John Chirstopher Shillock: “Invisible Jazz”

Christopher Shillock is called the underground poet laureate of downtown Minneapolis. He has a BA in Spanish and a MA in philosophy. During the 1980’s he was active with various Communist and Anarchist groups in the Twin Cities.In 2003 Shillock received a Verve grant from SASE and the Jerome Foundation for hispoetry/video book "An Invitation to the Terrorists Ball".

Now that we know this, what about "Invisible Jazz"? It is a collection of poems by Shillock that areinspired on ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Paris, baseball, etc. Tabatha Predovich composed the songs, and both sing and perform the poems.

I can't judge on the poems, but the compositions are very conventional and without any originality. This means boring and completely outdated. They sound as middle of the road 70's pop music. I asked myself how on Earth it is possible that today this kind of music that sounds as if it is directly transplanted from the 70's is played by musicians in 2006. Strange for an anarchist to do so, if you ask me. Of course they merely serve as a vehicle for the poems and most of the poems deal with even more ancient times.

In that sense a coherent project.

Christopher Shillock

[Book & CD by Musical Comedy Editions]

Dolf Mulder / Vital Weekly

Photo + image: R.R.