CMU School of Drama


Friday, March 23, 2012

Poet, trumpeter make powerful tandem in performance

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Blending music and words can produce something other than a song. Poet/spoken word artist Vanessa German and trumpeter Sean Jones created their own powerful product Thursday evening in a mix of jazz and poetry at the August Wilson Center, Downtown. German performed her looks at our culture and the world backed by a quartet led by Jones. Well, the musicians did far more than support her. They were a rod of steel to the unbending spine that was her words.

2 comments:

K G said...

A fan of music, a fan of words, definitely a fan of music and words. The beautiful thing about both of these art forms is that they stand alone with power in their own right. One does not need the other, and vice versa. It is a typical successful relationship - where there is strength independently and yet one still plays to enhance the other. I am also glad events like these are getting some press - because they really are great and I often don't think they get the attention they deserve among their more popular live entertainment counterparts.

skpollac said...

Right on. Coming from the magical land that is musical theatre, it makes complete sense that spoken word would be supported by music. In musical theatre, generally, the reason for song is that the character has no further way to express themselves with music. It is that point when simply words are not enough. I feel that the same goes for this situation. He needed more emphases on what he was saying so the logical solution was to add musical sound. Very exciting stuff.