Word made flesh 1965 / Flesh made word 2015

Category: Profile (page 2 of 3)

ReIncarnation Biographies #17: Chet Weise

Chet Weise

Chet Weise

The seventeenth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the musician, poet and editor Chet Weise.

Chet Weise is the chief editor of Third Man Books (Nashville, Tennessee). His poetry appears in Copper Nickel, Poems & Plays, the anthology Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End Days, and elsewhere. Also a musician, Weise recorded and toured internationally with groups The Quadrajets and the Immortal Lee County Killers “We toured the UK extensively with the Immortal Lee County Killers,” says Chet, “and appeared on John Peel’s show twice. He even took us out to dinner – such a cool dude!”

In 2008, Chet was banned from Canada.

Third Man Books

Third Man Books Final_Black copyMulti-Grammy-winning musician Jack White, along with Ben Swank (co-founders of Third Man Records), and Chet Weise (co-founder, Third Man Books) all shared the stage in their respective rock bands in the not-so-distant past. With the August 2014 release of Third Man Books’ first literary publication, Language Lessons: Volume I, a multimedia box set of prose, poetry, and music, Third Man Books launched for the future. Echoing Third Man Records’ reverence for music and commitment to innovation, Third Man Books is dedicated to publishing the best in language with the same level of respect, skill, and audaciousness. TMR & TMB: Where your turntable’s not dead & your page still turns.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

Here’s a YouTube video of Chet’s Peel session with the Immortal Lee County Killers

ReIncarnation Biographies #16: Peter Lemer

Peter Lemer

Peter Lemer

The sixteenth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the musician Peter Lemer.

Peter made his recording debut as a leader (Local Colour) in 1996, the band including Jon Hiseman, John Surman, George Khan and Tony Reeves. A year in New York followed, which included extensive jamming, gigging and study. Coaches included Jaki Byard, Paul Bley and Bass guru David Walters. He also studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music with Tommy Rajna and Sven Weber.

Since then has worked with his own Quintet/Trio/Duo ( with Billy Thompson), Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Annette Peacock, Harry Beckett, Gilgamesh, Baker Gurvitz Army, Seventh Wave, Harry Beckett’s Joy Unlimited, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, Mike Oldfield, In Cahoots, Miller/Baker/Lemer and countless others. For many years he recorded and toured with Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia. He has just completed a new album with Pepi Lemer, back2front, which is now on sale.

At the Roundhouse, Peter will be performing as part of the William Blake Klezmatrix band, a poetry & music collaborative formed to perform William Blake’s most lyrical texts, & also excerpts from his longer works.

As well as versions of Blake lyrics, the band – which at the Roundhouse will feature Annie Whitehead on trombone and vocals, Peter Lemer on piano, & Michael Horovitz on anglo-saxophone & other voicings – also performs diverse jazz poems, klezmer & other folk music and song, plus jazz, blues, calypso, settings of the poetry of Ginsberg, the Bible, et al, plus original compositions & improvisations.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

ReIncarnation Biographies #15: Annie Whitehead

Annie Whitehead

Annie Whitehead

The fifteenth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the musician Annie Whitehead.

Born in Oldham, Lancs, Annie learned trombone at school and by the age of fourteen was already busy playing with brass bands, local dance groups and the Manchester Youth Jazz Orchestra. At sixteen, she started her professional career with Ivy Benson’s legendary All Girls Orchestra.

Annie has worked with many well known artists including Elvis Costello, Joan Armatrading, Chris Rea, The Style Council and Robert Wyatt. She was a member of Chris MacGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, The Carla Bley Very Big Band and the Penguin Café Orchestra. She has contributed to more than 50 albums and has recorded five albums under her own name.

“Annie Whitehead is a trombonist of elegant technique and musical tastes taking in funk, salsa and ska as well as jazz” – John Fordham.

At the Roundhouse, Annie will be performing as part of the William Blake Klezmatrix band, a poetry & music collaborative formed to perform William Blake’s most lyrical texts, & also excerpts from his longer works.

As well as versions of Blake lyrics, the band – which at the Roundhouse will feature Annie Whitehead on trombone and vocals, Peter Lemer on piano, & Michael Horovitz on anglo-saxophone & other voicings – also performs diverse jazz poems, klezmer & other folk music and song, plus jazz, blues, calypso, settings of the poetry of Ginsberg, the Bible, et al, plus original compositions & improvisations.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

ReIncarnation Biographies #14: Sasha Mitchell

Sasha Mitchell

Sasha Mitchell

The fourteenth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the  singer Sasha Mitchell.

Sasha has been a professional performer since the age of 16. She toured many times with her father, Adrian Mitchell, one of the original performers at the Albert Hall 1965 Poetry Incarnation, singing songs from his plays and poems set to music by Mike Westbrook, Pete Moser, Andy Roberts, Richard Peaslee and other composers. She is a voice coach and continues to perform Mitchell’s work both for adults and children. She has sung at the Albert Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The National Theatre, The Tron, and the Tricycle, but is proudest of making them laugh and cry at The Leeds Working Men’s Club!

