Charlie Parker
Loverman

Remember Mario

Overofree
a short poem by Alfredo Profeta

In the beginning was Palazzo Panorama
And Palazzo Panorama, jazz garden of Heaven,

was full of Eggplant Parmigiana Pie

and Zucchini scapece flavors

And our ears were full of notes:

Bird of Paradise

Scrapple from the Apple

Donna Lee (oh the women!)

And full of movement, too

fast:

Move

Ornitology

koko

and slow

Funny Valentine

Prelude to a kiss

Lover Man

Every day was the seventh day
and the girls upstairs
never complain

And Mario like a Black Knight
gripping his crescent-shaped sword
faced up mokeries and scoffings
lord of the Bertolini Castle

Riding a white horse
clinging to the mane-pentagram
flowing out disorderly notes
primordial chaos

And this crescent-shaped sword
Was a second-hand
burnished Selmer altosax
(wasn't a Rampone & Cazzani, instead?)

Growling, mumbling, and grumbling
Grunting, muttering and simmering
overflowed sounds on the audience

There I was enjoying every note
of the Fanfare
Couple years before
Brother Albert Ayler

And the sun lightened
our hairs while sinking
in the deep blue sea
of the Gulf of Naples, Italy

We were young and happy people
So we are today
"not all are repentant"

It was Anno Domini 1961