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The Feel Trio
Poetry. African American Studies. Music. California Interest. THE FEEL TRIO is Cecil Taylor, Tony Oxley and William Parker. Or is it that THE FEEL TRIO are Cecil Taylor, Tony Oxley and William Parker? See, that's the amazing problem and chance, right there! In the wake and air and light of THE FEEL TRIO, what it bears and what propels them, which is everything in particular, THE FEEL TRIO tries to put some things together. Alabama runs through those things like nobody's business. I kept trying to visit the uncounted space James Brown forms around the one. To celebrate the varieties of black devotion. But coalition can't be too easy; it's in our nature not to come naturally lyrically, beautifully violently. The organizing principles, in our extramusical tailor's retrofit of fitting, sharp as a tack from the tone worlds of east by southeast of Sheffield, the Bronx's compassionate project/s and fly, flaired, flared Corona: listen to everything, relax the shape, approach with love, be worthy of a lovely t!
104 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2014
11 people are currently reading
504 people want to read
About the author
Fred Moten
62 books335 followersFred Moten is author of In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (University of Minnesota Press), Hughson’s Tavern (Leon Works), B. Jenkins (Duke University Press), The Feel Trio (Letter Machine Editions) and co-author, with Stefano Harney, of The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study (Minor Compositions/Autonomedia). His current projects include two critical texts, consent not to be a single being (forthcoming from Duke University Press) and Animechanical Flesh, which extend his study of black art and social life, and a new collection of poems, The Little Edges.
In 2009 Moten was Critic-in-Residence at In Transit 09: Resistance of the Object, The Performing Arts Festival at the House of World Cultures, Berlin and was also recognized as one of ten “New American Poets” by the Poetry Society of America; in 2011 he was a Visiting Scholar and Artist-in-Residence at Pratt Institute; in 2012, he was Whitney J. Oates Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University and a member of the writing faculty of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College; and in 2013 he was a Guest Faculty Member in the Summer Writers Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute. He was also a member of the Critical Theory Institute at the University of California, Irvine from 2002 to 2004 and a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York from 2001 to 2002.
Moten served as a member of the Board of Managing Editors of American Quarterly and has been a member of the Editorial Collectives of Social Text and Callaloo, and of the Editorial Board of South Atlantic Quarterly. He is also co-founder and co-publisher (with Joseph Donahue) of a small literary press called Three Count Pour.
In 2009 Moten was Critic-in-Residence at In Transit 09: Resistance of the Object, The Performing Arts Festival at the House of World Cultures, Berlin and was also recognized as one of ten “New American Poets” by the Poetry Society of America; in 2011 he was a Visiting Scholar and Artist-in-Residence at Pratt Institute; in 2012, he was Whitney J. Oates Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University and a member of the writing faculty of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College; and in 2013 he was a Guest Faculty Member in the Summer Writers Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute. He was also a member of the Critical Theory Institute at the University of California, Irvine from 2002 to 2004 and a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York from 2001 to 2002.
Moten served as a member of the Board of Managing Editors of American Quarterly and has been a member of the Editorial Collectives of Social Text and Callaloo, and of the Editorial Board of South Atlantic Quarterly. He is also co-founder and co-publisher (with Joseph Donahue) of a small literary press called Three Count Pour.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 6, 2015
Fred Moten writes:
I’m in a bad mood about
everybody’s bad mood, their
political depression, whatever.
and they’re so god damn
squeamish about it—they
can’t even come close to
saying how fucked up it is,
with their anempathic
numbers, but they can say
that. they so attached
to it but they can say that.
o, say what they cannot can!
to say there’s no exit from
compromised ordinariness
is an ordinary compromise,
as if there’s more danger in the
idea of flight than in staying
home, as if laying back where
you stay precludes flying, as if
the symposium was theirs alone.
I’m in a bad mood about
everybody’s bad mood, their
political depression, whatever.
and they’re so god damn
squeamish about it—they
can’t even come close to
saying how fucked up it is,
with their anempathic
numbers, but they can say
that. they so attached
to it but they can say that.
o, say what they cannot can!
to say there’s no exit from
compromised ordinariness
is an ordinary compromise,
as if there’s more danger in the
idea of flight than in staying
home, as if laying back where
you stay precludes flying, as if
the symposium was theirs alone.
February 10, 2016
Beautiful shadow music. Riffing on horns in the Tower of Babel. Fmoten is loud and brash and black. There is nothing that is not felt between Feel Trio's pages. It keeps jumping, skatting, mutating until it becomes a bizarro nesting doll, all falling and separation one moment and then electric and enjambment the next. Inside the poetry is a chorus of voices from black humanity, and its concerns are large, gobbling up art, science, philosophy, politics and love on a crash course towards consciousness.
