Report from the Mountains

Report on Hiatus

2010-09-07T15:01:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone,

Report from the Mountains will be taking an extended break at least through the fall and winter. I'm jumping back into directing theatre for the next several months and will be on the road for much of this time. In the meantime, please enjoy the many past shows that are available here and check out more from the band that provides our theme music, Faruq Z. Bey & the Northwoods Improvisers.

To keep up do date on readings, plays and other projects of mine, please visit me at reverbnation.com/marcbeaudin and join my mailing list.

Thanks for listening and commenting. And thanks for keeping poetry and jazz alive.

~Marc

Report #71

2010-08-23T22:28:00.000-06:00

After a short break, the Report is back, this week with a poem by Rita Dove from her collection Mother Love. The poem is called "Heroes."

Music this week is "Bemsha Swing" from The Avant-Garde (Atlantic 1960) by John Coltrane & Don Cherry. The album features Coltrane on soprano & tenor saxes, Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden and Percy Heath on bass (Heath on this track) and Ed Blackwell on drums.

Click below to listen to the full episode:
Report #71

Report #70

2010-08-03T15:01:00.000-06:00

This week's episode discusses a grizzly sighting I had in Yellowstone Park. What happened next, and what doesn't get mentioned in the show, was dozens of brainless tourons running from their cars directly at a mother grizzly and her two cubs to get close-up pictures. The grizzly showed great restraint and grace, endured the apparent attack by the ugly two-legged beasts, and moved her cubs safely across the road and into the next valley.
She could have killed someone -- she had every right to. It would have been a terrible tragedy. Not the loss of human life (the stupidity displayed by these people reveals that losing a few would only strengthen the gene pool), but the inevitable murder of the bear. When people go into bear country and think, just because they're in a "park," that the animals aren't really wild, they're more of an exhibit, like a zoo or a museum, these people act foolishly. That's when the bears defend their cubs or react according to their survival instincts and people get hurt. When people get hurt, bears get killed. The Park Service and other agencies will kill a bear that has "attacked" people because if that bear repeats the behavior, the lawsuits will come raining down upon them. Like most decisions in bear country, it's economics and politics rather than science that holds sway.
So to the tourons who endangered the lives of these creatures out of ignorance, next time stay home and watch a nature show on your tv. That's all the wilderness you deserve.

Okay, that being said, on with the episode. This week's poem, "The Earth" ("La Tierra"), is by my favorite poet, Pablo Neruda, from The Captain's Verses (Los versos del capitan), translated by Donald D. Walsh. Not only are the poems in this collection brilliantly crafted and expressed, but this may be the sexiest book ever written. Read it out loud to someone you love. It's more effective than dozens of love potion number 9s. Guaranteed.

Music for this week is "Nutty" from the Thelonious Monk Quartet album Misterioso (Riverside 1958). The album features Monk on piano, Johnny Griffin on tenor sax, Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Here's a nice Monk essay by Robert Christgau.

Click below to listen to the full episode:
Report #70

Report #69

2010-08-02T09:12:00.000-06:00

This week's poem is another resuscitated from an old journal. The title "Sasha" comes from a song that was never written, "If Sasha Wears Her Summer Dress," by a band that nearly never was. I have a feeling this Sasha woman (whoever she is) will show up in some more of my writing as time goes by.

The music for this week is "Yesterday's Blues Tomorrow" from the album Rites of Passage by Jackie McLean. It features McLean on alto sax; Rene McLean on tenor, alto & soprano saxes; Hotep Idris Galeta on percussion; Nat Reeves on bass and Cal Allen on drums.
Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #69

Report #68

2010-07-20T11:33:00.000-06:00

This week's poem is drawn mostly from an old journal entry w/ some new tweaks, additions, cuts and re-vision-ing. It's called "Cactus."

The music this week is from the album Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus (Impulse, 1963). A great track titled "II B.S." The album features a ton a musicians (complete breakdown of who's who here).

And you should probably check out The Official Mingus site.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #68

Report #67

2010-07-12T23:08:00.000-06:00

This week marks a new era in the life of Report from the Mountains. I'm now recording from the Suce Creek Fort instead of the Grizfork Studio. To mark the change, I've changed the theme music and altered the format a bit. I hope you like the changes.

The new theme music is "Mokondi"by Faruq Z. Bey & The Northwoods Improvisers from their brand new release Emerging Field. This is one of the best recording I've heard in years. Check out their catalog at Entropy Stereo. And for those of you in Michigan, keep on eye on their show dates -- seeing this band live is a life-changing experience.

This week's poem is a newly-written one, based on a fragment found in one of my old journals from ten years ago or so. It's called "Regret," and big bonus points to anyone who can explain the solar panel reference. Leave a comment below.

Music this week is from the Red Garland release Red in Bluesville (Prestige 1959). A great track called "Trouble in Mind." The album features Garland on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Art Taylor on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #67

Report #66

2010-07-05T21:33:00.001-06:00

This episode is the first to be recorded at my new home & writing studio, tucked deeper into the Absaroka Mountains than the Grizfork is. This cabin is on Suce Creek, the next drainage downriver from where I was. It's a beautiful place, though I will always miss the old place.

I recorded this Report as a transitional episode into a new take on the show. The old theme music, "Hat & Beard" by Eric Dolphy is being retired, and new theme music -- a new recording by an amazing band -- will debut next week. So in this week's show, the old theme flows into "Going Out West" by Tom Waits -- which could be my personal theme song, or at least one of them. The new official theme music will remain a surprise for now, but will be unveiled in next week's episode.

To say my last good-bye's to my former digs, this week's poem is a revisiting of "Writing at Grizfork Studio," from my book The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds.

Music this week is the title track from Grab This! (Riverside 1962) by Johnny Griffin. The album features Griffin on tenor sax, Paul Bryant on organ, Joe Pass on guitar, Jimmy Bond on bass and Doug Sides on drums.

Listen to the full episode here:
Report #66

Report #65

2010-06-28T20:05:00.000-06:00

This week's episode marks the final one to be recorded at the Grizfork Studio, the magical cabin where this program got its start and has been my home for the last two years. It has been the perfect writing studio, gathering place of wonderful people, and base-camp from which to explore this section of the Absaroka Mountains and the Yellowstone River.
I am deeply indebted to the great folks who made it possible for me to stay here, namely Doug and Andrea Peacock and Jeff and Susan Bridges. Thanks to you all!

The poem for this week is "Summer Night" by Leonard Cohen from the collection Selected Poems, 1956-1968 (Viking, 1968). Of course, Cohen is best known as a singer/songwriter, but his poetry is every bit as good as his songs. In fact, they are often indistinguishable as separate art forms.

Music this week, as a hint for coming changes to the Report's format, is "So Long Eric" from His Final Work by Charles Mingus. The album features Mingus on bass, Woody Shaw and Jade Walrath on trumpets, Ricky Ford and Paul Jeffrey on tenor sax, Gerry Mulligan on baritone, Bob Neloms on piano, Lionel Hampton on vibes, Dannie Richmond on drums and Peter Matt on french horn.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #65

Report #64

2010-06-22T22:12:00.000-06:00

This week's poem is called "Carbon" and comes from a late night drive through the pass between Bozeman and Livingston. The title came after writing when I noticed the irony (perhaps hypocrisy) that the poem stumbles upon. But if everything contains it opposite (as Hegel, Ospensky, Capra and Lao Tzu say) then self-contradiction is true honesty.
?Quién Sabe?

This week's music is from Tenor Madness (Prestige, 1956) by Sonny Rollins, with their take on "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (Rogers & Hart). The album's title track (sadly too long to be featured on the Report) is the only known recording of Rollins and John Coltrane together. The rest of the band is the classic Miles Davis rhythm section of Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:

Report #64

Report #63

2010-06-07T17:11:00.000-06:00

This week's poem is a haiku called "River Trip." It comes from a recent afternoon spent taking a driftboat on the Yellowstone, stopping several times to search for morels and oyster mushrooms. We found very few of the former and many of the latter, and the trees and shrubs were alive with birds.

Music this week is "These Foolish Things" from the Johnny Griffin Quintet's Grab This! (Riverside, 1962). The album features Griffin on tenor sax, Paul Bryant on organ, Joe Pass on guitar, Jimmy Bond on bass and Doug Sides on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #63

Report #62

2010-06-01T08:12:00.001-06:00

This week's poem, "Wool Blanket," comes from my chapbook The Lost Writings of Miscellaneous Jones. It was written after spending a cold night camped in a small valley behind a cabin outside of Harrison, Michigan, owned by a friend and, at the time, the home of a branch of my family who are much missed.

Music this week is the Sammy Fain/Irving Kahal standard "I'll Be Seeing You" from Rahsaan Roland Kirk's Simmer, Reduce, Garnish, & Serve (1995, Warner Brothers). The song was made popular, of course, by Bing Crosby, but I remember it most in my dad's voice.
The version used here features Kirk on tenor sax, William Butler on guitar, Trudy Pitts on organ, and Bill Carney on drums.

Click below to listen:
Report #62

Report #61

2010-05-25T22:04:00.000-06:00

This week's Report features the poem "The River" by Mary Oliver from her collection Dream Work (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986), her follow-up to American Primitive, for which she won the Pulitzer. The poem begins with this blurb from the New York Times (which I didn't read for the recording): "In one day the Amazon discharges into the Atlantic the equivalent of New York City's water supply for nine years." Though I imagine NYC is doing its best to catch up.

The music for this week was definitely jumping the gun, as we gone back to mornings of new snow on the mountainsides. It's "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, here performed by Artie Shaw. Wishful thinking on my part.

Click below to listen to the full episode:

Report #61

Report #60

2010-05-17T23:05:00.001-06:00

So, the Report took a little vacation last week (couldn't get my computer to work), but we're back on track this week with a new episode and a brand new (though quite old) poem.

Back in '92 or so, I was hitchhiking around the western states and ended up in Golden Gate Park in SF. They had two prisoners of our country's War on Nature in a fenced-in area. America started this particular phase of the war (that against bison) as a way to starve out the indigenous peoples of the plains and further their genocide and subjugation. The war is continuing today here in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem by the ranching lobby and the Department of Interior by hazing (and often killing) bison that must move beyond the borders of Yellowstone National Park to find winter forage. They tell us that this is necessary to protect Montana's cows from brucellosis (which was brought here by cows); though there's never been a case of this disease being transferred from a bison to a cow, and no cows are located in the area the bison use in the winter. Get educated and take action here.

