Yannis Livadas • John Coltrane and 15 Poems for Jazz

Translated by Jack Hirschman and Dimitri Charalambous (C. C. Marimbo, Berkeley, California 2008)
Πρώτη έκδοση: Απόπειρα, Αθήνα 2007. »»





METAPHOR When the Dolphy familydeliveredthe wind instruments of its deadto John Coltrane a black god knewwhat it meant

TONY FRUSCELLA One day we' ll meet each otherin the pipe of some trumpetwho collapses first inexpressionmy brotherly Delphic bro.Alcoholique, drogue et finalment closardise. That on one legwhatever we say stands how can we say

SATURN ROLLS IN THE GRAND CANYON (For Wadada Leo Smith & Anthony Braxton)
Much more than music creatingnumbless in the enviromentsince the form that concerns himis an all-embracing graph which sences how he feels itand thatnot the totality — an encounter's fracture with a demand for diminishingbut somewhere it' ll stop and become again as it was, having acquiredtime-worn wrinkles of a reality that bubbles up from deeppores at only one pointin the realm of his loneliness— since the form that concerns him ismean and self-styled much more thandeath.
From the introduction of the book: Livadas began translating American poetry in the 90's and recently has published a large anthology of the works of Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti, Olson, Norse and others. His own poetry, influenced as well by that of Blaise Cendrars, has resulted in some very brilliant works, and his latest collection of poems (Apteros Nike/Business/Sphinx by Iridanos Books, 2008) is regarded as a turning point in modern Greek poetry. Livadas was born in 1969 in Kalamata, Greece. He has also been an editor and publisher of various works, and a columnist. He is considered an expert in postmodern American poetry and the poetry of the Far East. He's been called the Jazz poet of Greece. In a recent interview, Livadas has succinctly clarified his approach to poetry and jazz:

Jazz is pure art. And is not restricted to the music area. If we consider it as such then we ignore its greatest importance; the fact that above all Jazz is a way of life, an attribute of thinking and doing and, in my case as a poet, a way of writing, of getting into the heart of the poem. As for the poetic language I'm not interested in surrealism, the Beats, etc. I'm only interested in the voice of the Muse, the deep poem, the total. My poetry may derive, on the one hand, from the postmodern Americans and, on the other hand, from Cendrars, but it has its own system, its own risks. Anyway, whether I write longer poems, which I prefer doing, or shorter ones, I'm in play; I gamble.

This has been a trio ensemble bringing the visions of one poet to a bilingual homage with respect to the Jazz poem that was born about three years ago and has been liberating sound-sense ever since.
The book is distributed by the City Lights Bookstore in San Fransisco.