Upcoming release on Origin Records: Ben Boone’s “The Poetry of Jazz"
Karen is among a stellar cadre of special guests on “The Poetry of Jazz,” a collaboration between saxophonist Benjamin Boone and the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine, due March 16 from Origin Records.
Along with Karen, other guests on this album include Chris Potter, Tom Harrell, Greg Osby, and Branford Marsalis.
Long fascinated by the inherent musicality of the spoken word, saxophonist/composer Benjamin Boone crossed paths with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine as fellow professors at California State University, Fresno, and they ended up working closely together in the three years before Levine’s death in 2015. Boone and Levine’s “The Poetry of Jazz,” which features performances by several special guests, captures a genre-expanding partnership unlike anything else in the jazz canon.
Boone is heralded as a performer and composer in both jazz and new music circles. His compositions have been heard in 29 countries and on more than 25 albums and have been the subject of multiple national broadcasts on NPR. He conducted musical research in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova as a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow and is currently spending a year in Ghana performing and composing with African musicians as a Fulbright Scholar.