RICHMOND, Calif., Dec. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/
-- Saxophonist/composer Benjamin
Boone's "The Poetry of Jazz," a collaboration with the late
U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine, was recognized as a milestone
spoken word/jazz project immediately upon its release last March.
Praised in leading musical and literary publications, featured on
NPR's All Things Considered, and voted the #3 Jazz Album of 2018 in
DownBeat's annual Readers Poll, "The Poetry of Jazz" established
Boone as one of the most captivating and compelling voices among
contemporary artists exploring the intersections between poetry and
jazz.
"The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two," recorded during the same
sessions that produced the first album, will be released by Origin
Records on January 18. A nonpareil
artistic achievement on both musical and literary fronts, "Volume
Two" features an impressive cast of California players, relying particularly on
bassist Spee Kosloff, pianist Craig von
Berg, pianist/arranger David
Aus, and drummer Brian
Hamada, who died in 2018 (the album is dedicated to both
Levine and Hamada). Karen Marguth
contributes wordless vocals on two of the four instrumental tracks.
Boone and pianist Donald Brown
produced.
Levine, who died in 2015 at 87, was one of America's most
celebrated poets: he won the National Book Award for Poetry twice,
and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1994 volume "The Simple
Truth." Appointed U.S. Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress in
2011, he was an avid jazz fan and found an ideal collaborator in
Boone, a fellow professor at
California State University,
Fresno.
Working closely together in the three years before Levine's
death, the two men forged a connection in which the rhythm and
cadence of Levine's recitations inspired and informed Boone's
music. The poet essentially became part of Boone's band, with an
unerring sense of where to pause and let the music come
through.
"The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two" focuses on Levine's poems with
timeless and topical humanist themes such as the immigrant
experience, the aftermath of war and conflict, and the downtrodden
working class (Levine's works inspired by and dedicated to jazz
artists were a focal point of the first album). Interspersed among
these are atmospheric vignettes like "Belle
Isle" and "An Ordinary Morning."
Boone also includes instrumental versions of "Yakov" and "They
Feed They Lion," poems recited by Levine on the previous album, as
well as "Godspell" and "The Simple Truth," recited on "Volume
Two."
A lifelong jazz fan born in Detroit in 1928 and raised there when the city
was an incubator for a brilliant generation of bebop-inspired
improvisers, Philip Levine often
wrote verse about jazz and the musicians he loved. Boone, an
award-winning composer, instrumentalist, and educator, took things
further, drawing inspiration not only from the subjects of Levine's
poems but also from the musicality of his language and his wry,
emotionally restrained recitations.
Over the course of his career Levine collaborated with musicians
in a variety of settings, but felt the results weren't always
salutary, making the connection with Boone all the more satisfying:
"He can tell just where the music needs to carry the moment, or the
language has to climb over the instruments. His compositions seem
to grow directly out of the thrust of the language."
Born in 1963 in Statesville,
NC, Benjamin Boone grew up in
an intellectually stimulating family. "I learned a great deal about
science, literature, visual art, and music from my four older
brothers," he says. While he could have devoted himself to any
number of pursuits, he concentrated on the saxophone and started
improvising at an early age. "I've always gravitated towards
interdisciplinary projects like this, where I can create an
artistic statement that addresses history and topics relevant
today."
A respected performer and composer in jazz and new music
circles, Boone often sets texts to music. His compositions have
been performed in 29 countries, heard on more than 25 recordings,
and have been the subject of several NPR stories. He has conducted
musical research in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova as a
Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow, and just finished a year living
in Ghana, performing and composing
with African musicians as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. "Ghana's music and culture transformed me
musically and personally," says Boone. "Music is part of the fabric
of life and everyone participates and has a role. It's a
beautifully communal way of thinking and being. Accra has an amazing music scene." While
there, Boone also co-founded The New Global Ensemble and recorded
an album with the Ghana Jazz Collective.
Boone traces his fascination with the music of spoken language
to a hearing condition "that makes it hard for me to understand
words," he says. "When I hear people speak, I hear it as music, a
melodic line. This certainly informed how I conceived of Phil's
narration and how it related to the band. I think that is partially
responsible for why people hear such synergy between the music and
the poetry."
SOURCE Benjamin Boone