Music this week, "Sighin' and Cryin'" is from the album Song for My Father by the Horace Silver Quintet (Blue Note, 1965).

Listen to the Episode by Clicking Below:
Report #60

Report #59

2010-05-03T16:23:00.000-06:00

This week's poem, "Digging Potatoes, 12 Variations," began last fall as I went out to our gardens at dusk to harvest the rest of our crop. My cousins and I each had our own plot, using our own method. For some reason, my plot was almost entirely devoured by grasshoppers -- I think they were paid off. Anyway, attempts at writing the poem kept veering off in divergent directions, so rather than try to force the poem into one theme, I allowed it to grow feral, and then followed each root to see what had developed there.

Music for this week is "Ostrich Walk" from Bix Beiderbecke's Ultimate Collection. Bix got his start in jazz playing gangster clubs and speakeasies in the midwest. He died in Queens hysterically screaming that there were Mexicans hiding under his bed with daggers. Perhaps if he had lived, he would have went on to become the governor of Arizona.

Click below to listen to the complete episode:
Report #59

Report #58

2010-04-26T21:55:00.001-06:00

This week's poem, "The Midnight Special," took about 20 years to write. It tells of the first time someone told me the story behind Leadbelly's "The Midnight Special." I was a young college kid and he was a grizzled old man, blind and near the end of his life due to hard living and untreated diabetes. He talked about the light of the train falling through the bars of you cell as a sign of someday getting free. It was Leadbelly's story, but I knew it was really about himself.

This piece was first performed, blended with the music and some of the verses of the song, at the Mainstreet Show in Livingston, Montana. Mike Cloud Devine sang and played guitar, Buff Brown was on harmonica, and we had a special surprise guest on keyboards: from Little Feet, Bill Payne. I hope to soon have a recording of it up at my ReverbNation page, but in the meantime, here's a photo:

Music for this episode is from Mississippi Lad by Teddy Edwards, a song featuring vocals by Tom Waits, "I'm Not Your Fool Anymore." The album features Edwards on tenor sax, Nolan Smith on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Art Hillery on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Ray Armando on percussion, and Waits on vocals (2 tracks).

Click below to listen to the full episode:
Report #58

Report #57

2010-04-19T08:27:00.001-06:00

This week's Report from recorded on my birthday, in fact it was my The-Answer-to-the-Question-of-the-meaning-of-Life, the Universe and Everything-th Birthday. So the featured poem was written that day, titled "Birthday Poem, 2010." Kind of a birthday present to myself. Here it is:

Birthday Poem, 2010

Morning
and every window in the house
sings about the wind
as fragments of strange dreams
scatter for the shadowed corners of the room

Later, Beethoven’s Third
pounds ripples in my bathwater
contending with the wind
losing, thank gods, in the end

If the heights of human-made beauty
ever could best the earth’s power
then the depths of human weakness could too,
and the wind and all its music would cease

But now the Eroica has ended,
leaving a more beautiful silence
which is, of course, the composer’s greatest work
so I dress and step outside
to feel the air of another year
on my face and in my lungs

Juncos and magpies remind me
that we are all creatures of flight,
passing from earth to sky and back again
with every heartbeat and blast of wind and
turn of the seasons which move

with the perfect pitch and tempo
of the symphony of silence
which sustains us all

–Marc Beaudin, 14 April 2010

Music for this week was "Black Nile" from Malachi Thompson's Freebop Now! (I may mistakenly call it "Black Night" on this recording -- ignore that). Personnel include Thompson on trumpet, Billy Harper on tenor sax, Steve Berry on trombone, Kirk Brown on piano, James Cammack on bass and Dana Hall on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #57

Report #56

2010-04-12T20:50:00.000-06:00

This week is another on-the-road special edition, this time from the foot of the Henry Mountains in southern Utah. Our brief visit to this magical landscape was about seven lifetimes too short. Every moment was a voyage of discovery and every vista was a gallery of art. I'll be returning to this country in the near future.

The poem for this week is "Morning Light, Evening Light" by Kenneth Brewer from his collection Whale Song: A Poet’s Journey into Cancer. (Dream Garden Press, 2007).

Music this week is from Oscar Peterson’s Easter Suite for Jazz Trio -- the quietly stunning “Why Have You Betrayed Me?”.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #56

Report #55

2010-03-29T12:32:00.000-06:00

This week's Report is a special "on the road" edition, coming to you from the Sonoran Desert of southwest Arizona. I flew down for some hiking with my cousin in the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness before driving up through Utah for a reading at Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake. The landscapes were incomparable and it was great adding almost a dozen birds to my life list.

The poem for this week was untitled when I read it for the show. Now I'm calling it "Origins."

Music this week is by Jim Pepper from his album The Path (Enja, 1988). It's a Thelonius Monk tune called "Reflections." The album features Pepper on tenor sax, Kirk Lightsey on piano, Santi DeBriano on bass and John Betsch on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #55

RFTM on the Road

2010-03-22T06:50:00.001-06:00

So there's no new Report for today: I'm down in southern Arizona for some hiking in the Cabeza Prieta with my cousin Doug Peacock. Then we'll be in slickrock country in southern Utah for a bit on our way up to Salt Lake for a reading at the legendary Ken Sanders Rare Books.

I'll have a show recorded about our trip for next week's installment, but for now, you really should check out these two books to get in the mood:

Walking it Off by Doug Peacock
Desert Solitaire by Ed Abbey

Report #54

2010-03-15T06:00:00.001-06:00

This week's poem, "On Amatique, Missing Dawn," comes from the time I was living in Chiapas, Mexico and traveling during a break from teaching for Semana Santa. We had spent a couple of days in Livingston, Guatemala, a rasta town with a large Garifuna population. The Garifuna people are a mix of Arawak and West African ancestors. After a wild visit (perhaps to be written about one of these days), we took the ferry across the Bahia de Amatique back to Puerto Barrios where we could catch a chicken bus back to Guatemala City. The poem takes place during this ride.

Since the poem is set in the Caribbean, I kept with the theme for this week's music: "Haitian Fight Song" from 1955's Charles Mingus Quintet Plus Max Roach. The album features Mingus on bass, Roach on drums (though not on this particular track, that's covered by Willie Jones), Eddie Bert on trombone, George Barrow on tenor sax, and Max Waldron on piano.

Click Below to Listen to the Episode:
Report #54

Report #53

2010-03-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

This week's poem, "Stone for a Sling," was sent to me from the poet Yusuf Eradam from his collection Gullible Travels.

Yusuf is a poet, short-story writer, translator, essayist, photographer and musician from Istanbul, Turkey. More information, and many of his poems, can be found (in both English and Turkish) at his website: yusuferadam.com.

Yusuf's translation of my poem "Grandpa Scarecrow" ("Korkuluk Dede") can be found here.

The music featured this week is "Tadd's Delight" by the Sonny Clark Trio (Blue Note, 1957). It features Clark on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Jo Jones on drums.

Listen to the episode here:
Report #53

Report #52

2010-03-01T11:45:00.001-07:00

This week's poem takes us far from the Absarokas, back to a quiet spring-fed lake in Michigan. Back to the first place I was overwhelmed by the whispers of the forest. The poem is called "Loon Point (Gavia Immer)" and comes from my book The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds.

If you are lucky enough to know Camp Rotary, sit at the firebowl in early spring or winter (when the lush undergrowth isn't hiding the shape of the land), and look across to the peninsula. The name of this poem will become clear.

Music this week is by Teddy Edwards from his album Mississippi Lad. (Note to Waits fans: Tom sings on a couple tracks. --Edwards was with Waits for the Heartattack and Vine tour.) The song is “Ballad for a Bronze Beauty.” The album features Edwards on tenor sax, Nolan Smith on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Art Hillery on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, Ray Armando on percussion, and Waits on vocals (2 tracks).

Listen to the episode here:
Report #52

Report #51

2010-02-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

This week's Report pays tribute to three fallen Saginistas: Bruce Crawley, Al Hellus and Buddy "Shabazz" Harris; one of the best bass players, poets and percussionists, respectively, I've ever known.

In this episode, I read two of Al's unpublished poems that he gave me. "A Plastic Haiku for The Bruce," which for me, immediately summons an image of the two of them sitting at a bar, laughing hysterically, and "Tonight: This Business of Mortality," which is vintage Hellus - his depth and insight, the kind of work that makes him one of my favorites. Way back in Episode #4, I dedicated a show to Al when he passed, where you can hear some more of his poetry. Also, one of his poems, from our book Saginaw Songs, can be found here.

The music in this week's episode is The Plastic Haiku Band doing their version of Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California." The Plastic Haiku Band featured Hellus' poetry and Crawley on bass, Shabazz on percussion, Mike Brush on keyboards, Mark Dault on drums and John Rickert on trumpet.

Click below to listen:
Report #51

Report #50

2010-02-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

This week's poem, "The Illness of Windows (Junco Hyemalis)," is part of the "Field Guide to the Birds" of my book The Moon Cracks Open.

Holding that small bird that had just been killed by flying into the window at Green Point Nature Center, I was sickened by our human weakness that necessitates buildings and therefore windows. It occurred to me that millions of animals die merely because of human actions based on weakness and fear. Our illness of windows can be seen as a metaphor extending to burning fossil fuels because of our weakness against the cold and our fear of the dark; building expressways and airliners because of our fear of the Moment (it's always more important to be somewhere else than where we always are: Here); and building guns and tanks and bombs because of our fear of the "Other," and also our weakness of defining ourselves by the things we think we own and the fear that if someone steals these things, they steal who we are. An illness indeed.

The Theodore Roethke quotation at the beginning of the poem is from his poem "The Surly One."

Music this week is the haunting and uplifting "Hymn to Freedom" by Oscar Peterson from the album Night Train (Verve, 1962. It features Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Ed Thigpen on drums.

Listen to the Episode - Click Below:
Report #50

Report #49

2010-02-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

This week's poem was written the night after my last Pine Creek reading and it contains a big error. There's a haiku from a small collection I have that has always resonated with me that I quote in this poem -- relying on my memory. But as Tom Waits says, "memory's like a train, you can see it getting smaller as it pulls away."

