Earth Wind Fire + Source Of All: Music and Poetry Collaboration
Updated: Mar 1, 2019

"Look back at the old things and see them in new light" —John Coltrane
Our new "Earth Wind Fire" EP is now available on Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify.

Following the release of "Lost Works," this new suite of music is Part Two of our upcoming "Triptych" LP/CD. The compositions take inspiration from the music that first inspired me: Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, the Terrence Blanchard & Donald Harrison Quintet, and Earth Wind & Fire.
This EP also marks our first collaboration with poet Marc Jampole. I met Marc in attendance at the Captain Black Big Band's Smoke residency and have gotten to know him and his wife Kathy Stackhouse over the past few years. They are both staunch supporters of the music.
The following poem comes from Marc's book "Music from Words" (the cover features two paintings by Vasily Kandinsky) and can be read while listening to our new recording.
You can also hear Marc read the poem live with the band at Small's Jazz Club in New York on July 10, 2019.
SOURCE OF ALL
“…but Thales says it is water.”
Aristotle, Metaphysics

I.
Water is as water does
flows falls splashes freezes
blesses drips and droplets
swells sinuous see-through gray
Water flows blesses swells
is fallen drips sinuous
as splashes and see-through
water freezes droplets gray.
Fog over fields and ponds
but clear on tire warmed
highway red dawn tinges
avens yellow bedstraw agrimony
Fog but highway avens
over clear red yellow
fields on dawning bedstraw
ponds warm tinged agrimony.
Anemone soldiers tendriled under
water battle caste of pawn
fringes no man’s land
deadlocked pallid benthic imprints
Anemone water fringes deadlocked
soldiers battle no pallid
tendriled cast of man’s benthic
under pawning landed imprints.
Water is as water does
Water flows blesses swells
Fog over fields and ponds
Fog but highway avens
Anemone soldiers tendriled under
Anemone water border deadlocked.

II.
Once believed water
became earth became fire
became air became water
tried to mutate gold from lead
thought life sprang from dung on impulse
watched the sun and stars revolve around the earth.
Where do we go from here?
Under water under welkin under tendriled tent
of falling blossoms wearing fog at once believed
a sign a sign of something
transcendence or the law of condensation
connections to connections to connections
another form of water
sometimes river sometimes puddle
sometimes crystal cleaving to a golden shard of leaf
sometimes sadness weeding healthy plants
sadness falling blossoms sadness melting snow field
sadness arms around the dead in photos
sadness wears their songs and movies
sadness all was and will be.

III.
Water is as water does.
Porous sheen of light in amber
raveled contrail tinting sky
tendriled bedstraw yellow
lifting fog blue water
border clear red highway.
In the beginning of the beginning
is the beginning of the beginning.
At the end of the end is the end of the end.
Sadness fogging stand in water
confuses faith in is and is
discolored blurring disembodied as
was or will be water does.
Sad confused discolor was
fogging faith blurring will
standing is in disembodied being
water is as water does.

IV.
Another form of water
sharing clear field vision
downpour sweeping towards us
marching pallid water soldiers
skimming over crumbled stumps
towards us flowing falling
splashes porous sheen
towards us earth sink ponding
and beating avens yellow bedstraw
above us tendriled contrail welkin
descending blossoms mutate impulse
together seeing it together
at the beginning and at the end
for once the same sinuous something
another form of water was and will be
another form of water is and is.
from Music from Words, 2007, Bellday Books, Inc.
Marc Jampole
5889 Aylesboro Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
412-422-9280; mjampole@nyc.rr.com
Photography by Ola Baldych