33rd

By

Toussaint St. Negritude

Trane chasing impressions

of giant stepping blues

may not be

what Franklin heard

but all roads do lead

to 1511 N. 33rd.

West of Broad

and but a few shades off

Central Park West

facing the expressed expansion

of Fairmount Park

landing three flights up

from his Carolina heart

here way north of Vine

up these fine avenues

of black folks keeping black folks on time

the mission

is to reach the divine.

Cause just like what

Odean heard what Archie heard what

Lee Morgan heard

and you know what McCoy heard

all roads do lead

to 1511 N. 33rd.

Can I hear

some Jimmy Garrison on that?

Trane chasing impressions

of giant stepping blues

Trane chasing impressions

of giant stepping blues

Trane chasing impressions

of giant stepping blues

may not be

what Franklin heard

But all roads do lead

to 1511 N. 33rd.

Born in 1959, poet, composer, bass clarinetist,

Toussaint St. Negritude Orson Gregory Titus,

the grandson of early Ellingtonian, pianist, composer

James B. Titus, has accordingly long espoused the

jazz inspirations of his own creative development.

Growing up in San Francisco, Toussaint St. Negritude

attended Grambling State University, and in 1979,

left college to pursue a 3 year exploration of the

Negritude Movement, in the Republic of Haiti. This

voudouesque encounter with the convergence of art

and spirit has fervently become the template for all

of his work, including his name. It is precisely this

esprit de vivre heard in the works of Langston Hughes,

James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and those of

Duke Ellington through Eric Dolphy that has led this

poet-turned-musician to freely blow his grand

design of the cosmos-in-b-flat.

Since Port-au-Prince, Toussaint St. Negritude has

published and recorded broadly and has duly climbed

a continuous path towards his muse, conjuring stays

in the arts communities of Houston, Paris, Savannah,

Eureka, and now in the the historic Coltrane District

of Philadelphia.

Keeping his bags on the globe, Mr. St. Negritude is

currently compiling notes for further publications and

performances and is soon to be blowing a poem towards

your town.

For bookings and more information, you may reach

Toussaint St. Negritude at stnegritude@hotmail.com.