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Kintsugi: Jazz Poems for Musicians Alive and Dead

by Ammar Kalia

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  • High quality printed square booklet, numbered limited edition of 100.

    Kintsugi is the debut poetry collection from writer and musician Ammar Kalia. A multi-sensory project, Kintsugi is 13 poems written for, about and in dialogue with jazz musicians both past and very much present, accompanied by an album of original drum compositions interwoven with Ammar’s own reading of his work.

    “Instrumental music has always spoken to me,” Ammar says. “This project was borne from a decade of listening to and playing jazz music, and the more I began to write professionally, the more these words started bubbling up through me, speaking via the collective weight of all that beautiful, improvisatory work to make their own poetic statements.”

    The result is a clutch of poems that sit in dialogue and in tension with each other, just as instrumentalists fluctuate between harmony and frictive movement in a musical setting. From the angular assertions of “Aromanticism”, a poem for Moses Sumney, to the forlorn aggression of “Someday my prince will come”, for Miles Davis, and the biographical meandering of “Sphere”, for Thelonious Monk, the verses give a visual and visceral afterlife to these musicians’ work – one seen through the lens of Ammar’s own experiences.

    Like the prismatic refractions of light, the accompanying album lends a new perspective through which to see this musical and poetic work by combining it with Ammar’s own improvised drumming. “The album that comes with the poems is designed to be a live rendering of their emotion and force, with me speaking through drums, as well as my voice,” he adds.

    Recorded at his family home in Hounslow, where Ammar first learned to play the drums at the age of 6, producer and engineer Matteo Galesi set up a portable studio, collaborating with Ammar over the course of a day to document 45 minutes of rhythmic language and texture on which to set his words.

    The result is a project of depth and complexity but also one which can, and should, be encountered in all settings: musically, textually, and through the mind’s eye.

    As Ammar writes:

    Really, though, there are no words,
    just one way: to refuse, to sink back, to play
    Inshallah, again, again, again.
    credits


    Words and music: Ammar Kalia
    Production, engineering and recording: Matteo Galesi
    Booklet design: Alessandra Balliana
    Photography: Stephanie Alishan

    Includes unlimited streaming of Kintsugi: Jazz Poems for Musicians Alive and Dead via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 100 
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

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about

Kintsugi is the debut poetry collection from writer and musician Ammar Kalia. A multi-sensory project, Kintsugi is 13 poems written for, about and in dialogue with jazz musicians both past and very much present, accompanied by an album of original drum compositions interwoven with Ammar’s own reading of his work.

“Instrumental music has always spoken to me,” Ammar says. “This project was borne from a decade of listening to and playing jazz music, and the more I began to write professionally, the more these words started bubbling up through me, speaking via the collective weight of all that beautiful, improvisatory work to make their own poetic statements.”

The result is a clutch of poems that sit in dialogue and in tension with each other, just as instrumentalists fluctuate between harmony and frictive movement in a musical setting. From the angular assertions of “Aromanticism”, a poem for Moses Sumney, to the forlorn aggression of “Someday my prince will come”, for Miles Davis, and the biographical meandering of “Sphere”, for Thelonious Monk, the verses give a visual and visceral afterlife to these musicians’ work – one seen through the lens of Ammar’s own experiences.

Like the prismatic refractions of light, the accompanying album lends a new perspective through which to see this musical and poetic work by combining it with Ammar’s own improvised drumming. “The album that comes with the poems is designed to be a live rendering of their emotion and force, with me speaking through drums, as well as my voice,” he adds.

Recorded at his family home in Hounslow, where Ammar first learned to play the drums at the age of 6, producer and engineer Matteo Galesi set up a portable studio, collaborating with Ammar over the course of a day to document 45 minutes of rhythmic language and texture on which to set his words.

The result is a project of depth and complexity but also one which can, and should, be encountered in all settings: musically, textually, and through the mind’s eye.

As Ammar writes:

Really, though, there are no words,
just one way: to refuse, to sink back, to play
Inshallah, again, again, again.

credits

released November 21, 2020

Words and music: Ammar Kalia
Production, engineering and recording: Matteo Galesi
Booklet design: Alessandra Balliana
Photography: Stephanie Alishan

Little Bob Publishing, 2020

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about

Ammar Kalia London, UK

Poet, writer and drummer.

www.ammarkalia.com

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