Canterbury beckoned again, after eighteen months, with a trombone poetry recital for the Sounds New Contemporary  Music Festival, in the splendid Orange Street Music Club. The numerological festival theme of seven was variously hinted at, without for a moment playing in 7:4. Due to an administrative oversight, the appropriate number of drinks had not been stipulated.

In a mixed bag of Dave Silk’s house-band jazz standards with special guests such as Dave Moses, whose double bass seemed to have contracted to the size of a ukulele, trombone poetry bounced the odd poem off the Monday regulars in Mycenae House, somewhere in Blackheath.

Trombone poetry then went way out west to The Ram Jam Club in Kingston upon Thames for a joint gig with 1224 Project: Dylan Kay on guitar, long-lost sparring partner Leslee Booth on bass, and David Bouet on drums. This was a first: trombone poetry followed 1224’s first set, and the trombone pitched in with the trio during their second set.

We tried writing poems to order, the ballpoints poking through soggy paper in Telegraph Hill Park, but were soon forced to shelter in a church for the Telegraph Hill Festival’s Poet Relay. Dan Maitland and, of course, the unstoppable “Jazzman” John Clarke were among the damp but productive team of poets who later read out their spontaneous verse upstairs at The Telegraph pub, another handy venue for south London readings and whatnot.

The Blowpipes went Out East to serve up haiku, Kojo No Tsuki and Leader of the Pack at Matsu Restaurant & Bar for Dave Garside’s Stripped Back Sunday. Live music seems to be thriving, and well-fed, in Mile End. Mata ne!

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Wednesday 7 April 20:00

The Blowpipes + Stefano Kalonaris & Andy Woolf + Dog Eat Dog Biscuit

aLIVISM

The Others
6-8 Manor Road
Stoke Newington
London
N16 5SA

admission: £5/£4

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Monday 12 April 20:00

trombone poetry + standards/originals with jazz rhythm section

MYCENAE HOUSE

90 Mycenae Road
Blackheath
London
SE3 7SE

admission: £5/£3

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Sunday 18 April 20:00

trombone poetry + 1224 Project: Dylan Kay, guitar / Leslee Booth , bass / David Bouet, drums

THE RAM JAM CLUB

The Grey Horse
46 Richmond Road
Kingston upon Thames
KT2 5EE

admission: £5/£3

At Freedom Of Expression in Croydon, trombone poetry rummaged through the archives for 100 Lines For The Centurion, Quality Street, and other poems, and offered variations on Tochter Zion in tribute to Handel on his birthday. Will Stevens, Cellar Door, and The Sound of The Ladies provided the sing song.

The Blowpipes were chuffed to return to Scaledown and perform Sarah Collins’ much-appreciated composition The Meeting, written for the trio many years ago. No reports can be made about Original Beekeepers, The Fujii, or Riotlounge, due to the need to scarper to St Albans for a rare salsa gig.

This turns out to be Chronicle No.70, the first one being written after a bizarre gig in February 2004 at The Bird’s Nest in Deptford, to which we return at very short notice for only the second time tonight.

Not one student breezed in for the IMT Hurricane Showcase, at The Railway Kitchen & Bar in Tulse Hill, but we were blessed by the songs of Dan Maitland and the wayoutwest verse of John Clarke. A gale of original tunes was blown by trombone poetry.

There were stellar turns at Variety Box in Hackney’s Marie Lloyd Bar, including a fine Portuguese clown, Daniel Gonçalves, and impressive words and music from Jennifer E. Jordan, The Segue Sisters, Blanche Visarro and The Poeticat, while trombone poetry offered jazz and perverbs.

Vis the Spoon presided at a bonanza of festive music and nonsense at The Cross Kings: The Spoonful Christmas Mash-Up. Trombone poetry set sail in a torrent of turns, including Rock & Roll Steve, the enigmatic Jude Cowan, the adventurous Maria Slovakova, thewhatthe Dangerous T, and the unstoppable Spinmaster Plantpot.

Over and outwards.

The glorious Klinker presented free-improvising trombone poetry after a set of accordion ruminations from Matt Scott’s Squeezebox Jukebox. Winding up the evening, all the way from Frankfurt, Skizzenzwang brought a rare assemblage of guitar, electronica and sitar.

In the Hoxton boozer, Howl at the Moon, trombone poetry joined the perpetrators of Artrocities, a night of musical cabaret hosted by The Readers with their nautical cornettist and Dadaist doings.

A distinct change of scene for Freedom of Expression II in Gipsy Hill: a church, whose acoustics favoured the songs of Ben Sommers, Miriam Jones and Tim Eveleigh. A fresh batch of foundlings and Metro poems were recited in a cough-plagued trombone poetry set. Tom Nicholls’ superb photographs of the event can be found here.

Freedom of Expression now also has an internet radio station, where trombone poetry is somewhere in the schedule.

Other recent broadcasts were on Cork Campus Radio and L’étranger on Radio Panik from  Brussels, wherein trombone poetry is mysteriously backed by Ben Watson struggling to explain Marshall McLuhan. Download the podcast.

A poem about trombone poetry has been included in a new anthology from Salt Publishing: Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh, Manifestos and Unmanifestos, edited by Rupert Loydell.

This unlikely claim was topped by I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Resonance FM’s horticultural special, wherein trombone poetry offered a vaguely seasonal bouquet of verbiage at very short notice, together with another absolute world premiere, Aitken’s Acres, for the green-fingered florist himself.

There followed a short trombone poetry tour of Bethnal Green, beginning at The Gallery Café in Old Ford Road, whose fine wine and penne arrabiata eased our way through nervy folk songs and emoting a capella soul. The day after, trombone poetry nipped round the bend to kick off Freak Show, at The Star of Bethnal Green. This was suitably mad, rude and baffling, with stand-up poetry from Sophie Cameron and nautical performance art from The Readers, plus Sarah Ruff as chief barker.

Safely back south of the river, trombone poetry supported Buster Keaton. Elefest provided a tent, The Groovy Movie Picture House, and a film, Keaton’s masterpiece, The General. Sebastiano Genovese provided unfrenetic guitar accompaniment. Long live Elefest!

There’s now a Facebook Page, as well as the Facebook Group.

Let there be dancing.

The Blowpipes mixed medieval music with Edith Piaf, free improvisation and Star Trek at Islington’s Union Chapel, at a very well-managed stained-glass special run by Daylight Music. Earlier, a man with a laptop was suspected of only miming the key-prodding, though he did seem to be singing something.

At Freedom Of Expression, Alice Doyne sparkled in song, despite being poorly, Tom Janssen tantalized with tunes from his forthcoming guitar album, trombone poetry played tunes from Speech, and Sue Verran shone to the finish.

In a new venture at the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton, trombone poetry joined forces with top-notch songster Daniel Maitland for Upstairs At The Ritzy. A stage, a bar, a balcony, a few sirens: we hope to be back for a winter re-run.

The visit culminated in a lunchtime hour at The Jazz Bar, a gem of a cellar in Chambers Street. The set spiralled out from New Orleans ruminations to poems on time, sex and corner shops. The new pork-pie hat seemed to strike exactly the right note, which, if so, means the trombone was, for once, not unaccompanied.

A copy of Speech is now in the possession of The Scottish Poetry Library, another jewel of the city.