 |
| John Tchicai and David Gitin in Half Moon Bay, California (1996) Ken Bullock photo |
I awoke at 3 AM, thinking of John Tchikai—a fine musician who played with the best. And there he was in my Facebook memory feed. Kindly man and a lively mind. I spent a memorable afternoon and evening with him and Ken Bullock at Ken's parents' house in Inverness—we talked until the stars faded. Ken produced some events for John at Stern Grove, etc., and I went to hear John play whenever I could. He deserved a lot more recognition. He played with Coltrane and Lennon! John sometimes recited David’s minimalist poems as he played jazz riffs. We kept in touch for a while but I quit writing to folks after my car accident. And now David Gitin is long gone too. I knew David Gitin from the SSU Cotati days. We lost touch once he moved to Pacific Grove. Ken kept up the connection. So I would hear fragments here and there. Funny I gave Ken Bullock credit for this photo and he thanked me for taking a good photo. So I don’t know who took it.
"For John Tchicai"--David Gitin reading (56 seconds, inc intro) Ken said, “David was a great editor, just as he was a fine teacher & unique poet. He midwifed countless poems for his colleagues, friends, students, poems in a wide array of styles ... As one student & friend put it, "He's the Daddy! Precisely. The image/analogy everybody focused on (me, too!), muffling/obscuring the poem ... (And no pun, "dread end.") A lot of his poems known now as short epigrams—Jack Marshall once joked that David would open a reading by reading his complete works in 15 minutes--started out as pages long, then went through years of a method of reduction ... by ear & eye, not conceptual. He studied Phenomenology with Husserl's principal American student. That lent something to the condensation ...And he told me once that Pound influenced him more than anyone else. I've never forgotten what Pound said Thomas Hardy wrote him about "Homage to Sextus Propertius"--advice to concentrate ever more deeply on the subject.
John on alto (& Gato Barbieri on tenor: Barre Philips, bass; Makaya Ntshoko, drums) Abdullah Ibrahim's Ekaya, 1968.
 |
| Dave Guastavino sent me this poster. I have one somewhere. |
No comments:
Post a Comment