Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet

The Parlando Project
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Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet

Poetry has been defined as “words that want to break into song.” Musicians who make music seek to “say something”. Parlando will put spoken words (often, but not always, poetry) and music (different kinds, limited only by the abilities of the performing participants) together. The resulting performances will be short, 2 to 10 minutes in length. The podcast will present them un-adorned. How much variety can we find in this combination? Listen to a few episodes and see. At least at first, the two readers will be a pair of Minnesota poets and musicians: Frank Hudson and Dave Moore who have performed as The LYL Band since the late 70s. Influences include: Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), William Blake, Alan Moore, Beat Poets (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, and others), The Fugs (Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg), Leo Kottke, Ken Nordine (Word Jazz), Bob Dylan, Steve Reich, and most of the Velvet Underground (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico).

  1. Six Maxims

    3 DAYS AGO

    Six Maxims

    This February during Black History Month I've been writing about the discovery, history, and my subsequent impressions of a scrapbook featuring the life and career of a mid-20th Century Afro-American musician and singer Lawrence "Hank" Hazlett who played with a swing Jazz quartet The Cats and the Fiddle from Chicago and then with his own Hank Hazlett Trio out of Minneapolis.  In the scrapbook this creased and folded sheet of 6 numbered inspirational quotes was pasted on a page. They must have been meaningful to him, so I composed some music and read the quotes as a spoken word with music piece this month. The quotes are from (in order) M. B. Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Lloyd C. Douglas, Helen Keller, Herbert Kaufman, and Ambrose Bierce. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our experiences with the pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  2. You! Inez!

    5 DAYS AGO

    You! Inez!

    Here's Alice Dunbar Nelson's passionate love poem from the last decade to be called The Twenties performed as a song. I just saw this poem this morning, but I was so taken with it that I spent my afternoon composing some music to perform it with.  The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear them all and read about our encounters with them at hour blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  3. Langston's Blues (Dreams)

    FEB 14

    Langston's Blues (Dreams)

    Our Black History Month celebration this month is more focused on new articles on the Parlando Project blog, but I thought it'd be good to provide some new musical pieces too. Here's Langston Hughes' poem "Dreams"  which I've cast as a blues for acoustic guitar, bass, and piano for this performance. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and performs them with original music (in differing styles). We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years and you can hear them all and read what I wrote about our this Project at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  4. Couples

    JAN 29

    Couples

    Here's the somewhat forgotten Modernist poet Carl Sandburg in a weird mode. I still don't know what this elusive poem of his, titled "Couples," is describing, but I felt compelled to make it into this short song anyway. That's what the Parlando Project does. We take various words (mostly literary poetry) and combine them with original music. We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  5. Arcadian Ewes (Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes)

    JAN 25

    Arcadian Ewes (Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes)

    I start this piece singing the refrain of a song attributed to Robert Burns, and then the music continues as I read a sonnet from my memory care series.  The Parland Project combines words (usually literary poetry) with music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words and making the recordings at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    3 min
  6. Inconceivably Solemn

    JAN 21

    Inconceivably Solemn

    What is poet Emily Dickinson describing in this poem I've turned into a song? Is it soldiers marching off to the American Civil War? Or is it just maybe a partisan political campaign march in time that her country's political failure was leading it to that war? There's more on this, and over 800 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing style at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  7. Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!

    JAN 18

    Libertad! Igualdad! Fraternidad!

    This William Carlos Williams short poem of disappointment and survival seemed apropos for this American January, so now I've made it into a song, just me with my rough-hewn voice with a lonely acoustic guitar. "Dreams are not a bad thing" he says. Perhaps it will speak to you too. The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can read more about this and hear all of the previous audio pieces at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    2 min
  8. Journey of the Magi

    JAN 7

    Journey of the Magi

    What if one of the Three Wise Men left a Yelp review after their Epiphany visit to the manger? Presented that way it sounds like a sketch-comedy bit, doesn't it? But T. S. Eliot had an ear for poetic dialog, and he wrote a poem that approaches the sacred on the back of a sore camel. I took Eliot's poem and performed it with some original music yesterday. Today, I mixed the recording so you can hear it. That's what the Parlando Project does: we made over 800 combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) and combined them with differing styles of music I can record. You can hear all of those pieces and read what I wrote about the experience of making them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

    4 min
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About

Poetry has been defined as “words that want to break into song.” Musicians who make music seek to “say something”. Parlando will put spoken words (often, but not always, poetry) and music (different kinds, limited only by the abilities of the performing participants) together. The resulting performances will be short, 2 to 10 minutes in length. The podcast will present them un-adorned. How much variety can we find in this combination? Listen to a few episodes and see. At least at first, the two readers will be a pair of Minnesota poets and musicians: Frank Hudson and Dave Moore who have performed as The LYL Band since the late 70s. Influences include: Patti Smith, Frank Zappa, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), William Blake, Alan Moore, Beat Poets (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, and others), The Fugs (Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg), Leo Kottke, Ken Nordine (Word Jazz), Bob Dylan, Steve Reich, and most of the Velvet Underground (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico).

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