Gordon Lightfoot: Bon Voyage
Sean MurphyPerfection is impossible (if fun) to try defining; you know it when you see it or hear it. "Sundown" requires little analysis: it's perfect. Every word, every sound, every second:…
National Poetry Month Meets American Culture
Huge love & thanks to the awesome team at Washington Writers' Publishing House for featuring my poem "DuBose Heyward's Blues," which was drafted with the working title "Rhapsodies in Blue"…
National Poetry Month Meets Bud Powell (and more metaphor)
Another wonderful Facebook memory prompts me to recall how incredibly productive things were, this time seven years ago, albeit not in the ways I'd intended. To recap, I headed up…
100 + 1: National Poetry Month Meets Mingus
Charles Mingus had many things to say, and he used his mouth, his pen, his fists, and mostly his music to say them. Of the myriad words that describe Mingus, passionate would…
National Poetry Month & Ron Carter
Another one from my new collection, "Ron Carter's Fingers" is also featured in the latest collection of poetry available at Jerry Jazz Musician, a wonderful site that celebrates jazz 24/7.…
Easter Sunday and Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy’s Avowal* Eric Dolphy’s alto is less a solo than an announcement: not unlike a boisterous child acting out in the rear pew, where everyone gradually comprehends, he is…
National Poetry Month Meets Marvin Gaye
I was aware (and in awe) of John Goodman before I reviewed his book (10 years ago!) Mingus Speaks -- an indispensable document of the great Charles Mingus (a lot…
Introducing “Rhapsodies in Blue”
Just in time to properly celebrate National Poetry Month, my second collection, Rhapsodies in Blue, is now available! You can pick up a paperback or Kindle version here. I'd love you to…
Original Poem: Charles Mingus’s Memento
It remains a blessing for this writer to find publications that “get” him –and what I’m attempting with my ongoing project (the first installment, of course, being The Blackened Blues, released…
Gary Rossington: The Man in The Band
And another guitarist who left us with indelible solos from the '70s gone. Gary Rossington cheated death for decades, so we are fortunate he rocked this world as long as…