{"id":6845,"date":"2019-09-22T01:07:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T01:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/?p=6845"},"modified":"2019-11-28T01:28:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T01:28:35","slug":"steve-dalachinskys-dance-of-words-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/22\/steve-dalachinskys-dance-of-words-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Dalachinsky’s Dance of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Dalachinsky at The Stone, March 6, 2007\/ photo by Peter Gannushkin\/DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just last week I was wrestling with writing a poem, and I sought out Steve Dalachinsky\u2019s advice.\u00a0Maybe I just wanted his blessing.<\/p>\n

My poem was about September 11 and though it was sincere and maybe even a bit elegant, it was also rather obvious. I\u2019m not a poet.<\/p>\n

Steve was. He shot back some smart and encouraging comments by email. Then he sent a poem of his, a tribute to trumpeter Booker Little. It spoke of \u201ca trumpet forged from bullets,\u201d and had passages like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

there are no bookers<\/em>
\nlittle or no conveyers of new<\/em>
\ngrammar<\/em><\/p>\n

and this:<\/p>\n

eternal hope & slaughter & time signatures<\/em>
\n& fingers all these fingers<\/em>
\nwe\u2019d find another way to play<\/em>
\ni\u2019m sure if we didn\u2019t have them<\/em><\/p>\n

When I found out Steve had died at 72, after suffering a stroke, I was surprised and sad. When I learned that his final act was to read his work at an art exhibition, I was unsurprised and I had to smile.<\/p>\n

Steve was poet whose words danced with such rhythm and force and cool atop a wisdom gained directly from masters that he could write and speak about a scene that mostly defies the English language \u2014his voice reciting his words, making beautiful sense alongside the greatest instrumental voices in Creative Music. He was part of the band, and the chorus around the band.<\/p>\n

Steve was a bold man with a little boy\u2019s smile of wonder. He was a curmudgeon nonetheless ready to be amazed. He was what they used to mean when they called someone a New Yorker, back when that meant something other than money.<\/p>\n

Steve was my friend, but he wasn\u2019t yet 30 years ago when he welcomed me into a scene I didn\u2019t yet comprehend. He was a handshake and a hug before every show because, well, he was at every show and he was like that, you know.<\/p>\n

Steve won\u2019t be missing any shows, either. He\u2019ll find another way to play. Still, man, I\u2019ll miss those hugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just last week I was wrestling with writing a poem, and I sought out Steve Dalachinsky\u2019s advice.\u00a0Maybe I just wanted his blessing. My poem was about September 11 and though it was sincere and maybe even a bit elegant, it was also rather obvious. I\u2019m not a poet. Steve was. He shot back some smart … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Steve Dalachinsky’s Dance of Words”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6845"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6881,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6845\/revisions\/6881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}