“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;”>A very St. Louis thing is going to happen on Saturday, February 19 at the Nu-Art series, even if most of the action is coming here from New York.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>For poet Quincy Troupe and composer Kelvyn Bell, that means coming home. Since they left St. Louis in the late 1960s, they have both taken their art around the world and shared stages with a who’s who of who is who.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Among many other publications, Troupe wrote Miles Davis’ autobiography with the late jazz legend and has performed his poetry with musical accompaniment by the likes of Ron Carter, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Billy Bang and Arthur Blythe.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Blythe was also a main gig for Bell, a phenomenally accomplished jazz and funk guitarist. He also played in Joseph Bowie’s Defunkt and with Charles “Bobo” Shaw, Lester Bowie, James Brown, Maceo Parker, Living Colour and Cassandra Wilson.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>It gets to be easier to list important creators these brothers have not worked with.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>If you did that, you couldn’t list World Saxophone Quartet co-founder Hamiet Bluiett, a native son of Lovejoy, Ill., who lives here at home again. Troupe and Bell have both worked with Bluiett separately.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Bluiett paired his old friends with drummer Ronnie Burrage in 2009 for a new music series Bluiett curated at Robbie’s House of Jazz in Webster Groves. They called that trio Q.K.R., though they lost “R.” (Ronnie Burrage) along the way.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>For the February 19 gig in St. Louis, Troupe and Bell will form a new trio (they could call it Q.K.H. or Q.K.B.) with none other than Bluiett himself, sitting in as their third. It will the first time the three have collaborated as a trio.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“Kelvyn and Quincy have been working together for some years, and I wanted to put them with Ronnie because they’re all from St. Louis, which is a different thing – it’s not New Orleans, and it’s not New York,” Bluiett told The American.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“That didn’t last that long. Now it’s just Kelvyn and Quincy, with a little cameo for me.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“It’s bringing together three people who have done a lot of stuff,” Troupe told The American. “I’ll be happy to do it in St. Louis for the first time.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Troupe talked by phone from New York on Monday after a day of rehearsing with Bell. Anyone who associates jazz performance poetry with someone doodling or improvising aimlessly while a poet declaims will have a very different experience of this group.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“Kelvin wrote these as compositions to the poems. Then he played them and I listened. I came up with what I am going to do, and we infused them into some kind of combination,” Troupe said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“Then he records what I do, takes it home, then changes some of the things he thought he wanted to do. Then we do it again. It’s a work in progress.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>They will work Bluiett into the mix when they get back home, but at Monday’s rehearsal the poet and guitarist came up with a concept for how to use him.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“We just thought today that Bluiett could play his baritone sax and play basslines to some of the tunes, under Kelvin’s guitar part,” Troupe said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Bell “font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>shared recordings of four of these compositions, as works in progress. On each he plays vivid, melodic acoustic jazz guitar, and Troupe is in fine voice. The interplay of guitar lines and lines of poetry is exciting and dynamic. In some jazz performance poetry, the music is incidental, even distracting; these songs are unified musical experiences.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>These three storied creators from this river town have planned a tribute for another guitar player from St. Louis you might have heard of before.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“We’re going to end the first set with this poem on Chuck Berry,” Troupe said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“It’s got his rhythms into the poems, a lot of rock and roll into it. It deals with Chuck Berry as an important, great musician who contributed to music, not only in St. Louis but everywhere.”
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>This kind of thing – St. Louis taking care of St. Louis musicians – is badly needed, Bluiett said.
“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>“A lot of people really got their thing together right here in St. Louis,” Bluiett said. “But nobody talks about it. This area is so cold, it don’t honor its own people.”
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Verdana;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Troupe, Bell and Bluiett will perform 2:30 p.m. Saturday, February 19 at the Nu-Art Series’ Metropolitan Gallery, 2936 Locust St. Admission is $10.
