Play That Thing

Tommy Ladnier's recording of Sept 1923

Grooved into a fragile shell of black shellac
with time worn acoustics
half lost in a patina of wear and tear
lays a player's art which bares
its own proof.
The passing years have only served the truth of this validity.

By mere vibration alone,
without the tourtured method of a modern tone
this horn
has thrown the echo, torn, then tempered it
to a fine edge of anguish.
Now it holds, next to mark in double time
and though the march be brittle bound
its rhythm but a ghost of sound,
it is a key ...

The voice within which notes the moment as a fiery hymn.