#4495, Music and Poetry

Hear poetry and music from Carl Hancock Rux with Meshell Ndegeocello and The Baptism, Marianne Faithfull with Warren Ellis reciting Keats, and composer Hannah Peel with poet Will Burns.

Listen to a recent work by poet and novelist, Carl Hancock Rux, in collaboration with musician and composer Meshell Ndegeocello. Baptism (of The Sharecropper’s Son & The Boy From Boonville) is a three-part poem in tribute to the late civil rights leaders John Lewis and C.T. Vivian, and short abstract film directed by artist Carrie Mae Weems. Hear the April 2021 live performance from The Greene Space of Carl Hancock Rux with Meshell Ndegeocello and guitarist Christopher Bruce playing Ndegeocello’s score to Weems’s second iteration—The Baptism (rhetoric). The Baptism and The Baptism (rhetoric) are a commission by Lincoln Center. 

Watch the entire performance and conversation from April 30, 2021 in The Greene Space: 

There’s also poetry and music from Marianne Faithfull who recites John Keats, accompanied by music of Warren Ellis. It's from a 2021 recording, She Walks in Beauty, featuring 19th-century British Romantic poets accompanied by musical arrangements by Warren Ellis, Brian Eno, Nick Cave and Vincent Segal. Then, listen to poetry by Will Burns and music by composer Hannah Peel which combines the pastoral along with Peel’s colliery brass and modular synths. Plus, hear bleak and beautiful music from Scotland’s bard and singer Robin Williamson, setting the poetry of Dylan Thomas. – Caryn Havlik

Program #4495, Music and Poetry (First Aired 5/12/2021)

ARTIST: Carl Hancock Rux with Martha Redbone
WORK: Silence Speaks Softly [1:30]
RECORDING: Homeostasis
SOURCE: http://carlhancockrux.com/homeostasis
INFO: Available at AppleMusic and Amazon.com

ARTIST: Marianne Faithfull 
WORK: La Belle Dame sans Merci (John Keats) [4:16]
RECORDING: She Walks in Beauty
SOURCE: BMG
INFO: mariannefaithfull.org.uk/music/she-walks-in-beauty

ARTIST: Carl Hancock Rux with Meshell Ndegeocello, Christopher Bruce
WORK: The Baptism [11:22]
RECORDING: Carl Hancock Rux Live in The Greene Space, 4/30/2021
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: http://thebaptismpoem.org

ARTIST: Carl Hancock Rux with Martha Redbone
WORK: Silence Speaks Softly [7:18]
RECORDING: Homeostasis
SOURCE: http://carlhancockrux.com/homeostasis
INFO: Available at AppleMusic and Amazon.com

ARTIST: Robin Williamson
WORK: Poem On His Birthday [11:21]
RECORDING: The Seed At Zero
SOURCE: ECM 1732
INFO: ecmrecords.com

ARTIST: Hannah Peel and Will Burns
WORK: Spring Dawn On Mad Mile [4:22]
RECORDING: Chalk Hill Blue
SOURCE/INFO: caughtbytheriver.com