I remembered the poem being written by Bashō, since he is most featured in the book in question. Of course, it wasn't him at all, it was Buson. The poem, as translated by Sam Hamill, is as follows:

“This cold winter night
that old wooden-head Buddha
would make a nice fire”

So now the official version of my poem correctly identifies the haiku coming from Buson, which means the version that appears on this week's report is like a rare coin minted with some mistake, like a quarter with Washington sporting a Hitler mustache or the eagle on the back printed upside down with DDT running form its beak. A numismatist's dream.

Anyway, the poem is called "Cabin 2" and takes place in the rental cabin at Pine Creek where Richard Brautigan lived and wrote for a time. The poet Greg Keeler has some of his Brautigan stories posted at Troutball that you should check out.

Music for this episode, thanks to a gift from the harmonica king Buff Brown, is "Yesterday's Tomorrow" from Andrew Hill's Passing Ships (Blue Note, 2003). This album features Hill on piano; Joe Farrell on bass clarinet, alto flute, English horn, soprano sax, and tenor sax; Julian Priester on trombone, Dizzy Reece and Woody Shaw on trumpet, Bob Northern on French horn; Howard Johnson on tuba, bass clarinet, and late-night fries; Ron Carter on bass; and Lenny White on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #49

Report #48

2010-01-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful week enjoying the artistry of Old Man Winter. ...

The poem for this episode is by David Wagoner from his book Riverbed (Indiana University Press, 1972). It's titled "One Ear to the Ground."

Music this week is by Medeski, Martin and Wood from their CD It's a Jungle in Here. The song is a combination of two classics: Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" and Bob Marley's "Lively Up Yourself."

Listen to the complete episode by clicking below:
Report #48

Report #47

2010-01-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

This week's report tells of invisible coyotes outside my door and also the Coyote who dances with Crow through many of my poems. In this case, the poem is "Linguistics" from The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds. It's been coupled with music composed by Mike Johnston of The Northwoods Improvisers. Mike's piece is called "Crow Line."

The featured music this week is "Incident on South Street" by The Lounge Lizards from their eponymous debut.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #47

Report #46

2010-01-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

This week's poem, "Driving home through rain after the bars closed," is by David Blaine from his book Antisocial (OW Press, 2009). I wrote a review of this book that you can read at IndieBookMan.

Music this week was chosen due to the reference in David's poem: "As Bird blew be-bop / the wipers slapped / and he cranked some heat / dispelling an autumn chill." From The Legendary Dial Masters, I play two songs by Charlie Parker: "Be-bop" and "A Night in Tunisia." The first tune features Parker on alto sax, Howard McGee on trumpet, Jimmy Bunn on piano, Bob Kesterson on bass, and Roy Porter on drums. The second features Parker on alto, Miles Davis on trumpet, Lucky Thompson on tenor sax, Dodo Mamarosa on piano, Arv Garrison on guitar, Vic McMillan on bass and Roy Porter on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #46

Report #45

2010-01-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Another episode recorded during my "Winter Solstice Home Tour." From apartment 510 of the New Amadore. It was in apartments 406 and 410 that I wrote my novel A Handful of Dust as well as many of the poems that found their way into the chapbook Saginaw Songs. Another book could be written just about this building and all the wonderful people who've lived there over the years. A friend used to call it the "ghetto dorm." In this episode I call it a "fortress of cool in the heart of the Cathedral District." It's both and more. The poem of this week's episode is from that chapbook and was also published in The MacGuffin. It's called "Demolition of the Symon's Building."

Music for this week is “Stringin’ the Jug” by Gene Ammons featuring Sonny Stitt who grew up in Saginaw. It from the album The All-Star Session and features Ammons and Stitt on tenor sax, Junior Mace and Duke Jordan on piano, and Jo Jones on drums.

Listen to the episode here:

Report #45

(Many thanks to all my friends in Saginaw and Bay City for a great Solstice visit. I had wonderful shows at La Belle Epoque and Bemos Bar, great times at the Red Eye, Ewald's and White's, and reconnected with some of the best people in the universe. I'm about to hop on a plane back to the Grizfork. Be well all.)

Report #44

2010-01-04T13:04:00.001-07:00

Happy Anniversary!

This week's episode marks the one-year anniversary of Report from the Mountains. To celebrate, I went into the studios of 90.1, near my old home town of Saginaw, Michigan, to chat with station manager Howard Sharper about the origins and evolution of the show, and to read a couple poems that seem to best illustrate the Grizfork experience: "HeartStones" and "Breakfast with Matthiessen."

In 46 installments (Episode #1 was recorded before the two pilot episodes so the numbering is a bit off), RFTM has brought you over 50 poems, including many that were heard here before being read or published anywhere else. Poets other than myself who've been featured include Jim Harrison, William Heyen, Greg Keeler, Simon Ortiz, Al Hellus, Gina Myers, Carlos Cumpain, Jim Crissman and Rosie King. The Report has also brought you some of the greatest jazz ever recorded from the giants like Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, as well as from great musicians you may have heard here for the first time like The Lounge Lizards, the Arthur Blythe Trio, Faruq Z. Bey & The Northwoods Improvisers, the Tony Overwater Trio, Trevor Watts & Jamie Harris and Sahib Shihab.

Coming in this next year of RTM will be more poets and great music, as well as a few special developments I have strong hopes for. One of my goals is to find more radio stations to feature the Report. Right now, it's heard on its home station of WUCX, Delta College Public Radio, but I'm hoping soon to have it featured at several others.

Another goal for year two will be the release of a limited edition, hand-bound chapbook of poetry and observations from the Grizfork that will include many of the vignettes featured on this program. The manuscript is finished and should be in production soon. Stay tuned!

Click below to listen to the special anniversary episode:
Report #44

RFTM on Vacation

2009-12-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Report from the Mountains is on vacation this week. I hope all are having wonderful Solstice holidays.

If things work out as planned, next week's Report will be a special, in-the-studio, one-year anniversary edition. Tune in to celebrate the first year of poetry and jazz from the Grizfork Studio!

Report #43

2009-12-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

This week's poem is from a moment that happened in Michigan's upper peninsula while driving back from some shows I was teching. It's called "Northern Flicker, Highway 2 (Colaptes Auratus)" and is one that I don't often read (if at all). I think I don't like to face up to the bouts of lacks of consciousness that we humans are so damn prone to. But I suppose, if a poem can remind us of our failures, it can also spur us to do better in the next moment. At least, I hope so.

The music this week is a song called "Thermo" by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers from their album Caravan. Blakey blows my mind. The only drummers who've ever come close to his magic are Nick Ashton of the Northwoods Improvisers and whoever was playing tabla when I saw Ravi Shankar in concert. The Caravan session featured Blakey on drums, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Cedar Walton on piano, and Reggie Workman on bass.

Click below to listen to the episode:

Report #43

Report #42

2009-12-14T22:17:00.001-07:00

This week's episode features a brand new poem, "Walking After Midnight" and yes, of course that's a Patsy Cline reference. It's a well known fact that jazz, classical, and Patsy Cline are the three forms of music best designed to inspire a poet.

This week's music is a cut from Brother Jack McDuff. His take on the Avery Parrish classic "After Hours" from his release Bringin' it Home. Personnel on this album includes McDuff on Hammond B3 and piano; Mark Whitfield, John Hart and George Benson on guitar; Andrew Beals on alto saxophone; Jerry Weldon and Red Holloway on tenor saxophone; Frank Gravis on bass; and Grady Tate and Rudy Petschauer on drums.

Click below to listen:

Report #42

Report #41

2009-12-07T00:56:00.002-07:00

This week's poem is by Simon Ortiz from his collection Woven Stone (University of Arizona Press, 1992). The poem, "The Wisconsin Horse," includes this explanatory note: "It is late at night, lying drunk on the floor, hearing a church bell across the street, remembering that Wisconsin Horse this Spring."

The music for this week's episode is the title piece from Duke Ellington's Suite The River, here performed by the Tony Overwater Trio with the Calefax Reed Quintet. I was lucky enough to see this piece performed by the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra as my first introduction to it. I was stunned and completely taken by the music. Another moment of realizing the wonderful gift mid-Michigan had in the late SBSO conductor Patrick Flynn.

Click below to listen:
Report #41

Report #40

2009-11-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

This week's poem, "Winter Window," is by Gina Myers from her new book A Model Year (Coconut Books, 2009). You can read my review of this book at IndieBookMan, and Matthew Falk's review at 360 Main Street. Also, check out Gina's blog A Sad Day for Sad Birds.

The music for you this week is "St. Thomas" from Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus. This is one of those "must-have" CDs. Trust me. The album features Rollins on tenor sax, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Max Roach on drums.

Click below to listen to the full episode:
Report #40

In other news, I've joined that ridiculously named Twitter. I'll be posting updates on Report from the Mountains, my performance schedule, publications and related news, as well as the kind of observations a poet/anarchist/mountebank makes living in a cabin in the Montana wildlands. Click below to follow me.

~Marc

Report #39

2009-11-16T08:00:00.001-07:00

This week's poem came from a trip to Michigan's Mackinaw Island -- a beautiful, magical place (once you get out of the town there and away from the fudge and the "fudgies"). The single most thing that keeps this sacred island from becoming a tourist hell is the prohibition of cars.

The poem is called "Messenger (Bubo Virginianus)" and recounts an experience I had there; a visitation by a great horned owl. The stone I mention in this poem is still one of my most important possessions.

You can find this poem in The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds and Other Poems.

Music for this episode is from the album Jazz Sahib by Sahib Shihab. The song "Ba-Dut-Du-Dat," written by Melba Liston, features Shihab on baritone sax, Benny Golson on tenor sax, Phil Woods on alto sax, Bill Evans on piano, Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Art Taylor on drums.

Listen to the episode by clicking below:
Report #39

Report #38

2009-11-09T09:05:00.006-07:00

This week's poem is by Jim Harrison, another Michigan poet who found his way here to Paradise Valley. The poem, "The Idea of Balance is to be Found in Herons and Loons," is from his collection The Shape of the Journey (Copper Canyon Press, 1998). The poem was originally found in The Theory and Practice of Rivers (1985).

The music heard in this week's episode is from a little gem from 1959 called Red in Blues Ville by Red Garland. The song, "Trouble in Mind," features Garland on piano, Sam Jones (the song's author) on bass, and Art Taylor on drums.

