Catherine Lee

THE MAGIC WORD IS ESPERANZA

As if it wasn’t hard enough to see from high and back

in Carver’s nosebleed seats, those single, last, and only ones available

Esperanza, she projects her giggly warmth to farthest corner

of this packed-to-rafters house, expertly plays to crowd.

Early on in concert, rapping on how hard she works

she sheds her pinching new high heels,

displays how well they match her outfit.

Bass woman front and center dominates proscenium

while standing pretty barefoot, legs revealed by custom upright contrabass.

Couple front of me drove in 200 miles from Houston

since that show sold out so fast. A man who sat beside me

notices I can’t sit still, can’t help butt dancing in my seat.

He, at intermission, asks about it:

says he’s new to this, was told what jazz is —

know it when you hear it, too intellectual for dance.

(a square, don’t let him bug me, have missionary eyes, explain)

As if it isn’t hard enough to play jazz bass, Esperanza, she competes.

This fiddle’s physical, the upper body strength you need

to just depress the strings and fingers stretch to — fretless — sound

so many notes in perfect pitch, in time, in tone, with speed, ideas.

Not to mention that the bassist never rests when horns do,

maybe when group’s drummer takes a solo, those are rare.

Esperanza, she does not lay out, she comps

(complements the other players’ solos, man)

As if it isn’t smart enough, to digest all music theory thoroughly,

so every other band mate uses her for anchor on the complex tunes

and rhythms, Esperanza, she finesses Argentinian Zamba rhythm,

and samba from Brazil

As if it isn’t wise enough in jazz, composing on the fly,

Esperanza, she plays and sings her hip originals

and calls the tough “Miss Ann” by Eric Dolphy

as her instrumental choice to play “for fun.”

Esperanza, she’s a suave and brilliant talent.

No wonder our black president requested her to visit often

as an inspiration for his young, impressionable daughters.

Esperanza, she embodies hope that girls can truly be

displaying inner, outer beauty, leaping hurdles easily

as if it isn’t even odd to wail string bass

and sing three languages, same time in tandem,

to best,

surpass,

exceed,

outdo,

outshine,

outstrip,

transcend,

to slap that fiddle,

beat the band.

Here’s my hope for you to someday hear

enchantment in your ear, the music magic

brought to you by Esperanza, she da woman.

Jump Monk (Live) Charles Mingus & Friends

in Concert, 1972

That bassman fingering gut strings
in my face, between clear ears the sections
sit playing, where recording engineer thought
brass, reeds would sound right,
detailed work placing microphones
of certain manufacture in perfectly sweet
spots, fused together with interlaced copper,
capably sound-designed for hearing later.
Music acting as itself does
higher harmonies.

One night you told me in knowing
detail exactly how an orchestra’s member
tunes, in togetherness multiple times, under
concertmaster’s direction to prepare for
being guided by conductor’s baton
(some of these positions you have served to play).

And, for the record, I am listening to live recorded music
by Mingus, the orchestral master,
on audiophile system you installed
in our room, really, within my home
alone for now. This smoky, state-dependent
situation presents more full appreciation of
auditory sense you clearly possess.

I have no such sense, cannot, in this body
womangrown elsewhere, hear
natively like that.
Man, how I do educate wordily & imagine,
Mingus not throat-speaking
yet says all this, to honor Monk.

You help, encourage me
to a certain hearing competence
listening how you do.
Each knows in own way
playtime action, all in time
perform in concert
together
from the jump.

Catherine Lee is a widely published neo-Beat who reads solo and performs with improvising musicians “on poem” when she can. Joint gigs with her mentor, poet/hipster tedjoans, in 1986-87 got her juiced on this journey of social change activism and personally passionate exploration. Lee’s “Apache Pitch Lined Basket” won an Ekphrastic Poem Competition award for National Poetry Month, April 2021 and appears with its artwork on The Witte Museum website. Lots of multimedia poetry, documentary videos, and radio specials are archived on Soundcloud and VIMEO. Lee’s artistic profile is located at GetCreativeSanAntonio and she can be reached at Jazz-Ovation-Inn.com.