I'm a good few weeks late with this, which was written soon after Joseph Jarman's passing in early January. I haven't been keeping up with the blogging for at least a year now; things should change soon. In any case, this is for Joseph Jarman out of deep respect for what I believe his music and his poetry have taught me. And how his work has taught me more about how to listen.
Song for Song For
(Joseph Jarman, 1937-2019)
whoever heard about a better way to dance, then did;
whoever sensed life soon enough gets over with itself;
whoever got called to call out hardline America;
whoever learned to ghost-finger an alto’s sacred glyph,
a baritone’s raw mark-up language, a tenor’s thick throat;
whoever showed righteous moxy in situations when
righteous moxy was not exactly needed; whoever
testified to the unkempt scurf of little instruments;
whoever understood the fraught, feral imperatives
of compassion; whomever good gumption never let go;
whoever decided on fiercely striated face paint
most gigs, most nights; whoever chased “uncharted microtones”;
whoever caught nothing shy of the heft of complete light;
whoever said, “I seek new sounds / because new sounds / seek
me.”
