100 episodes
Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet The Parlando Project
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- Arts
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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Pea Brush
Robert Frost tells a little tale of nature and gardening for May. Being that it's Frost, there's a sharp observation woven into the story about man and nature.
The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 750 of these combinations, and you can hear them and read more about this Project at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org -
John Sinclair writes 2 poems of Thelonious Monk
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 -
The Fairies Have Never a Penny to Spend
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 -
Dover Beach
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 -
Pippa Passes
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 -
The Wind
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