Connie Crothers – piano | Paula Hackett –  poems

Producer: Robert Warnock. Recording engineer: Dave Bell, www.bellboyrecording.coq Recorded Sept 14th 2011 at Bellboy Studios. Cover photo: Robert Warnock. Inside page photo: W.B. Doll. All photos taken at Bird & Beckett Books and Records, www.birdbeckett.com Design & Layout: Nadine Aiello, nadineaiellographics.com.

Tracklist: 1. Max Roach, 2:40 2. Artist, 1:32 3. Billie Holiday/God Bless the Child (B. Holiday, A. Herzog), 2:00 4. For Crying Out Loud, 0:58 5. Sin Takes A Bow, 1:34 6.The Choke Hold, 1:25 7. No Cure, 1:44 8. Roulette, 1:08 9. Morphine On The Beach, 1:03 10. I Overheard My Mother’s Death, 1:27 11. Family Photo (for Tessa Kelly), 1:30 12. Steel On Steel, 1:26 13. Birth Control, 1:47 14. Razors, 0:52 15. Round 2, 1:37 16. My Bodyguard, 1:36 17. Dancing Around The Fire, 2:48 18. If Words Could Talk, 1:03 19. Mental Hospital Blues, 1:48 20. Enter Into The Earth, 1:50 21. Refrain, 1:43 22. Coma Rising (for Art Pepper), 1:38 23. David Meltzer, 0:50 24. Making You Wait, 1:27 25. The Cookie Crumbles, 1:17 26. Sue’s Son, 1:00 27. Picture, 1:30 28. To John, 2:12 29. Dates (for Milt Jackson), 1:00 30. Billy Higgins, 2:39 31. The Big Band, 1:04 32. You Know It’s For You, 1:38 33. The Lap Of Luxury, 1:34 34. Poetry Goes To The Dance, 1:12

We dedicate this recording, with profound love and gratitude, to Max Roach.

Max Roach

A story that can’t be told
Your story
There will never be a way
the world can explain
the man, the imagination, the music
Genius was your playground
We all have our versions
You kept me going for years
With a nod, a laugh
a lunch in the kitchen
“Put words to this music,” you’d say
My brother and I would
come back with words
It was serious
It was critical
And you would be delighted
as we wrote our songs
on your strength
From the swampland of North Carolina
to the symphony of a Brooklyn street
Carnegie Hall joined the applause from around this globe
You showed us the grace of Art
So many people, so many stories
so many versions
and each version telling
of a world built stronger
by the man
Max Roach.

Paula Hackett

For Paula & Connie

Paula Hackett, a jazz fanatic, a poetic lyricist, and pianist Connie Crothers, a New York City jazz experience on legs. It was their love of spontaneous creativity that pulled them together. Connie’s music came from Paula’s poems. It was a feeling born of contact. Planning was impossible. Destiny held the reins to the process.

When Spirit spoke and they listened, Connie internalized the music of Paula’s words and the magic was born. This CD is an artistic journey, a brutally honest journey, a wild ride through the beauty of word play, cascades of melodic metaphor, a waterfall of painful beauty and the joy that comes from surviving the ride and landing on your feet. This is a literary trip through madness and ecstasy, a trip through the majestic artistic imagery of a Billy Higgins smile that unapologetically melts into the fury of Art Pepper’s creative angst. Max Roach would have loved the rhythms and the brave lyricism of this avant-garde adventure. Courageous like the voice of Billie Holiday, this is a CD of poetry that sings and music that tastes of poetic words, words that sing to me, enchant me and call to you.

Listen.

Avotcja (Avacha) 8/6/2012 | Radio Host KPFA-FM & KPOO-FM – www.avotcja.org

CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)

MP3 version (82.35MB zip download)