Home » category : Art, Music, Poetry, United States » article : Tattoo

Tattoo

Posté par admin
mercredi 15 février 2006 [n° 1057]


 “I wrote this thing for Dexter Gordon 1, for his 80th birthday, which just took place. I’d written it last summer; it’s called ‘Tattoo’ and it’s about his Denmark experience, when he was in Copenhagen. I sent it to his widow a little while ago, and she just loved the poem. I guess because it was a poem, you know. I’ve written other things about him but I had no idea that I was going to do it. I just sat down last summer and did it. I’ve brought it along, so I’m going to read it to you. It’s written in couplets”.

TATTOO

Though a simple rose under your skin
I look up the bugle ritual of recall

for sailors to regroup – soldiers at parade rest
and your sister who could not read as a child

needing you for sustenance – now you want it removed
Copenhagen (for me) is Tivoli played by Dexter Gordon

His love for that city –broad and low in balladry
for making the sound of recall a lullaby

with his name on it –he would love to see your tattoo
his magic at composition a call to Basie/Ellington

Hamp and two full days of practice at seventeen
with the makers of bebop – just off the train from LA

the son of a doctor whose doctoring gave such a smile
in the lower registers he was Mr. “Blue Note” (tenor)

he would venture his signature on conventions ROSE
and turn courtly in the madrigal – play you a hymn

and take you to his church (which was always the road)
so you know why you came from the north – a town

just out of sight from Copenhagen – and in this poem
provided your sister that special speech of signals

so the faerytale of being pricked into song
just under the skin was the song of a tent show

the tattooist fully sober and without shaky hands
and just beneath the surface of your blood

Cezanne‘s Polynesian sorcerer – so genial in profile
that eating your salad is a school of painting

primal in the garden of the artist’s magic circle
where every gesture is the canon of tattoo

Michael S. HARPER [2], 2002

________________________

“What is American About American Poetry?” by Michael Harper, at Modern American Poetry

Discographie

Dossier : Dexter Gordon Abeille Musique, 2003

A selected discography of Dexter Gordon albums.

* Long Tall Dexter, 1945-46, Savoy.
* The Chase, 1947, Dial.
* Doin’ Allright, 1961, Blue Note.
* Go!, 1962, Blue Note.
* Our Man In Paris, 1963, Blue Note.
* Gettin’ Around, 1965, Blue Note.
* Body And Soul, 1967, Black Lion.
* The Apartment, 1974, SteepleChase.
* Gotham City, 1980, Columbia.
* Round Midnight, 1985, Columbia.

Dexter Gordon Tenor Saxophone February 27, 1923 — April 26, 1990


  1. Dexter Gordon (1923-1990) Biographie rédigée par François-René Simon pour Le Dictionnaire du Jazz (Editions Robert-Laffont, collection Bouquins) [back]
  2. Michale S. Harper : on Sterling Brown and Dexter Gordon [back]
Art, Music, Poetry, United States

Si vous avez apprécié cet article, s'il vous plait, prenez le temps de laisser un commentaire ou de souscrire au flux afin de recevoir les futurs articles directement dans votre lecteur de flux.

Commentaires

Pas encore de commentaire.

Laisser un commentaire

(requis)

(requis)




Navigation : Home » Art, Music, Poetry, United States » Blog article: Tattoo