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Chris Hakkens, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Wayne Shorter and Peter Erskine playing with Weather Report, 1980
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Shorter
Any form of bop felt like
it was genetically modified.
the continuous shape shifting of the 50’s and 60’s,
then the climate changed, leaders perished,
……..Anger rivaled escape, space was reached,
……..everyone wanted to dance,
……..life became solid, even funky
……..and high school jazz ensembles
Grooved, records spun,
good money was made in high times.
the elasticity of humanity stretched beyond
boundaries and the weather report was for turbulent
……..Skies, as those albums took oil to spin,
……..constantly shape shifting until jazz burst, double-
……..timed and synthesized, even Steely
……..called for permanent glue in
Aja. Time does get shorter and
shorter when seen
amid the expanse of light years beyond
translucent curtain of stars.
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Michel Steven Krug is a Minneapolis poet, fiction writer, former print journalist from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and he litigates. His poems have appeared in New Verse News, Poetica Publishing, Liquid Imagination, Blue Mountain Review, Portside, JMWW, Cagibi, Silver Blade, Crack the Spine, Dash, Mikrokosmos, North Dakota Quarterly, Eclectica, Writers Resist, Sheepshead, Mizmor Anthology, 2019, Poets Reading The News, Ginosko, Door Is A Jar, Raven’s Perch, Main Street Rag, Brooklyn Review and others.
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Listen to the 1974 recording of “Mysterious Traveler” by Weather Report, with Wayne Shorter (saxophones); Joe Zawinul (piano); Alphonso Johnson (bass); Skip Hadden (drums); Dom Um Romao (percussion) [Columbia/Legacy]
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Listen to the 1977 recording of Steely Dan’s “Aja” which includes Wayne Shorter on saxophone [Universal Music Group]
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