Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet The Parlando Project

John Sinclair (who died during this National Poetry Month) did a lot of things in his life, generating so many stances and actions that I suspect no one can agree with all of it. But one thing he did throughout his life was write Jazz Poetry, and so for International Jazz Day this year I thought I'd seek out and perform a couple of his poems.
The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of them, and you can hear them and read more about our experiences with this at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Rose Fyleman wrote charming and popular children's poems in the early 20th century, like this one. I set her poem for performance in a jaunty rock'n'roll trio as I approach the end of my National Poetry Month look-back at poems aimed at children in the first half of the 20th century.
The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can read them and find out more about our encounters with them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I continue to examine poems from a pair of books of verse meant for the children who grew up to become "The Greatest Generation." This one's not a sunny day holiday for the kids: Matthew Arnold's at the beach, he puts a seashell to his ear, and hears....the future, or perhaps time itself, and it's harrowing. 
The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these over the years, and you can hear them and read about our encounters while doing this at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

A short Spring poem with a famous ending couplet that seems to be about contentment -- and after all, I found it inside a 1922 book of verse for children I'm looking at for National Poetry Month. In the context of the longer work Browning placed it in, it may not be that simple, but I perform it today as if it was.
The Parlando Project combines various words, usually literary poetry, with music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear all of them and read more about the experience of doing this at our blog and archivers located at frankhudson.org

For National Poetry Month this year I've been looking at poems from a pair of 1920s books of verse for children. Today's selection is a charming poem by Robert Louis Stevenson performed with an electric folk-rock band.
The Parlando Project does this, takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done over 750 of these combinations and you can hear them and read more about our experiences of the process at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

To observe this National Poetry Month I've been diving into a pair of poetry anthologies for children published in the 1922/1923. One poet included in them was an unusual case: Hilda Conkling, a child herself. That this grade-schooler was composing poems that often seemed to share Imagism's approaches intrigued some Modernists. Here's one of her poems set original music.
The Parlando Project takes various words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done 750 of these combinations and you can hear them and read about this at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org