In 1988, Sekou Sundiata got himself in a heap of trouble at The New School for Social Research in New York City, where he was teaching. Seems an art exhibit there featured a cartoon stereotype of an Asian. Sundiata obliterated the image with a spray can. A couple of his students at that time learned the lesson well: Ani DiFranco and M. Doughty continue the tradition of poet cracking stereotypes, Ani with her own Righteous Babe Records and Doughty with Soul Coughing.
Now, and finally, Sundiata has a “book” out, only this is a talking book, a CD: Blue Oneness of Dreams, and Ani Di continues her work of passing it on by releasing the first record on her label by an artist other than herself, The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere, which gives props to the Hidden Book, the Oral Tradition, just as Blue Oneness reclaims word and music as poetry. These two releases stake out a glorious new territory for spoken word CDs, records you come back to again and again, poetry and stories set to music you can dance to without having to turn your mind off.
The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere by Utah Phillips (61, white-bearded, Wobblie) and Ani DiFranco (26, nose-ringed, punkster) is a cross-cultural, cross-generational criss-cross of an album. Ever hear a folkie set to a dub beat? DiFranco, a sensational poet herself, has added deep beats, not to Utah’s songs, but the rambling intros to his songs. The resultant weave shocks the old right past the new, which is, after all, just what the title of this superb album says. DiFranco pays homage to an elder by shaking him out of the museum, as Phillips does for the hoboes and politicos who taught him, in his achingly funny, sharp, lounging, sneaky Buddhist tales.
DiFranco insinuates ambiance, scratches U. Utah (not a typo; he often uses the double “u”)’s voice, doubles the beat back like a surgeon revealing a gold tongue deep inside a body cavity. Phillips can bust open a political rant (“Talking to a conservative is like talking to your refrigerator... Working for the Democratic party is kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”), take you to the human side of the Korean “conflict,” or tell the sweet rubbed stories of and for his friends, all equally heartfelt, all entertaining.
This is a great CD (as opposed to, say, cassette or LP), because it can just Keep On Going, and as different characters and morals and language-play bubble up, the meld becomes a river. Definitely not for everyone, an oddity, but as for me, I’m addicted -- dive in! This is a Righteous Babe Record, Ani’s own label. Go, Ani! and take us with you.
At the other extreme, stylistically, of the spectrum is The Blue Oneness of Dreams the first “book” by poet Sekou Sundiata. This is the seventh release from the upstart Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records, the world’s first major poetry label, and my employer at the time (full disclosure). Sundiata, perhaps best known as the major find of Bill Moyers’ 1995 PBS series, The Language of Life, is also a founder of the Black Rock Coalition, an independent African American music consortium that also helped launch MeShell NdageOcello among others. For years, Sundiata has been one of poetry and music’s best kept secrets, straddling both universes. At last you can take him home with you.
In many ways, Sundiata is heir to the Amiri Baraka Chair of Poem Rocks the House. But where Amiri takes the political route straight to the top, Sekou sort of rolls around lazy S curves, and then gets the band to chug the poem straight into the mountain heart. Cool and bluesy, this album doesn’t sound like poetry -- but listen deep, and you’ll hear words inside the words.
Doug Booth and Band add totally contemporary jazz/blues treatments to this rich brew. Sekou also drops a couple of “pure” spoken word pieces -- the brilliantly rhythmic “Shout Out” at the top, and a machine gun to the cerebellum of the character, “Space,” from his play The Circle Unbroken Is a Hard Bop.
Here at the end of the 20th century, three more diverse characters than the old folkie Utah Phillips, the birth-of-the-cool Sekou Sundiata and the blazing anarchofeminist Ani DiFranco would be hard to round up. They are all heroes, our new poets, the ones who’ve been with us, finally getting recognized, finally being heard.
The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere
Righteous Babe Records
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The Blue Oneness of Dreams
Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records
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Think about it....
