Table of Contents

blues in b for charlie the sound of thinking about distant objects quick recipe for genius mary lou williams's piano workshop (after fred moten) earl of harlem meets the high priest of bebop (alternate take) ghost of the piano cutting contest: earl of harlem vs. art tatum (for who buys the next pitcher of pabst) gigan: the cruel blues coping earl of harlem meets the high priest of bebop leit[blue]motif earl of harlem swear he in love with the little piano girl of east liberty cutting contest: earl of harlem vs. art tatum (for who buys the next pitcher of pabst) (lost live recording) piano ode to the cabaret card riff on g7 mad man at the finger palace mad man at the finger palace (alternate take) after ect tune as an asylum scary meds what to do while fresh ideas are organizing earl of harlem in his simplest form, a poor man’s diagnosis earl of harlem swear he in love with the little piano girl of east liberty (bud’s take) pianism pearl of harlem pianism (alternate take) etude op. 8, no.7 etude op. 8, no.2 etude op. 8, no.6 etude op. 8, no.4 etude op. 11, no.5 etude op. 11, no.11 etude op. 15, no.1 etude op. 15, no.3 mnemonic fragments (ballad for crossing the unbridgeable chasm) earl of harlem at the golden shovel the negro section as frontage 12-bar F blues with a few substitutions thrown in wor studios, new york city, may 1, 1951 tempus fugue-it earl of harlem swear he in love with the little piano girl of east liberty (alternate take) piano solitaire last supper of bop mingus of the ninth circle the portrait of an artist in his daughter’s aural imagination crash homegoing & repass solo lost in the 8th arrondissement earl of harlem on bob thompson's garden of music dissipation: a bop off night: a piano trio last call fraternite aubade: earl of harlem composing extemporaneously gigan: epistle to neptune blue heron celia

About the Author

makalani bandele is a resident of Lexington, KY. He is an Affrilachian Poet and Cave Canem fellow. He has also received fellowships from the Kentucky Arts Council, Millay Colony, and Vermont Studio Center. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a BA in the Program of Liberal Studies, as well as a graduate of Shaw University with a Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies. He currently attends the University of Kentucky in pursuit of an MFA in Creative Writing. He is the author of under the aegis of a winged mind, which won the 2019 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize, and hellfightin', published by Aquarius Press in 2011.

Reviews

“William Carlos Williams once wrote that it was difficult to get the news from poetry, but we die from the lack of what is there, and to transpose music, especially African-American music and all it contains into something fresh and revelatory on the page is just as complicated, but makalani bandele proves, page by page, poem by stunning poem, to be up for the task. And what news! under the aegis of a winged mind isn’t a book—it’s a neighborhood, it’s a nation. To quote this fine poet: ‘Just listen.’ makalani bandele is a poet who is just tuning up.”
*Cornelius Eady, author of "Brutal Imagination"*