And the breaks, are perfect, and the way he juxtaposes sounds and shapes--ugh, too good. The book is an argument for the vitality of black art that pushes out of time while asserting its primacy in every moment, so that it is a presence a feeling a way of being:
"place is our new destitute imperative. place her trill inside. See if you can find a place"
We are breaking apart (always), and so whole
And the breaks, are perfect, and the way he juxtaposes sounds and shapes--ugh, too good. The book is an argument for the vitality of black art that pushes out of time while asserting its primacy in every moment, so that it is a presence a feeling a way of being:
"place is our new destitute imperative. place her trill inside. See if you can find a place"
We are breaking apart (always), and so whole
February 5, 2017
with some audiovisual shape to us, and aerated, in the event of color,
long set circle, we revel in what breaks us up.
with nothing it's impossible and easier, the same but really close to one another but unbridgeably far
from one another, the way we flee a broken park when the island
is a shipwreck and a language lab and half of school falls away. for what we live for
little boy removed, upstairs, a choir down below. how to read this is double now. now,
how do we read this? this is what it's for. to claim catastrophe
to rubble for catastrophe. to turn the world
long set circle, we revel in what breaks us up.
with nothing it's impossible and easier, the same but really close to one another but unbridgeably far
from one another, the way we flee a broken park when the island
is a shipwreck and a language lab and half of school falls away. for what we live for
little boy removed, upstairs, a choir down below. how to read this is double now. now,
how do we read this? this is what it's for. to claim catastrophe
to rubble for catastrophe. to turn the world
January 13, 2015
"all that little echoed pillow with other and nested, sweets on paper, where do it come from? how could it happen? it must have been there, giving and taking the form that can't be there, now you open inside, and it's already so broke so you can get inside, song by song."
if you don't consider fred moten one of the most important poets / critical writers out there, you are missing the ocean swimming right the fuck by you. it is like putting your hair smoothly through the elastic band and also like pulling it out of the elastic band / shaking it clean.
if you don't consider fred moten one of the most important poets / critical writers out there, you are missing the ocean swimming right the fuck by you. it is like putting your hair smoothly through the elastic band and also like pulling it out of the elastic band / shaking it clean.
February 10, 2016
The neologisms (improvisitor, blinglish!), shifts in form, voice, tone, the code switching, intelligence and shear musicality of this book!
November 3, 2022
i think i'll give any non narrative poetry book 4 stars lol. the more narrative ones will get 2 stars bc to be legible is to be rejectable!
it was hard to not read references to the undercommons into this but that's ok i guess. i didn't even read the undercommons, tried to but it's dense so i just read an interview and decided i agree w moten and like his vibe. in this poetry book in particular i felt like he was into study/subculture/underground black music specifically, without fetishizing it as utopic or sustainable across time and scale. it was more like, this is a cool energizing thing that might just exist in this moment but that's ok. it didn't feel like it was trying too hard to legitimize via intellectualizing. might just be reading into this. i had to return this book to the library yesterday so i can't really reference/don't really remember lines i liked, just vibes. i remember there was a line on the back cover that i really liked
i think i also get bored of all poetry books at the 2/3 point haha bc i just get tired of one person doing variations on the same thing over and over, even though this was a book length project so in theory one person doing one thing. if it was gonna be book length i kinda wanted it to feel more cohesive, like lorde's melodrama taking place at a single party. at the same time, i wanted more formal variation to keep me own my toes. also the jazz references went over my head but it's ok i'm not the target audience
i'm probably giving this 4 stars bc i feel like i'm supposed to like it. i did like it but maybe i'll like it more after spending more time w it (when i'm not in an mfa program trying to expose myself to as much as possible). being an "intellectual" is embarrassing!
it was hard to not read references to the undercommons into this but that's ok i guess. i didn't even read the undercommons, tried to but it's dense so i just read an interview and decided i agree w moten and like his vibe. in this poetry book in particular i felt like he was into study/subculture/underground black music specifically, without fetishizing it as utopic or sustainable across time and scale. it was more like, this is a cool energizing thing that might just exist in this moment but that's ok. it didn't feel like it was trying too hard to legitimize via intellectualizing. might just be reading into this. i had to return this book to the library yesterday so i can't really reference/don't really remember lines i liked, just vibes. i remember there was a line on the back cover that i really liked
i think i also get bored of all poetry books at the 2/3 point haha bc i just get tired of one person doing variations on the same thing over and over, even though this was a book length project so in theory one person doing one thing. if it was gonna be book length i kinda wanted it to feel more cohesive, like lorde's melodrama taking place at a single party. at the same time, i wanted more formal variation to keep me own my toes. also the jazz references went over my head but it's ok i'm not the target audience
i'm probably giving this 4 stars bc i feel like i'm supposed to like it. i did like it but maybe i'll like it more after spending more time w it (when i'm not in an mfa program trying to expose myself to as much as possible). being an "intellectual" is embarrassing!
December 21, 2022
“so I sail the dark river in the mind by rocket ship
(my high water everywhere is outer space, alabama) and stay alive in the concept with an outbound feeling of refuge, I’ma run, I’mo run, I’m gon’ run to the city of refuse, in russell’s anarchy, for angola, by soas.”
“I get preoccupied with the tonal situation.”
“blow my thayang baby blow my thang wa ditty say you wanna say say you wanna say say you wanna say say watch me say I vocoded baby I blew holes in fading, I grew cultures in a subterfuge.”
