POETRY & JAZZ & SAGOV & PINSKY is the moniker of two exceptional music and poetry performances taking place at the Regattabar on Friday, March 5. Pianist/bandleader Stanley Sagov will be joined by world-renowned poet Robert Pinsky. Pinsky will read his poems in tandem with the music of the Remembering The Future Jazz Band, creating a unique combination of jazz and poetry. The Remembering The Future Jazz Band features Stanley Sagov on keyboards, John Lockwood on acoustic bass, Bob Rakalam Moses on drums, Stan Strickland on sax, flute and vocals and Mike Peipman on trumpet. Past performances of the Remembering the Future Jazz Band have sold out; with poet Robert Pinsky on the program, tickets are likely to sell out very quickly.
Robert Pinsky’s first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national enthusiasm in response, that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. As Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky became a public ambassador for poetry, founding the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans —
of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state — shared their favorite poems. Pinsky believed that, contrary to stereotype, poetry had a vigorous presence in the American cultural landscape. The project sought to document that presence, giving voice to the American audience
for poetry. The anthology Americans’ Favorite Poems, which include letters from project participants, is in its eighteenth printing. The new anthology, An Invitation to Poetry, comes with a DVD featuring twenty-seven of the FPP video segments, as seen on PBS.
The poetry editor for the online magazine Slate, for seven years Pinsky appeared regularly on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He writes the weekly “Poet’s Choice” column for the Washington Post. He was elected in 1999 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Pinsky’s poems appear in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly,The Threepenny Review, American Poetry Review, and frequently in The Best American Poetry anthologies. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University. Robert Pinsky is also the winner of the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s 2006 Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in Literary Arts. He is one of the few members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to have appeared on “The Simpsons.”
About Stanley Sagov:
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Stanley Sagov has always been crazy about jazz-based musics. Sagov, who is a keyboardist and composer with extraordinary talents. A family practice physician by day with a full-time medical practice in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, his evenings and weekends are spent with his jazz, his family and his photography.
After graduating from medical school in South Africa, Dr. Sagov moved to New York City where he had the opportunity to perform with many of his musical heroes . . . among them Booker Ervin, Howard McGhee, Jimmy Garrison, Billy Hart, Elvin Jones, Roland Kirk, Ted Curson, Sheila Jordan, Bob Moses and many other wonderful musicians.
In 1970, he moved to Boston where he attended the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music; he graduated with a degree in jazz piano and oboe. His mentors while at NEC included Jaki Byard, George Russell, Thad Jones, John Lewis, Kenny Dorham, Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Foster, Gerry Mulligan, Cecil McBee, Buell Neidlinger, Tom McKinley and others. Dr. Sagov found that he hated touring, but loved the music, so in addition to his full time medical livelihood, he now produces his music at home and independently markets it on the internet. Sagov also loves to cook and has been offering his South African recipes to Henrietta’s Table Chef Peter Davis for use on his show nights at the Charles Hotel.
