Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. What happens when the music is spoken? When a person speaking inspires music around him? Connects
someone’s musicianship with a picture? He creates a type of synaesthesia where
instead of translating tones into colors the listener is seeing whole situations
followed by the emotions and the atmosphere they bring through music.
Jack Kerouac w/ Al Cohn&Zoot Sims- American Haikus
After each verse that Jack Kerouac reads from his poetry,
either Al Cohn or Zoot Sims are playing an improvised phrase. Their phrases
tend to give Kerouac’s verses the right picture, tempo and emotion of the
moment he is describing. That gives this piece of spoken music an ability to offer a synaesthetic experience for the
listener. At first you hear a verse but the moment you hear the musical phrase
you picture it. True masterpiece!
Ken Nordine – Reaching Into In
Ken Nordine describes a dreamy atmosphere that resembles
everyday life and those moments when all
of sudden everything around you becomes mysterious. The music has the right
intensity. It has lounge sound that reminds us of comfort, but also has a dark
mystery moment that loops in a way which makes you feel like you’re stuck in a
very strange place. Everything seems normal but your thoughts don’t allow you
to think that way. Listen…listen….
Peggy Lee-Chinese Love Poems
This just sounds beautiful! Peggy Lee’s voice reading and
harpist Stella Castelluci playing impressionistic arpeggios that sound equally
pleasant as the atmosphere of these Chinese love poems. Blossoms, lake,
butterflies…
Charlie Mingus- Scenes In The City
True masterpiece from “A Modern Jazz Symposium of music and
poetry with Charlie Mingus”. The spoken part is written by Mingus but it is
Langston Hughes who adapted the piece to sound like a short theatre play. It is
about a young guy’s dreams and how the reality is crushing them. Mingus uses
different tempos to make contrast between the main character’s mood swings. His
nostalgic daydreamings expressed with ballad feel and his problems that destroy
his dreams in the big city expressed with fierce tempos and wailing saxophones.
Best example of a telepathic interaction between spoken word and improvised
music.
Nat King Cole-The Three Trees
Unlike the previous pieces of music that present spoken word
with improvised phrases that draw the meaning, this piece has few important
parts from the story and they have a certain melodic phrase. Beautiful bubbling
spring, three trees, there, there and there, pretty little rabbit, run through
the woodland forest, beautiful bubbling spring, three trees, there, there and
there, pretty little rabbit, drinking, beautiful bubbling spring, three trees,
there, there and there, a hunter, forest, pretty little rabbit, drinking, the
hunter, beautiful bubbling spring, three trees, there, there and there, the
hunter, shot, rabbit, beautiful bubbling spring, three trees, there, there and there.
Raymond Scott- Limbo: The Organized Mind
Jim Henson and Raymond Scott are taking us to a journey
inside a human brain. The music is so dark and creepy at moments, you will start to feel like Jim Henson is hypnotizing you to go to the same places in your brain. I
am glad they are just joking, because if they didn’t they would have brain damaged
a lot of people by now. Maybe they did? Who knows?
Babs Gonzales-The Be-Bop Santa Claus
His opening statement about jazz and poetry is explaining a
stupid problem that repeatedly harms art. A thing is big at the moment when everybody
starts to copy it, but at the same time that distances the artist from his
instinct which is the most honest part of his character. He says “Everybody is
talking about jazz and poetry that happens to be the big thing right now, but about
1955 I did one that was the biggest to me and I know nothing about jazz and
poetry, all I know was called entertainment”.
Henry Rollins-Cold Heart
A piece from Hall Willner’s tribute album “Weird Nightmare –
Meditations on Mingus”. The band is swinging and Henry Rollins reads a excpert
from Charles Mingus’s autobiography “Beneath the Underdog” about the word-
groovy.
Louis Armstrong-Lonesome
The music master recites in rubato tempo. This track sounds
exactly as I imagine ancient master poets would have recited accompanied by
music. The words fall on time as the melody but they stay that way. They are
words. Whenever I hear Satchmo I feel his desire to sing those words, but no!
Singing is beautiful! This is something else! He is stuck in a moment from his
past! The song is here, he hears it but he’s not able to sing it. Sweet and
painfull!
Slim Gailard-Avocado Seed Simphony Soup
Slim Gailard’s charisma allows him to do whatever he likes
and people will be amazed. A real example of a true artist whose loyalty to his
instinct distinguishes him from the others. I love this piece because it’s
recorded live and you can hear the crowd and their excitement. The atmosphere
is surreal. The music sounds like mixing
stand-up comedy and a band rehearsal. I’m pretty sure that you won’t find
anything similar to this.
Les Paul& Mary Ford-The Case of The Missing Lespaulverizer
It’s “The Les Paul Show” that was broadcasted by NBC (The
National Broadcasting Company ). Radio shows often pass into the territory of
spoken music genre. Whenever a voice presents something you hear it and it
catches your attention the same way music does. Radio shows are the most
practical pieces of spoken music. There the music and the spoken word are
equal.