Listen to the episode here:

Report #38

Report #37

2009-11-01T21:40:00.004-07:00

This week's poem is by the extraordinary poet and essayist William Heyen: "The Gift" from his collection Pterodactyl Rose - Poems of Ecology. (Time Being Books, 1991).

You can also read some of Heyen's poetry that I've recently published at CounterPunch: "Emancipation Proclamation" and "Angels."

Music this week is a jazz classic, originally known as "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and renamed on this album to "Theme for Lester Young." Mingus wrote this song as an elegy for Young who died shortly before the recording session for Ah Um where the song makes its debut. This episode features the reworking of this song found on Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus.

Click below to listen:
Report #37

This Week Was Last Week

2009-10-26T09:55:00.002-06:00

... but next week should be next week, until it becomes this week.

Episode #36, which was posted here last week, didn't air on the radio till this week, due to pledge break mayhem (which is actually the most fun time to be at the station).

Here's the skinny on last week's (this week's) show:

This week's poem, "October," is that same old story: it's over, but no one can admit it. It might be the first time I've written a fictional narrative poem. The characters and situation is invented, but I think we've all been there.

The song this week is from Freddie Hubbard's Here to Stay. A track played in honor of my dad who would have turned 81 on October 17: "Father and Son." Personnel include Hubbard (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Click below to listen to the episode:

Report #36

And since you came here for something more than a rerun of last week, here's Billy Collins doing his poem "Lanyard." (Since the song above is for my dad, here's something for my mom).

Report #36 - 19 October 2009

2009-10-19T13:33:00.002-06:00

This week's poem, "October," is that same old story: it's over, but no one can admit it. It might be the first time I've written a fictional narrative poem. The characters and situation is invented, but I think we've all been there.

The song this week is from Freddie Hubbard's Here to Stay. A track played in honor of my dad who would have turned 81 on October 17: "Father and Son." Personnel include Hubbard (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Click below to listen to the episode:

Report #36

Report #35 - 12 October 2009

2009-10-12T01:00:00.005-06:00

This week's poem is called "The Drive." It was written after driving back to Montana from a Michigan visit, rolling across the back highways of the Dakotas. Beauty and death are common companions. In this case the paradox of being stunned by the natural wonder of the Dakotas while in the process of destroying it.

The song in this week's episode is "Offering Time" from Grab This! by Johnny Griffin. It features Griffin on tenor sax, Joe Pass on guitar, Paul Bryant on organ, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Doug Sides on drums.

Click below to listen:
Report $35

Report #34 - 05 October 2009

2009-10-05T00:26:00.003-06:00

This week's poem is by William Heyen from his book Crazy Horse in Stillness (BOA Editions, 1996). "Before" offers us a glimpse of the American West before there was such a thing as "America," before there was a concept of "west," before human eyes and minds and bullets touched the landscape.

The music for this week is called "Fountain" from one of my all-time favorites: 19 Moons by Faruq Z. Bey & The Northwoods Improvisers. Featuring Bey on alto and tenor saxes, Mike Gilmore on vibes and bone guitar, Mike Johnston on bass, Nick Ashton on drums, Len Bukowski on clarinet, and Patrick Boyer on Tambura.

Click below to listen:
Report #34

Report #33 - 28 September 2009

2009-09-27T21:25:00.003-06:00

This week's poem comes from some time spent on the Pine Ridge Reservation, helping to build a straw bale house for the Fast Wolf family as part of the Red Feather Development Group. "Southeast of Red Shirt" takes place one night as I walked into the darkness after most of our group had retired to their tents. The eerieness of open spaces is strong when you've spent most of your life in the Midwest.

This week's music, "'Round Midnight" is from Misterioso by Thelonious Monk. It features Monk on piano, Johnny Griffin on tenor sax, Ahmed Abdul Malik on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.

Click below to listen to the episode:
Report #33

Report #32 - 21 September 2009

2009-09-22T08:33:00.005-06:00

A brand new poem again this week called "Kestrel."

I used to see these birds, our smallest type of falcon, back in Michigan; usually perched on a power line, watching over a field, waiting for lunch to make a careless move. Out here, I see several every day, working the surrounding pastures. When the sun catches them, and you see, fully, their russet bodies, sky blue wings, and striking black facial lines (falcon's war paint) it's easy to believe that your eyes are deceiving you: giving you a fantastic image that isn't of this world. But that's the nature of nature: reality is often more fantastic than fantasy.

I found the CD that this week's song is from, Shelly Manne's Steps to the Desert, in the discount bin at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis. With the subtitle "Modern Jazz Versions of Favorite Jewish and Israeli Songs," I can see why they would think this could be a cheesy novelty album, and its true that a couple of the tracks sound like the theme song to Bewitched; however, there are enough solid tracks on this collection to take it out of the discount bin and put it on my jazz shelf, including the song in this week's episode, a very jazzed-up take on "Hava Nagila." The musicians featured are Manne on drums, Shorty Rogers on flugelhorn (trumpet on some tracks), Teddy Edwards on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano and vibes, Al Viola on guitar, and Monty Budwig on bass.

Click below to listen:
Report #32

We're Back and Better than Ever (and a Promised Link)

2009-09-18T17:21:00.002-06:00

Hello there,
Thanks to the generous help of an old friend we now have a reliable hosting source for our audio files. I've started with the most recent shows and am working my way back to transfer the files to him and fix the links. As of now, the last 8 or so shows are up and working. Enjoy.

Also, in Episode #29 I promised to let you know about a new petition to put the Yellowstone Grizzly back on the Endangered Species List where it desperately needs to be. Here it is:

Save the Yellowstone Grizzly.

~Marc

Knee-Deep in Problem Solving

2009-09-15T22:09:00.002-06:00

The links to listen to episodes are temporarily down. Sorry about that, we're working on fixing it. If you'd like to receive an e-mail when we're back up and running, join the mailing list below. Thanks. -- Marc

Report #31 -- 14 September 2009

2009-09-14T10:02:00.010-06:00

This week's poem, "Anatomy," was written while sitting at on patio bar in Livingston with a mid-afternoon hint of rain and a pint of of nice, local amber ale. While writing, I was reminded of that "head-bone's connected to the neck-bone" song and laughed out loud, getting strange looks from a nearby couple and Michael Keaton's dog who was leashed to the fence at the edge of the bar.

The poem makes reference to a line from Walking it Off by Doug Peacock:

"Ed [Abbey ] knew the best wisdom came directly from the earth; it runs right up our roots into the spirit. Walk on. The feet will inform the soul" (p. 56).

The music this week is a John Coltrane composition called "Nita." It's taken from Whims of Chambers by the Paul Chambers Sextet, featuring Chambers on bass, Coltrane on tenor sax, Donald Byrd on trumpet, Horace Silver on piano, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. It was recorded for Blue Note at the Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on September 21, 1956.

To listen to the episode, click below:
Report #31

Report #30 - 7 Sept 2009

2009-09-07T21:08:00.004-06:00

This week's poem, “Sweeping Sünyata,” was published in Saginaw Songs (Ridgeway Press, 1999) and comes from working and living at the New Amadore Apartments on Saginaw's Eastside. I ended up there after coming back to Saginaw from a month or so of wandering throughout the British Isles until every last drop of my money was spent on every last drop of Guinness. I called my friend Bob Maul and said, "I need a job and a cheap place to live." He said, "The Amadore for both." He ended up giving me my often-gifted "poet's discount." I worked about 12 hours a week and paid nothing.

Part of what I did was getting apartments ready for new tenants, and it was during that activity that I found myself sweeping the hardwood floor of #206, thinking about all the people who had lived there since 1929. Who were they? What were their stories? Their dreams and loves? Their fears and failures?

The Sanskrit word "Sünyata" is a Buddhist term meaning "emptiness" in the sense that the true nature of any phenomenon or entity, as an independent, permanent reality, is non-existent. Everything is interconnected. I, alone, and you, alone, are empty. Like St. Francis said, "It is by dying to Self, that one is born to eternal life." Like Harry Tuttle said, "We're all in this together, kid."

This week's music is from the Dexter Gordon album Doin' Allright: "For Regulars Only." This album features Gordon on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Horace Parlan on piano, George Tucker on bass, and Al Harewood on drums. You can read the liner notes here.

Listen to the Report #30 here:
Report #30

Report #29 - 31 August 2009

2009-08-30T22:42:00.004-06:00

This week's episode takes a very different approach to a report from the mountains. Massive changes are occurring here in the northern Rockies (and everywhere on Earth) that no one has the luxury of ignoring. It may well be that we are the generation of which future generations will say, "they were the ones who had the courage to stand up and change things" -- or future generations will say nothing, because they won't exist, because we weren't all that courageous after all.

There are two kinds of deniers of human-caused global warming: those who profit, directly or indirectly, from the industrial processes that are at the heart of the problem; and those who allow themselves to be misled by the former. There are no deniers who are independent, reputable, informed, and honest scientists.

(See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070202-global-warming.html
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_warming_worldbook.html)

Here in the mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (G.Y.E.), global warming has allowed an unprecedented rise in mountain pine beetle infestation of the whitebark pine forest -- a forest-type that thrives at an altitude historically too-cold for the beetles. The trees are dying at a visibly-increasing rate. A couple years ago, I could find a few scattered red spots on the mountains beyond the Grizfork Studio. This year, these areas have grown to nearly half of some mountains.

In the G.Y.E., the seeds of these trees provide the most important food source for the grizzly bear. The devastating effect of losing these trees wasn't taken fully into account when the Bush Administration made the rash and politically-based decision to remove the Yellowstone grizzly from the endangered species list. Obama promised science-based decision making, but apparently DOI Director Ken Salazar missed that memo: the Grizzly has been kept off the list.

Here's what the experts have to say:

http://www.counterpunch.org/peacock08272009.html
http://www.onearth.org/article/bear-versus-beetle

A petition to relist the grizzly has been authored by grizzly expert/activist and writer Doug Peacock and co-sponsored by author Carl Hiaasen and actor Michael Keaton. Please take a moment to read and sign this important statement.

The poem I selected to back up this issue is called "Farm Work," and tells the story of the rapid decline and extinction of the passenger pigeon. A victim of human short-sightedness and greed. Unfortunately, one of many such victims; and it's sometimes very difficult to make the case that we have learned anything from our mistakes.

