Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 12: “Soul Music”

March 9th, 2023

Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film.

A recording of Mr. Cole reading this work is found at the conclusion of the poem.

___

photo by Joe Mabel/via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0

McCoy Tyner at Demetriou’s Jazz Alley; Seattle, 2012

___

Soul Music

Hey man…I’m not here to explain to you…I’m not here
to tell you what you own or don’t own…I don’t think anybody
owns anything…but I’ll keep tap dancing mentally for you…
if nothing else…to say…it could be a nice bright sky above…
a little bit of haze…you’re heading to the gym to swim…
smoke a bowl…mix it up…forget the things you have to sacrifice…
to get your work done…to get your money to pay your buddy…
pay your life…to stay alive…to keep things running…
that’s what’s happening for most of us most our lives…
like we’ve been sitting at a blackjack table
since the day we were born…shuffling chips around…
piles moving away…a few scattered chips thrown back…
it’s Thursday…I’m doing what I do…broke…
no rules today…McCoy Tyner says…one hand at a time…
big hands…I saw…I met him at a bar one time…
he was playing at Demetriou’s Jazz Alley…
hip spot of Seattle jazz upper crust…wear your tie…
I go there sometimes with Neil… we all like to see shows…
I say I’m seeking a ceremony…I don’t want a performance…
I’m looking for something holy…something sacred…and that’s all
I’m here to give you too…that’s what I hope to give…whatever
you might deconstruct through your fractal eyes…break it down…
go ahead…I’ve been on this train with you since day one…so
I was sitting down having a drink with McCoy Tyner…he just off stage
after banging out a giant song…way more notes than I could
imagine those fingers were able to play…it’s a kind of magic…
was it a ceremony?…you ask…it’s a good question…
I’m glad you asked…yeah…I say…yeah…whatever McCoy Tyner
might have felt or thought…for me…yeah…I saw something holy…
I saw something beautiful…he might have just been at work…
but you know…sometimes a priest is just doing a job…
sometimes the shaman dials it in…so anyway…I was
sitting at the bar talking to McCoy Tyner…he just off stage
after playing banged-up gigantic booming music…I mean…
he had a bass player…a drummer…but man…nah…
most of that stage was him…you know…but democratic…
everybody gets a say…their way…their instrument…
their mind… each part of a conversation about an idea
that is the song…saying things in language different from words
but with a lot of similarities…it’s sound…
and the sound is sound-talk…and that doesn’t mean
it’s not connected to thought like a word is…a word trying
for an image…you know…a word floating on air…a word
coming up from the deep sea of your mind…a word like
a ghost waving its arms…pointing…this way…this way…yeah…
yeah…that’s beautiful too…I’ll do that next Tuesday…
but the song is there in two worlds at once…
it’s a mood…it’s something comes out of you…ah ah ah ah
ah ah ah ah…hmm…you listening to me?…I was sitting down…
having a drink with McCoy Tyner…and I said to him…
I don’t know…while you were playing…I thought I heard Rachmaninov…
he smiled…looked at me…and he says…man…It’s all soul music…

Listen to Douglas Cole read “Soul Music”

___

Listen to the 2006 live performance of McCoy Tyner playing his composition “Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit,” with Joe Lovano (saxophone); Christian McBride (bass); and Jeff Watts (drums). [Entertainment One]

___

photo by Jenn Merritt

Douglas Cole has published six collections of poetry and The White Field, winner of the American Fiction Award. His work has appeared in several anthologies as well as journals such as The Chicago Quarterly Review, Poetry International, The Galway Review, Bitter Oleander, Chiron, Louisiana Literature, Slipstream, as well Spanish translations of work (translated by Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia) in La Cabra Montes. He is a regular contributor to Mythaixs, an online journal, where in addition to his fiction and essays, his interviews with notable writers, artists and musicians such as Daniel Wallace (Big Fish), Darcy Steinke (Suicide Blond, Flash Count Diary) and Tim Reynolds (T3 and The Dave Matthews Band) have been popular contributions. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net and received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry. He lives and teaches in Seattle, Washington.

Click here to visit his website.