Jazz, Books & Talking to Strangers in DC

So during my Maryland/DC excursion this past weekend, I had to step inside of a few local bookstores.  The geek that I am wouldn't allow me to pass up a chance to browse through books, some new, some used, all valuable of course.  I first stopped into Busboys & Poets located at 14th and V. St. in DC. I wasn't in the mood to sit down and have a drink. I went straight for the poetry section. There I found books that I've never actually seen because my nose has been in my MFA books for the last 2 years. While in the poetry section, flipping through the glorious pages of several books of poetry I made a list of the books I planned to purchase and read : Femme du Monde: Poems by Patricia Spears Jones, Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith, The new black by Evie Shockley, Totem by Gregory Pardlo, Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith and many others. Some of the books I picked up were signed by the author, others weren't. I found myself feeling like a book groupie. I wanted to chase the words, wherever they might lead me. Perhaps they would lead me to write new poems. That's always good.



Later, I found a gem of a bookstore in the Adams Morgan area, Idle Time Books located at 18th Street, NW.  The store manager, a bright eyed man wearing glasses who looked like a playwright was behind the counter.  I glanced at the DC Jazz Festival poster hanging on the wall near the front door.  A picture of one of the featured artists, Bobby McFerrin caught my eye.  I've never been to the Jazz Fest, always wanted to go. I asked the manager if they had anymore posters (knowing I could look on the internet for the schedule, but what the heck I was in the mood to collect brochures) with the full festival schedule.  "No, we don't generally keep a bunch of them.  If we did everyone would give us stuff and we'd have to lay it out all over the counter..." Yeah, I understand. Bookstores certainly don't need extra clutter.  There were wall to wall books and carts with books in them.  The books outside the store, in a cart, were being sold for somewhere around $1 maybe a little more, maybe a little less.  The sign read that you have to come inside and pay for them.  Makes sense.   

Jazz was playing in the background at the store.  There was an elderly black man talking to the manager.  The man was enjoying the ambiance.  I heard him ask the store manager, "Is that 'Kind of Blue'?"  He was talking about the song playing in the background.  I grew up listening to jazz music.  I knew the song wasn't "Kind of Blue" or even somewhat blue, it was "So What" by Miles Davis - one of my favorite, upbeat jazz songs.  So I said so.   "It's 'So What'," I told the store manager and the elderly man.  "Yep, she's right.  She knows," said the manager.  "So you like jazz?" The elderly man asked me.  "Yes, I do," I said.  We chatted for a few minutes about jazz greats.  He wanted to quiz me, see if I was really a jazz lover.  It was refreshing to talk to random strangers and not worry if they're going to ask me for $1 right after (if you live in NYC you know what I mean).

After talking with the man, I walked the aisles, pulling out all of the books that reached out to me like Mozart and Leadbelly by Ernest J. Gaines, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Tina McElroy Ansa's Ugly Ways and Baby of the Family, my friend Gloria Malette's Shades of Jade and a Robert Frost poetry volume.  I felt like I had a touch of literary ADD -- I couldn't focus on sitting down with one book.  The joy of inhaling the smell of old and used books overcame me.  In every aisle at least one person was sitting on the floor reading.  A few people were browsing through postcards.  We were all synced up to these old books, not worried about tweeting or updating our status on Facebook, it was all about the now-of-books.  I kept trying to decide whether I wanted to ask the store manager how a bookstore that primarily sells used and out-of-print books is able to survive in this economy.  Let alone the competition from book lovers who've switched to digital e-readers.  He told me an interesting story of when poet Nikki Giovanni came into the store to browse the poetry section.  "I knew it was her," he said.  He knew it was her after checking a recent photo of her on the internet.  He said she was really nice.  Something else interesting he shared, "authors who come in and buy their own books."  It sounds funny, but I'm sure it's a reality.  If you're an author and your books are out-of-print, it's a blessing to find a bookstore that still carries them!  You may want to round them all up as keepsakes or sell them at some point.  The manager remarked that one author even asked, "Isn't it illegal for you to make me pay for my own book?"  The nerve.  If the author received a book deal, he or she was already paid for the books by the publisher.  Everyone needs to make a dollar, even the independent bookseller.  Buying your books out of a bookstore wouldn't be an odd thing for an author who's not self published or on Kindle.  While browsing, I was amused by the title of a book I had never heard of, Famous Writers School: A Novel.  I wondered what the book was about. Well if you can't be a rock star, perhaps the next best thing is being a famous writer.  But you can't go to school for that.  Can you? (sarcasm).

A couple of hours later after hanging with a friend, I ran into the elderly man I met at Idle Books.  He was sitting on a bench in front of Starbucks, enjoying the breeze.  Probably humming a little jazz too.  "Leaving so soon?" he asked.  "Yeah, but I'll be back."  I smiled and headed to the Metro station. 

CONCERT REVIEW: Mos Def & Gil Scott Heron at Carnegie Hall!

Mos Def's Big Band & Gil Scott Heron at Carnegie Hall
by DuEwa Frazier
On Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 8pm, presented by Festival Network in partnership with Carnegie Hall and co-produced by Jill Newman Productions, the JVC Jazz Festival brought Brooklyn’s own renaissance man, Dante Smith, a.k.a. Mos Def, to town with his big band Amino Alkaline Orchestra, featuring special guest Gil Scott Heron. Mos Def: Amino Alkaline – The Watermelon Syndicate rocked the dome of Carnegie Hall for a multi-general audience of what seemed like thousands. The show opened with Mos’ twenty-three piece band walking onto the stage and the image of the late, legendary radio man, talk show host, and activist, Petey Greene, shown overhead on a large screen above the stage, eating watermelon. Petey Greene urged the audience to eat and enjoy; perhaps a metaphor for the evening to come.


