Poet Steve Dalachinsky occupies a unique place in the jazz firmament. Actually, he occupies several places: he writes poetry inspired by jazz, he performs and records with jazz musicians and he has supplied liner notes for numerous artists including multi-intrumentalist Anthony Braxton, drummer Rashied Ali and pianist Matthew Shipp. Dalachinsky is an avid supporter of the music, one of those people who needs jazz like they need air. In fact, if you go hear avant-garde music in New York City and see someone writing intently in a corner, it's probably Dalachinsky.
The past decade has been very good to Dalachinsky. He published almost 20 books of poetry and collage, and he won the 2007 PEN Oakland National Book Award for his bookThe Final Nite & Other Poems: Complete Notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook 1987-2006 (Ugly Duckling Press, 2006).
A prolific artist whose work has only strengthened over the decades, Dalachinsky's newest offerings—two excellent books of poetry and an innovative music/poetry CD— are reviewed here.
Steve DalachinskyThe Mantis
Softcover; 55 pages
ISBN: 1-877968-46-3
Iniquity Press & Vendetta Books
2011
The poems in The Mantis—subtitled For Cecil Taylor: The Collected Poems 1966-2009—were inspired by pianistCecil Taylor, both the man and the music. Most were written while Dalachinsky was listening to Taylor in different New York City venues between 1966 and 2009. He adds the disclaimer that the poems "do not necessarily reflect the music." Which is what makes this collection so interesting: the poems are a gorgeous blending of literal descriptions and flights of language, offering a true depiction of the listener's internal dialogue. In short, this is what listening sounds like.
The poems contain vivid descriptions of Taylor in action—"i stretch limbs / to watch those wild hands, / fingers, elbows, fists / whisper, punch & push the keys"—as well as insights about Taylor's music: "there are a lot of guys / who play the piano great / but there are very few great piano players / mt. climbers white water rafters." Sometimes Dalachinsky comments on the jazz venues themselves, often displaying his trademark humor: "boy / this place has everything / music dancing breath mints." He's also honest about the fact that although club patrons may seem to be following the music, quite possibly their thoughts are elsewhere: "interesting / to catch myself looking down her blouse / seeking out a little patch in the hot crowded room / the space between her buttons."
Dalachinsky also offers clues on the art of listening: "though listening is good, listening too good is not so good." He even shares his experience of writing to music: "it's crazy to write to this music it thunders the brain a bomblike strapped to my I-lids romancing the ending so sudden not abruptly." Yet writing to this music is exactly what Dalachinsky loves to do; he is entranced by the mixing and mingling of language and sound: "if i were a writer & you were a bird / i'd write what you spoke."
The book ends with a prose piece that describes an encounter Dalachinsky had with the man himself at the Blue Note in November 2001, after one of Taylor's legendary duets with drummer Elvin Jones: "Later in the smoke filled dressing room I ask Cecil how he's feeling. He answers with the simple but perplexing sentence, 'Too soon to tell.'"
Most of the poems in Long Play E.P.—subtitled The Complete Evan Parker Poems—were written in October 2009 during saxophonist Evan Parker's residency at The Stone, a New York City performance space with the distinction of having saxophonist John Zorn as artistic director. The title refers to Parker's renowned circular-breathing techniques, a skill Dalachinsky captures in the lines: "the breath / again the breath / then somewhere inside / the skillside of the skull." - http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40644
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