“the corner is not the same
as being cornered. it’s the other way.
be the other way to bring it around.”
“in throwness, begins the world where we are fallen,
falling down together in an accident we dream”
“by four by cecil, eight more on the bottom, live
evil, in love with cars, carnal, his other pulse
and flatted growl, praesthetic lunge
and bowl her sweets
to liquefy, for comedy, a kernel,
bright like a motherfucker.”
“so you gave up what you never had and now you’re a collection agency.”
“one of these things is not like the other one of them can ever understand”
“everybody reaches out for you in the house party of abandoned buildings.”
“when you can’t do no better, the feeling of the theory of enjoyment is solid.
the experiment of the ones who love to eat enormously.”
“when the water come I come to the unprotected surge
and division in my old-new sound booth. I am fmoten.”
“come on and dance and eat and rub.”
(my high water everywhere is outer space, alabama) and stay alive in the concept with an outbound feeling of refuge, I’ma run, I’mo run, I’m gon’ run to the city of refuse, in russell’s anarchy, for angola, by soas.”
“I get preoccupied with the tonal situation.”
“blow my thayang baby blow my thang wa ditty say you wanna say say you wanna say say you wanna say say watch me say I vocoded baby I blew holes in fading, I grew cultures in a subterfuge.”
“the corner is not the same
as being cornered. it’s the other way.
be the other way to bring it around.”
“in throwness, begins the world where we are fallen,
falling down together in an accident we dream”
“by four by cecil, eight more on the bottom, live
evil, in love with cars, carnal, his other pulse
and flatted growl, praesthetic lunge
and bowl her sweets
to liquefy, for comedy, a kernel,
bright like a motherfucker.”
“so you gave up what you never had and now you’re a collection agency.”
“one of these things is not like the other one of them can ever understand”
“everybody reaches out for you in the house party of abandoned buildings.”
“when you can’t do no better, the feeling of the theory of enjoyment is solid.
the experiment of the ones who love to eat enormously.”
“when the water come I come to the unprotected surge
and division in my old-new sound booth. I am fmoten.”
“come on and dance and eat and rub.”
February 19, 2023
This was a tough collection for me to appreciate fully, and (mostly) I blame myself and my limited experience for it. I have a fair background in jazz music (composition and performance) and have taught poetry for many years (including stream of consciousness and African American oral traditions). Even so, following Moten's experience(s) through The Feel Trio was difficult, not because I needed explication of each image (the nature of neologies and assembled images suggested a sonic and rhythmic response more than linguistically figurative), but because they were layered so thickly from open stanza to stanza I found them challenging to direct.
Moments of beauty, connotations linked across pages, dialogues internal and external blending, along with histories personal and political, and overall moods of pain and brokenness massaged into creative power. I was moved at times, by the open palette, but only at times. I could not decide how long to spend with each page--to analyze overmuch compromised the utterance; too little time and it was beyond my experience to absorb. My best experience with the work was when I read it aloud, of course.
And perhaps that is the very issue: watching wonderful videos of Moten perform his work is a far more enriching experience, and I am compelled by his theory work. Somehow, the literary community says, this must ultimately be consigned to paper. And this paper is the physical distance placed upon my appreciation.
Moments of beauty, connotations linked across pages, dialogues internal and external blending, along with histories personal and political, and overall moods of pain and brokenness massaged into creative power. I was moved at times, by the open palette, but only at times. I could not decide how long to spend with each page--to analyze overmuch compromised the utterance; too little time and it was beyond my experience to absorb. My best experience with the work was when I read it aloud, of course.
And perhaps that is the very issue: watching wonderful videos of Moten perform his work is a far more enriching experience, and I am compelled by his theory work. Somehow, the literary community says, this must ultimately be consigned to paper. And this paper is the physical distance placed upon my appreciation.
June 13, 2019
I used to think poetry re: jazz was cultural, but if Stevens can write about the imagination why can't Moten write, as he does here, re: Black Arts?
August 5, 2020
Yes. What? Yes. Yes. What?!
Yes.
Yes.
October 25, 2021
"do you ever think about what it feels like to bury your own city / again and again every evening in the evening air and have that / shear taken for nothing by the ones who visit everyone but you?"
September 25, 2022
true master of the contrapuntal. king of rhythm. if you’ve ever read my poetry— this is who i’ve been trying to copy
December 30, 2014
Perhaps I am bit too dense or obtuse, but this one escaped my inner ear entirely. I did feel as if I were reading a Charlie Parker or Mingus jazz tune at times. Me thinks I may be tone deaf to the subtleties of jazzy poetry. Mix Scatman Caruthers with William S. Burroughs and throw in a healthy dash of Charles Bukowski and you've got "The Feel Trio" and "All That Jazz." Burn, Baby, burn!
December 8, 2014
Free jazz inspired sonicisms that penetrate and provoke. Amazingly dense but meaning physically felt in reading.
September 13, 2023
Moten is the contemporary Eliot. His allusions are so thick that his verse is extremely obscure. However, the language is beautiful.
March 21, 2014
Here's one to love.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews