Manifest Musicality and Much, Much More

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Manifest Musicality and Much, Much More
“Killer Joe”-- by Benny Golson

http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/193.html


Somehow we’ve come to
This sublime moment.
“We” being denizens of this
Earthen Globe.

“We” being those with
Ears to hear, if not eyes to
See. To hear, to hear, to hear, to hear:
“Killer Joe,” “Killer Joe,” Killer Joe.”

Langston Hughes once painted a
“Montage of a Dream Deferred,”
A love-song to our legacy of life, love
And laughter, in iconic “Harlem,” via the
Myriad ancient, dusky rivers we’ve known;
A testament to our spiritual transfiguration
And cultural transformation
Transmuted, now into universal motifs
With which the whole world rocks and riffs.

From deference to deliverance in:
the musicality of Benny Golson’s saxophone; or of
Errol Garner‘s piano. http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/160.html
Or Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington’s
Transportation “uptown” on the “A Train”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhK-zYfFsIY&NR=1

From deference to deliverance:
In the politics of Barack Obama.
In the virtuosity of Michael Jackson.
In the social gospel/prophesy of
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Montage,” being muted, yet manifest melodies and
Rooted, yet reified, rhythms marking time and inspiring
Subliminally. Beckoning and becoming
In accordance with allegorical algorithms,
Amid dimensions both cosmic and cosmological.

“For where two or three are gathered together
In my name, I am there in the
Midst of them.” (Matt.18:20)
Black, white, mulatto: two or three.
Jesus in the midst who also had a
Flock, “which are not of this fold; them
Also I must bring, and they will
Hear my voice; and there will be
One flock and one shepherd.” John 10:16.

But, why the United States of America?
Why here? How here? How jazz?
How blues? How Gospel?
How Spirituals? Why here?
Boogie-Woogie? Rhythm and Blues?
Ragtime? How here? Why here?

Africa met Europe also in Brazil.
In Cuba. In Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and
Curacao; Europe met Africa in Venezuela,
In Panama, in Colombia, in Costa Rica,
In Haiti, in the Dominican Republic.
How here? Why here?

Symbolized by Missouri’s Compromise. 36’30.”
Slave yet “free.” on the Kansas cusp.
DuSable, York. Early explorers.
Seeking sanctuary. Outrunning out-liers.
And outright liars.

How hear? Langston of Joplin, Missouri?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqwvC5s4n8
Or Scott Joplin of Sedalia, Missouri?
Or Coleman Hawkins of St, Joseph, Missouri?
Or Charlie Parker of Kansas City, Mo/Kan?
Or Miles Davis of East St. Louis, Ill/Mo?
Or Blind Lemon Jefferson of Warrensburg, Mo?

Reconciliation. Me, We, and Thee.
Our music leads, but our theology lags.
Truth held hostage, in catholic rags.
Here and there the light breaks through
Overwhelming oppression’s residue.

Slowly awakening we see: (Zech 4:1-14)
a candlestick of gold
With a bowl-- upon the top;
seven lamps with seven pipes,
And two olive trees full and ripe.
It’s no game of “Show and Tell.”
This word of the Lord to Zerubbabel.

“Not by might, nor by power,
But by my spirit,” said the lord of hosts.
Manifest Musicality to the Uttermost:

Killer Joe.