To The Soul Not Yet Whole 1962

11 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1962, lessons to be learned, nature of & in reality, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

       To The Soul Not Yet Whole

If swingin’s

All you’re bringin’

To music,

That’s not art,

But only part.

Or change your bit:

That isn’t it,

That’s only sham.

That is, if swingin’s

All you bring

To music.

Refrain:

Soul music may have heart,

Soul music may be smart;

Soul music may be art –

But not necessarily so.

Disdain:

Swing, man, hard and loud,

But man, you’re clinging to a cloud.

Call horn x,

Call music y,

Call yourself small letter i.

Remember son,

You modern soul,

The abstraction,

Means, the goal –

The three in one

Is solely you.

Practice one or all of these,

For art is born of one-in-threes.

Love will do,

And horn will do,

And absoluting you will do

Too.

©To The Soul Not Yet Whole (on hearing a record by Charlie Mingus) 1962

Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

 

The Trick Is To Stay Fresh 1994

11 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1994, definitely didactic, lessons to be learned, life, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

           The Trick Is To Stay Fresh

I heard a band four decades old.

“Good God, I thought, what a good band!”

How do they do it? Forty years?

What do they think night after night

When each man steps up to the stand –

Night after night his horn in hand,

Old licks, clichés

Takes his solos even on the days

His wife is sick?

And still they’re slick and stick it out

Night after night, year after year,

Internal tensions always there.

It must be like a factory job,

To entertain the drinking mob.

Or maybe not.

Maybe jobs have been a ball,

A chance to leave four walls,

Create, maintain a freshness,

Make some music on the spot,

Feelings tapped, without pretence;

Spontaneous, and proud of what

The dents he’s chalked up on his horn

All signify.

Perhaps, instead of blasé scorn

He manages to like the crowd –

The drunks, the dancers raw and loud.

Maybe the leader has charisma –

Makes each guy feel that he’s good;

Shows respect for solos

Drummer, sax or trumpet blows;

Drumming, blasting, bellowing.

By hook or crook, the trick’s eternal:

Keep the kernel of renewal growing,

Tapped and showing;

Ever crowing.

The trick is to stay fresh.

©The Trick Is To Stay Fresh 94.11.30

Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

The Performer 1992

11 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1992, pure nakedness, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

                   The PerformerShe makes her face up, picks her frock,

Goes to the club and hopes she doesn’t play a crock

Of shitty, shoddy work that night.

Gets there on time; the sound is set.

She starts to play; she’s planned her set.

The baby pink is not quite right –

You know, the baby pink spotlight.

Her phrasing’s delicate but bright.

Though she’s a pro, raring to go

There’s always just a bit of nerves:

The need to please. She feels she serves.

That’s good. The voice is good, quite good.

That song came out as best it could.

The people clap. Some even shout

And whistle. “How about

Another tune?’ She sings another.

Finally the evening’s over.

Just like that: a moment’s bubble.

Was it really worth the trouble?

People who’ve just seen the act,

The ones who sat, admired, practically

Dying for a skill they lack,

Who long for what seem so attractive,

Think that after she’s performed

She goes to any place but home,

But that’s exactly where she’s headed:

Home, a bite to eat and bed.

No frilly glamour in this art,

Just daily practicing and heart,

Mind, soul, evolving luck;

A mucking in, not mucking up.

The underlying need to grow

Sleeps underneath the this-night’s show.

A groping upward, outward and

A digging inward guides her hands

And every member of the band’s.

©The Performer 92.12.6

Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

The Courage To Say This Is The Way My Soul Sounds 2006

11 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2006, lessons to be learned, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Courage To Say This Is The Way My Soul Sounds

Now you start,

Discarding all neurosis

Grounded in the fears of failure,

Certain in your heart

“I am creating as I speak”

Avrah kedabra!” – Aramaic.

I will lose the seven deadly sins

Or use the seven deadly sins,

Converting them to sharp discernment,

Wit and wisdom, common sense,

Clear thinking and refinement.

And singing out, and when you pen,

And when the music of your days marooned

Is opened,

These will spring from courage that says

This, my prize, my non-disguise,

My jazz, my phrase – these are the ways

In which my soul sounds

And has sounded in its silence

Since its cause.

©The Courage To Say This Is The Way My Soul Sounds 06.7.28

I Is Always You Is We; Vaguely About Music; Definitely Didactic;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

Starting Out Of Time 1994

10 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 1994, lessons to be learned, the processes creative thinking meditative, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Starting Out Of Time

I must start out of tempo,

Sometimes getting lost.

But after hours and many tries

At thoughts and skills and inner ties,

An inner eye will clarify;

The thing is fostered, building up;

Lost gets tossed, then lost gets lost.

At seemingly no cost. Rubato

Takes up speed,

Which leads to something it itself

Can breed. Ideas appear.

Indeed, ideas cohere

In fullness and in form, informed

By sheer reflection; sheer and clear,

Like glass through which one sees, gets seen.

Jazz musicians have the key –

And those who master Zen.

I must start out of tempo,

Let the hand say when.

When I get lost, it can be years

Before I’m back on track.

But after years of lies and tries

The tempo builds up speed

As if and of itself, the seed

Of spontaneity has cracked,

Sprouting, spurting, spuming out

A finished, polished thing with clout.

©Starting Out Of Time 94.9.9

The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative; Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

 

Skeleton Of Change 2006

10 Nov 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in 2006, nature of & in reality, vaguely about music Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

       Skeleton Of Change

I heard an old friend sing her style.

She’s sung her style since ‘fifty-three.

I smile.

Identifiable,

She sounds as good as ever –

Red line running through,

The red line true,

Nuances never better,

Fresh, refined down to the letter.

Style pale yet never stale.

People queue.

Songs are new –

Different but the same.

There was a guy I used to see.

A heartthrob, prancing up and down

The stage and singing, dancing;

All the rage when he was thirty.

Thirty later TV years

He’s there – the same arrangements –

Stepping, pepping up the footlights.

Sixty-year-old fans adore him.

Me, I was so sad and bored for him,

But who am I to say?

The only constant – so they say – is change.

The mystery is what is behind its

Skeleton, that doesn’t change

But seems to change in aspects.

©Skeleton Of Change 06.8.30

Vaguely About Music; Nature Of & In Reality;

Arlene Corwin

 

 

I Do What I Do 2002

28 Oct 2008 Leave a comment

by arlenecorwin in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

  I Do What I Do

Intending to do

What I did from the womb,

I get on a stage

Or play in a room –

Without compromise:

Extra size boobies,

Up-tempo salads

When I prefer ballads,

Gimmicky codas,

Playing for tips,

Elvis or Beatles, and rocking of hips;

Chowders

Of songs I abhor.

To follow the ear

And capacity’s frame,

Expecting my will

To take part in the game,

Accepting a will

Come from God, karma, star

Without losing sight

Of the mind’s reservoir,

Taking time, sitting tall,

I do what I do

De-controlling

Restriction

That holds back the soul,

In hope that you’ll

Listen because, after all,

I can only do what

I can do.

©I Do What I Do 02.4.4

The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative; Vaguely About Music;

Arlene Corwin

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