Bzw. ۲ ۴ ۲ [»Happiness's Granite« for Soprano Saxophone (1996) by R. A. ol-Omoum]

["Yellow Blue", Suria Kassimi (2018)]

A colored man floats down out of the sky blowing a saxophone, and below him, in the space between two buildings, a girl talks earnestly to a man in a straw hat. He touches her lip to remove a bit of something there. Suddenly she is quiet. He tilts her chin up. They stand there. Her grip on her purse slackens and her neck makes a nice curve. The man puts his hand on the stone wall above her head. By the way his jaw moves and the turn of his head I know he has a golden tongue. The sun sneaks into the alley behind them. It makes a pretty picture on its way down. [Toni Morrison »Jazz« (1992)]

Martin's Blues

He came apart in the open,

the slow motion cameras

falling quickly

neither alive nor kicking;

stone blind dead

on the balcony

that old melody

etched his black lips

in a pruned echo:

We shall overcome

some day---

Yes we did!

Yes we did!

[Michael S. Harper (1971)]

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. [Martin Luther King, Jr. »On the Importance of Jazz« (1964)]

["Licht und Raum", Suria Kassimi (2020)]

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

[Langston Hughes (1922)]

You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. [James Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]

["Blue", Suria Kassimi (2017)]

Utopia

            brothers

            brothers

everywhere―

              and

        not a one

               for sale.

[Johari Amini (1969)]

It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be. One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself -- that is to say, risking oneself. If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. [James Baldwin »The Fire Next Time« (1963)]