Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Miles' Delight by Ted Joans


Miles' Delight



Miles Davis
said he would like a little boy
with a black face
of no certain race but human

Miles Davis
said he would like this little boy
to have red hair
whose religion does he dig? Miles don't care

Miles Davis
said he would like this little boy
to have green eyes
and be hip, and laugh loud and tell no lies

Miles Davis
said he would like this little boy
to play piano
in a style with lots of space
and blow good jazz
and be a credit to the human race

Miles Davis
is that man that walks on egg shells
without breaking his sound
he is cool . . . . . . but heaven knows that he ain't no
cold clown

Miles Davis
with his silver blue horn
Miles Davis has been true blue since he was born
Miles Davis blowing his sophisticated funk Miles
Davis
refusing to mix jazz with junk, Miles Davis

Miles Davis
said he wants this little boy
that no one could call a son of a bitch
but they could only call him son of Miles
So I heard the marvelous Miles Davis story
Hallelujah . . solos to good glory
So I being a good God almighty with a brush
created this boy that mister Miles wanted in a rush
with red hair with green eyes and for Miles Davis
it had a black face and blows good jazz and is a
credit to the entire human race.















originally published in ALL OF TED JOANS AND NO MORE

Monday, May 24, 2010

Greil Marcus on A New Literary History of America

http://kdvs.ucdavis.edu/archives/2010-05-23_1176_128kbps.mp3

http://kdvs.ucdavis.edu/archives/2010-05-23_1176_192kbps.mp3

http://kdvs.ucdavis.edu/archives/2010-05-23_1176_320kbps.mp3

Show description for Sunday 5/23/2010 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Greil Marcus joins the broadcast this week, on the 4 o'clock hour, to discuss his recent book, A New Literary History of America, co-edited with Werner Sollors.

New Day Jazz


Justin Desmangles

Jazz music for lovers and the lonely.

Genre

Jazz

Missed the Show?

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

View Past Shows

View Upcoming Shows

Track ArtistSong AlbumLabelComments

Julian "Cannonball" AdderleyAutumn LeavesAlison's Uncle (12" single)Blue Note - Japan

Bud PowellBlue Pearl (alternate take)Blue Pearl (12" single)Blue Note - Japan

Bud PowellBlue PearlBlue Pearl (12" single)Blue Note - Japan
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Kenny BurrellMy Heart Stood StillThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Thad JonesSomething To Remember You ByThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Lou DonaldsonThe Things We Did Last SummerThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Lou DonaldsonThere Will Never Be Another YouThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan
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Johnny GriffinThe Way You Look TonightThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Johnny GriffinCherokeeThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Herbie NicholsArgumentative VariationThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Herbie NicholsRiff PrimatiffThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan
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Bud PowellJohn's Abbey (alternate take)The Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Interview with Greil Marcus by Justin Desmangles




Bud PowellCleopatra's DreamBlue Pearl (12" single)Blue Note - Japan

Julian "Cannonball" AdderleyAlison's UncleAlison's Uncle (12" single)Blue Note - Japan
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The SmithsStill IllHatful of HollowRough Trade

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Karintha by Jean Toomer


Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon,
O cant you see it, O cant you see it,
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
... When the sun goes down.

Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child, Karintha carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down. Old men rode her hobby-horse upon their knees. Young men danced with her at frolics when they should have been dancing with their grown-up girls. God grant us youth, secretly prayed the old men. The young fellows counted the time to pass before she would be old enough to mate with them. This interest of the male, who wishes to ripen a growing thing too soon, could mean no good to her.

Karintha, at twelve, was a wild flash that told the other folks just what it was to live. At sunset, when there was no wind, and the pine-smoke from over by the sawmill hugged the earth, and you couldnt see more than a few feet in front, her sudden darting past you was a bit of vivid color, like a black bird that flashes in light. With the other children one could hear, some distance off, their feet flopping in the two-inch dust. Karintha's running was a whir. It had the sound of the red dust that sometimes makes a spiral in the road. At dusk, during the hush just after the sawmill had closed down, and before any of the women had started their supper-getting-ready songs, her voice, high-pitched, shrill, would put one's ears to itching. But no one ever thought to make her stop because of it. She stoned the cows, and beat her dog, and fought the other children... Even the preacher, who caught her at mischief, told himself that she was as innocently lovely as a November cotton flower. Already, rumors were out about her. Homes in Georgia are most often built on the two-room plan. In one, you cook and eat, in the other you sleep, and there love goes on. Karintha had seen or heard, perhaps she had felt her parents loving. One could but imitate one's parents, for to follow them was the way of God. She played "home" with a small boy who was not afraid to do her bidding. That started the whole thing. Old men could no longer ride her hobby-horse upon their knees. But young men counted faster.

Her skin is like dusk,
O cant you see it,
Her skin is like dusk,
When the sun goes down.

