Official website of lyricist, [verb]swish, writer of spoken soul & neo-poetry

swish spins no. 7 (summer session a)

verbs — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:20:13 +0000

Valdez In The Country - Donny Hathaway (Extension of A Man)
Naima - John Coltrane (Spritual)
In Time - DJ Jazzy Jeff ft. V (The Magnificent)
B-Boy Stance - k-Os (Joyful Rebellion)
That Sound - Ohmega Watts (ft Braille, The Procussions, Othello)
Closer (DJ Spinner Remix Instrumental) - Goapele (Closer)
I’ve Known The Garden - Res (How I Do)
West Pier Getdown - Quantic Soul Orchestra (Wanted)
Hope, Peace & Love - Foy Vance (Hope)
Yellow (the mellow remix) - Tara Mixon (The Rough Drafts Vol. 1)

swish spins (no. 6) - best set yet?

verbs — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:04:20 +0000

Some great records in session 6, from some artists that are new to me (Yoav, Asa, Brett Dennen). Jeff Buckley’s ”Lover, you should have come over*” is old and peculiar, it’s title needs a caveat that newcomer Brett Dennan’s “Darlin’ do not fear’ aptly provides: ”Lover…” is a poigniant song about regret and sacrifice and not the schtik of today’s R&B-movie records. You may remember it from the forgettable Cullum cover (I don’t), but I was struck by the compelling lyrics full of sacrifice and totality that really come across in this original:

“It’s never over; my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder…
…It’s never over; all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter”

In fact these are all v.lyrical records, and the shakespearean flava doesn’t let up - Lizz Wright’s Dreaming Wide Awake is amazing - I woke up to it after taking a power-nap, her voice has a stirring quality, but the lyrics are stronger than any alarm:

“My eyes burn /I have seen the glory of a brighter sun
My heart aches / It has felt the peace of perfect love
My mind fails / as I try to recall the bliss of glorious day”

Tosin does a great job on Eric Lau’s new album, a consumate crooner. And Asa, who visits the UK next month, is in fine form on ‘Jailer’. Doutbless I’ll be spinning more from them in future sessions: here’s the full list:

Eric Lau ft. Tosin - Don’t Let ‘Em
He Aint Heavy, He’s my Brother [Previously Unissued] - Donny Hathaway (These Songs For You, Live)
Darlin’ Do Not Fear - Brett Dennen (So Much More)
Lover, you should have come over - Jeff Buckley (Grace)
Wires - Athlete (Live In San Francisco)
Yeah, The End - Yoav (Charmed & Strange)
Afro Beat Blues - Hugh Masekela (The CHISA years)
Jailer - Asa (Jailer)
He Say She Say - Lupe Fiasco (Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor)
The One Who Loves You The Most - Brett Dennan (So Much More)
The Celebration Wedding - (All The Hits So Far and other sundry items, but don’t expect too much)
Dreaming Wide Awake - Lizz Wright (Dreaming Wide Awake)

swish spins (No. 4)

verbs — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:50:41 +0000

Short but sweet session today, had to reload ‘Trinity’ (Santana) a coupla times… Eva Cassidy’s interpretation of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ finishes the set, wow -I’d heard her name, but wasn’t really familiar with her story or voice… some plight she had not getting signed, talk about slept on. Shame on the slumbering majors… anyway, here’s the list:

When Love Comes To Town - B.B King , U2 (The Anthology)
High & Dry - Jamie Cullum (Pointless Nostalgia)
Trinity - Santana ft.Kirk Hammett & Robert Randolph, (All that I am)
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughn (The Best Of)
Medicine For My Pain - Lynden David Hall [Live Acoustic Version]
Nothing Last Forever - Maroon 5 (It Won’t Be Soon Before Long)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Eva Cassidy

Swish Spins

verbs — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:31:45 +0000

Crazy jazzed out session today, ‘Mingpark’ by percussionist, Art Konik was quite a highlight, as was Chick Corea’s ‘Love Castle’ - yessir. [v]s

