Helen Sung And "sung With Words" at Healdsburg Jazz Festival at Paul Mahder Gallery

Utilizing jazz and poetry as powerful catalysts to create new music, “Sung With Words” is Helen Sung’s first recording to feature all original music, consisting of vocal works where California State Poet Laureate Dana Gioia’s poems serve as lyrics, as well as instrumental compositions inspired by words.

Sung has appeared in Healdsburg twice before, at the inauguration of Healdsburg Jazz’s “Parlor Jazz” series in October 2015, and a year later in November 2016 (with a group that included saxophonist John Ellis as well). Another of her longtime musical colleagues, bassist Reuben Rogers, is also touring with Sung in support of the “Sung With Words” CD, along with Adam Cruz on drums....

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Utilizing jazz and poetry as powerful catalysts to create new music, “Sung With Words” is Helen Sung’s first recording to feature all original music, consisting of vocal works where California State Poet Laureate Dana Gioia’s poems serve as lyrics, as well as instrumental compositions inspired by words.

Sung has appeared in Healdsburg twice before, at the inauguration of Healdsburg Jazz’s “Parlor Jazz” series in October 2015, and a year later in November 2016 (with a group that included saxophonist John Ellis as well). Another of her longtime musical colleagues, bassist Reuben Rogers, is also touring with Sung in support of the “Sung With Words” CD, along with Adam Cruz on drums.

“Sung With Words” was released on Sept. 16, 2018, and featured on NPR’s “First Listen” program ten days earlier. An excerpt: “One might think that spoken word, read without musical accompaniment, might interrupt the musical flow, but Gioia’s poems enhance the whole album experience. It’s refreshing to hear the poems followed by the same exact words used as lyrics in each subsequent song, allowing the listener to really digest the message.”

Dana Gioia is an award-winning poet, the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and for the past two years the State Poet Laureate. Sung and Gioia met in 2006 and struck up a friendship that results years later in “Sung With Words.” More about this project on helensung.com.

Though the poet speaks his own words on the CD, for this performance Christie Dashiell will deliver the poetry of Gioia.

Tickets for this Sunday, Dec. 2 concert will be available soon, for $30. The venue is once again the Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Ave., an intimate series of rooms connected by a love of art.

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