Moanin'...

On Monday night I shared my paper, "Jazz for the Journey: Three Essentials," with the Monday Night Club. At the heart was my groovin' to a song Carlton turned me on to - Bobby Timmon's "Moanin'" - as interpreted by the incomparable Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Damn, but doesn't this song have just about everything you could want? It pulses and seethes, it swings at the right time and resonates with heart and soul throughout. There is incredible call and response along with a smokin' solo by trumpeter Lee Morgan and an out of this world improv by both composer Bobby Timmons on piano and Benny Golson on sax. And don't talk when bass player, Jymmy Merrit,  does his thing! 
Today it is FINALLY spring in the Berkshires and the freakin' snow is FINALLY melting! So before I sit down to pull together my Good Friday meditation, let me share Barry Wallenstein's poem, Blues 1 and 2, with you.

Blues 1
You
catch my breath with your walking

a calf moves closer to its mother
(slumbering)

some brother leaves his home
to bring me what I need.
It doesn't work & I call you back -

Sugar - I call you Sugar

no rest in my slumber
no sugar in my bowl.

Blues 2

Such accidents do happen
dancing: she says
I'm dancing beneath your loving blow
so I stagger

staggered, he says no:
it wasn't a blow
it was a brush - feather light;
I fly round the world for your gold

another time
she tries so hard
to make him well,
it makes her sleepy

more lately
they share their tricks
but never their secrets
set in codes, dark and changing.
They can barely read what they say, 
and when they do, they forget.