I realize that this week's episode is quite different from what you've heard so far, and possibly a little hard to take. Please indulge me, though: this is too important to ignore, and we must stay aware that in order to enjoy the beauty and mystery of the wild places, we must be vigilant in our defense of them.

The music for this week is "Park Avenue Petite" from Meet the Jazztet by Art Farmer w/ Benny Golson, featuring Farmer on trumpet, Golson on tenor sax, Curtis Fuller on trombone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Addison Farmer on bass, and Lex Humphries on drums.

Listen to the episode here:
Report #29

Report #28 - 24 August 2009

2009-08-23T18:45:00.004-06:00

This week's poem is the one printed in the margin of this blog -- "Writing at Grizfork Studio." In my life, I've had a handful of perfect places to write: An enclosed balcony above a liquor store on Saginaw's southside. The third table from the door at Ewald's Bar. A small cabin in the jackpine forests outside of Grayling, Michigan. Apartments 406 & 410 at the New Amadore. A cinder block room in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. I love them all, but of all of them, the Grizfork Studio is not only the most productive, but the only one at which I don't hear near-daily gunfire.

"Assunta" is this week's music selection, pulled from Freddie Hubbard's Here to Stay album. Personnel include Hubbard (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums).

Listen to this episode here:
Report #28

Report #27 - 17 August 2009

2009-08-17T07:51:00.004-06:00

This week's poem, "Tracks in the Snow," is by Carlos Cumpián from his collection Coyote Sun, published by March Abrazo Press.

I met Carlos several years ago when he and his wife, poet Cynthia Gallaher, were featured guests at the Theodore Roethke Festival in Saginaw, Michigan. I was then one of the organizers, and had a great time hearing Carlos perform his great poetry and hanging out with him between and after events. If you're ever in Chicago (or if you already are there), try to catch a reading of his. Tell him Report from the Mountains sent you.

This week, to mark the passing of the legendary musician and inventor Les Paul, we have two songs featuring the guitar. "Fingerpickin" is the title track from Wes Montomery's 1957 album. This is followed by "3 Wishes" from Ornette Coleman & Prime Time's Virgin Beauty, which features Jerry Garcia on guitar.

Listen to the episode here:
Report #27

Report #26 - 10 August 2009

2009-08-10T08:18:00.003-06:00

This week's poem lay forgotten in a journal from 2004. "This Song Playing" was written back in Saginaw on the porch of The 303. Somehow, I can't remember what song was playing.

The music this week, "It's Only a Paper Moon" features the group led by one of my favorite drummers, Art Blakey (he's at the top of the short list with Philly Joe Jones and Nick Ashton): The Jazz Messengers have had many great releases, including The Big Beat (Blue Note; recorded 6 March 1960). Personnel include: Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Lee Morgan (trumpet, flugelhorn), Bobby Timmons (piano), Jymie Merritt (bass), and Blakey (drums).

Listen to the episode here:
Report #26

Report #25 - 03 August 2009

2009-08-03T09:15:00.004-06:00

This week's poem "Astronomy, 1:07 AM" was written at the Hamilton St. Pub in Saginaw, after listening to a public radio news report on black holes earlier in the day. NPR and PBR have a way of mixing in a poet's brain. I chose this poem to celebrate International Canned Beer Month, which takes place each August. Of course, in this poem, I'm drinking bottles rather than cans. I have another poem that has a can of beer in it, but in that poem I'm specifically not drinking it. Anyway, happy ICBM!

Music this week is "Break Tune" from Spirits in the Field by the Arthur Blythe Trio: Blythe on alto sax, Bob Stewart on tuba, and Cecil Brooks III on drums.

Listen to the episode here:
Report #25

Report #24 - 27 July 2009

2009-07-28T14:45:00.005-06:00

The poet Greg Keeler is featured in this week's episode with a reading of his poem "At the Chittenden Locks" from his book Epiphany at Goofy's Gas (Clark City Press, 1991).

I first met Greg over some games of pool at a Bozeman bar, and since have shared a stage with him at Mike Cloud Divine's Main Street Show. In addition to being a fine poet, he's a singer/songwriter, humorist, playwright, professor and mushrooming king (the chanterelles he brought to our dinner last week were among the top seven most delicious things I've eaten).

The music this week is "He's a Real Gone Guy" from 1959's Red in Blues-ville by the Red Garland Trio (Garland on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Art Taylor on drums).

Listen to the full episode here:
Report #24

Report #23 - 20 July 2009

2009-07-20T22:49:00.005-06:00

One of my most important daily jobs here at the Grizfork is to sit on the porch with a glass of wine or a beer each evening and watch the sunset. (It's a rough and difficult job, but someone's got to do it: If people stopped watching the sun go down, it might decide not to come back up.) This week's poem, "Birds of Paradise Valley, MT," comes from one of these sunset sessions a couple of years ago. The birds that had grown quiet were mostly magpies and meadowlarks, with a few partridge and juncos thrown in for good measure.

For any of you who may have thought last week's Albert Ayler was a bit "out there" (though I did pick one of his lesser-challenging pieces), this week I smooth things down with a familiar tune that we've all first heard performed by a floppy, felt frog. Joe Raposo's [It's Not Easy] "Bein' Green" is here performed by Jackie McLean & The Great Jazz Trio from their album New Wine in Old Bottles. McLean is on alto sax and the Great Jazz Trio consists of Hank Jones, piano; Ron Carter, bass; and Tony Williams, drums.

Listen to the full episode here:
Report #23

Report #22 - 13 July 2009

2009-07-13T09:47:00.004-06:00

Back in the day of poetry slams at the Red Eye Coffeehouse, and events like the Roethke Festival, there was a gang of poets in Saginaw dubbed "Saginistas" by Detroit's M.L. Leibler. Al Hellus, myself, Monica Rico, Jim Crissman, and others, would share new poems and rounds of drinks at Steamer's after the reading (though these sessions were the real poetry event).

This week's poem is by one of these Saginistas, Jim Crissman, from his book Jailbait in Holy Water published by Pudding House Publications in 1998. "Boy Lily" is haunting and beautiful, like many of the poems in this collection.

The music for this week comes from the extensive box set of Albert Ayler's recordings, Holy Ghost. It's an untitled blues track from disc 6. Today is Ayler's birthday, as well as a great friend of mine and big fan of Ayler, Todd (One-of-Your-Four-Basic-Food-Groups; my co-Witch Doctor of Jazz) Berner. Happy birthday to you both!

Listen to the full episode here:
Report #22

Report #21 -- 6 July 2009

2009-07-06T19:15:00.006-06:00

This week's poem is nary a week old. Does anyone say that? "Nary"? It comes from "Ne'er a" as in "never a." In which case, this use is wrong. The poem will be a week old, quite soon. "After the Storm" comes from a spell of re-reading Bashō on the night of an amazing storm that swept through our valley. The kind of storm that makes you feel like Victor Frankenstein.

And the music! One of the greatest performances I've ever seen was the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra with the Brush/Street Band pulling off the schizophrenic Suite for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Piano Trio by Claude Bolling. In this episode, we have the third movement, "Enjouée," performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, Jean-Pierre Rampal conducting.

Listen to this week's episode:
Report #21

Report #20 -- 29 June 2009

2009-06-28T22:38:00.005-06:00

This week's poem, "Distillation," was inspired by a line found in a small paperback edition of How to Know the American Mammals by Ivan T. Sanderson: "The average size of all living things is a housefly." When you stumble upon a line like that, you just have to write a poem. You really have no choice in the matter.

The poem addresses the excesses of the human animal; numerous destructive aspects that, if we could divest ourselves of, we and the world could possible know peace. It reminds me of a line by Miscellaneous Jones: "The city is a jungle, but the jungle isn't."

And in that vein, this week's music is from the CD It's a Jungle in Here by Medeski Martin & Wood. A song titled "Beeah," recorded in New York in August of 1993. With John Medeski on organ, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass, the album also features guest musicians: Steven Bernstein on trumpet and flugelhorn, Josh Roseman on trombone, Jay Rodrigues on tenor and alto saxes, Dave Binney on alto sax, and the enigmatic Marc Ribot on guitar.

Listen to the full episode here:
Report #20

Report #19 -- 22 June 2009

2009-06-22T21:11:00.004-06:00

Summertime, and the living is easy. Sorry this is a day late, but the housebuilding has been racking my brain lately. This week's poem is a great memory and celebration of summer. It's called "Tawas Point, Earlier (Larus Argentatus)" about an aspect of Michigan I greatly miss, and a dear friend I also miss.

The song this week is from a live Tom Waits show in Sydney, Australia in 1979. He mixes his song "Burma Shave" with my favorite song of all time, "Summertime" by Dubose Heyward from Porgy & Bess. Tom's take on it is too long for this show, so I had to edit out most of the Burma Shave portion. To atone for that crime, here's the whole thing from another concert:

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains19.mp3

Report #18 -- 15 June 2009

2009-06-14T23:10:00.005-06:00

More or less the final installment of the "On the Road" episodes: recorded back here at the Grizfork Studio, but discussing a North Dakota night: a long drive after the world's greatest picnic in Minneapolis. Delicious. Amazingly, wondrously, undeservedly delicious ... but I digress.

The poem this week is by another Saginaw expatriate, Rosie King, who I met at the Roethke Centennial celebration. "Night Heron" from her book Sweetwater, Saltwater. She shares with Roethke the ability to really see a bird, a moment, a small/vast epiphany.

This week's music is a take on the Chano Pozo Latin classic "Tin Tin Deo," pulled from Tough Tenor Favorites by The Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Quintet, featuring Griffin and Davis on tenor saxes, Horace Parlan on piano, Buddy Catlett on bass, and Ben Riley on drums.

Listen to the full episode (10 min.) here:
reportfromthemountains18.mp3

The Lost Report -- 8 June 2009

2009-06-07T23:45:00.003-06:00

For what was intended to be the third of the special "On the Road" episodes, I planned on stopping at an off-the-beaten-path motel somewhere in North Dakota to record and send out the show. However, there was no room at the inn. Or the next one. Or any of them, apparently. In fact, most places I pulled off that claimed to have a motel nearby had nothing but vast plains of darkness; maybe a farmhouse or cow pasture.