Karintha is a woman. She who carries beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down. She has been married many times. Old men remind her that a few years back they rode her hobby-horse upon their knees. Karintha smiles, and indulges them when she is in the mood for it. She has contempt for them. Karintha is a woman. Young men run stills to make her money. Young men go to the big cities and run on the road. Young men go away to college. They all want to bring her money. These are the young men who thought that all they had to do was to count time. But Karintha is a woman, and she has had a child. A child fell out of her womb onto a bed of pine-needles in the forest. Pine-needles are smooth and sweet. They are elastic to the feet of rabbits... A sawmill was nearby. Its pyramidal sawdust pile smouldered. It is a year before one completely burns. Meanwhile, the smoke curls up and hangs in odd wraiths about the trees, curls up, and spreads itself out over the valley... Weeks after Karintha returned home the smoke was so heavy you tasted it in water. Some one made a song:

Smoke is on the hills. Rise up.
Smoke is on the hills, O rise
And take my soul to Jesus.

Karintha is a woman. Men do not know that the soul of her was a growing thing ripened too soon. They will bring their money; they will die not having found it out... Karintha at twenty, carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down. Karintha...

Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon,
O cant you see it, O cant you see it,
Her skin is like dusk on the eastern horizon
... When the sun goes down.

Goes down...















Karintha appears as section one of Jean Toomers masterpiece Cane

The illustration is a collage by the great Romare Bearden, Calabash

Monday, May 10, 2010

Ishmael Reed on Barack Obama & the Jim Crow Media

Show description for Sunday 5/9/2010 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

This afternoon on the 4 o'clock hour, poet, essayist, novelist and playwright, Ishmael Reed, returns to New Day Jazz, to discuss his most recent collection of essays, Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers.

A towering presence in international arts and letters, Mr. Reed is one of a handfull of artists who have been instrumental in the development of English language literature over the past 40 years.

http://www.ishmaelreedpub.com/

http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/barack-obama-and-the-jim-crow-media/


OBAMA_C1-72dpi

“Brilliant.” Jill Nelson, journalist, novelist, American Book Award winner.

For Ishmael Reed, Barack Obama, like Michelangelo’s St. Anthony, is a tormented man, haunted by modern reincarnations of the demonic spirits used to break slaves. These were the “Nigger Breakers”—men like Edward Covey, who was handed the job of breaking Frederick Douglass. “Isn’t it ironic,” writes Reed: “A media that scolded the Jim Crow South in the 1960s now finds itself hosting the bird.” In this collection, which includes several unpublished essays, Ishmael Reed brings to bear his grasp of the four-centuries-long African-American experience as he turns his penetrating gaze on Barack Obama’s election and first year in power—establishing himself as the conscience of a country that was once moved by Martin Luther King’s dream.

“Amazed at the many fronts on which [Ishmael Reed] has gathered little-reported facts…. I hope his book will lead to more journalistic self-reflection and intellectual honesty. ” — Werner Sollors, Professor of English Literature and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

“In the past 40 years, Reed has published more than 20 books and has also made his mark as an editor, publisher, critic, journalist, songwriter, librettist and fearsome letter-to-the-editor writer. Reed is among the most American of American writers, if by ‘American’ we mean a quality defined by its indefinability and its perpetual transformations as new ideas, influences and traditions enter our cultural conversation.” — The New York Times

“With Ishmael Reed, the most persistent myths and prejudice crumble under powerful unrelenting jabs and razor-sharp insight.” — Le Devoir, Montreal

“Among American writers, Ishmael Reed is probably the one
whose sensibility is closest to jazz.” — The New York Times

IshmaelReed image

Ishmael Reed is an essayist, novelist, poet and playwright, and a prize-winner in all categories. He taught at the University of California (Berkeley) for thirty-five years, as well as at Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. Reed is a member of Harvard’s Signet Society and Yale’s Calhoun Society. He lives in Oakland, California.

Ishmael Reed talks about this book with Phil Taylor of the Taylor Report

New Day Jazz


Justin Desmangles

Jazz music for lovers and the lonely.

Genre

Jazz

Missed the Show?

MP3 Stream 192kpbs, broadband
MP3 Stream 32kpbs, broadband

View Past Shows

View Upcoming Shows

TrackArtistSongAlbumLabel

Ray CharlesLet the Good Times RollThe Genius of Ray CharlesAtlantic

Bennie Green with Babs GonzalezSoul Stirrin'Soul Stirrin'Blue Note - Japan

Count Basie with Joe WilliamsRoll'em PeteCount Basie Swings, Joe Williams SingsVerve

Count Basie with Joe WilliamsTeach Me TonightCount Basie Swings, Joe Williams SingsVerve
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Ted Joans (read by Justin Desmangles) I, the GraduateDouble TroubleEditions Bleu Outremer

Lee MorganAll at Once You Love HerCandyBlue Note
========================== Airbreak ==========================

Louis SmithAu PrivaveThe Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Sarah Vaughn Can't Get Out of This MoodSarah Vaughn in Hi-FiColumbia
========================== Airbreak ==========================

Ray CharlesCome Rain or Come ShineThe Genius of Ray CharlesAtlantic

Sonny ClarkCome Rain of Come ShineSonny's CribBlue Note
========================== Airbreak ==========================

Bud PowellCollard Greens & Black Eyed PeasThe Amazing Bud Powell Volume 1Blue Note

Lou DonaldsonAfter You're Gone (excerpt)The Other Side of Blue Note 1500 SeriesBlue Note - Japan

Interview with Ishmael Reed By Justin Desmangles