ABOUT
FIRE ESCAPES
In
this new age of loudmouth poetry slam hubris, what a pleasure
it is to experience such an intensely imaginative literary voice.
-Steve Allen
~~~
Michael C Ford is driven! One sees him crossing the divider,
crashing over the edge of cliff and plunging into Rattlesnake
Canyon as the cameras roll.
-Edward Field
~~~
Michael
C Ford’s work comprises a wily survivors social history
of that last place on the American map. It endures the legend;
from the haunted boulevard of Hollywood’s broken dreams
and the great bedeviled Jim Morrison on the Sunset Strip to the
great bedeviled John Cassavetes in the hills above. This poet
gives us a flavor some, soulful, rollicking geography, too; but
nowhere you would ever take your sister.
-
Aram Saroyan
~~~
These
are poems a person can dance to.
-
Amy Gerstler
~~~
Michael
C Ford’s verbal jazz portraits can be easily combined
with photographer William Claxton’s black-&-white images
capturing some of the jazz worlds most legendary lights, as Ford’s
words pay homage to some of the same be-bop and cool artists:
Milt Jackson (Packing Some Bags) Charles Mingus (Mood for the
Ming) Chet Baker (Bakers Dozen).
-
The LA Weekly
~~~
CD
REVIEW
{by Eric Wasserman}
in
the summer of 1969, Michael C Ford gave his first poetry recital
in company with Jack Hirschman and Jim Morrison. Over the years,
he’s appeared in spoken word
concerts with a plethora of talents: most notably Charles Bukowski,
Timothy Leary, Michael McClure, Macdonald Carey, Wanda Coleman,
Robert Kelly, Ann Stanford, Dave Alvin, Henry Rollins, Edward
Field, Gerald Locklin, Jim Carroll and Jello Biafra.
What
makes FIRE ESCAPES such a joy, aside from Ford’s obvious
insights, is the artistic collaboration that the project emulates.
He’s assembled a small, yet excellent pocket of musicians
to ignite the creative spark which lights-up his personal poetry.
The
CD’s delivery owes a great deal to the musical accompaniment
mostly arranged and composed by Michael Campagna. From an ominous
haunt he puts on The Day Raymond Chandler Died to his funk pull
on Having Brunch with Lydia Lunch, his compositions and arrangements
stay fresh and exciting on each track.
Doors
fans might be interested to know that Ray Manzarek makes an appearance
on grand piano for a standout track: Blues in the Suburbs.
The
often somber truth of Ford’s rhetoric does not talk down
to the listener, but lassoes one into intrigue. The opening track
on the CD does this on a nearly 11-minute travel piece of the
mind. It’s fascinating to close your eyes and simply let
Ford’s language build his images of Los Angeles urban renewal.
He
puts it best himself describing in the liners his intent: “This
is hardly designed as labored literature; so much as jigsaw puzzle
pieces of my compulsive ritual. I’m just picking through
the ruins of a schizophrenic geography.”
