JAZZ SYNCHRONY (IN MOTION)
Collaboration Poem with the Georgia Ballet

There’s a mystery within
......the creation of jazz and blues
within the combinations
......of instrumental souls who’ve deeply
inhaled the spirit of culture
......to breathe the enormity of universe infinities
through Earth-grown steel
......and resound echoes that
rise up dormant and passive minds
......In Motion.

As the bands play…

As music paves the way
......for all she touches to
give new life and new reason
......for lives filled with the coldest-Winters
to see the season of Spring
......arrive and churn life back
In Motion…

......VERSE:
…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......Let the blues be that savoring mystery;
To use rhythm to engrave the voyage of
......the great motionless synchrony;

Which convenes us here-

At the footsteps of the bases that
......churned this motion into the formula
mixing the magician’s potion
......with the desires of cultures
to find the medium to strum
......change in the ways we live
the ways we express, the ways
......we poetically discover the mystery
of the creation of jazz and blues;
......through the combinations
of instrumental dances to
......reveal and revel in its simplicity-

We commence in New York City

Who wears the American
......crown of liberty, though freedom
jazz-istically resides at the streets.....
......numbered above the one-twenty-fifth.
Leave me where I lay
......in Harlem, who once looked beyond
the amasses of harmonized New York City
......growth and direction and said
“I’ve changed my mind- I choose Jazz instead”
......Inbred into the fabric of Manhattan’s
Rigged workdays and ruffled relaxations
......Jazz in Harlem learned its craft
As the child of lives who didn’t find crystal
......stairways but torn-up boards dark-corners
And hills to climb to be emancipated from
......the fields of oppression, to pick The Cotton Club
as the venue to whirl autonomy
......In Motion.

As Cab Calloway, Dorothy Dandridge, and Duke Ellington play…

As music paves the way
......for all who she meets
as she listens to the desires and needs
......of lives seeking artistic seeds
to plant self-expression into
......fertile grounds to send growth
In Motion…

......VERSE:
…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......Let the blues be that savoring mystery;
For Harlem once set the stage for
......the great motionless synchrony;

Which brings us here-

Where jazz speaks of rivers,
......An ancient, dusky river that
Re-discovered its flow around
......The curve of Missouri at the inviting banks of
Middle-America’s downward force of nature,
......the Mississippi River, where we find the place

We named, Saint Louis-

Who guards Western America
......With its gateways, while revving up the Blues
for its journey downstream
...... Before the song lyrics cry, in melancholy,
“Got the St. Louis Blues – Blues as can be.”
......Influenced by cities miles afar, Tell me everything
I’m not, In St. Louis where the ancestral
......feast of melody grabs hold to the arms of Ragtime,
to sparkle gleams of Joy across faces of even the
......least-traveled trotters, globing the sounds of cakewalks,
two-steps, and fox-trots, to define the
......the indescribable and obscurities of
the meanings of life into channels
......that mimic nature’s downward course of river flow action
In Motion.

As Scott Joplin, Tina Turner, and Miles Davis play…

As river streams pave the way for two
......southern sisters to grow from
nourished deltas-breed hearts while settling themselves
......apart, yet keeping the harmonized
echo consistently
......In Motion…

......VERSE:
…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......Let the blues be that savoring mystery;
For St. Louis raised pyramids above
......the great motionless synchrony;

Which brings us here-

At the crest of limitlessness,
......Not defined by time, nor space,
nor genre, for no one face can capsulate
......the relentless and unforgiving rhythms
that envelop themselves in the sweetest
......lyrical melodies. This is the blues.

This is Memphis.

Who rolled the mold and rocked
......the form to set the groove, and the blueprint
to how constellational stars would align
......their music, within their music
The Beale Street Blues give reason to
......ration if pain and anguish exist as the catalyst
For the means of roping our outer
...... Expression with the most secreted and
......Stored away human emotion-
For all things of breath, have purpose,
......And there’s a life in blues that strikes
cords that soothe solitude and conceive
......connectivity, bringing forth ideological
meanings to replicate beale Street ways
......to intensify the significance of this tuneful form

This is the blues.

No statistical data sought to prove, the
......Unproven yet people who know it feel it even
believe it, as if faith is defined in notes, and
......followers follow sermons of the ministerial messages
In Motion.

As Ma Rainey, B. B. King, and W.C. Handy play…

As musical notes pave the way for another
......way to love again, and finds its message
in the songs, overpowering heart-trodden wrongs,
......from keeping the blues
stirring without restraint
......In Motion…

......VERSE:
…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......Let the blues be that savoring mystery;
For Memphis laid concrete pavement for
......the great motionless synchrony;

Who followed me home-

To the destination bayou
......The multi-purposeful master who
captured the civilizations of two continental
......drifts, to single-handedly pull the grounds
of many lands to co-exist with the
......measure and tempo of an artistry of
collaborative culture-turned solo.

All eyes wink at New Orleans–
...... (America’s.highest pitched soprano)

Who turned her sheer existence into a dichotomy
......In discernible disguise- the antithesis
and the mistress of America the silent reminiscence
...... Who turned her sheer existence into a dichotomy
In discernible disguise- the antithesis
......and the mistress of America the silent reminiscence
and the brass band explosion

All inside, little ole’ she.

Officially, Jazz was born here, through
......the wombs of the underprivileged
And the hopes of the destitute
......So saxophones and trombones
could play cards with trumpets to decide
......When ragtime, rhythm and blues
should be introduced to the masses
......for spiritual consumption, if the appetite was there
Which indeed it was, and still is - for New Orleans
......And her quarters, her people her music
her literature this is the place that turned marsh land
......Into ports, and low-lying sea into thriving brick
Roads. The dream that never should’ve been
......a work a wizardry with our ears
attuned to the re-invention of the wheels
......that put the sounds of the renaissance
in Motion.

As Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Kid Ory play

As music paved the way, rebuilding
......spirits, and cores, after traumas
and tragedies tugged open evil’s doors
......but couldn’t stop the ignition of
the resurrection
......In Motion…

......VERSE:
…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......Let the blues be that savoring mystery;
For New Orleans is the re-surgency of
......the great motionless synchrony;

As the bands play
......We convene here
In celebratory dances
......taking breaths of artistic chances
Through the spirits of music

......That all paved the way
for all she touches to
......give new life and new reason
for worlds in midst of the coldest seasons
......give new life and new reason
for worlds in midst of the coldest seasons
......in search of taking their Springtime blooms
In Motion…

…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......To Let Blues Be Jazz again
To Let America be Jazz again
......And not let our instruments just pretend

There’s a mystery within
......the creation of jazz and blues
within the combinations
......of souls, instrumentally, who’ve exhaled
the spirit of cultures to breathe
......and consume the motionlessness of
life giving static, instead of steam
......toward refueling the ways we live
retooling ways we express and repealing
......ways we’ve poetically discovered the mystery
within the creation of jazz and blues
...... To stop the bands and remind ourselves

…To Let Jazz be Jazz again
......To Let Blues Be Jazz again
To Let America be Jazz again
......And not let our instruments just pretend

that they are only Earth-grown steel
...... But are history too,
History
...... In Motion

By MARK ANTHONY THOMAS

Copyright © 2006