With the Clair Daly Band
Jazz, Spoken Word CD;
$17.99.
watch
a video sample 
listen
to a music sample
Speak-Spake-Spoke the companion CD to Eros
in Sanskrit, delivers eleven lyrical gems wed to the
American songbook and performed by Gordon and the exuberant Claire Daly
Band, which features:
Claire Daly: musical director, baritone sax, flute;
Kirpal Gordon: spoken word, spirit rattle;
Dave Hofstra: bass, tuba;
Warren I. Smith: drums;
Eli Yamin: piano;
plus special guests:
Arthur Baron: trombone, didgeridoo;
Jordan Jones: spoken word, chorus;
Tim Price: tenor sax;
Leslie Stalhut: chorus;
James Zollar: trumpet
Reviews and Interviews
Excerpts from:
Speak-Spake-Spoke: A CD Review
by Steve Elmer for Big Bridge
Speak-Spake-Spoke presents Kirpal Gordon in a wonderful series of collaborative
adventures that challenge listeners to absorb an unending flow of inventive
spoken words and sophisticated references shared by a group of improvising
jazz musicians led by the warm and sincere playing of Claire Daly on
baritone sax and flute.
Read the complete
review here
Speak-Spake-Spoke: A Review
by Vernon Frazer for Soundzine
Kirpal Gordon’s jazz-poetry fusion differs from most jazz poetry
in two basic ways: his ear to the jazz vocal tradition and his use of
musicians with cutting-edge credentials to interpret a repertoire that
incorporates bop, swing, standards, pop and classical compositions with
a musical freshness that corresponds to the vigor of his language. Gordon’s
uncanny ability to recite his first-rate poetry with a bopper’s
succinct phrasing and supple rhythm combines with an empathetic ensemble
and several back-up readers to create a recording that lands in the
lap of the jazz continuum where Eddie Jefferson and Jon Hendricks held
sway.
Read the complete
review here
Poetry Jazz: N-Side, Barry Wallenstein & Kirpal Gordon
by Fred Bouchard for All About Jazz
Kirpal Gordon excels at evoking place and personality: precise of word
and rhyme and ready of wit, his spinning continuum suggests jazz' immediacy
(timewarp quips, era flips) and transcendency (conjuring Mecca and Maya,
simmering the gods' jambalaya). Gordon's pairing poems with pearls of
jazz—swing (Dorsey's “Song Of India”), bop (”I
Got Rhythm” zested by James Zollar's trumpet fours with Warren
Smith's drums), trad, Rahsaan—makes savvy listeners work twice
as hard to catch the double-intensity drift, but it's so much fun and
speedy a ride, nobody minds.
Read the complete
review here
An Interview with Kirpal Gordon by Norman Ball for Soundzine
NB: Let’s talk about Speak-Spake-Spoke, your new CD of jazz and poetry, just out from LDP Media, a companion to your Eros in Sanskrit: Lyrics & Meditations, 2007-1977, simultaneously out from Leaping Dog Press. First, it is a sprawling hyper-ambitious work ranging from Sanskrit to Buddha with echoes of Morrison’s American Prayer, New Orleans jazz and that sort of wry humor you seem to possess in abundance, an ever-so subtle humor that will be lost I imagine on many ears. The music is at times scrappy, at times languid, always in sort of service to the words without being in subjugation or mere serviceable accompaniment.
KG: Yes, the music and lyrics serve each other, just like Ezra Pound said. You know, that’s because the musicians in the band really have ears for our concept: spoken lyrics wrapped around a melody from the American songbook. Of course, our idea of the American songbook includes “Cisco Kid” and “The House of the Rising Sun” right alongside Gershwin and Rahsaan and Trane and two of our own original musical compositions that embrace the blues and acid jazz. As for the subtle humor, don’t hold me fully responsible! Warren Smith on the drum kit is a master of fills; he’s like punctuation marks on the words, creating his own form of humorous commentary. Dave Hofstra is the Rock of Gibraltar on bass, which gives us room to stretch and still swing. Eli Yamin on piano is a finger painter of sublety and nuance. That’s just the rhythm section! James Zollar and Art Baron are full of fun on trumpet and trombone. For sheer joy and exuberance, check out Claire Daly on bari sax trading lines with Zollar on “Evil Ways”---yowie. Or how out Tim Price gets on “Tree, Mend Us.” So yes, they really contextualize the lyrics, quoting from other tunes and building a delightful integrity of words and musical notes.