q. r. hand, Poet and Healer
You may want to LISTEN ON BANDCAMP as you read. The ecstatic and tender voice of q. r. hand reads four of his poems with mightily moved musicians on the Rebel Poets' albums of 1989 and 1992, Worlds Made Flesh (see below—16 poets and 17 musicians) and America Fears The Drum (see farther below).
Then I read the evocative and loving Introduction by Al Young, Poet Laureate of Californa in 2006, to q's 2006 collection of poems, whose really blues, and read two of the poems that book that touch me most, ‘each time’ and ‘four takes from a short and personal history of summer.’
q. r. hand was a man of many caps. He was of a build and temperament fit for slim jeans, vests, and T-shirts of Florentine blue and goyave. He danced as easily as he walked. He hunkered at front tables, nodded and beat time with solos and choruses. with for jazz saxophonists and drummers. He wrote that you would need a jet to stay with David Murray's sound.
In the first track from this 2022 … q.r. hand, Poet and Healer selection on Bandcamp, q. renders for us the ‘naked possibilities’ conjured by David Murray and his fellow wizards in The World Saxophone Quartet—Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, and Oliver Lake. q’s voice vaults and races across tables in his reverenial evocation.
‘ … / so sweet / so tight / all over the place (s) / … / contained them all each all / all each / each one note riff / song world galactical splendors / … / this is too much / this is too much / is so much so / much more this is / … / this music is the anti dote to the anti life / we face every day in every elemental basic beat way / …’
You can hear q. r. among musicians in the first Rebel Poets' compilation, the cassette album Worlds Made Flesh, 1989. q. was among San Francisco Bay Area poets whom I'd asked to read their work at Olde West Studio. These umpteen poets from the Bay Area and across the U.S. were of an excellence and fire deserving global attention, I felt. Next step was involving more fire, the superb percussionists Babatunde Lea on congas and Henri Flood on timbales, to improvise beats in accord with the poets' content and delivery. Final step, that Summer of '89, was to bring musicians on other instruments so that their responses might GEL and EXPAND experience of poets’ recorded tracks. Click on the underscored track to hear each from the whole selection on Bandcamp. You can read much more about Worlds Made Flesh here.
1. 'all asound us' for david murray and the world saxophone quartet
with Babatunde Lea congas, Henri Flood timbales, John Baker keyboards, Mark Crawford drums-set, George Cremaschi fretless bass, Lewis Jordan tenor saxophone, John Karr electric guitar, from Rebel Poets' album Worlds Made Flesh, 1989, Olde West Studio, San Francisco.
q. r.’s sympathies ranged deep and wide. He could inhabit sea-lions and far-off Continents. They were all of one life. q. looked with a raised fire toward Africa and Blacks' and Browns' struggle under apartheid.
2. 'today africa (for willie kogotswilie)'
with Babatunde Lea congas, Henri Flood timbales, John Baker keyboards, David Blood electric guitar, Mark Crawford drums-set, George Cremaschi fretless bass, Lewis Jordan tenor saxophone.
The righteous present called to q. r.. He planted his feet and spoke as if in prayer to the microphone. He raised one forefinger to the stars. For one manifestation, he was among a group of young activists in New York City who hosted and venerated Malcolm X / El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
with Babatunde Lea congas, Henri Flood timbales, John Baker keyboards, David Blood electric guitar, Mark Crawford drums-set, George Cremaschi fretless bass, Lewis Jordan tenor saxophone.
q. r. was forever encouraging and enthusiastic and yet he never lowered standards. He counseled those struggling in institutions and on streets of San Francisco. He ooh’ed and ahh’ed at the spectacularly accomplishing--such as the feats he and John Ross saw in N.B.A. playoffs. He and Alfonso Texidor introduced me to two great, dynamic poets and performers, devorah major and Daniel Higgs, and both q. r and Alfonso generously dug devorah's and Daniel's contributions to the second, 1992 Rebel Poets' compilation, America Fears The Drum.
He loved to collaborate and to improvise. The WordWind Chorus of q. r. and Brian Auerbach and Lewis Jordan and Reginald Lockett was of decades' standing. q. r. knew that in blending together their individual strains his people and all people might achieve optimal voicings.
Reginald Lockett wrote about his friend:
'Q.R. Hand’s poetry traverses the terrain of form, music, and language. This is an inspired, well crafted poetry that is political in intent and spirited in execution and defies any comparison to any literary precursors or contemporary schools of thought. Q.R. Hand is an entity unto himself; a true visionary walks among us.'
q. r. hand uplifted every place to which he lent his perceptions and his voice. His lyricism set a standard and his unrelenting, positive energy was a natural boon. He always surprised and raised us by the reaches of his mind and spirit.
Here I quote from Al Young's Introduction to q. r. hand's 2006 book, whose really blues. Al Young I first met at a Stanford University English Department party in Autumn 1971, when I was a Stegner Fellow and novelist. Al was solidly free of 'afectación' among the Faculty, then and there. He and his work grew in stature for me over decades. He was named Poet Laureate of California--great, wise choice!--in 2006. Al writes: ‘As it steps from the stage to the page, the poetry of Q. R. Hand never stops testifying…. The poems in this book—as they whisk and yank and ease you through “that certain place at / that certain time”—speak directly to the body that houses heart, mind and soul.’
4. 'Al Young's Introduction to q. r. hand's 2006 book of poems, whose really blues.
For the 1992 Rebel Poets’ compilation, q. chose to perform at poem inspired by culture of that independent, African-American community, known as the ‘Georgia Sea Island People.’ Accompanying him is Babatunde Lea, again on congas, and William Winant on tympani, Kevin Carnes on drums-set, Lewis Jordan again on saxophone, and Lee and Salas of Hedzoleh Soundz when Hugh Masakela led that band, also playing percussion.
5. 'numberless at the sands of the seashore after music of the georgia sea island people'
from Rebel Poets' America Fears The Drum, I / R Records, 1992, Olde West Studio in San Francisco, and remastered with David Farrell in New Orleans, January 2021.
The selection for Bandcamp closes with two poems by q. r. read by me, home-recorded last Sunday. It was very good to reconnect with the musicality and acute evocations in q. r. hand’s poetry. I felt his voice in my ears.
6. 'four takes from a short and personal history of summer', read from q. r. hand's 2006 book of poems, whose really blues. ‘ … / we would walk up 7th avenue / stop for coffee at a fifty seventh street all-nighter / frequented by musicians / then walk to the central park zoo / to wonder at the sea lions splashing / … ‘
7. 'each time for the movement us', ibid. ‘We act as if it’s all ways a miracle / how we meet each other / no matter where we are / …’
q.’s does poets’ job of making nuanced situations and feelings palpable. He opens up decades of experience and let’s us join the dance.
Clara-Sophia Daly wrote a fine tribute for the Mission Local on q. r.’s passing in January 2021.
Jason Fagone came through likewise in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Characters and changes roiled through ihe 1980s into the 1990s in the San Francisco Bay Area, Unlikely meetings and eye-opening connection remained a regular thing. Murals and protests sprang up on alley walls and surreptitiously supplanted billboards. A lot took place that perhaps could happen nowhere else so colorfully and so readily.
Poets and musicians were at the heart of this enduring and rebellious, live It to me.
Please see this All About Jazz interview by Glenn Ito for my remembering a special friend and collaborator, Glenn Spearman, and parts of the scene that crossed BART Stations as if everything was hardly material.
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