned City Lights Books in San Francisco. RIP.

Edited to add a link to my favorite poem of his I Am Waiting .

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Philippe Jaccottet (1925-2021)

The francophone poet, essayist, and translator of classic and contemporary writers left these green fields on the 24th of February. The great outdoors and words themselves were in his heart.

Please shine your light now from the Distances upon us.

Bon voyage, Monsieur Jaccottet.

 

[Angeline]

24 Years

April 5th marks 24 years since the death of Allen Ginsberg. It's hard for me to believe almost a quarter century has passed since his death. He stills feels very much alive to me. I went to college near New York City and saw him read , talk and/or perform (chanting, dancing, playing the harmonium or finger cymbals) many times. So my memories of him as a vital force in poetry and culture are strong.

Not to be macabre, but I read this article about his final hours, lovingly told by a long-term friend. Maybe it's not your cup of tea but I found it beautiful so I'm sharing. May his memory always be a blessing.

https://allenginsberg.org/2021/04/m-a-5/

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Not to be macabre, but I read this article about his final hours, lovingly told by a long-term friend. Maybe it's not your cup of tea but I found it beautiful so I'm sharing. May his memory always be a blessing.

https://allenginsberg.org/2021/04/m-a-5/

Thank you for pointing to this. With the number of people visiting and staying, it feels like something from very long-gone era.

 

[Piscator]

Thanks Angie, Ginsberg was a poet I know of rather than know an insufficiency I will try and correct.

 

[Angeline]

Thank you for pointing to this. With the number of people visiting and staying, it feels like something from very long-gone era.

Thank you Snow. I hadn't thought of that but you're right it does have an early 20th (or maybe even 19th) century feel to it. I found it all incredibly moving and so sad that he died so soon after being diagnosed.

Thanks Angie, Ginsberg was a poet I know of rather than know an insufficiency I will try and correct.

Imo he can be daunting to read: he wrote a lot and his poems (much like Walt Whitman who so influenced him) have a grand oratorical sweep though the language can be down to earth, even (at least when first published) shocking.

He was a force of nature, a poet who achieved popularity somewhat akin to rock star status. Hanging around with Bob Dylan didn't hurt! He fascinates me and not just because of his impact on American culture. He was a big part of the hippie zeitgeist, but his writing is very connected to that of his predecessors.

Oh and he, like most of the early Beat poets were big on the connection between jazz and modern poetry.

If you want to explore him more, the Allen Ginsberg Project is a great resource.

 

[Levitating_Bed]

Thanks for this and for the links Angie.

I'm more than a bit jealous of you for getting to hear him read.

My dad passed from lung cancer a little later that month, on the 27th. I was sad when Mr. Ginsberg went, and I was torn between thinking the world was falling all the way apart and knowing it was just my little corner of it that was. Ginsberg was, through his poetry, part of my world too. My dad was born and raised just across the Hackensack from Newark in Jersey City in September of '29 and so was a bit younger. It kind of snuck up on me in a warm way, the crowd around Allen at his death, it was something like the one around my dad at his - albeit with fewer Buddhists and no chanting. It was less warm, watching the video, seeing him in the hospital bed. That brought a lot of it right back, but I'm thankful for that too: I'm pretty sure I'll be spending the next day or two with my dad foremost on my mind and I haven't done that in a long time.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Friederike Mayröcker (1924 - today)

A writer, a poet, and so much more, always swimming across, beside,under, and never within the mainstream went to a different beach today for more experiments with language and storytelling.

Here's an attempt of translating on of hers - early in her life she was an English teacher...

Mein Leben: / My life
ein Guckkasten mit kleinen Landschaften / a peep box with tiny landscapes
gemächlichen Menschen / unhasting people
vorüberziehenden Tieren / animals passing by
wohlbekannten wiederkehrenden Szenerien / well-known recurrent scenes

plötzlich aufgerufen bei meinem Namen / suddenly called by my name
steh ich nicht länger im windstillen Panorama / I no longer stand in a calm panorama
mit den bunten schimmernden Bildern / of vibrant gleaming illustrations

sondern drehe mich wie ein schrecklich glühendes Rad / but rotate like a horribly blazing wheel
einen steilen Abhang hinunter / downhill a steep slope
aller Tabus und Träume von gestern entledigt / devoid of yesterday's taboos and dreams
auf ein fremdes bewegtes Ziel gesetzt: / aimed for an unknown moving target

ohne Wahl / without choice
aber mit ungeduldigem Herzen / but a restless heart