- a biased review:

"The Jazz Poet" here:
Last Sunday Night at the Yardbird Suite I threw a Launch Party for the artists, musicians and techies involved in recording and producing my "Silver Apples of the Moon" CD -- the evening was an unqualified triumph. Some of the crowd's key reactions included repetitions and declensions of "beautiful", "magical", "warm", "evocative" or "professional". When one is surrounded by musicians of these statures, very little can go wrong. Terry McDade, Andrew Glover, Thom Golub, Dwayne Hrynkiw, Shannon Johnson and Lester Quitzau combined to produce ambiances for the poems and songs that were so virtuous, so sensitive to one another's instrumentation and improvisation, that often there was not a dry eye in the house. And Jasiek Poznanski, who ran the mix from his big board at the back of the room, ensured levels and EQs for the sake of balance and coherence. Often my voice slides down to schwa, a grunty, barely audible whisper at the end of a piece, but the room was pin-drop-city for that hour or so and no nuance was missed.
That same audience wowed me, too, with its capacity for wolf-howl, supper-waltzing, bird-song, cheer-leading and playing Tascheleia's beautiful game. A hundred and fifty friends and afficionados of my imagery and stylings showed up at twenty bucks a head to "be there" -- putting enough in the bank to pay for the CD printing and artwork plus a fair dollar for the band, crew and dancer.
As I've often said, I'm surrounded by Genii, and they flatter me with their acquiescence to my whims, honour me with their efforts to interpret a song or poem or come out on a cold November night to audit this sonic experiment with the muse.
I must also give our local press, including their photographers, much credit. Pre-release publicity added much suspense to Sunday night's verb: As DJs like Chris Allen, Dave Ward and Bob Chelmick have aired some of these works on CKUA and Ron Wilson with the help of James Wark have given my poetry national and local CBC radio play, so have The Edmonton Journal's Michael Sadava, Candace Elliot and Roger LeVesque drawn attention to this lonely calling. The St Albert Gazette's Bev Betkowski, April Bartlett (whose shot of this old fart in his black hat and coat has become a trade-mark), Sue Jones and Chuck Ruff who set up the release of the "Night Benz" film project, and Anna Borowieki and Jason Franson, whose well-timed article last Wednesday brought former students and staff-mates to the concert whom I hadn't seen for years. I'm both honoured and amazed at the attention!
A surprise lurks in the works -- my old friend, Max Wawruck, and his son Adrian filmed the whole concert. With any luck, Jasiek's DAT from the suite's board can be coupled with their Sonycams' recording of the room sound to create an easy-to-take A-V document of the evening's progress from blues to poetry to standards to clincher.
We'll definitely share.
Onward to "The Jazz Poet" -- my next CD of poetry and song!

Dean.

Web Design by Douglas Elves. Water reflection photograph by Linda Jennings.

Dean Morrison McKenzie

McKenzie's a kid from the village; it shows in his themes. His poetry, fiction, music, films and essays are laden with imagery gathered from the world that surrounds small prairie towns. So far he has co-authored two or three chapbooks, read his stuff on public radio and has had his voice used to record commercials and training films. McKenzie's first CD, "Prairie Hejira" was published in 2001 and on November 23rd, 2003, at The Yardbird Suite, he and the band released "The Silver Apples of the Moon". He also wrote the script for "Skipping Stone" -- the AMPIA-award winning film produced by Frame 30, and recently Michael Hamm screened McKenzie's "Night Benz", another short film based on the prose/poem included in this chap book. It was awarded a Silver Medal at the Houston International Festival of Independent Films in the category Jazz/New Age/Spoken Word.

When asked about life as a retired English teacher, he refers to it as a bus man's Holiday. "I've been editing the work of others all my life; now I'm smoothing out my own roughnesses."

Watch for his next chapbook, "The McKenzie Chronicles" and "The Jazz Poet" CD is just around the corner along with a loosely connected series of short stories about the "Urbaniginals". McKenzie is also working with MaxMedia to produce some poetry/art/music videos with the collaboration of Alberta post-modern impressionist Wayne Schneider. Wayne's paintings create moody graphics that reflect some of the darker aspects of McKenzie's themes; the corollary: McKenzie's poems reflect Wayne's angst. Andrew Glover's synthesized keyboards will accompany "His Recurring Night Terrors" in the performance poems.

The submissions in this electronic chapbook include pieces that you may have read, heard or seen elsewhere, but they were nearly all published on this web site or in the Stroll Archives before they made their way into recordings, public performances, hard copies or film scripts.

POEMS

Lysergia: The Day of the Ergot

INDIAN SUMMER HAS GONE

The Wild Cattery

A Dance Danced

John O'Winter

Equinox -- Long Beach

Modestly! Modestly!

Honouring Christian Bok

Shades of Another Time

Another Pedestrian Poem

Etching the Blank