speech: tracks

1. at first 0:42

an improvised overture

2. this trombone 1:31

an introductory poem

3. louis 2:04

a musical tribute to the greatest New Orleans musician

4. for the record 0:49

a poem about the inspirations of old recordings

5. movin’ on 1:26

an upbeat tune in traditional jazz style

6. about bert 1:07

a trombonist remembered: Bert Murray held court in a scruffy pub in the City

7. new orleans nocturne 1:40

a glimpse of Jelly Roll Morton, sparked by Lomax’s biography, Mister Jelly Roll

8. south of the river 2:02

an old-style stomp from the badlands of South London

9. showtime 1:09

a trad jazz anecdote

10. jot 4:13

a plunger-mute ballad

11. you hum it 0:56

life in the pizzeria

12. one for bukowski 1:06

a tribute to a prolific proletarian poet

13. and another thing 1:57

second thoughts on the overture

14. farewell concert 0:38

a nature study

15. owns a sax 0:39

the lurking danger of saxophonitis

16. this morning 2:19

a poet gets the blues

17. weather bird 1:48

a poem in response to the classic recording by Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines

18. the stopper 0:45

thoughts from the cellar

19. tango tarita 2:29

for a dancer, with love

20. devotion 0:55

in praise of swing, dedicated to bandleader Mick Collins

21. redriff 1:06

a tune from/for Rotherhithe

22. noises off 1:14

a festival earful

23. blues for lacy 0:35

a tribute to inspirational saxophonist Steve Lacy, heard and met at a landmark conference on Buckminster Fuller at RIBA in 1999

24. vive steve 1:10

more notes for Lacy

25. rooftop rendezvous 2:48

inspired by Raymond Queneau’s poetic form, morale elementaire, and taking its spiralling form from a residential building, Mariner House

26. uptalk turnoff 1:08

crusading against a linguistic virus

27. movin’ on (again) 2:27

ending up with Latin music, recycling into the distance

 


Some of these poems have now been published in Better Late Than Sorry.

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