Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra) | Black Agenda Report

Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

08 Sep 2021

🖨️ Print Article

Photo: Janine Robinson

Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem

(For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)

Gathering witnesses bearing beautiful collisions—

Kansas City, New Orleans, Harlem—in Harlem. Only

Harlem fetes YardBird in Marcus Garvey Park. Only

Harlem has Big Easy Chief of Congo Nation do the

honors. It’s still a COVID 19 scene and Black masking’s

an act of communal resistance…

It’s still a COVID 19 scene and the virus’s variations

are playing “Giant Steps” within Monk’s complicated

compositions. It’s still a COVID 19 scene and greed

driven confederate governors are playing with lives;

Playing simple songs sounding like “Mississippi Hot-

dog”/“Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars and Bars…”

Spy Boys check Jazz Tribe temps and statuses.

They buy Big Chief time to procure and secure

Suspenders; adjust his invisible headdress and

prepare sacred songs for meeting The Peoples’ Tribe.

Charlie Parker’s music’s magic—Blues magnet gathering

grassroots, salt of the earth—Harlem’s finest—like

shavings of steel hardened by white heat and hammer

A drizzle decrescendos and morphs into the perfect

prelude, into micro climate mist—handing humidity a

rare defeat. The weather’s a bittersweet reminder of

Impermanence. Change—spiraling lower to higher—birth

to death; reminding us who are “Just Friends,” “Now’s

The Time” to connect—this evening’s the only time we own…

Older gentlemen—second wave Jitterbugs—with

muscle memory of Lindy Hop to Bebop honor the

Moment. They select skilled younger partners to

Swing, spin, twirl; showing off middle year bodies

more beautiful than perfect: cleavage, calves and

sculpted thighs revealed as colorful knee-high skirts rise

Maybe they couldn’t keep Malcolm alive or hold on to

Houses grandparents paid off. But tonight they hold

on to one another—hold on to Charlie Parker—Bird

with strings attached…

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at:

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-town-criers-big-tooth-fund

PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

© 2021. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Music

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.

More Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
DOCUMENT: My Last Will and Testament, Mary McLeod Bethune, 1955
05 Mar 2025
Mary McLeod Bethune’s testament to a good, ethical life.
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
Commemorate Genocide against the People of DR Congo
05 Mar 2025
The Congolese Action Youth Platform (CAYP) is campaigning for the recognition of the Genocide against the people of DR Congo to be commemorated on August 2nd, the anniversary of Rwanda and Uganda’s…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Is this ‘Constructive Engagement' 2.0— Or, Freddo frontin’ for Heil tech Hitler?
05 Mar 2025
"Constructive Engagement 2.0— or Freddo frontin’ for heil-tech Hitler?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Jon Jeter
In Maryland, Cracking Down on a Crime Wave that Doesn’t Exist With Laws That Don’t Work
05 Mar 2025
Maryland has been enforcing harsher criminal laws, using the claim of a crime wave that does not exist. This crackdown funnels Black children into an incredibly draconian legal system. Now, there is…
Hanna Eid
American Lumpen Development - The Data Center Boom
05 Mar 2025
The rise of the data and technology industry plays a key role in the rapid deterioration of social and economic conditions in the U.S.