So today we aired an "encore" performance of Episode #3 (which is what you call re-runs in public radio when the host takes a vacation, or in my case, sleeps in the back of his Jeep in the middle of nowhere, with no access to electricity or internet. You can listen to that episode here.

In the meantime, here's a selection of sample poems from some of my favorite shows:

Report #17 – 01 June 2009

2009-06-01T12:45:00.004-06:00

(Photo by Sara Choate)

Report from the Mountains is still on the road this week, recording from the back room of Ewald’s Bar, my former writing studio and one of the places I miss most being out west. I ended up there after a short hike in the Crow Island Refuge that skirts River Road just north of Saginaw. There’s two poems in this week’s episode – one for each of these places.

The first, “Another Blue (Ardea Herodias),” was written after a day spent in Crow Island, exploring the marshes and following deer trails. I think it’s the first time that I’ve written a poem in third person that’s about myself. For many reasons, it needed that distance and anonymity. In a way, this poem is about distance: a distant memory, the prehistoric distance of pterodactyls and archaeopteryx, and the immense distance between the power of the experiences with Great Blue Heron and the weakness of that world symbolized by a buzzing airplane.

The second poem is explained by its title: “View from My Window at Ewald’s.” It’s a simple catalogue of the images that come as I sit at my favorite table with journal, pen and bottle on any given night, at the favorite local bar, in any given Midwestern, economically ravaged city. It’s a gritty, harsh, lonely reality; but most importantly, closer than all of that, is the reflection of beauty and friendship, and, always there to save us, music.

This week’s song shares that gritty, urban reality, and adds humor and groove. It’s “Hair Street” from the Lounge Lizards’ Big Heart – Live in Tokyo. If you’re not familiar with this group, you may know the band’s frontman, John Lurie, for his numerous movie soundtracks including Get Shorty. Or, you’ve seen and heard him in many Jim Jarmusch movies (my favorite is Down By Law, with Lurie, Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni). Find all you can by Lurie and the Lounge Lizards – tell ‘em Report from the Mountains sent ya – you’ll by glad you did.

Listen to the entire episode here (10 min.):

reportfromthemountains17.mp3

Report #16 - 25 May 2009

2009-05-24T18:29:00.006-06:00

A special "on the road" version of the Report this week. I stopped along the northern tip of Lake Michigan just off Hwy 2 -- one of my favorite stretches of road in the world -- with whitecaps breaking on the sand and the sun sinking into the water. Another trip through the Prairie and Badlands on "Blue Highways," and a great two-days at Bedlam Theatre in MNPLS for their 10-Minute Play Fest and the great pleasure of making new friends and reconnecting with old. (Silver and gold.)

This week's poem was written along this stretch of Hwy 2, on my way to see Tom Waits in MNPLS (Yes, I did include that detail just to make you jealous). "Plum" is one of those poems where "that which is not experienced" holds more delight than "that which is." Or at least, I think that's what I'm getting at in it.

To go along with the crashing waves, the music this week is "Water" from Jim Pepper's Comin' and Goin' release. Pepper's work is a great fusion of jazz and traditional Native American music styles. He's worth checking out if you don't know his work.

Listen to Report #16 here:

reportfromthemountains16.mp3

Report #15 - 18 May 2009

2009-05-18T10:19:00.005-06:00

"La Sona de la Mar," this week's poem, is a summing up of my time spent living in Chiapas and traveling through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. It's a summing of political realities and spiritual revelations. The original version of the poem went like this:

La sona de la mar es silencio
La luz de la luna
sobre el aqua
es un camino a infinidad

Whenever you find yourself using the word "infinity" in a poem, it's time for a rewrite. Even if it's in Spanish.

The final version (mostly in English) is from The Moon Cracks Open and contains what I think may be the wisest line I've ever written: "What is the soul if not the sum of the flights of a thousand birds." I think that line contains my entire religious system.

The version heard in this episode is from a performance I did at Mike Cloud Devine's "Main Street Show" in Livingston, Montana. A great series that features music, poetry, comedy and improv. Something to catch if you're in the area at the right time.

The music is the song "Sarawak" from Ancestry by Trevor Watts and Jamie Harris. This is a CD that a friend passed along to me a while back, and I've been wanting to feature a song from it since. It's on the Entropy Stereo label, which is a gem for lovers of experimental, improvisational jazz and world music.

Trevor writes that his latest release is The Deep Blue on Berlin's Jazzwerkstatt label. And that he will be coming to the states in February with a performance at William Paterson University in New Jersey on the 14th. They may add a few more shows -- check his MySpace page to find out more.

Listen to the episode here:
reportfromthemountains15.mp3

Report #14 - 11 May 2009

2009-05-11T09:08:00.009-06:00

[First of all, I want to thank whomever left the comment at the Report from the Mountains website for correcting my math. At the top of each episode, I told you that the winds of the poem were coming to you at 340 miles per second when what I meant was METERS per second, or the speed of sound. Furthermore, if you’re talking about the speed of the radio waves moving from transmitter to receiver, it would be 186,000 miles per second; although I was more thinking of the sound coming from your speakers to your ears. I could say a fifth of a mile per second or use meters, but none of this has the right ring to it, so I’m bagging the whole thing.]

This week's poem is "My Bones (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus)." The parenthetical part of the title is the Latin name for Bald Eagle, which is the bird that came to me in a dream one morning -- A vivid dream that's described in this poem. Dreaming of an eagle is a gift I don't take lightly, and it affected me such that I quite literally felt it, and do feel it, in my bones. Often, a poem is the after-image, the residue, of the experience of the Poem. This one is a good example of that. ... The Shroud of Turin School of Poetics.

The background music during the vignette is Mike Johnston's "Pre-Text I." I think it works better with a slice o' nature than continuing Dolphy's "Hat and Beard." We'll try it for a while and see if it sticks. In the meantime, check out Mike's band here: http://www.northwoodsimprovisers.com/

The music in this episode is the first track off Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, "Ruby, My Dear." In addition to Monk (on piano) and Trane (on tenor sax), the album features Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax), Ray Copeland (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto sax), Wilber Ware (bass), and Art Blakey and Shadow Wilson (drums). If this version is just a little too soft and smooth for you, you can check out Hawkins taking the lead on it on Monk's Music, which has the same band except for the inclusion of Wilson.

*Note: If you listen closely to this week's episode, you can hear Banshee making her recording debut. Here's her official press photo:

Listen to the Episode here:
reportfromthemountains14.mp3

Report #13 - 04 May 2009

2009-05-04T10:48:00.004-06:00

I am always amazed that despite our profoundly short-sighted and greedy abuse of the Earth, that we still are given the gifts of delicious and healthy sustenance, not to mention fields blanketed in wildflowers, mountain vistas, symphonies of bird song, and the annual dance of the seasons. Surely, we don't deserve such grace, but fortunately the Earth seems to agree with Shakespeare in that "use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? ... The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty."

It's this amazement, and the resulting desire to repay such gifts, that my poem "Warrior" expresses. I'm left with the sentiment best expressed by Earth First! -- "No compromise in defense of Mother Earth." I also believe the truth of Sun Tzu in The Art of War, "to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." But whatever kind of warrior one is, there's a lot of work to be done.

The music on this episode is "Venus and the Moon" from The Johnny Griffin Sextet's Little Giant, and features Griffin on tenor sax, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums.

Listen to the episode here:
reportfromthemountains13.mp3

Report #12 - 27 April 2009

2009-04-27T14:57:00.003-06:00

I was born on Easter Sunday and the anniversary of Lincoln's death. I had nothing to do with either event.

This week's poem is called "Birthday Poem, 2009." I've been trying to write one of these on each birthday for the last several years. They are sort of my State of the Poet Address. This year finds me in better sorts than the last few have. Thank you, Rocky Mountains.

The music is the final movement of Oscar Peterson's profoundly beautiful Easter Suite for Jazz Trio. The track is titled "He Has Risen." If this had been the music played in the church I went to as a child, along with Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers or The Carter Family; I'd probably still be showing up every Sunday with, as my brother says, "a Bible in one hand and a Hymnal in the other." The recording features Oscar Peterson on piano, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass, and Martin Drew on drums.

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains12.mp3

Report #11 - 20 APRIL 2009

2009-04-20T09:52:00.004-06:00

A special edition of the Report this week in honor of National Poetry Month.

The great bass player and instrumentalist Mike Johnston recently send me a CD of his compositions partly inspired by my poetry and this program. He and I both find inspiration in crows. In my poem "Linguistics (Corvus Brachyrhychos)" I write:

"... all I want
in this life
of sand and glass
and thorns and bread
is to understand the language of the crows."

When I listened to Mike's musical conversations with these birds, I realized that he has come a long way in doing just that. This episode blends his music with a couple of my crow poems, "Grandpa Scarecrow" which is from the chapbook The Lost Writings of Miscellaneous Jones, and "Linguistics" from the book The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds.

The music compositions used in this episode are "Malika," a McCoy Tyner bass riff combined with crows in Mike's yard; "Pre-Text I," performed on Inanga -- a zither-like instrument from Burundi; and "Crow Line," performed on Native American flute.

Incidentally, for those of you in Michigan, Mike's band Faruq Z. Bey & The Northwoods Improvisers will be performing April 23 at the Central Michigan University Library Auditorium in Mt. Pleasant. If you are a fan (and you should be) of experimental, improvisational jazz and world music, you must not miss catching these guys live.

This week's episode closes with "Green Star," a Mike Gilmore composition from The Northwoods Improvisers' release Constellations. This album features Gilmore on guitar, saz, kalimba and shakers; Johnston on bass, inanga, wood flutes, shakers and bone guitar; Kirk Lucas on guitar, tamboura and percussion; Mike List on tabla and percussion; Mike Khoury on violin; Nick Ashton on drums; and Don Barber on frame drum and bells.

