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  • Streaming + Download

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    Signed by Benjamin Boone, this Origin Records CD features the painting "Distant Soul" by figurative painter Frank Arnold. When you order, mention how you would like it to be signed - for example: "To Chris, Best wishes to a fellow saxophonist, Benjamin Boone"

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of CAUGHT IN THE RHYTHM, The Poets Are Gathering, JOY, The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two, and The Poetry of Jazz. , and , .

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lyrics

When the shift was over he went out
and stood under the night sky a mile
from the darkened baseball stadium
and waited for the bus. He could taste
nickel under his tongue, and when he swiped
the back of his hand across his nose
he caught the smell of hydrochloric acid.
There were clouds between him and the stars,
not ordinary ones but dark and looming,
and if the rain had begun to fall, he thought,
could it be black? Could a halo form
on those fine curls his Polish grandma
loved to brush when he was a boy, cupping
a hand under his chin? How silent
and still the world was after so much
slamming of metal on metal and the groans
of the earth giving way to the wakened fury
of the earth and the separate cries of people
together for these nights. How odd that he,
born of convicts and soldiers, of men
and women who crossed and recrossed the earth
carrying only the flag of their hopes,
should stand numbed by the weight
of a Thursday shift and raise his head
to a heaven he had never seen and sing
in a hoarse voice older than his years,
“Oh, Lordy Lord, I am, I’m coming home!”
He, who had no home and no hope, alone
on a certain night in a year of disbelief,
could sing to the ranks of closed houses
and cars, could sing as clear rain fell.

credits

from The Poetry of Jazz Volume Two, released January 18, 2019
Philip Levine (poetry), Benjamin Boone (ss), David Aus (pn), Nye Morton (b), Gary Newmark (d)

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Benjamin Boone Fresno, California

Benjamin Boone is a jazz saxophonist, composer, professor, and U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Ireland (2022-23), Ghana (2017-18) and the Republic of Moldova (2006). His Origin Records album THE POETRY OF JAZZ was #3 "Best Album of 2018" in the 83rd Annual Downbeat Readers Poll and featured on NPR's All Things Considered, The Paris Review, and many others. Websites: BenjaminBoone.com & OriginArts.com ... more

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