Hey, Bartender! Another Glass of Burning Gasoline, And One For My Dancing Bear, Too!
Alfred Howard and K23 Orchestra @ Flagstaff Brewing Company
by Dean “Um, Yeah- I’m Kinda HipHoppy” Bonzani
2.18.04
True story. During Flagstaff Brewing Company’s hallowed tradition of “Simpson’s Night”, there were about forty people attending, when a traveling poet asked whether he could give a reading after the show, to raise some road money. At show’s end, he climbed onto the bar, and began to powerfully recite his work. For twenty minutes, the crowd sat mesmerized, the very picture of rapt attention.
Some stragglers, having missed the beginning of the set, begged him to perform another set. Alfred Howard was given the nod, and he seamlessly launched into a fresh set of original poems. Again, the crowd reverently hung on his every word, and at set’s end, showered this lyrical stranger with enthusiastic applause and a hatful of qwan.
In case you missed the surreal goodness of this spontaneous outpouring of potent verse, fret not. Alfred Howard is bringing his six-piece K23 Orchestra to Flag Brew for a full force rendering of the poet’s deeply relevant, socially acute works.
Winners of the 2003 San Diego Music Awards for Best Hip Hop Band, the K23 Orchestra has shared the stage with Ozomatli, Soundtribe Sector 9, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, The Living Legends, The Beat Junkies, Mikah 9, John Brown’s Body, OMD, B-Side Players, Zack de la Rocha (ex-Rage Against The Machine) and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. Alfred Howard has sat in with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Umphree’s Mcgee, Om Trio and ALO, amongst others.
His is a story of spiritual unfoldment, set against the backdrop of the kaleidoscopic American culture and the infinitely wondrous land itself.
Having graduated from Boston College with a psychology degree, he and some friends set off on a ten week, 10,000 mile journey across the country. It was on this amazing foray that Howard discovered his true calling: writing. Settling in San Diego, he gathered poems and thoughts from the epic trip into a book/CD called, “The Serpentine Highway.”
Keeping his message positive, Alfred Howard’s mission is to convey the inner divinity that resides in all things, and in verse, bring to light the injustices and imbalances that he’s keenly aware of all around us.
The sublime Alfred Howard and K23 Orchestra @ Flagstaff Brewing Company, Fri., Feb. 27th and Sat., Feb. 28th. (see: www.alhorwardk23.com)
©2005 by Dean Bonzani, All Rights Reserved