For another taste of the great music of this band, the video trailer for The Moon Cracks Open features their song "Rwanda":

Listen to "Report from the Mountains" Episode #11 here:
reportfromthemountains11.mp3

Report #10 - 13 APR 2009

2009-04-13T12:28:00.004-06:00

This week's episode features the poem "A Night Without Sirens -- Scalplock Lookout" by Montana poet David E. Thomas from his book Buck's Last Wreck; 1996, Wild Variety Books. I can't find much online about Thomas, but this is from the book cover:

"David E. Thomas was born and grew up on the Hi-Line in Northcentral Montana. Following his graduation from Chinook High School he entered the University of Montana where his life began to change in unexpected ways. Initially an enthusiastic ROTC cadet, he won a scholarship for his junior and senior years, but as the Vietnam War ground on and on his conscience demanded a shift in perspective and he found himself part of the psychedelic movement on the streets of San Francisco. There he became acquainted, through their work, with his immediate literary forebearers, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Richard Brautigan, Allen Ginsberg and many lesser lights prowling the Haight-Ashbury and North Beach in the late sixties and early seventies. Economic realities drove him to seek and find work, first on railroad gangs, but also on big construction projects like Libby Dam. He has also worked on a potato ranch, picked cherries on Flathead Lake and traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico and Central America with brief visits to Columbia and Ecuador. He currently lives in Missoula, Montana, eking out an existence as a janitor and odd job man while writing continuously."

This week's music is the Einar Aaron Swan standard "When Your Lover Has Gone" from the album Jazz Giants '58. Musicians on this release are Stan Getz (tenor sax), Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), Oscar Peterson (piano), Harry Edison (trumpet), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and Louie Bellson (drums).

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains10.mp3

Report #09 - 06 April 2009

2009-04-06T11:19:00.004-06:00

The description of a lakeside trail in this week's Report is at Keypayshowink (Camp Rotary, near Clare, MI). My summers there are still the greatest segment of my life. However, the poem, "I Declare it Spring," was written at Green Point in Saginaw, where your tax dollars allowed me to watch birds, wander the forest, and teach kids that nature is cool. Thanks.

The music for this episode comes from an amazing cd from the Northwoods Improvisers, Constellations. I recently received this great gift in the mail from my friend Mike who plays bass in this band, and hosts one of the best jazz shows in the nation, Destination Out. The song is titled Tenere', which is the name of a desert region in the south central Sahara. I first heard this song performed with the extended band, Faruq Z. Bey & the Northwoods Improvisers at one of their gigs in Detroit, and was hypnotized by it. Look for more Northwoods Improvisers' music in upcoming episodes of Report from the Mountains. Better yet, get their CDs!

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains09.mp3

Report #08 - 30 March 2009

2009-03-30T13:50:00.002-06:00

This week's poem is a new piece titled "HeartStones."

Once the river settles down, we'll be throwing in the drift boat, raft or canoe at least once a week. Our floats take us past bald eagles and ospreys, sandhill cranes and great blue herons. We stop at sprawling, rock-strewn shoals where my cousin and friends perform the balletic dance of fly-fishing. Not being much of a fisherman, I instead wander the banks, trying to spot new birds like the water ouzel or looking for pieces of petrified wood and heartstones.

Heart-shaped stones seem to be fairly common along the Yellowstone. They may be common on any rocky-shored river for all I know, but this is the only place where I've found them. There's something magic about them. Something romantic and nostalgic. Archaic and arcane. Folks around here have them decorating window sills, bookshelves and potted plants. They are used as gifts when visiting a grave, or given to friends, relatives and lovers. The first one I found, I brought back to Michigan and gave to my mom; partly a birthday present and partly as a talisman to see her through the radiation treatments.

It seems to have worked. Geologic medicine. Why not?

Music this week is the Bobby Watson composition, "Bit a Bittadose" from Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers Big Band Live at Montreux and Northsea, recorded in 1980. This album features Robin Eubanks (Trombone), Bill Pierce (Tenor Sax), Boby Watson (Alto Sax), James Williams (Piano), Charles Fambrough (Bass), Art Blakey (Drums), Kevin Eubanks (Guitar), Branford Marsalis (Alto & Baritone Sax), Wynton Marsalis (Trumpet) and John Ramsey (Drums).

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains08.mp3

Report #07 - 16 March 2009

2009-03-15T22:26:00.003-06:00

This week’s poem is “Farm Work (Ectopistes Migratorius)” taken from The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds. It’s by far the most researched poem I’ve ever written. In reading up on the Passenger Pigeon, the story I found utterly compelling was that of Press Clay Southworth, the young farmboy who would go down in history as the person to shoot the last pigeon ever to be seen in the wild. Press lived until 1979, to the age of 94. It strikes me – the thought of living all those years, through all the changes and struggles and adventures of a life; with the fact of that single shot and that single bird always looming at the starting point.

Incidentally, the last passenger pigeon that ever lived (in captivity) was Martha, named after President Washington’s wife. She died about 1:00 pm on September 1, 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. This is a rare case in which we know, almost to the minute, when an extinction of a species occurred. I think one of the great tragedies of humanity is that the list of plants and animals that will never be seen again, directly due to our short-sightedness, greed and apathy, is ever-growing. And we seem to have learned nothing from the mistakes of the past.

The music for this episode is “She Drove Me Mad” from the 1998 Lounge Lizards release Queen of All Ears. I caught their show during the tour for this album. It was my third best concert ever (after Tom Waits and Ravi Shankar). The band leader, John Lurie, is also a great actor (check out Down by Law) and the creator of the brilliant parody show Fishing with John. However, he’s still on my shit-list for kicking my friend Todd off the bus even though Todd gave a perfectly valid response while playing the Name Game. … Todd, you are ON the bus.

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains07.mp3

Report #6 - 09 MAR 2009 (Jim Harrison and Flies)

2009-03-04T21:36:00.007-07:00

This week's poem is by the poet and novelist Jim Harrison: part Basho, part Bakunin, and part Bukowski. The poem, "North," is from an amazing little book called After Ikkyu and Other Poems. It's a small and powerful Shambala edition of zen-inspired poems.

I've been lucky enough to share a few dinners, several conversations, and many drinks with Jim -- always an inspiring event. Here's an excerpt from an essay I wrote in the summer of '07:

"The full moon has just broken free of the mountain pass at Pine Creek. I finish a beer reclining on the hood of Clyde. He has new-used tires from a junk yard in White Sulphur Springs and feels like a new man, or a new truck anyway. I feel like an old man, and love that feeling.

'So, what do you do, old man?'
'I'm a cloud-watcher.'
'What's that mean?'
'It means I lie on the hood of my truck and watch the clouds.'
'Oh. ... What do you do at night?'
'Watch stars.'

"That full moon now commands my window and makes me wonder what the hell am I doing indoors. ... I will sleep in the hammock tonight, and the moon will whisper dreams in my ear.

"Earlier today, I met Jim Harrison for drinks at the Murray Bar. He goes there because it's one of the few bars in Livingston where you can still smoke. He smokes American Spirit, and for that alone I consider him a good man. But beyond that, he's one of the greatest living American poets. He's good enough to write: 'God is terse. The earth's proper scripture could be carried on a three-by-five card if we weren't drunk on our own blood.' And then on the next page, write: 'I poke my stick in the moon's watery face, then apologize.'

"This is a fragment of our conversation:

"Jim: 'To write a poem requires a state of metaphysical unease. You can't be uptight. You need to be vulnerable. A certain vulnerability, like you kill a fly and then wonder, why did I do that?'
Marc: 'Then you're almost ready to write a poem.'
Jim: 'Right. Almost ready. It's The Fly Test.'

"I tell him of my poem that was inspired by the line in How to Know the American Mammals. -- 'The average size of all living things is a housefly.' He tells me that he has two poems inspired by flies, and now I have to sift through his dozens of books to find those poems. But first, I'll finish this next beer, and then grab a blanket and head out to the hammock and see what the moon has to tell me."

[Jim, if you're reading this, I have bad news for you: The Murray has gone non-smoking. What's left? Maybe the Old Saloon in Emigrant?]

The music featured in this episode is from Yusuf Lateef's 1961 release Eastern Sounds: "Blues for the Orient." It has Lateef on oboe (on other tracks, he plays flute, tenor sax and xun - an ancient instrument also called a "blob flute" by the Easy Guitar Superstars and featured in their seminal hit "Peter Brady"). The other players are Buddy Harris on piano, Ernie Farrow on bass, and Lex Humphries on drums.

Listen to the full episode here:
reportfromthemountains06.mp3

Report #05 - 02 MAR 2009

2009-03-01T14:10:00.003-07:00

The two poems featured in this week's Report are both about Branta canadensis, the Canada Goose. Great flocks of these birds converge on the marshes of the Shiawassee NWR near my old town of Saginaw, Michigan. Their sound can be heard from a mile away and up close, is deafening. Also, we used to have nesting pairs on Beebe Lake at Camp Rotary. I once slowly walked up to one on the north end of the lake, talking quietly until I was close enough to touch him. I didn't try, and after a while, he walked to the lake's edge and calmly swam away. That kind of stuff used to happen to me all the time when I lived there. Truly a magical place.

The first poem is by my late uncle Henry Colebank, author of half a dozen really wonderful chapbooks. "Wild Geese" is the title poem of one of my favorites. I love his use of internal rhyme and the musical economy of his writing. You should have heard it in his voice -- a powerful and moving experience.

My response to his poem is my piece titled "The Things We've Lost (Branta Canadensis)." It comes from a moment I was given while hiking at Green Point. A handful of geese passed overhead, low enough for me to listen to the song of their wings, like small distant bullroarers being spun. The three lines written at my uncle's funeral that I reference were a haiku that was published in my chapbook The Lost Writings of Miscellaneous Jones. Here it is:

Rain clouds mourn our loss
The poet makes his passage
Wild Geese bear him home

This week's music selection is "What's It All About?" from 1959's Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges. Personnel on this album: Gerry Mulligan (Baritone Saxophone), Johnny Hodges (Alto Saxophone), Claude Williamson (Piano), Buddy Clark (Double Bass), and Mel Lewis (Drums).

And now, I'm heading up to Bone Field and beyond. Thanks for supporting "Report from the Mountains."

Listen to this week's full episode here:
reportfromthemountains05.mp3

Second Times a Charm

2009-02-24T11:50:00.002-07:00

Well, that was fun.

Seems that our method of sending the "Report from the Mountains" from Montana to the studios of WUCX in Michigan has failed us: the files were teetering on the edge of being too large to e-mail. The episode that should have aired yesterday (2/23) tipped the scales and, although my computer told me it went, it didn't.

So you were treated to a repeat of the previous episode; which is okay because Al Hellus deserved another listen. And it made me notice that in the post for that episode, I neglected to tell you about the music selection.

