Customer Reviews

Blue Oneness of Dreams

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I heard just one song off this cd on my local public radio station and it was enough for me to jot it down and seek it out. Very lyrical, very deep, very intimate, very political, very real. One of my two favorites, "Days Going By in Broken English" addresses with great wit the cultural changes going on just out of the corner of our collective eye. The sensuality of "A Kiss in Deep Time" touched me in a special place...and that's all I'll say about that. Sekou succesfully combines spoken word w/ Jazz. A great CD, looking forward to his latest.

i heard him read and i knew i needed to find out more about him. i bought this cd and was no less impressed. he's way more than just ani's teacher. his understanding of how the sound of words and their meaning work together is incredible. he is truly amazing. i'm buying the new one too.

this is a pure taste of poetry as music. sekou is a mature writer with a velvet voice and a keen sense of musicality. if you love poetry and/or music you should diffently get this cd.

Sekou Sundiata is the closest thing I've seen to an American form of a Jamaican dub poet..."Blink Your Eyes" is a poem never to be forgotten....in the classroom it is a fabulous tool for the discussion of social injustice.

Sekou Sundiata has, without a doubt, one of the most talented voices in this time. I had the pleasure and honor of hearing him perform serveral times and I was blown away. First, by discovering I liked something called Jazzoetry, and secondly by loving it. BUY THIS CD!

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER WALT WHITMAN'S DEATH WE HAVE A NEW AMERICAN POET, SEKU SUNDIATA. HIS POETRY IS INFORMED BY AND INFUSED WITH JAZZ, AND THROUGHOUT THE CD IT BLENDS PERFECTLY WITH THE MUSIC. ONE MIGHT SAY THAT WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS SPOKEN JAZZ--EVEN HIS ACAPPELLA "HARLEM" USES THE RHYTHMS AND TEMPOS OF THE MUSIC THAT BUILT HARLEM.

MAKE NO MISTAKE: THIS IS NOT HIP-HOP OR BE-BOP--THIS IS THE REAL THING. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A COPY OF THIS RECORDING AND PLAY IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN: IT'S FUNNY, SERIOUS, OUTRAGEOUS AND COOL. IT'S POETRY, YES, BUT NOT THE DRY ACADEMIC STUFF WE LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE; IT'S RELEVANT AND TO THE POINT. THERE ARE MORE IMAGES AND SERIOUS STUFF HERE THAN A YEAR'S WORTH OF TV WATCHING. DON'T MISS IT.

The previous reviewer unfortunately does not know the difference between folk music and Jazz. Sundiata mixes spoken word with some great jazz and vocals. Even when there is no music the cadence of his delivery is jazz. Space: A Monologue is like an Eric Dolphy sax solo in poetic form. Sundiata is more than just a great poet, he is a great performer of poetry. This is a great CD!

I loaned my copy of this CD to someone about seven years ago and never got it back. Thanks to Amazon MP3 I'm able to hear Sundiata again. Sundiata is a performance poet, and some people will be able to connect with performance poetry and others won't. I think Sundiata is a sheer, disciplined, and committed artist. He's not putting on an act. He brings art, language, music, and performance together in ways that few can. This is classic performance poetry to be entertained and learned from.

This CD explores various meter, mood, melody and form without giving you the feeling of Sundiata trying to please everyone just for the sake of pleasing everyone. I listened to the CD three consecutive times while being stuck in Washington DC rush hour traffic. My trip home from Northern Virginia to Prince George's county was for once a pleasant one. The popish tune "Forsaken Sea" takes you there, the way in which the "Tin Man" from America takes you "there". It sets the mood and allows you to interpret the meaning. The musicians are flowing on this CD especially saxophonist Jorge Sylvester on the funky title track in which he plays a very hip Greg Osby"ish" solo that gives the cerebral jazz musician something to think about. But...this CD is all about Sundiata and his voice; somehow he evokes all of the overtones of a great cellist or bassoonist in that there's a constant deep and rich earth tone resonance in every word that he speaks. If he spoke incoherent gibberish throughout the CD, I would still love it based on his rhythm, timing, timbre and tone. This CD is at once easy listening, radical, hip, avant-garde, smooth jazz and poetry but never overwhelming and never boring. Hooray for Sekou...RIP.

I am a friend and colleague of the late great Sekou Sundiata. I once had this CD until I loaned it to a co-worker and never got it back. By the time all the smoke cleared I could no longer find his CD in stores. I am thrilled to once again have access to what I thought was lost forever. I had the pleasure of performing some of these songs with Sekou on two occasions at the Knitting Factory in the Village in 1993. Brother Sekou, I could never forget you or your poetic vision even if I had Alzheimer's. Please save me a spot in the ancestral realm where you now dwell.

Your Friend, Colleague and Fan,
Kwame Coston