Once his band was in place, Mos Def seemed to glide smoothly onto the stage, to the roar of shouts and applause. The young rapper, poet and thespian wore a white sailor cap, a long white t-shirt and multi-colored shorts that nearly came to his ankles. The ever unpredictable and charming Mos Def, greeted the crowd and jokingly said to an audience member in the front row, “What? You don’t like my shorts?” The crowd laughed. Mos Def’s band started up with classic jazz, bebop and blues sounds, as he sipped water and prepared to deliver his rhymes. The twenty-three piece band included an impressive horn section, keyboards, guitar, drums, and an all female string section, who Mos pointed out are “very beautiful and talented women.” DJ Preservation was stage left with his turntables playing music samples in between sets.


In a time when critics and artists alike have questioned whether hip hop is dead, one of hip hop’s own bridges hip hop, jazz, and blues in a most elegant way, while keeping it real. Mos Def announced at the beginning of the show, “We put this band together because we love music. It’s something we wanted to see going on that wasn’t.” When Mos started singing the early 90’s R&B song “Poison” by Bell , Biv, Devoe the crowd went wild. The audience bobbed their heads and sang along when Mos covered the Pharcyde’s “Passing Me By” and Stevie Wonder’s “That Girl.” He showed the masterful emcee skills that he is known for when he rhymed lines in succession, from several classic hip hop songs by artists such KRS-1 and Eric B. & Rakim. Mos Def’s big band gave concert go-ers of all ages something to enjoy as the band covered tune’s from Busta Rhymes’ “Gimme Some More” to Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro-Blue.” Mos Def and the band also paid tribute to James Brown and Fela. Mos appeared to be in musical heaven as he scatted and sang the lyrics to Fela’s “No Agreement” while praising Barack Obama’s goal to become the first African American President. A refreshing moment in the show was Mos’ duet with Renee Neufville (formerly of Zhané) on the Eurythmics’ song “Sweet Dreams.”


You could feel the love and energy in the air as several audience members throughout the concert called to Mos Def, saying, “I love you!” and “We love you!” Halfway through Mos’ performance, an audience member shouted, “Do ‘Umi Says’!” Mos paused, faced the audience, and replied humorously, “Thank you for your interest, but not now. See we got this thing called a set list and rehearsals. For your sake, and ours.” The audience laughed once again.


At one point Mos gave shout outs to “New Orleans” and “Wayne Carter” for Wayne’s newly released album which recently sold 1 million copies. In between songs, Mos told stories and shared his artistic vision with the audience, “I’m from Brooklyn, New York. Starting a band is an excuse to have a gang. If you gon’ bang, bang for freedom,” he said. And then he held his red, black and green flag high above his head. After he spoke, Mos delivered a rap acapella, written by Jay Electronica, an artist he admires who is from New Orleans.


It was fitting that Mos Def, one of hip hop’s most righteous, and Gil Scott Heron, considered a “Godfather” of rap and spoken word poetry (most famous for his 1970’s poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”), joined for this occasion. When Gil Scott Heron walked onto the stage, the audience stood to their feet, as they watched a man who they know has given the world his soul through song and music, while battling some of the most challenging times of his life. Gil Scott took center stage, waving to the audience as he began to praise “this young man,” Mos Def, and advised the audience in a loving, and fatherly voice to, “Look for things in life that are going to life you up, keep you going,” he said. He then walked to stage right and sat down next to the keyboard player to wait for Mos Def to finish his song. But before Mos could speak, he became emotional because of the kind words Gil Scott bestowed upon him. Mos turned away from the audience and the crowd began to clap for him. After the emotional moment was over, Mos said to the crowd, “There’s a line in one of Suzan Lori-Parks’ plays that says, ‘You’re only yourself when no one is watching.’ But who’s really themselves now a days when everyone’s watching? If you can be yourself when everyone’s watching, it really doesn’t matter who’s watching.” Prolific. Everyone in the audience felt the message he was trying to convey. Shortly after, Gil Scott Heron left his seat to join Mos Def in a duet.


Mos Def got the crowd energized when he called out all of the different boroughs, during his duet with Gil Scott Heron on the song “New York City .” Thereafter, Gil Scott told a story of a time when he and former band mate Brian Jackson were in a rehearsal and a lady they knew brought a “bad boy” by, for them to babysit. “Neither Brian nor I knew anything about four-year olds, we hadn’t been four in a long time,” he said. “His name was Bobby and this boy was bad. But when Brian started playing the keyboards, little Bobby calmed down. That’s what he needed. We were trying to come up with a title for this song we were working on, then, we decided to name it ‘Song for Bobby’,” said Gil Scott Heron. He proceeded to sing the song, making his voice go high then low, singing in the way that he does to help us remember a time when love and music was all people needed to feel free. Mos Def joined in and by the end of the song they were hugging like father and son. Before long, Gil Scott waved and said good-bye to the audience and we all felt this was truly a powerful and historic moment featuring two musical icons. Mos Def remarked to the audience, “I’m feeling a little farklempt, I have to do something gangster now.” He continued to perform newly composed songs.


Toward the end of the concert, as the band played, Mos Def chanted the words, “Love, love the message is this…peace, peace the message is this.” Mos’ final song was “Umi Says,” which was just what the audience asked for. Unlike how he entered the stage at the beginning, Mos ended the show with an aggressive stomp of his foot and flung his mic to the floor, perhaps feeling he had conquered what few in hip hop have: Mos Def conquered Carnegie Hall and did it his way. And the last thing he said was, “Eat your watermelon. Don’t be afraid to be yourself.”


What’s next for Mos Def? Production of a book titled Black, 2.0 by Mos Def to be published in fall 2008 (The Doubleday Publishing Group) and a September 2008 concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. May he continue to shine his light on the world.