One for ‘Grew (Mulgrew Miller) - Robert Glasper
The Gift - Roy Hargrove (Nothing Serious)
Mingpark - Art Konik (Jazz Beat)
Freedom - The Procussions (Up All Night)
Whats Your Name (Introducing) - The Procussions (Up All Night)
Her Wings - Mr J Medeiros (of gods and girls)
When I Close My Eyes - Liz Wright (Dreaming Wide Awake )
Eparapo [Montreux Jazz Festival] - Tony Allen (Tony Allen Live)
Such a long time - Hugh Masekela (Grazing in the Grass)
East - Headnodic (Headonic Beats Vol. 1)
Love Castle - Chick Corea (My Spanish Heart)
Imperial Strut - Yellowjackets (The best of Yellow Jackets)
Brotherhood - Cinematic Orchestra ft. Tony Allen (Jazz Beats)

A great day for neo-poetry

verbs — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:55:13 +0000

Yessir, it’s here, the Penultimate DVD! A new day, that from
eternity past was marked for newness; Neo-poetry: “We are
his poetry, we are new men / and if you don’t believe me
read Ephesians 2:10!“. Shout outs to urbanmissiontv for their
blitz clips of the awe-inspiring acts, giving a taster of the full
sets, now available to order from the verbswish.com store.
Much like the newness of this Ressurection Sunday, it’s great to
get, but even better to give as a gift. Thanks for all your
support in buying this DVD and supporting what we’re doing.
Enjoy the show, and let us know what you think.

Something to Love - a response

verbs — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:02:24 +0000

This post has been adapted from a response I made to Inua Ellams’ thought provoking blog post, Something to Love. The basic premise was that someone had suggested that happiness requires 3 things: Something to do, Something to love AND Something to hope for. Readers were invited to give their responses to what these things might be, here are mine:

I think the first question we have to ask is What is happiness? Otherwise we may well find that we are leaning our ladder against the wrong wall. Today’s definition of happiness is “pleasurable satisfaction”, however Aristotle, Moses, Jesus and other wise ancients held to a different definition: “Happiness is a life of wisdom, virtue and character”*. Once we’ve established that, only then can we approach the three rungs, or any for that matter, that are suggested… I’ll try not to babble or be weird but here’s what I think: (more…)

Facebook notification or ‘clamourfication’?

verbs — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:30:10 +0000

In the real world people get together and have no need of telling each other “what they are doing right now!” something facebook is designed to elicit. A face-to-face encounter always makes that question self evident . If they are organised friends and sometimes even if they are not, this same information has been ‘diarised’ a few days before and is, well… unremarkable and rarely revisited. “Meeting Jane for coffee” used to be confined to the pages of a filofax, now it is fodder for the facebooker.

Culture has taught us that advertisting need not be meaningful, it must just be pervasive and incessant,
and we have bought it. Bought what? Bought the air they sold to us, and after re-polluting it, resold it to whoever will believe our social networking proclamations. (more…)

Swish Spins

verbs — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:55:27 +0000

The first March session of records. I try to keep ‘em in the background, but these were distracting enough to note!

Sweet Bird - Herbie Hancock ( The Joni Letters)
I Need You - Da Truth ft Izzy (Open Book)
Mr Integrity - Frank McComb (The Malibu Sessions, The Truth Volume 2)
Grazing In The Grass - Hugh Masekela (Still Grazing [reissue])
Living Today - J’Nay (Pressed & Ready, Kindred Collective)
Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer ft. Ben Harper (The Village Sessions)
Vietnam - Jimmy Cliff (Reggae Greats)
Tell Him - Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill)
The Last Time I saw Richard - Joni Mitchell (Blue)
Your Word - J.R (Life In Stereo)
Park Bench People - Jose James (The Dreamer)
Honest Man’s Hustle - Mr J. Medeiros (of god’s and girls)
Beautiful - Sharlene Hector (Pressed & Ready, Kindred Collective)
Starstruck - Da Truth ft. The Ambassador (Open Book)
Been Such A Long Time Gone - Hugh Masekela (Still Grazing [reissue])

Don’t listen to verbswish poetry!

verbs — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:36:28 +0000

until you’ve watched this. What your about to watch is spoken word, but perhaps not as your use to hearing it. This is probably the best introduction to one of my particular fields - matters of religous truth and sprituality, and to properly appreciate what it is were trying to do with a lot of poems, you need to have watched the video first. It’s kind of a necessary qualifier. It’s about an hour long, and is done by Greg Koukl, one of my mentors. I suggest you find an hour when no-one will bother you, put the kettle on and watch/listen carefully.

