The great Afro-American poet Langston Hughes was a pioneer in Jazz Poetry, so it is appropriate that managed to finish this piece for International Jazz Day and the last day of National Poetry Month:  a performance of a short poem of his about Jazz, "Cabaret."

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Celebrating National Poetry Month and  International Jazz Day with this new sonnet about poets and poetry performed along with original music I composed for a Jazz quartet. 

This is what the Parlando Project does regularly: we combine various words (usually literary poetry) with music we create in various styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives, located at frankhudson.org

Emily Dickinson wrote these words in The Sixties, the 1860s. I just got done with this song performance of her poem as if it was the 1960s and this was a West Coast Folk-Rock band. I think Dickinson here is writing about those things left behind, missing, even in the delights of Spring.

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I set Emily Dickinson's "I dreaded that first Robin, so" to this music for National Poetry Month. Dickinson's poem casts a skeptical eye on Spring, at once alienated from it and yet closely, wittily, observing.

My music mutates throughout to carry forward the coming of Springtime. The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in varying styles. We've done over 800 of then combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at the Project's blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

An odd notion I had while planning for this year's National Poetry Month: could I perform an Amy Lowell poem with a rock band in the spirit of the Patti Smith Group? 

Well, the result still sounds like me, but sections of this Amy Lowell poem do presage methods of later poetic expression.

The Parlando Project performs various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear all of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org 

A. E. Housman's poem of fleeting wildflowers set to music as part of our celebration of this month's U. S. National Poetry Month. 

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear all of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

William Butler Yeats wrote this oft-quoted poem of the rise of evil in the world. I found it more challenging that many other Yeats poems to put to music and to sing, but tonight I've judged this full-rock-band version complete. 

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations over the years, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Here's another Edna St. Vincent Millay poem turned into a short spell-song for Spring and Poem in Your Pocket Day.

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

This is a song made from a section of Carl Sandburg's 1928 poem "Good Morning America"  which I sang this month in order that it shed some light on the nation's current state.

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

I started doing an English translation of a poem from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's youthful series of love poems, and in that process I thought of something else on my mind, and so began to connect the poem with two husbands taken from the US and their families based on dubious charges this Spring. 

This poem from Neruda's series speaks of lovers separated. It was not so wild a leap to finish the translation and set it to music as a song regarding this fresh injustice. I note too that Neruda notes that his poem was after a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, so the poem is already an adaptation.

The Parlando Project takes various words (mostly literary poetry, and combines them with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations and you can hear any of them and read more about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Our National Poetry Month celebration continues with a musical presentation of this sensuous Edna St Vincent Millay poem. Since I awoke this April morning to tree branches covered with wet April snow in my northern clime, I felt part of "the shared world" with this poet as I completed this song setting today.

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations. and you can hear any of them and read about our encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org