Spoken Word accompanied by live musical trio

By combining the creative energy of award-winning writer Alyce Miller with the innovative improvisational sounds of musicians Philip Anderson, Joe Stone and Marty Belcher, The Venue Fine Art & Gifts played host to a event Tuesday called “The Spoken Word, With Music.”

The performance featured IU professor Miller reading several of her poems while accompanied by the three musicians: Anderson handling electronics and vocals, Stone playing the drums and Belcher playing the soprano saxophone.

Unlike a traditional spoken-word performance, however, Miller noted that this collaboration involved the combination of her poems, which she did not originally write for such a performance, with the sounds of Anderson, Stone and Belcher.

“I would describe (the event) as a kind of experiment,” Miller said.

Belcher echoed that sentiment.

“What we’re doing tonight is a duet between music and words,” he said.

As the performance began on the front porch of The Venue, the sounds of the musicians overpowered the ambient noise of early-evening Bloomington.

Oddly high notes on the saxophone were fused with subtle clashes of the cymbal, taps on the side of the snare drum and haunting electronic accompaniment.

“I have mainly a jazz background, while Joe has more of a rock background,” Belcher said.

Throughout the readings, which took place in three parts, the musicians employed their various instruments in unconventional ways, producing sounds and rhythms that seemed to consistently push boundaries while also sounding completely appropriate.

Belcher’s saxophone sounds seemed, at times, to have the air of a perfectly calculated accident, while Stone’s percussive techniques varied as often as they repeated.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s eerie vocal complements and electronic sounds added to the vibe, giving the musical component of the performance an interesting that seemed to reverberate with Miller’s words.

The culminating effect seemed to mesmerize those in attendance, the trance broken only by the silence between acts.

During a brief gap in the performance, Stone interjected, “It’s different out here.”
The other performers nodded their heads in agreement, as it seemed that what was transpiring was something indeed unique.

Miller’s poetry represented a variety of her repertoire, including a sonnet and an elegy.

One poem, “Sisters to the Bone,” discussed a twin inside the speaker, while another, “The Empress Josephine Takes a Bath,” referenced letters from Napoleon to his wife.

As each poem began and ended, the sounds of the musicians carefully augmented the reading, sometimes adding emphasis, other times letting the words stand alone in silence.

“(Tonight) my words are playing a different kind of role,” Miller said.