Steppin' into Beauty (6 June 2006)

"In my music, you can hear the Latin elements, because when you're playing jazz, you can only play what you are." - Hilton Ruiz

pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa…. pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa  
 pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa…. pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa....  

salsa steppin' side by side  
with a TP strut and stride  
outside an old New Orleans dive
so far from the Manhattan mambo  
musica land of enchantment  
called the boogie woogie Bronx  
where eight year-old island eyes  
first met Mingus  
mined Mary Lou
dug deep into Duke  
hailed Hubbard and Henderson
studied with Sanders  
played with Paquito
prayed with Palmieri  
and practiced 'til you was ready  
to roll with Rashan Roland
and jam with Jackie and Giovani
on latin jazz blast and bomba blues  
built to last by Birdland hands  
by way of the motherland  
and dropped out of hand
onto the wrong bandstand  
when you took a wrong step too far  
out of boricua be-bopper bounds  
into Bourbon street bar Utopia
and backed away into yesterday  
and a final show of force  
played by police “pedestrians”
with batons or blackjacks  
or some other non-musical blunt instruments  
that were instrumental in fracturing your face  
cracking your skull  
and inducing a concert closed-file  
post Katrina coma  
that killed you en camino
to composing another New York story

pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa…. pa para pa pa papapa para para pa pa etc…..  

(not4)Prophet