Word Jazz
Long before Robert Pinsky became the only three-time poet laureate in American history, he was an alto saxophonist and clarinetist who couldn’t hack it in the music business. Now, in the third act of his career, the 79-year-old collaborates with pianist Laurence Hobgood on a live and studio project called PoemJazz. If the name evokes berets and bongos, don’t worry—they’re aware.
“Robert has very strong feelings about not in any way gravitating toward the stereotyped, clichéd, hepcat thing,” Hobgood tells JazzTimes. They circumvent this, he says, by
