POEMJAZZ

Poet Robert Pinsky. Pianist Laurence Hobgood. Text, music, and the moment — what we hear on the new POEMJAZZ recording is two giant artists making something greater than the sum of its parts. While Pinsky recites his lovely words with his unlovely (but weirdly attractive) voice, Hobgood, the longtime arranger and accompanist for Kurt Elling, improvises virtuoso themes and variations that sound meticulously prepared. No noodling. No absentminded atmospheric noise. Instead, genuine creation. POEMJAZZ is smart, strange, and hauntingly beautiful.