Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa is well known for his jazz poetry, and this book is the first to bring together the verve and vitality of his oeuvre. The centerpiece of this volume is the libretto ‘Testimony.’ Paying homage to Charlie Parker, ‘Testimony’ was commissioned for a radio drama with original music by eminent Australian composer and saxophonist Sandy Evans. Remarkably rich and evocative, encompassing a wide range of musical energy and performers, this moving affirmation of Parker’s genius became a milestone in contemporary radio theater. Twenty-eight additional poems spanning the breadth of Komunyakaa’s career are included, including two never previously published. Accompanying the poems are interviews and essays featuring Komunyakaa, Evans, radio producer Christopher Williams, jazz critic Miriam Zolin, jazz writer and editor Sascha Feinstein, and musical director, Paul Grabowsky. Sascha Feinstein writes the foreword. The print edition includes two CDs with the entire Australian Broadcast Company recording of Testimony, ebook contains imbedded audio. Check for the online reader’s companion at testimony.site.wesleyan.edu.
Inhoudsopgave
Foreword – Sascha Feinstein
PART ONE: JAZZ POEMS – Yusef Komunyakaa
Rhythm Method
Togetherness
Twilight Seduction
Woman, I Got the Blues
Jasmine
Gingkoes
Tenebrae
Canto Jondo
Changes; or, Reveries at a Window Overlooking a Country Road, with Two Women Talking Blues in the Kitchen
The Same Beat
To Beauty
Ignis Fatuus
Pepper
Satchmo, USA
Nightbird
Copacetic Mingus
Gerry’s Jazz
Speed Ball
February in Sydney
The Plea
Elegy for Thelonious
Dolphy’s Aviary
Gutbucket
Blue Light Lounge Sutra for the Performance Poets at Harold Park Hotel
The Story of a Coat
No-Good Blues
Ode to the Saxophone
Coda
PART TWO: TESTIMONY – Yusef Komunyakaa and Sandy Evans
THE LIBRETTO
Yusef Komunyakaa’s ‘Testimony’ and the Humanity of Charlie Parker – Sascha Feinstein
Survival Masks: An Interview with Yusef Komunyakaa – Sascha Feinstein
Testimony – Yusef Komunyakaa
THE MUSIC
Testimony, The Ties that Bind – Miriam Zolin
French Flowers Blooming: The Music for Testimony – Sandy Evans and Christopher Williams
Composer/Musical Director’s Notes – Sandy Evans
Testimony, Songs and Musicians – Sandy Evans
Australian Art Orchestra Performances – Paul Grabowsky
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Selected Bibliography
Selected Discography
Testimony, The Recording
Over de auteur
Yusef Komunyakaa is a professor and senior distinguished poet in the graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. He is the author of twenty collections of poetry, including Dien Cai Dau, Neon Vernacular and Testimony: A Tribute to Charlie Parker, With New and Selected Jazz Poetry. Komunyakaa won the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Prize for Neon Vernacular.
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