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

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


  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright , ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    COPing Out In Brazil: How The United Nations Reduces its Legitimacy More Than Global Emissions
    19 Nov 2025
    Despite being held in Brazil, a nation with the largest Black population outside of the African continent, COP30 has continued a thirty-year pattern of sidelining the specific climate threats to Afro…
  • Jon Jeter
    In South Africa, White is the New Black: The ANC’s Failures Opens the Door for the Return of a Government Led by Settlers
    19 Nov 2025
    Decades of unmet promises and endemic corruption have eroded the ANC's legitimacy, creating a surge of support for a party led by South Africa's white minority.
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    “Only unity will make us free:” The Masses Build and Sustain a Zone of Peace through the Unity of Struggles
    19 Nov 2025
    As U.S. militarism intensifies across Latin America and the Caribbean, regional social movements are making the firm declaration that only a unified, mass-driven front can build a true "Zone of Peace…
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    A Call for Mass Struggle Against U.S.-Led War on Venezuela and the Caribbean
    19 Nov 2025
    The assault on Venezuela's sovereignty represents a broader imperial strategy to discipline any nation that defies U.S. hegemony.
  • Jessica Washington
    SNAP Recipients Crushed by Democrats Caving on Shutdown: “They Just Wasted It All”
    19 Nov 2025
    SNAP recipients were willing to sacrifice to protect health care benefits for themselves and others and they are furious that the Democrats' chose collusion with the Trump administration rather than…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us