The song was "Birk's Works," a Dizzy Gillespie tune, from 1957's Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section where Art's alto sax is paired with the Miles Davis regulars: Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

You can listen to Dizzy's original here.

And now, through a combination of luck, sorcery, mojo, meetings at the crossroads and buying an unction of a mountebank, we've developed a method of getting the episodes on their merry way through cyberspace from this little mountain cabin to the radio studio nestled deep in the bowels of Delta College. Lord willin' and the Creek don't rise, we should have uninterupted broadcasts from here on (knock on wood).

In the meantime, you can listen to the previous "Report from the Mountains" episode here:
reportfromthemountains04.mp3

Station Snafu -- Last Week's Report Rebroadcast

2009-02-09T12:30:00.002-07:00

Those pesky computers. Somehow last week's episode was aired instead of the new one featuring poems by Al Hellus. Both are posted below (#3 and #4). Hopefully #4 will air on February 16.

Sorry about the mix-up.

Report #4 / 09 FEB 2009 (Tribute to Al Hellus)

2009-02-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

This week's "Report from the Mountains" is my tribute to a recently lost friend: the poet laureate of Hamilton St., the One They Call Al (Oh, hell yeah) Hellus. Over the years, Al and I worked on countless projects together, from poetry slams at the Red Eye and the annual Theodore Roethke Festival to benefits for Emmaus House and tributes to Ginsberg and Dylan. At one point, we were setting up so many poetry events in Saginaw, that the editor of the local paper told the arts editor, "You're doing too many stories on poetry. I don't want to see any for awhile."

But, despite editorial idiocy, the events continued, under Al's Drainage Basin Artists Alliance or my Collective Artists Gallery, we (but mostly Al) brought in guest poets and performers like Ed Sanders, William Heyen, Tess Gallagher, Country Joe McDonald, John Sinclair, , Linda Nemec Foster, Faye Kicknosway, Carlos Cumpian and Bob Hicok. We also had poetry bands, like my Miscellaneous Jones, Al's Plastic Haiku Band, M.L. Leibler and the Magic Poetry Band, Richard Tillinghast with Poingant Plecostomus, and Spoke. (Check out those links -- there's some great poetry and music to be found.)

Probably the project I'm most glad to have done was our co-authored poetry book: Saginaw Songs which was published in 1999 by Ridgeway Press. It includes Saginaw-based poetry by the two of us, as well as illustrations by Duane Miller. It's out a print, but you can read a couple poems from it here.

In closing, here's a journal entry I made after hearing of Al's death:

"Because I moved away before he died,
it doesn't seem like he's gone.
Rather, it just seems that Al & I are living in different towns.
Mine w/ changing seasons & the hiss of tires over pavement.
His w/ a river that flows continually w/ poetry
& gulls that keep one eye,
always,
on the poet at his table
performing origami w/ his soul."

Listen to the episode here:
reportfromthemountains04.mp3

Report #3 / 02 FEB 2009

2009-02-03T10:12:00.004-07:00

The last of the episodes recorded before the program began to air, this report takes us on a walk up through the pasture east of the Grizfork Studio, rising to the treeline marking the path of the south fork of Deep Creek. The field is divided into four sections by old cattle fences, and on this walk, I found names for each based on their defining feature. The section pictured above is called Grandfather Field for the giant boulders that are strewn throughout it. The one closest to the creek is Bone Field. The one below Grandfather is Drumming Deer Field, and the first one is called Spirit Owl Field. This week's poem, "Elegy," explains why:

Elegy

The owls have held nightly
a dialogue across the valley

one near the house where I stand
in crackling leaves and moonlight

the other down closer
to the tongue of the river

which licks boulders into rocks
rocks into pebbles

pebbles into sand
sand into the music of owl and leaf

until

while hiking up to Deep Creek
I find the body of a great-horned

eyeless from ravens, but
untouched by any others

that night, as I expected,
the conversation had ended

but for the next few nights after
I listened to a lone owl talking

to no one until I fell asleep
finally – dreaming of the river

–Marc Beaudin
Grizfork Studio, November 08

The music for this week's episode is "Hummin'" from Cannonball Adderley's 1969 Capitol Jazz release Country Preacher, honoring Rev. Jesse Jackson and featuring Cannonball on alto and soprano saxes, Nat Adderley (who wrote "Hummin'") on cornet, Joe Zawinul on keyboards, Walter Booker on bass, and Roy McCurdy on drums.

Listen to the episode here:
reportfromthemountains03.mp3

Report #02 / 26 JAN 2009

2009-01-26T17:18:00.003-07:00

Another episode recorded in November, describing tatters of snow on grasses now completely covered in white. And the poem, "River Music," was written several years ago while I was on the Pine Ridge Reservation, in the village of Red Shirt, helping build a straw bale house for the elders Larry and Josephine Fast Wolf. The build was a project of the Red Feather Development Group, an amazing organization that I was proud to be invited to work with. (Check out their work and support them if you can.) The poem came from a day spent drifting down the Cheyenne River like a leaf or a daydream. There's something about a river and being on, in or alongside one, that can drop you into direct contact with The Nameless. It's no coincidence that Buddha became Buddha while sitting next to a river. Or John baptized in one. Or Moses Om spent his life on one.

The photo above is the Yellowstone River near the Grizfork Studio, rather than the Cheyenne; but all rivers are connected. You can only step in the same river once. But the same river flows through you wherever and whoever you are.

The music featured this week is Charles Mingus' "Just for Laughs, Pt. 2" from His Final Work. It was recorded in New York City in November of 1977 and features Woody Shaw and Jade Walrath on trumpets, Ricky Ford and Paul Jeffrey on tenor sax, Gerry Mulligan on baritone, Bob Neloms on piano, Lionel Hampton on vibes, Charlie Mingus on bass, Dannie Richmond on drums and Peter Matt on french horn.

Listen to "Report from the Mountains," Episode 2 here:
reportfromthemountains02.mp3

Report #01 / 19 JAN 09

2009-01-20T18:28:00.012-07:00

The first episode I recorded in Montana back in early November (it may have been confusing to hear me mention a "light dusting of snow" for a piece that aired in January). This and the next couple were recorded previously, but soon the episodes will catch up and be recorded only a couple days before their air dates.

The poem "Federico Garcia Lorca Reminds me of Robert Frost" was published in Pirene's Fountain and The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds. An image from a Lorca poem (I forget which one -- the book is back in Montana and I'm currently on the road) about the moon rising with pulleys or on a rope or some such thing set me off and before I knew where I was heading, I was looking down those two beckoning roads of Frost. Here's a link to Frost reading his poem.

The music selection this week was "Images" by Sun Ra from Jazz in Silhouette, recorded in Chicago in 1958 for Evidence Music.

Listen to the Episode here:

Pilot Episode: Part II

2009-01-15T12:59:00.002-07:00

This episode actually aired on January 12, but I didn't hear it until last night. It's the rest of the in-the-studio interview with Howard, but for some reason the opening is taken from Part I. Also, I think we recorded three poems to complete the journey from Saginaw, Michigan to Livingston, Montana, but only two poems were broadcast. The third, which takes place at the Seward Cafe in Minneapolis, will forever remain a mystery (unless you buy a copy of The Moon Cracks Open (it's on page 18)).

The poems that were broadcast were two from the "Field Guide to the Birds" portion of The Moon Cracks Open. "Domestic Feral (Columba Livia)" is my discovery of the wild counterpart of our familiar pigeon - the rock dove - during my first visit (pilgrimage) to the Badlands of South Dakota. Perhaps no chunk of geography has ever affected me as strongly at this ancient seabed, eroded into fantasy by thousands of winds and memories. There's no midwestern silence that compares to the absolute Silence of this place.

The last poem, which marks my arrival at the Grizfork Studio, was "Mythology Timeline (Cygnus Buccinator). Cygnus, the Swan, has long been my favorite constellation, soaring along the murky cross-section of the Milky Way. Leda and the Swan is either a beautiful tale of love or a violent tale of lust, depending on which version you read or which painting you view. To me, it's always been a good mixture of the two. Without love, lust gets boring pretty quickly. Without lust, love becomes a little too "saintly" for my tastes. I prefer god and the devil to dance together at the prom of human emotions.

And I like it when the band plays real loud.

Pilot Episode, Part I

2009-01-05T13:19:00.005-07:00

The first in a two-part "In-the-Studio" version aired today to kick off Q90.1's newest show, "Report from the Mountains." Station Manager Howard Sharper and I recorded these two "pilot" episodes at the studios of Delta College Public Radio, as I'm currently in Michigan directing The Women of Lockerbie in Bay City.

Poems featured on today's episode were "View from My Window at Ewald's" and "Lighthouse at Manistique." The idea for these first two episodes is to chart my journey from Saginaw, Michigan to my cabin in Montana.

"View from My Window at Ewald's" takes place at my "writing studio" -- Ewald's Bar in Old Town Saginaw. It's my favorite bar in the world. "Ma" and Dee are the most wonderful bartenders to ever crack a PBR (though closely rivalled by Amy at the Owl in Livingston, MT). If you're in the Saginaw area, stop in (it's tucked under the Court St. bridge on Niagara). Tell 'em Frenchy sent you.

The second poem today, "Lighthouse at Manistique," was written while I was in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, one of the most breathtaking regions of the world. It's a good example of living fully, recklessly, and spontaneously -- an absolute requirement for a poet.

Both poems are available in my book The Moon Cracks Open: A Field Guide to the Birds.

Today's musical selection was "Giant Steps" from the 1960 album of the same name by John Coltrane. The players were Coltrane on Tenor Sax, Tommy Flanagan on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. The session was recorded in May 1959 and released on Atlantic Records.

Air Date Announced!

2008-12-18T11:22:00.002-07:00

"Report from the Mountains" will begin airing on Monday, January 5 at 8:50 am, during Morning Edition and rebroadcast during The Session sometime around 12:30 pm. The first two weeks will be a special, two-part "in the studio" pilot version that charts the journey from Saginaw, Michigan to the Grizfork Studio in Montana. Five poems are featured, along with conversation between WUCX's Howard Sharper and me. Tune in, then check back here for commentary and info. on the poems and music selections.

Coming Soon!

2008-11-21T00:50:00.002-07:00

"Report from the Mountains" will begin airing soon. Post a comment here or e-mail to receive a notice of the air date and time.