When I first met Moe a few years ago, I remember thinking, that is a poet. Funny given my strident anti-essentialist stance in most things. I think that means that poetry flows from him even when you're just hangin' out. Moe has been doing Jazz poetry shows in Paris for awhile and i have enjoyed some of his recordings, but this was my first chance to experience it in the flesh.
A pick-up jazz trio accompanied Moe: Hill Jordan on tenor and soprano trombones; Dave Pellow on stand up bass; Spider Rondinelli on drums. Hill and Dave did most of the soloing, with the Soprano trombone being a new instrument for me, punchy and clean. Moe performed his poems in a rhythmic sprechtstimme showing great sense of timing with these skilled musicians.
The video is fragment from a Paris performance of "Jazz Is" which Moe did perform here. Variously funny, sensual, political, spiritual - sometimes all at the same time. The loose spontaneity was great fun. Local singer/blues jazz violinist Lydia joined the guys for a few numbers, sliding right in and adding some great textures to the sound. Also joining in the free flow of music and words was Johnny Alston, former Pittsburgher now from New Mexico playing a Native American flute that had a beautiful ethereal quality. For a pick up band, they worked well together to the appreciation of the small but enraptured crowd. I felt like I was transported back in time to some kind of alternative beat universe when the beat poets and jazz musicians helped shock our country out of the horrors of the fifties.
Viva Monsieur Seager
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