To Undertake My Corners Open

Show description for Sunday 8/7/2011 @ 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Now to talk to me about black studies as if it's something that concerned [only] black people is an utter denial. This is the history of Western Civilization. I can't see it otherwise. This is the history that black people and white people and all serious students of modern history of the world have to know. To say it's some kind of ethnic problem is a lot of nonsense. - C.L.R. James, (1969)

O-Jazz-O

by Bob Kaufman

Where the string
At
some point,
Was umbilical jazz,
Or perhaps,
In memory,
A long lost bloody cross,
Buried in some steel cavalry.
In what time
For whom do we bleed,
Lost notes, from some jazzman's
Broken needle.
Musical tears from lost
Eyes.
Broken drumsticks, why?
Pitter patter, boom dropping
Bombs in the middle
Of my emotions
My father's sound
My mother's sound,
Is love,
Is life

pictured at right, Yves Tanguy, Dame a l'Absence, 1942

pictured above, Henry Treadgill, photo by Claudio Casanova

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	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Henry Grimes & Rashied Ali	This Must Have Always Happened	Going to the Ritual	Porter
	Odean Pope	Scorpio Twins	Plant Life	Porter
	Wordwind Chorus (Q.R.Hand)	The Rap From Living On Dreams	We Are of the Saying	Wordwind Chorus
	Michael Bisio	Zephyr Revisited	Travel Music	michaelbisio.com
	Henry Threadgill Zooid	After Some Time	This Brings Us To (Volume 1)	Pi
	Al Young	Sundays In Democracies	Something About the Blues	Sourcebooks
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Henry Threadgill Zooid	Lying Eyes	This Brings Us To (Volume 2)	Pi
	Farmers By Nature	Sir Snacktray Speaks	Out of This Worlds Distortions	AUM-Fidelity
	Wordwind Chorus (Reginald Lockett)	A Veteran Contemplates the Fate of His Immigrant Students	We Are of the Saying	Wordwind Chorus
	Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp	Bleed	Cosmic Lieder	AUM-Fidelity
	Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp	Ultima Thule	Cosmic Lieder	AUM-Fidelity
	Al Young	Conjugal Visits	Something About the Blues	Sourcebooks
========================== Airbreak ==========================
	Michael Bisio	Livin' Large	Travel Music	michaelbisio.com
	Henry Threadgill Zooid	To Undertake My Corners Open	This Brings Us To (Volume 1)	Pi
	David S. Ware	Duality Is One	Planetary Unknown	AUM-Fidelity
	Farmers By Nature	Out Of This World's Distortions Grow Aspens and Other Beautiful Things	Out of This World's Distortions	AUM-Fidelity
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	Henry Threadgill Zooid	It Never Moved	This Brings Us To (Volume 2)	Pi
	Wordwind Chorus (Reginald Lockett)	The Movement	We Are of the Saying	Wordwind Chorus
	Odean Pope featuring Marshall Allen	Custody of the American Spirit	Universal Sounds	Porter
	Henry Threadgill Zooid	Extremely Sweet William	This Brings Us To (Volume 2)	Pi
========================== Airbreak ==========================
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Do-Wop Dreams By Reginald Lockett

Do-Wop Dreams

Wesley and the Smith brothers

straightened and processed their hair

into waves and huge pompadours,

styled in the latest shark skin suits

and Stacey Adams or Florsheims

to get that Jackie Wilson,

or hip Temptations look they swore

would drive the ladies wild.

They skated sideways,

like James Brown across stage,

outside on the schoolyard

or in the hall between classes,

winking at high school beauties

who smiled in admiration,

or stuck their noses in the air

in disgust of this ghetto flare.

They sang down on bended knees

near the basketball courts,

too clean to suit up for gym.

Didn’t want one hair out of place

on them processes and marcels

to cramp their styles and ruin

their reps when they stepped

to the neighborhood cuties.

Wesley and the Smith brothers

never saw their names in neon lights.

Their doo-wop dreams faded

into the real world of work clothes,

lunch pails, and time clocks.