She currently works with Tender, Resonance Voice Trainings and The Helen Bamber Foundation.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation.

ReIncarnation Biographies #13: Pete Brown

Pete Brown

Pete Brown

The thirteenth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is poet, singer and Cream lyricist Pete Brown.

Beginning professional life as writer and performer of his own poetry aged 19 after meeting Michael Horovitz, Pete was always in love with music. He joined Michael’s New Departures group in 1961, by 1963 they had their own residency at London’s famed Marquee Club, working with musicians such as Dick Heckstall-Smith, Graham Bond, Stan Tracey and Bobby Wellins.

In 1965 Pete took part in the Albert Hall Poetry Incarnation, alongside Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti, Adrian Mitchell and Horovitz. He also toured briefly with Ginsberg and later with Robert Creeley. In 1966 Pete was asked to write lyrics for the newly-formed Cream, and went on to write such hits as “I Feel Free”, “White Room”, “Politician” and “Sunshine of Your Love”. In ’67 he cut his first demo as a singer, along with some of the members of his own Jazz/poetry group including John McLaughlin. The same year his first book of poetry, “Few” was published.

A year later he was signed with his band the Battered Ornaments to the new EMI Harvest label. He was then on the road with his own bands, including the well known Piblokto, for nearly ten years. Phil Ryan, his current musical partner, joined the latter band in l970. When Cream broke up Pete continued working with singer/bassist Jack Bruce, contributing lyrics to most of his recorded output.

Driven out of music temporarily by the onset of Punk, Pete, encouraged by Martin Scorsese, took up screenwriting, at the same time undertaking nearly six years of singing lessons. Seduced back into music in the new role of record producer, Pete also worked in the studios as both percussionist and backing singer. He began working with Indy bands and jazz groups, and progressed to working with such as Peter Green and Jeff Beck.

In 1993 Pete and Phil formed the Interoceters, his longest lasting band. Phil eventually had to leave to look after his ailing wife, but Pete carried on until 2010 when he and Phil reunited and formed their current 9-piece blues and soul band, Psoulchedelia.

During this period Pete also toured widely in Germany as guest singer with the Hamburg Blues band, alongside Maggie Bell and Chris Farlowe. In  2010 Pete published his autobiography, “White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns”. In 2015 Jack Bruce’s final solo record “Silver Rails” was released, with most of the lyrics by Pete.

A feature documentary by young director Mark A,J, Waters has just been completed, and should be released this year. Pete and Phil’s current record, “Perils of Wisdom” was released in 2014 on the Repertoire label. Pete continues to write songs , screenplays and produce records, and to perform both as poet and singer. Young blues/rock artist Krissy Matthews’ album “Scenes from a moving window” , produced and co-written by Pete, is currently in the Amazon charts. Pete’s goal is to continue touring for as long as possible. He plans a new book of poetry and a best-of lyric book.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

ReIncarnation Biographies #12: Vanessa Vie

pic by Lubka Gangarova

pic by Lubka Gangarova

The twelfth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the Spanish singer/songwriter and artist Vanessa Vie.

Singer-lyrist & artist Vanessa Vie was born in Aviles, Asturias, Northern Spain in 1973.

From 1993 she committed to the practice & study of the Visual Arts and, in 1995, one of her drawings was used  for a Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona t-shirts limited edition. Before long, music, performing arts and poetry would become the centre of her activity. Alberto Arango from the National Cuban Opera, and jazz maestro Don Kemonah, who had moved from London to Spain, were among her various influential teachers.

In 1997 she co-formed, with folk and classical double bass player Ignacio Pozo, her first pop-rock band Ithaca, which dissolved in 2000. In the same year Vanessa resolved to live & work in London, largely in consequence of reading the works of William Blake.

In 2005, with her ex-husband, rock musician Ian Montlake, Vanessa co-formed the alternative-rock band Rockatron, which dissolved in 2009.

Since then she has presented Happenings inspired by the work of poets (including Dylan Thomas and Rumi), and on occasion inspired by the work of visual artists such as Sheila Seepersaud-Jones, and has exhibited her own Visual Art, and used it to illustrate her Words and Music and that of others.

In 2012 Vanessa met poet, artist and iconoclast Michael Horovitz, whose encouragement, inspiration, and active partnership go on feeding her muse. The duo’s renditions of their own, Lorca’s, Blake’s, Emily Dickinson’s and others’ lyrics and poetry have become a staple of Michael’s Jazz Poetry SuperJams.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

ReIncarnation Biographies #11: Daniel Cockrill

Daniel Cockrill

Daniel Cockrill

The eleventh person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is poet and promoter extraordinaire Daniel Cockrill.

Daniel Cockrill, who will be your genial host for the night of ReIncarnation, has been saying words out loud since 1996. He is co-founder of BANG SAID THE GUN, ‘the poetry event for people who don’t like poetry’ and PAGEMATCH, a show which smashes together the Razzamatazz of Wrestlemania with all your favourite spoken word artists.

