McMaster University Library and the Department of English & Cultural Studies and Hamilton Public Library
invite you to
The first time I heard Coltrane’s Quartet play “My Favourite Things,” I was unpacking groceries and I was listening and listening and I had to listen more. The piano was genius. My little Baby Bea was slowly taking the eggs out of a carton I’d left on the floor by the fridge and she was breaking them one by one. She was absorbed by it and doing it carefully, feeling that sticky yolk, and I did not stop her so I could listen and listen and listen and not be interrupted, and when I am dying I will not think about the mess of a dozen broken eggs but about how I heard Coltrane and Tyner talking to each other in “My Favourite Things.” That sax sounded like a man getting up out of his chair to take a woman’s hand to say, I wanta tell you something I don’t have words for, da-daa-da-daa-daa, da-daa-da-daa-daa, then going deepdown inside, deedle-leedle-leedle-lee, those musicians’ minds inside their instruments and the music catching at the passing phrase, each playing separate but together, tune inside rhythm, beat inside melody. I listened and listened and each man was absorbed in what he was finding to say, each hearing what the other three were doing and by some miracle— there is no other word—all playing together, though it makes no sense, how can two, three, four play solos together? That day I listened twenty times to “My Favourite Things” and when I felt quiet and whole and sated I lifted up the needle and put the record back in its sleeve and we were all fine. I told the boys to put on their coats and rubber boots and I mopped up the sticky mess of eggs and wiped off Bea in the kitchen sink and we went outside to walk along the mountain brow. The light was fine and the steel mills were majestic and the kids slipped their handsMabel into minePugh with love that animates. I was not lonely with Coltrane and Tyner inside me. I thought, This music is what marriage could be, playing solos at the same time and ending up together.
WORDS AND MUSIC
readings by
Kim Echlin I Taylor Writer-in-Residence for 2015-2016, and writers from her residency with special guest Jason Scozzari I Piano Wednesday, March 23, 2016 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. | Great Hall, Alumni Memorial Hall (University Club) Wine and cheese reception to follow Kim Echlin ‘s books include Under the Visible Life, Elephant Winter, Dagmar’s Daughter, Inanna, and The Disappeared, a Giller shortlist and winner of the Barnes and Noble award, translated into 17 languages. She won the CBC Literary Prize for Creative Non-fiction for “I, Witness.” She has been a documentary-maker, editor and teacher. She was literary fiction editor for The Ottawa Citizen for five years. She has edited and taught at The Banff Centre for the Arts and at the University of Toronto, School for Continuing Studies Creative writing program where she was honoured with an instructor of the year award. She has lived and travelled in France, China, the Marshall Islands, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Central America, Cambodia and she has participated in literary festivals in North America, Iceland and Pakistan. Jason Scozzari is presently completing his final year in the Honours Music program at McMaster University, where he is also Teaching Assistant. An inspired musician, Jason has achieved the Dean’s Honours List for the past two years and has been the recipient of several music awards including the Irene Pearce Scholarship for Excellence in Keyboard Performance. Having obtained his Grade 10 Piano with First Class Honours through the Royal Conservatory of Music, he is currently pursuing his ARCT Piano Performance Diploma studying with renowned concert pianist Valerie Tryon. In July 2014, in conjunction with the Office of Public Relations at McMaster University, Jason was chosen to work on a special project commemorating the 100-year anniversary of World War I. The project entailed the revival of songs from the First World War. The music was recorded at McMaster University and later broadcast on CBC radio across Canada.
For more information, please contact Anne Plessl plessla@mcmaster.ca | 905.525.9140 ext. 24865