Barry Wallenstein

1995 release ** "Taking Off was first released as an LP in 1982 and re-issued as a CD by Bleu Regard in France in 1995. Wallenstein increases the size of his jazz accompaniment/collaboration, featuring Bill Chelf on piano, Charles Tyler on saxophones, Jeremy Steig on flute, and Jeff Meyer on percussion. The opening poem "Careful Bump," begins with a jolting kick and cymbal crash leading into a bop-jazz drum beat. "The Short Life of the Five Minute Dancer," which describes action in the face of finitude, is one of Wallenstein's pseudo-biographical sketches that contemplates the working artist's schedule. He paints the portrait of a man who, idle for most of the day, creates in short bursts, making the most of his limited time. The new version of the previously released, "Short Life of the Five Minute Dancer," feels looser and more playful, more emotive than its first recording, allowing a wider range of communication between words and music. Here Wallenstein explores life lived in the moment, which, striking deeper to the core, is always a defiance of mortality and death, the shadow of which looms large over his poems early and late. Yet, at the same time, death is intertwined with life, as registered in "Love and Crush." This 'love poem' is actually a death poem, or perhaps a life-and-death poem. "Love and Crush" observes the undeniable necessity of the food chain, the nature of decay and fructification, as the consuming woodworm becomes the pulp which it eats. There is "no need to crush or rush / this balanced diet" as the consumer today becomes the consumed tomorrow."