Just as an opening illustration, a couple of years back I asked a well known poet (who I won’t name) the question, “Is it wrong to torture babies for fun?”, for clarity I added “I want to know whether the act itself is wrong, objectively so; whether at any time, anywhere, under any circumstances it could possibly be morally acceptable to torture babies for the pleasure it brings you?” and the poet responded with a chilling, “it depends”. I am not kidding you, this actually happened, it was a question borrowed from Greg who will explain in the video why the poet gave this disturbing response.

When you’ve watched, please come back and leave your comments and thoughts here - all viewpoints welcome:)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9219638402717265149&q=greg+koukl&hl=en

verbswish newsletter || Well I’ll Be #9 (Mar ‘08)

verbs — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:13:27 +0000

Hey e’rybody! beware the (good) vibes of March, February was great - see the ‘Oh My Daze!’ post on
the blog, but in short had a great TRANSTATIC launch + joint b’day celebration with friend and band member Abimaro
You had to be there, so if you weren’t (tut-tut), we’ll try and do another one soon - dont sleep. In the meantime…

Well I’ll Be…

Running: up and down London like clockwork, or the sweat of a goldsmith near a furnace. Let me explain: Myself and full band play north London’s Clockwork Bar this Thursday 6th, featuring as part of POESY, a night of music and poetry.
(Doors from 7pm). 96-98 Pentonville Road, N1 9JB.Then on the 18th were at Goldsmiths University, which hosts a night of music called ‘Double Take’,
(Rm 167, nearest tube new cross, from 7.30pm)Finally, this month were at a night called Furnace in Balham, a meld of passionate, spontaneous
word, music, theatre fusion. (Georges Pub, Balham Hill, £5 otd, map).
Yessir - (aren’t you glad I explained that;)
Spinning: records. [verb]swish a DJ? I hear you say, well something like that, but it’s more part of an experiment we’re doing
here at TRANSTATIC that I’ve dubbed ’swish spins’. No rocket science here, we’re just curious about what people like, and whether they like what we like. The playlist from the first couple sessions have already gone up - as well as the rules. For this month’s competition, there is an album from one of the sessions up for grabs. To enter just email a request: info at transtatic.co.uk. So far I’ve been digging in the crates pulling out old Bacharach cuts, Masakela jawns, but also some new Daft Punk stuff, and some of Herbie’s Grammy winner.
Oh, in fact one tune has been so huge… I have to give it it own section >>>
Taking: ‘Every Step’ back (as in rewinding) - Tawiah’s etherial new single, it made i-tunes track of the week and is a good look for UK soul. Much has rightly been said about her twisted soul sound, but the lyrics and theme on this track have also won me over: “Can you hear the wind as it blows / without ears the leaves dance”.
Tipping: my hat once again to all for showing out for the launch. Big ups to Michaela, racking up yet more coach miles for TRANSTATIC. Check her new facebook page here. Thanks also to Shabazz for stepping out from behind the camera, for his amazing track‘Better Now’. Big ups to Tryumf on the decks, (Look out for his poetic single, ‘Proverbs 31 Woman’ on Ras Kwame’s 1xtra show, big in the game), last but not least shout out to globetrotting Ama in Rio, who desparately wanted to be there but couldn’t. Nuff Love.
(Re)reading: Eat this book - Eugene peterson, Tunesmith - Jimmy Webb, The Gospel of St Luke, Selected Poems - Langston Hughes

Right, I think that’s all the fun. I’m of to the drycleaners, the post office, and the bank (no laughing). I’ll save the
fun up for April’s WIB

peace
[v]s

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