Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

For Larry Roland
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
08 Mar 2023
🖨️ Print Article
For Larry Roland

                                                                                                                          For Larry Roland

I.

If a Boston bassist based in

The Bronx checks out back

in Boston does anyone hear

arrhythmic heart beats in the Big Apple?

If a Boston bassist based in

The Bronx checks out back

in Boston—does anyone feel

Five Borough pulses pulsing slightly off?

If a Boston bassist based in

The Bronx checks out back

in Boston—does anyone see

bass strings attached to electrodes monitoring

Modes in African rhythms of a troubled ticker?

If a Boston bassist based in

The Bronx checks out back

in Boston—does anyone see

if baseline palpitations pulled him from the pocket

to lock it—Without Universal Healthcare For All?

II.

Tall, dark, Liberated Brother—Birth of The

Cool— Señor Blues. Hard Bop—Bebop outta

Bean Town. Kind and Kinda Blue… Autodidact of

standing— Educated educator sho’ nuff ‘bout

keepin’ it real…

Got hip to you the year you showcased—Showed up

and showed out in: solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet,

sextet settings! String things really ‘bout yo bass. It

was The Year of Larry Roland and

Bass was the place. I teased you ‘bout being

Vision’s Bassist da jour!

Remember you running into packed Parkside Lounge,

undressing your coffee brown bodied companion for Steve

D’s Tribute. Epitome of cool. Eyes closed, caressing slender

neck. Stroking steel strings like lead wires attached to

electrodes along her belly: Monitoring pulse; feel; groove…

Saw you last: Lower Eastside garden spitting poetry, plucking

strings. Properly sending Jaimie off for Saturn runs with Ra…

We wore the masks—2 yrs after red nose, big shoe show making

Amerikkka grate…again—While death squatted and illness wore

out its welcome!

Off to the side we spoke. Brother to brother. You in Jazz Cat

‘bout “health challenges” and “chops.” Did I miss the pickup

for your pain? Your subsonic gutbucket groan—heavy mettle

melody of your moan? Did I not have elephant ears for the dirge

in your

Voice?

You’re the latest in a long, long, long line of Bassists we’ve buried;

Pianists we’ve laid rest; Trumpeters and Drummers we’ve interred—

most having Hard Bop Healthcare/Bebop Bank accounts in this rather

rich Warfare state…



 

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

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 and PayPal.

Larry Roland
Music
Jazz
Art
Black American Culture

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


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
LYRICS: Bicentennial Blues, Gil Scott-Heron, 1976
01 July 2026
“George Washington/Slave-owner general/Ironic that the father of this country/
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
SONNY
27 May 2026
Our wise Monk-guru, White winter mane and Douglass beard,Sonny's anOak tree growing outSugar Hill concrete—
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: In Our Hands: Thoughts on Black Music, Bernice Johnson Reagon, 1976
31 July 2024
For the late Dr.
Lorraine Hansberry
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
SPEECH: A Challenge to Artists, Lorraine Hansberry, 1962
21 February 2024
At a rally against the House Un-American Activities Committee, insurgent playwright Lorrainne Hansberry called on artists to shake off the fear
JoeSam art
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
24 January 2024
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
BAR Book Forum: Brittnay L. Proctor’s Book, “Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Brittnay L. Proctor’s Book, “Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden”
05 April 2023
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Avotcja’s Love…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Avotcja’s Love…
22 March 2023
                                         
A lil’ homegoing homage to Brother Donald…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A lil’ homegoing homage to Brother Donald…
27 April 2022
Donald Smith always performe
Photo: Kevin W. Thorbourne
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)
08 September 2021
Bird, strings, Big Chief: 100: Harlem (For Charlie Parker/Donald Harrison/Harlem Symphony Orchestra)  
BAR Book Forum: Shane Vogel’s “Stolen Time”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Shane Vogel’s “Stolen Time”
10 April 2019
The 1950s calypso craze provided black performers with new occasions to intervene in the public sphere as well as new creative and financial opport

More Stories


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Hakeem Jeffries, Monkeys, Errand Boys, and Black Misleadership
    09 Sep 2026
    Hakeem Jeffries climbs the political ladder because he engages in dirty deeds with the world’s worst people. Being called a monkey gives him an easy out. The presence of a Black face in a high place…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: The Midwest and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Jim Jacobs, 1972
    09 Sep 2026
    “To seize control of the political economy of the Midwest is to seize control over the political economy of imperialist America.”
  • Las Anod
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Somaliland and Sovereignty in the Horn and the Red Sea Region
    09 Sep 2026
    The victory of Somalia’s Northeast State over secessionist Somaliland gives Somalis hope of renewed unity and sovereignty, but Israel attacked that hope by recognizing Somaliland.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    The Path Black to Socialism: Dispatches from the 2026 Socialism Conference
    09 Sep 2026
    Many in the U.S. "Left" are actually liberal elements that pull socialism toward the Democratic Party. Black organizers must build independent power.
  • Austin Cole
    Attica Lives and Shares Lessons on Abolitionist Internationalism & Anti-Imperialist Solidarity
    09 Sep 2026
    The Attica rebellion was not only about prison "reform." The prison is the most intense expression of a system of imperialist domination that operates at every scale.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us