Revisiting that magical night when I met Albert Murray...I am just now downloading those photos and will have them up soon...
Jazz at Lincoln Center arranged for a special car to take me to Harlem to visit the legendary critic, novelist, biographer Albert Murray. Born in Alabama in 1916 he attended Tuskegee Institute and was a close friend of Romeare Bearden and a collaborater and contemporary of Ralph Ellison, as well as a friend to all the jazz greats from Duke Ellington to Count Basie. He still refers to himself as one of "Duke's boys." Sharing with him Enso 2007 was an extraordinary experience. He wanted to celebrate by bringing out a rare cognac given to him by the great Victor Goines on the occaison of his 90th birthday last May. I read for him a selection of my jazz poetry and he responded, "That's the Blues in your face!!" He added "What is the word in the English language that stands for the most delicate? You're dealing with some delicate stuff there and the delicate is no less powerful than the robust." When I played a blues for him on my flute he paused, touched his ear softly nearly cupping the sound and said, "That sounds like how a flower smells." The ride into Harlem was one I’ll never forget. And the ride away was a reluctant one indeed. As I left Murray was still going strong, "You and I could talk our way across any desert there ever was," he said. We had a fireworks poetry jam session as I would riff poetry, and he would weave his words about any turn of phrase. "Drue your poetry is like sculpture--it doesn't take up space, it enriches space, there's more in the same space, you see? It's full of blinks and oohs and ahs, like diamonds." A high compliment from this man who had coaxed the essence out of so many words.