He was an Executive Producer for 15 short poetry films for Channel 4 which included Kate Tempest, Hollie McNish, Elvis McGonagall, Rob Auton, David J, Polarbear and Byron Vincent.

Daniel’s words have appeared in books, newspapers, magazines, on gallery walls, at major festivals, on stage, radio and television. He is also a regular contributor to the Poetry Takeaway, ‘the world’s first mobile poetry emporium’.

He has two full collections of work entitled Pie and Papier-Mâché and Sellotaping Rain To My Cheek and is co-editor of the Bang Said The Gun Anthology Mud Wrestling With Words published by Burning Eye Books.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

Here’s a film poem by Daniel Cockrill from Channel 4’s Random Acts.

CH4 Random Acts – Margate – 2013 from Paperback Films on Vimeo.

ReIncarnation Biographies #9: Kei Miller

Kei Miller

Kei Miller

The ninth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the commanding poet Kei Miller.

Winner of the 2014 Forward Prize for Best Collection, Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. He was educated at the University of the West Indies and Manchester Metropolitan University. His winning collection “The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion” explores science, imagination, and clashing perspectives through the lens of an exchange between a teeth-kissing cartographer and a sceptical Rastaman with a PhD.

Shortlisted for both last year’s Costa Book Awards and the Dylan Thomas prize, Kei has published two previous collections: “There Is an Anger That Moves” (2007), and “A Light Song of Light” (2010, shortlisted for the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and selected for the 2014 PBS Next Generation Poets). He also edited Carcanet’s “New Caribbean Poetry: An Anthology” (2007), and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. He is also an accomplished writer of fiction.

“Raise high the roofbeams, here comes a strong new presence in poetry… Kei Miller’s voice speaks and sings with rare confidence and authority” – Lorna Goodison

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

ReIncarnation Biographies #8: Elvis McGonagall

Elvis McGonagall (pic by Anna McCarthy)

Elvis McGonagall (pic by Anna McCarthy)

The eighth person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the astonishing Elvis McGonagall.

Stand-up poet, armchair revolutionary and recumbent rocker, Elvis McGonagall is the sole resident of The Graceland Caravan Park where he scribbles verse whilst drinking Scotch, listening to Johnny Cash and throwing heavy objects at his portable telly.

The second series of Elvis’ sitcom “Elvis McGonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side” is scheduled to be broadcast in August 2015 on BBC Radio 4 where he appears regularly (“Saturday Live”, the “Today Programme”, “Arthur Smith’s Balham Bash” and many others, as well as writing and presenting documentaries).

He’s also appeared on BBC1’s “The One Show” (his jacket clashed with the lime green sofa), BBC2’s “The Culture Show” and their coverage of the World Snooker Championships’ final of 2008, Channel 4’s “Random Acts”, BBC Radio 2’s breakfast show and “It’s Grimm Up North” and on the World Service.

Elvis is the 2006 World Slam Champion, the compere of the Blue Suede Sporran Club and performs and comperes at literary and music festivals, comedy clubs and dodgy dives up and down the country and abroad.

A live recording of his show One Man And His Doggerel is available on Laughing Stock Records and a short collection of his work Mostly Dreich is published by Nasty Little Press.

“….righteous ire, directed at very deserving targets….McGonagall’s verses are shot through with a moral umbrage and rhetorical power” (**** Brian Logan, The Guardian) – full review here:

“….funny, angry and tightly written….McGonagall combines anger, polish and carefully crafted verse in a way which recalls John Cooper Clarke….If the word ‘poetry’ is putting you off, get over it” (**** Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman) – full review here:

“….pin-pointed satires, dynamic performances and meticulous impressions….electrifying….bitingly funny and politically astute” (Michael Horovitz)

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

Here’s a video of Elvis in full swing at Book Slam

ReIncarnation Biographies #7: Eleanor Bron

Eleanor Bron (pic by Lesley Bruce)

Eleanor Bron (pic by Lesley Bruce)

The seventh person in our series of introductions to performers taking part in International Poetry ReIncarnation at the Roundhouse in Camden on 30th May 2015 is the electrifying Eleanor Bron.

Eleanor Bron is a writer and actress. Her career started  in satire in the 1960’s, working  in Peter Cook’s Establishment  nightclub, alongside John Bird and John Fortune, and continued in both comedy and drama, in theatre, television and radio. Roles she has played include Hedda Gabler, Pegeen Mike, Hermione Hushabye, Jean Brodie, Mme Dubonnet and the Duchess of Malfi.  Her TV work has  ranged from Absolutely Fabulous to Play for Today, including A month in the Country and Jehane Markham’s Nina.

Among her films are Help; Bedazzled; Two for the Road, Women In Love,  the House of Mirth, The Heart of Me, &  A Little Princess. She has written two books of memoir, a novel, verses for Saint-Säens’ Carnival of the Animals, a song-cycle (with John Dankworth); and co-written several comedy series for television. She is currently working on a series of short plays in verse.

Get your tickets for the evening’s star-laden performance here: The International Poetry ReIncarnation

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